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Maryland
Study: Md. will need massive investment in low-income housing retrofits to meet aggressive climate goals – WTOP News
![Study: Md. will need massive investment in low-income housing retrofits to meet aggressive climate goals – WTOP News Study: Md. will need massive investment in low-income housing retrofits to meet aggressive climate goals – WTOP News](https://wtop.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1019219898.jpg)
If Maryland doesn’t make the required investments to transform the properties of its poorest residents away from fossil fuels, the state will fall effectively in need of its local weather targets, a brand new examine discovered.
This content material was republished with permission from WTOP’s information companions at Maryland Issues. Join Maryland Issues’ free e mail subscription right this moment.
As Maryland strikes tentatively towards assembly aggressive targets over the following a number of years to fight local weather change, the state must spend lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} to retrofit properties and residence buildings occupied by low- and middle-income residents.
That’s the conclusion of a report issued this month by a coalition of nationwide and state-based environmental teams. If the state doesn’t make the required investments to transform the properties of its poorest residents away from fossil fuels, Maryland will fall effectively in need of its local weather targets, the examine discovered — and will speed up a public well being disaster in low-income dwellings.
“Equitably electrifying the state’s constructing sector is a pillar to attaining the state’s local weather targets and of [the Climate Solutions Now Act legislation of 2022],” the report, “Charting a Pathway to Maryland’s Equitable Clear Vitality Future: Electrification and Constructing Upgrades for Low-Earnings Residences,” concludes.
All throughout the state, Marylanders are slowly taking steps to transform and electrify their properties, decreasing the quantity of fossil fuels being burned to warmth and supply electrical energy. However rental properties are lagging behind for a bunch of causes, the examine, ready by Earthjustice, the Inexperienced and Wholesome Properties Initiative, the Maryland chapter of the Sierra Membership, and RMI, a clear vitality coverage nonprofit, discovered, and the state doesn’t have a unified strategy to confront the issue.
No single company is taking the result in handle potential options, or guiding individuals and native companies and nonprofits to potential grant cash, Susan Stevens Miller, a senior lawyer at Earthjustice and one of many authors of the examine, mentioned in an interview. The issue is exacerbated by the truth that so many state companies have so many vacancies, she mentioned.
Rental models for lower-income Marylanders are typically older and depend on dirtier vitality sources than properties owned by wealthier residents. About 20% of Maryland’s inhabitants, representing roughly 450,000 households, resides at 200% of the federal poverty or beneath, which in 2022 was $55,000 for a household of 4.
These rental models are more likely to have gasoline stoves, which emit heavy doses of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant identified to set off bronchial asthma and different respiratory issues. Low-income residents usually stay in high-density areas with unreliable air flow, exacerbating inside air air pollution issues. Many of those properties even have extra home equipment that depend on fossil-fuel technology.
New electrical choices like a two-way warmth pump to exchange outdated gasoline furnaces, and electrical scorching water heaters to exchange previous gasoline variations, are more and more out there in the marketplace. They’re extra vitality environment friendly, work quicker, do extra to fight local weather change, and don’t pollute indoor areas.
“In relation to our properties the place a lot of our day by day lives play out, each Marylander deserves a contemporary improve and clear air with wholesome electrical home equipment,” Stevens Miller mentioned.
State and native governments in Maryland must take a multi-pronged strategy to make sure that a ample variety of properties and flats are transformed, the examine mentioned, and the trouble will contain a number of companies, together with the Division of Housing and Group Growth, which runs and facilitates a number of grant applications, and the Public Service Fee, which regulates gasoline and electrical utilities.
Maryland ought to prioritize electrifying and weatherizing residences of low-income renters by 2030, the environmental teams argue, and the state ought to launch a house retrofit program offering weatherization providers like improved insulation, roof repairs, up to date wiring, and enhanced vitality invoice help to accompany electrification efforts.
The excellent news, the examine discovered, is that greater than $2 billion of presidency funding seems to be out there to assist obtain these targets.
“It’s time to construct an electrical future for households in Maryland at each earnings stage,” Stevens Miller mentioned.
The trick will likely be whether or not the state authorities strikes rapidly to qualify for sure federal grants, has ample assets to level people, native governments and nonprofits to the out there funding, and in addition prioritizes electrification within the years forward. It is going to require “aligning, braiding and coordinating,” mentioned Ruth Ann Norton, president and CEO of the Inexperienced & Wholesome Properties Initiative.
Final 12 months, the Common Meeting handed laws from Sen. Brian Feldman (D-Montgomery) and Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Montgomery) that may have helped expedite the electrification course of in low- and middle-income rental models and sought to decrease the disproportionately excessive vitality burden borne by low-income Marylanders.
However former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) vetoed the measure, saying the laws may improve vitality prices for all ratepayers.
“Turbulent vitality costs and unbridled inflation ought to encourage lawmakers to supply reduction to their constituents. As an alternative, they’ve finished simply the other on this invoice,” Hogan wrote in his veto message. He added that the retrofit applications are already out there to all households.
Feldman and Charkoudian are again with one other measure much like the vetoed invoice this 12 months; the Senate Committee on Training, Vitality and the Surroundings, which Feldman chairs, has a listening to scheduled on the invoice on Tuesday afternoon. If the invoice passes, it’s more likely to be signed by Gov. Wes Moore (D). The measure is a prime precedence of the Inexperienced and Wholesome Properties Initiative, a Baltimore nonprofit whose board chair simply occurs to be the brand new governor’s mom, Pleasure Thomas Moore.
Earlier this month, Moore launched $3.8 million the Hogan administration beforehand withheld for a program to put in renewable vitality gear at low- and moderate-income multi-family properties.
Laws can be anticipated this session that may develop the scope of EmPower, the state’s vitality effectivity program for residential properties, to incorporate prioritizing greenhouse gasoline emissions reductions. The invoice, sponsored by Sen. Karen Lewis Younger (D-Frederick) and Del. Lily Qi (D-Montgomery) has but to be formally launched.
The Maryland Workplace of Individuals’s Counsel, which represents shoppers’ pursuits on utility issues earlier than the state Public Service Fee, issued a examine just lately displaying that low-income households within the state spend about 12% of their earnings on common on vitality prices — larger than the U.S. common of 6.5%.
The OPC has repeatedly recommended that the state, and particularly the Public Service Fee, isn’t doing sufficient to expedite house conversion. OPC cites the state legislation that encourages gasoline and electrical utilities to enhance their pure gasoline infrastructure over a interval of a few years and move the prices on to ratepayers as a chief instance.
In its examine from final fall, the OPC famous that many low-income Marylanders are spending an unusually excessive proportion of their earnings to energy and warmth their properties.
Gross Vitality Burden by County Space, Households as much as 200 % of the Federal Poverty Stage
Areas | Common annual vitality invoice | Common annual earnings | Common gross vitality burden |
---|---|---|---|
Allegany & Garrett | $2,456 | $20,366 | 12% |
Anne Arundel | $2,687 | $21,543 | 12% |
Baltimore Metropolis | $2,710 | $17,768 | 15% |
Baltimore County | $2,558 | $20,900 | 12% |
Carroll | $2,642 | $21,980 | 12% |
Cecil | $2,907 | $23,142 | 13% |
Charles | $2,938 | $22,612 | 13% |
Frederick | $2,293 | $22,309 | 10% |
Harford | $2,547 | $20,118 | 13% |
Howard | $2,417 | $20,869 | 12% |
Montgomery | $2,530 | $21,749 | 12% |
Prince George’s | $2,838 | $22,547 | 13% |
Queen Anne’s, Talbot, Caroline, Dorchester & Kent | $3,096 | $21,221 | 15% |
St. Mary’s & Calvert | $2,744 | $23,028 | 12% |
Washington | $2,155 | $20,783 | 10% |
Wicomico, Worcester & Somerset | $3,119 | $21,351 | 15% |
State whole | $2,647 | $21,218 | 12% |
Whereas the state does function a program that gives help to low-income Marylanders to assist pay their utility payments, an funding in applications that present that retrofit rental properties can be a greater long-term funding for Maryland taxpayers and supply extra safety for its most weak member renters, the OPC has argued.
“Low-income households aren’t receiving the vitality help they want,” mentioned Individuals’s Counsel David Lapp. “These households face unaffordable house vitality burdens that adversely have an effect on human well being, perpetuate persistent poverty, and contribute to homelessness.”
A number of states are beginning to coordinate efforts to consolidate weatherization and retrofitting applications and to function sources of knowledge for grant funding.
“It’s beginning to decide up steam,” Stevens Miller mentioned. However no state has discovered the proper template but, she mentioned.
Even when Maryland is presently taking a scatter-shot strategy to changing low earnings rental properties, there may be rising recognition amongst policymakers that rental properties might be a part of the answer for decreasing the state’s reliance on fossil fuels. This week, Montgomery County Inexperienced Financial institution, which gives funding and loans for renewable vitality tasks, introduced that it had offered $5 million in financing for a 2.18-megawatt rooftop photo voltaic array on the 684-unit, 58-building Seneca Village inexpensive residence advanced in Gaithersburg. It’s the biggest rooftop photo voltaic mission on a multifamily property in Montgomery County.
Between the photo voltaic array and new vitality environment friendly roof upgrades, the property will save 2.5 million kilowatt hours in vitality, generate greater than $300,000 in annual financial savings, and mitigate 2,000 metric tons of greenhouse gasoline emissions per 12 months.
“A elementary a part of our mission is to help the county’s local weather targets of equitable entry to wash vitality,” mentioned Tom Deyo, CEO of Montgomery County Inexperienced Financial institution. “This mission located in an Fairness Emphasis Space [as established by the Greater Washington Council of Governments] and on an inexpensive housing property is such an instance.”
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Maryland
Maryland makes filing taxes online free for some
![Maryland makes filing taxes online free for some Maryland makes filing taxes online free for some](https://thebaltimorebanner.com/resizer/v2/VNZHS3ZRPZFIPLMIQSBCIVIK4M.jpg?auth=ff77372d15f6509b1a1f9c396b1babd2c44c98f67411941eae674ed3f248e4b4&width=657&smart=true&quality=85)
More than 700,000 Marylanders should be able to file their state and federal income tax returns online for free next year, saving residents hours of work and hundreds of dollars on tax software and prep services.
Maryland joined dozens of states Wednesday in a voluntary federal program called Direct File after a test run received positive reviews and showed possible cost savings. Filing paper returns by mail will still be an option.
“It’s unacceptable that Marylanders should have to pay any portion whatsoever of their refund or paycheck to fulfill a mandatory requirement like filing tax returns,” Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman said at a news conference in Annapolis.
The first-term Democrat called the program a game changer for Maryland taxpayers that will modernize her agency. It targets low-to-moderate earners with relatively simple tax returns, and is expected to expand over time.
Lierman’s office will partner with the nonprofit Code for America to integrate the Maryland tax filing system into Direct File. Eligibility requirements will be announced in January, the comptroller’s office said.
Gov. Wes Moore, State Treasurer Dereck E. Davis, members of Maryland’s congressional delegation, U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo and nonprofit partners joined Lierman for the announcement.
Funds from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 helped build and test the system. The IRS and Treasury Department then invited states to participate.
The IRS has been considering a free e-filing option for low-income American taxpayers for decades, according to the Congressional Research Service. When tax prep companies pushed back, the federal government agreed not to compete with them if they provided free help and e-filing to low-earning taxpayers.
However, many qualified taxpayers were pushed toward paid services, according to an investigation by nonprofit news outlet ProPublica.
The IRS piloted Direct File in 12 states this year. Filers used a laptop, tablet, cellphone or other device to submit income returns and request certain tax credits offered to low-earning individuals and families.
In a survey, nine out of 10 Direct File users ranked their experience as “Excellent” or “Above Average.”
U.S. Rep Steny Hoyer, a Democrat representing Maryland’s 5th District, called paying taxes the “price of our democracy.”
“We ought to make it as easy as possible for people to comply with a legal obligation that they have to support their country, their state and their communities,” he said. “And this system of Direct File does that.”
Robin McKinney, CEO and co-founder of CASH Campaign of Maryland, said easy, free online filing makes the government work more efficiently for citizens and should deliver refunds and credits to taxpayers faster.
McKinney’s nonprofit promotes economic advancement for low- to moderate-income Marylanders and provides free tax help, among other services.
Economic Security Project, a nonprofit that advocates for guaranteed income and economic equity for working families, found that adopting Direct File could mean $355 million in costs and time saved for Maryland’s low- to moderate-earners.
Maryland recently has expanded tax credits for working families, but about $152 million goes unclaimed each year, according to the Security Project’s analysis.
They also estimated that about $148 million could be saved in filing fees and $56 million could be saved in time spent filing taxes.
That money could have gone into Marylanders’ pockets, CASH Campaign’s McKinney said, and it could have gone back into the state’s economy.
Maryland
Maryland joins IRS Direct File program, offering free tax filing for up to 700,000 taxpayers – Maryland Matters
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Some Maryland taxpayers will be able to use a free electronic filing tool for their federal taxes rather than having to pay a tax preparer or buy tax-filing software next year, when Maryland will offer the IRS’s new Direct File service.
The service was tested in 12 states this year, where 140,803 people filed with Direct File, saving an estimated $5.6 million in tax preparation fees. Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D) estimated Wednesday that as many as 700,000 Maryland taxpayers could be eligible for the program when it debuts in the state next year.
“While we value our relationship with tax preparers and CPAs (certified public accountants), it’s unacceptable that Marylanders should have to pay any portion whatsoever of their refund or paycheck to fulfill a mandatory requirement like filing tax returns,” Lierman said at a news conference announcing the program.
The IRS and the U.S. Treasury still have to finalize eligibility rules for the program this fall, but Lierman said it will be a “game changer” for those families who do qualify, which could be as much as 20% of individual taxpayers in the state.
“Taxes are a part of the glue that keeps our state and our nation together, functioning, producing, protecting and thriving,” Lierman said. “Yet in America, we make it uniquely challenging to pay those taxes and file a return — until now.”
According to the Treasury, taxpayers spend “approximately 13 hours and $270 preparing their taxes each year.” Many Americans use tax filing services or software, such as TurboTax and H&R Block, to ensure that their taxes are filed correctly, despite most of the information being readily available state and federal tax collection agencies.
It’s unacceptable that Marylanders should have to pay any portion whatsoever of their refund or paycheck to fulfill a mandatory requirement like filing tax returns.
– Comptroller Brooke Lierman
Direct File launched this year in 12 states for people to file their 2023 federal returns — Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the program is aimed at helping middle-income tax filers with “relatively simple” filings.
“What I can tell you is our goal for us is to build a system that’s going to work for working class and middle class Americans. So you get a W-2, and you’re somebody who’s a teacher, you’re a fireman, you’re a doctor who’s earning most of your money from a W-2, we want to make sure we’re building a system that potentially works for you,” said Adeyemo, who was in Annapolis for the announcement.
“The thing we’re not going to do is build a system that works for big corporations or wealthy individuals. Next year we’re going to expand the system so that more Americans are able to participate in it,” Adeyemo said.
The Biden administration invited all 50 states and the District of Columbia to join the program next year, when people will be filing their 2024 taxes. The Treasury said that Maryland joins Oregon, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Connecticut, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Maine in taking up Direct File.
“I know to some, this announcement may seem inconsequential — and I know how exciting tax announcements are,” Gov. Wes Moore (D) joked at the announcement. “But the details matter. They matter to the families who are impacted by this work. They’re going to matter to the families, who … dread tax season because it feels complicated. Who dread tax season because it seems expensive, or oftentimes have to deal with the consequences of getting something wrong.”
The Direct File program came out of the Inflation Reduction Act signed in 2022, which also secured additional funding to help the IRS modernize and provide better services to Americans.
But Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who chairs a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, said Direct File program and other services under the Inflation Reduction Act could be “under threat.” While his subcommittee wants to fully fund the IRS and keep Direct File going, House leaders want to cut funding for both.
He also said that the industry is lobbying against the free tax filing system.
“There are people who didn’t want us to do this, including a lot of the middlemen” who currently profit from tax preparation, Van Hollen said. “They’re lobbying against this kind of thing.”
In addition to Van Hollen, Moore, Lierman and Adeyemo, Wednesday’s event drew a number of Maryland Democratic heavyweights: U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, U.S. Reps. Steny Hoyer John Sarbanes and State Treasurer Dereck Davis.
Hoyer put it simply: “Nobody likes taxes.”
“We don’t really get excited about paying our taxes. But we know that it is the price of our democracy,” Hoyer said. “We ought to make it as easy as possible for people to comply with a legal obligation that they have to support their country, their state and their communities.”
Maryland
Maryland Weather: Nice stretch with rain chance Friday into Saturday
![Maryland Weather: Nice stretch with rain chance Friday into Saturday Maryland Weather: Nice stretch with rain chance Friday into Saturday](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/09/04/24a84ea6-a5cd-4bed-9808-a9fb32e33d7e/thumbnail/1200x630/84a699c7d390f8d73a7d438723501c23/7-day-wednesday-pm.png?v=631cf5f2b4e8db7f9bc428589402864d)
BALTIMORE -Nice weather continues through Thursday. Sprinkles & drizzle may develop Friday with steadier rain likely Saturday.
We are right in the middle of an outstanding weather pattern that will continue into Thursday. Temperatures reached the middle to upper 70s Wednesday afternoon with comfortable humidity levels. High clouds are mainly south of Baltimore, so we’ve enjoyed a mostly sunny sky.
We have a fantastic evening of weather on the way. If you’re headed to the Os game this evening expect mostly sunny weather for the 1st pitch at 6:35 PM against the White Sox. Temperatures will start in the upper 70s, but then ease into the lower 70s by the end of the game.
Early fall-like temperatures return tonight with lows in the 50s for most neighborhoods. The coolest overnight lows in the low 50s will be located in neighborhoods north and west of the Baltimore Beltway. Temperatures in the metro will dip down into the upper 50s. Any patchy high thin clouds will sink south overnight.
Humidity levels gradually climb Thursday, but we still score ourselves a very nice day. Highs will climb toward 80°. Other than a few patchy clouds, expect a mostly sunny sky.
You will feel even more humidity in the air on Friday. With an easterly to southeasterly wind off the Ocean, areas of low clouds will be possible. As the atmosphere continues to moisten through the day Friday, patchy sprinkles and drizzle will become possible. The greatest chance for this happening would be late Friday into Friday evening. While the rain will be light and patchy in nature, you may want a poncho or light rain jacket if you’re headed to any high school Friday night football games.
Scattered showers and patchy drizzle is likely Friday night with lows in the middle 60s.
Saturday will be our last real humid day for awhile. Expect patchy areas of light rain and showers during the morning and midday hours. There may be a lull or two in the wet weather Saturday, but a steadier round of showers, possibly a thunderstorm will cross the area Saturday evening into early Saturday night. Highs on Saturday will top out in the upper 70s. The cold front that’s responsible for Saturday’s wet weather will flush out the clouds, showers, and humidity overnight Saturday. Temperatures late Saturday night will fall into the lower to middle 50s!
Sunday has another beautiful fall-like feel. Early morning temperatures in the lower to middle 50s with highs in the middle 70s. We get to enjoy abundant sunshine and pleasant breeze out of the northwest at 10 mph.
A winning stretch of weather continues for most of next week along with a gradual warming trend. Highs on Monday reach the upper 70s. By Tuesday and Wednesday, high temperatures climb into the lower 80s with plenty of sunshine and low humidity. We get to enjoy yet another spectacular stretch of September weather for most of next week with little to no rain!
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