Distel would look to freeze property taxes if elected to County Council
Oct. 15—Leading up to the Nov. 8 general election, The Frederick News-Post is doing podcast interviews with candidates for Frederick County executive and council. To hear past podcast interviews, go to www.fnppodcasts.com/politics.
The Frederick News-Post —In the Booth with John Distel, candidate for County Council
John Distel, the Republican nominee for Frederick County Council District 1, said his number-one priority as a council member would be lowering the county's property tax rate.
"I'm not a career politician. I don't plan on being a career politician," Distel said in a podcast interview with the News-Post. "A lot of it is just trying to maintain the level of services we have now [and] ensure that people want to come to Frederick [County]."
Distel said he wants the county to freeze its property tax rate, which would mean dropping it from $1.06 per $100 of assessed value — where its been for a decade — to the constant-yield rate.
The constant-yield rate is the real property tax rate necessary to generate the same revenue from year to year. If tax revenue is expected to rise because of higher property assessments, the tax rate would drop to reach the constant yield.
The constant-yield rate for the fiscal year that began July 1 is $1.02 per $100 of assessed value. Adopting this rate would have decreased county tax revenue by $13 million for the last fiscal year.
Distel said he would want to have each county department director justify their budget requests to the County Council.
The county's budget process already includes multiple days in which the council meets with officials from more than 20 departments. The council asks questions about each department's budget and hears about current projects and pressing needs, before voting on the county executive's proposed budget.
Distel won the July primary election over Bill Miskell.
Distel has been a sergeant in the Montgomery County Department of Police since 2018, and he's been with the department for 20 years. He was a part-time attorney for Ashcraft & Gerel LLC, which has locations in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, but he reduced his role to focus on campaigning.
The Democratic nominee for District 1 is County Councilman Jerry Donald, who has represented the district since 2014.
District 1 includes Middletown, Burkittsville, Rosemont, Brunswick and land west of Md. 355, including parts of Urbana and the Sugarloaf Mountain area.
General Election Day will be Nov. 8. Early voting will be Oct. 27 to Nov. 3. The Maryland State Board of Elections has begun sending mail-in ballots to voters.
In his podcast interview, Distel also discussed maintaining county funding for public safety, the plan to preserve Sugarloaf Mountain and its surrounding area, the next regional plan that the County Council will vote on, and what he'd like to see built at the 26-acre property along Himes Avenue that the county purchased in 2021.
Follow Jack Hogan on Twitter: @jckhogan
