Calvert County Treasurer's Office: Service Charge for Semi-Annual Real Property Tax Billing for Fiscal Year 2027
Calvert County Board of County Commissioners · 4986-10 ·
New Business
What the bill says
On the agenda for Board of County Commissioners — 2026-03-24 — 2026-03-24. Agenda section: NEW BUSINESS
Background
The county is required to allow certain taxpayers to pay their annual real property tax bill in two installments if the property is their principal residence. The first installment is due Sept. 30, and the second is due Dec. 31. The county may apply a service charge to the second installment. This charge is intended to recover lost interest from delayed revenue collection and to offset administrative costs associated with processing two payments. The administrative portion of the charge is limited to the lesser of actual costs incurred or 10% of the anticipated lost interest. State law caps the total service charge at 1.65%, including up to 1.50% for lost interest over three months and up to 10% of that amount for administrative costs.
Discussion
the Board of County Commissioners may set the annual service charge applied to the second installment of real property taxes. The county currently earns 0.03% annually on operating cash and 3.73% on residual cash. As of Dec. 31, 2025, tax revenues were evenly distributed between these accounts. Based on this allocation, a blended interest rate of 1.88% is used. Including the administrative component of 0.188%, the total annual rate is 2.068%. Because the second installment reflects a three-month delay in revenue collection, the resulting service charge for FY2026 is 0.517%.
Coordination
Department of Finance & Budget
Extracted from the source document (public record).
Documents
- Memo from Amanda Dolina, Treasurer — 2026-03-12
What analysts say
No independent (CBO/CRS-style) analysis exists for county measures. The nearest analog is the sponsoring department's own assessment, from its staff memo — self-reported, not independent:
Fiscal Impact (staff-reported)
This fee generates approximately $357,993.57 in annual revenue for the county and adds about $12.29 to the average second-installment tax bill.
Conclusion/Recommendation (staff-reported)
The Treasurer’s Office requests that the Board of County Commissioners either approve a 0.517% service charge for the FY2027 tax bill (tax year 2026) or waive the fee. If approved, the service charge will be submitted with the property tax rate by the Department of Finance & Budget to the Department of Assessments and Taxation for approval.
Reported by the sponsoring department — Calvert County Treasurer's Office · Amanda Dolina, Treasurer · 2026-03-12 in its own memo, not an independent estimate. Source memo.
What politicians say
No linked claims or utterances yet — no one on record has cited this measure to justify a public argument.