The Maryland Congressman will lead a bi-partisan group to advocate for counties in tax reform debate.

As reported by Governing, state and local governments have a new bipartisan set of advocates for their interests on Capitol Hill. Two congressmen, including Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, are forming a Municipal Finance Caucus to protect the municipal bond market.

Over the past several years, MACo has joined its national partner, the National Association of Counties, to urge Congress to protect the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds, which have been the target of tax reform.

Municipal bonds are fundamental to county infrastructure development and many members of the Maryland Congressional delegation have responded to MACo’s outreach, pledging their support on the issue, including US Senator Ben Cardin, US Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, and US Representative Andy Harris.

Congressman Ruppersberger of Maryland has been a leader in the effort to protect municipal bonds, co-authoring a bi-partisan “Dear Colleague” letter alongside US Representative Randy Hultgren of Illinois. The dear colleague letter was co-signed by over 130 signatures from both sides of the aisle.

Now the two congressmen are taking another step with the formation of a municipal finance caucus. As described in Governing,

“Our primary focus will be on telling the story of how important the current tax [status] of municipal finance is, and how risky, damaging and how harmful a change would be,” said Hultgren. “So we’re going to be very active, very vocal in telling these stories.”

For more information, read the full story from Governing, Congress Creates Bipartisan Municipal Finance Caucus.

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