When it comes to property taxes, Ocean City property owners must feel like they've been taken to the cleaners. A recent study confirms they're correct.
The problem is familiar: Ocean City residents get taxed by Worcester County but get a lot of their services from the municipal government, which taxes them too. The county provides no police, fire marshal or many other services that the town provides. Altogether, property taxes would have to take a 22-cent swing (6 cents less in the city and 16 cents more in the rest of the county) to generate the $13 million difference, according to the town's consultant.
In other towns, voters could take out their frustrations at the polls. But while Ocean City has hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, it has only about 7,000 full-time residents in a county of nearly 50,000. Will the majority of county residents raise their taxes voluntarily for the sake of fairness?
They will if they're smart. Ocean City is Worcester's golden goose, and protecting the town's economic interests ought to be a top priority. Just one high-rise building generates more in taxes than the entire town of Snow Hill, the county's seat. Passing a tax differential would demonstrate to Ocean City property owners that the county cares about their welfare, too.