Tax Rates & Trash Collection Fees

Each annual budget projects income from a number of sources, two of which are the taxes on real and personal property. When the Town adopts a budget it must also set a tax rate – the amount of tax per each $100 of value of a taxpayers real and/or personal property. Typically, most homeowners only pay the real property tax on the assessed value of their house and lot(s). Individuals who have a business located in their home, business operators at Penn Place, and public utilities who own property throughout the Town (Pepco, Verizon, Comcast, WSSC, etc.) will pay personal property tax. For the FY 2006, FY 2007, and the current FY 2008 budget the rate for real property is 19 cents per $100, and for personal property the rate is $1.00 per $100. In FY 2008, the Garrett Park real property tax is approximately 13% of the total tax charged by Montgomery County.

Also on the county tax bill is the fee charged for municipal refuse collection. This fee is calculated by dividing the budgeted amount for refuse, recycling, and yard waste collection by the number of homes receiving the service. In the FY 2008 budget the cost of municipal refuse collection has been set at $134,000, which, divided by 362 (the number of houses in Town), equals $370 per household as this year’s fee.