BALTIMORE -- The sagging housing market doesn't necessarily mean Maryland homeowners will see a decline in their annual property tax bills.
More than 700,000 Marylanders will receive new property assessments later this week. And state and county officials say virtually all of those will be paying higher taxes in 2009.
That's because tax collectors have not yet accounted for the huge increases in assessed values from earlier in the decade.
Maryland has a Homestead Tax Credit, which prevents homeowners from seeing huge jumps in tax bills in a single year. But that protection also means taxes are likely to keep increasing even when the housing market stagnates or declines.
Nonetheless, the director of the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation says many homeowners are expecting lower tax bills.
