Wicomico County Council considers eliminating HORIZON tax program
SALISBURY, Md. – Wicomico County officials are considering legislation introduced at Tuesday’s meeting that would eliminate the county’s HORIZON Program, a tax incentive meant to draw large developments to downtown Salisbury.
Though there are more projects planned, the only development that has benefitted from the tax credits so far is The Ross in downtown Salisbury.
According to Mike Dunn, President and CEO of the Greater Salisbury Committee, when the HORIZON program went into effect in 2021, those tax credits revived the stalled construction of the Ross: “Three weeks after the county Council passed the HORIZON tax credit, work on the Ross resumed. It’s one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever seen, where government action occurred and it had direct impact on economic development. Plumbers, and electricians, and HVAC people, and carpenters, and construction crews, they were back on the job three weeks after the HORIZON went into effect. That says a lot.”
Dunn said removing the program could raise a red flag for potential developers. “We are very concerned that this is potentially going to be an anti-business move, and one that will make developers look and go, ‘Do we want to do business in Wicomico County?’ and that’s never a message that we want to be sending.”
Dunn added that a number of local organizations share the Greater Salisbury Committee’s concerns about future development if the tax credit is eliminated, saying, “We think it would be an impediment, and the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce feels that way. The Downtown Salisbury Business Alliance feels that way.”
The original legislation passed in 2021 requires Wicomico County Council to revisit it every three years, which is why its potential removal is now on the table.
“The Council’s options are, one, to eliminate the program entirely and let it sunset, or to continue with the same program,” said Council President John Cannon.
In Cannon’s view, these tax incentives aren’t the only way to attract developers to the county, especially when only projects in downtown Salisbury are eligible: “We may be alienating county residents and county landowners who might want to benefit from some type of incentive as well. That’s our main concern…There are many other tools we have to make this happen, and we have to evaluate which may be best for the entire county, as well as for the municipalities.”
Cannon said that either way, the council will not be making a hasty decision. “The next couple of steps would be where we could have public hearings so that we can get public input. That’s what we’d like to have from a county perspective. And then the council will hopefully have a work session on this as well, in order to figure out where exactly we want to go with this program.”
Wicomico County and the City of Salisbury both have separate HORIZON programs.
The county offers tax credits over a span of 10 years, and the city offers it over 20 years. The county eliminating theirs would not affect the city’s program.
