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Sponsor seeks partial restoration of excise tax on short‑term rental fleets in bid to raise transportation funds
Summary
Delegate Stephanie Smith told the committee House Bill 898 would repeal a longstanding exemption and impose a 3.5% excise tax on the fair market value of short‑term rental vehicles, a change she said would restore revenue to the Transportation Trust Fund; the rental industry strongly opposed the measure.
Delegate Stephanie Smith (sponsor) asked the Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 18 for a favorable report on House Bill 898, which would repeal the long‑standing vehicle excise tax exemption for short‑term rental fleets and impose a 3.5% excise tax on the fair market value of each short‑term rental vehicle purchase.
Nut graf: Smith said the exemption dates to the early 1990s and has not been revenue neutral for Maryland; the sponsor presented the change as a partial restoration that would add roughly $46–50 million a year to the Transportation Trust Fund while leaving the industry subject to the existing 11.5% rental‑transaction sales tax at the counter.
Smith described the existing arrangement as a “very bad deal”…
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