Taxpayers in Prince George’s County are suing, arguing that a 2015 tax rate increase adopted under state-passed provisions violates a citizen-enacted charter limitation. The lawsuit has advanced through preliminary motions, and will be heard in Circuit Court in December. The litigants seek to place the 2015 measure onto the ballot in 2018, for approval by county voters.

From coverage on the WTOP website:

The county is confident the courts will find it acted lawfully, a county spokesman said.

“The property tax increase that was implemented and voted on by the Prince George’s County Council was done in accordance to state law, which allows for property tax increases in jurisdictions that have tax caps, as long as it is restricted to funding education,” said Scott Peterson, spokesman for Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker.

The central argument in the case, apparently, will be the state’s authority to legislate a provision that overrides elements of a county charter. Four counties currently have rigid tax limitations in their charters, but 2012 legislation authorized counties to exceed those limits if they did so to support public education. The Attorney General opined soon after that bill’s passage that the provision was legal.