US Representative Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland’s 2nd district has drafted a “Dear Colleague” letter to House of Representatives leadership in support of the tax exemption for municipal bond interest.

MACo is asking all of Maryland’s US Representatives to join the letter, which urges House leadership to maintain the current tax exemption on municipal bond interest. According to the National Association of Counties (NACo), Representative Delaney of Maryland’s 6th district has already co-signed.

Tax-exempt municipal bonds are the most important tool in the United States for financing state and local infrastructure including schools, hospitals, water, sewer facilities, public power utilities, roads and mass transit. As described in a letter from MACo’s President Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett to Maryland’s Representatives,

Without a tax exemption for municipal bonds, Maryland’s state and local governments would face greatly increased costs for these essential investments. NACo estimates that in Montgomery County, we would have had to pay $40.2 million in additional interest costs in 2012 if municipal bonds had been fully taxable in the previous fifteen years. These shifted costs to counties would fall primarily upon their main general revenue source – the property tax. This would further burden an already struggling real estate market, and impose a regressive and unpopular tax scheme onto taxpayers.

Read one of the letters from MACo’s President, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett on the importance of municipal bonds here.

Read one of the letters from MACo’s Executive Director urging Maryland’s US Representatives to sign the “Dear Colleague” letter on municipal bonds here.