Since its enactment in 2004, Maryland’s “flush tax” has raised $2.3 billion from property owners, funding pollution-saving upgrades at scores of wastewater treatment plants in the state and keeping hundreds of millions of pounds of nutrients out of the Chesapeake Bay.
The fee for the Bay Restoration Fund is set to be cut in half in 2030, but a group of state legislators and Chesapeake Bay advocates want to step and head that off, possibly making it a subject of discussion in the 2027 legislative session.
“The BRF is arguably one of the single most important successful efforts that the state of Maryland, or really any state that I know of, [has used] to fund major environmental improvements,” said Del. Dylan Behler (D-Anne Arundel), who serves on the House Environment and Transportation Committee…