Fact check: Immigration, tax claims ; at debate

It won't come as any surprise that the Anne Arundel County executive candidates bent and flexed the truth while discussing tax cuts, immigration, abortion resolution and kickbacks to developers at their debate.

Incumbent Steve Schuh and his Democratic opponent Steuart Pittman squared off Thursday in a two-hour debate at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. The two were cordial at times, while taking shots at each other on different issues.

Some of the comments made about the following issues were missing context or misrepresented the facts:

Immigration

Schuh said this about the county's participation in the 287(g) program, which allows detention officers to screen incoming inmates and inform the federal government if they are undocumented. The county does not have its police officers and deputies engage in the program.

"That is the only means we have to identify illegal aliens in the county who have committed serious crimes like murder or rape or something like that," Schuh said. "That's the only way."

That isn't entirely true. The federal government maintains a database of information and can find undocumented people who enter the prison system. What the 287(g) program does is make it easier for local governments to proactively inform the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the inmates rather than hoping they are found in automatic database checks. Pittman wants to end the program, saying it stokes fear within immigrant communities.

ICE has a program called Secure Communities that links information between the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

According to ICE, the FBI and local law enforcement agencies have shared fingerprint data for decades. This program now sends that information to DHS for checks against the immigration database without new requirements to local jurisdictions. This was started in 2008 and suspended in 2013. It was reactivated in 2017 by President Donald Trump.

The county executive clarified his position later, saying the 287(g) program tracks down criminals not already in the government's databases.

Critics of 287(g) argue the agreement doesn't identify serious offenders and instead harms immigrants picked up on minor traffic offenses, screened and then detained at the request of ICE. Those detainments may create liability problems for local and state governments as immigrants are kept past release dates required without a warrant or probable cause, Attorney General Brian Frosh wrote in a guidance memo.

Developer giveaway

Pittman accused Schuh of giving $125 million of taxpayer money to developers. He didn't mention it by name, but that $125 million is linked to Schuh's utility connection and other fee cuts made in 2016.

"We delivered for our developers a $125 million giveaway to reduce their costs," Pittman said.

But calling it a giveaway might be a stretch. Schuh's administration has maintained those cuts led to lower housing costs for residents, reducing it by $6,000, he said in a previous interview.

Capitalism requires developers pass those savings on to homeowners, he said.

There are so many factors that influence a home's price that it is hard to confirm that the $6,000 is strictly linked to those fee cuts. After the fee cut, sale prices of homes increased from $291,000 to $300,000 between January 2016 and September 2017, according to housing data from Zillow. But home prices have spiked since then, climbing to a median sale of $322,000.

Taxes

Throughout his campaign - and at Thursday's debate - Schuh has touted his administration saving $160 million in taxpayer dollars since taking office.

That number is accurate, based on county budget data. Schuh has taken tax reductions and fee cuts and bundled them together into a nice, big round number for voters.

But that also includes millions of dollars in utility connection cuts given to developers.

And the bulk of that number is property tax reductions that occurred because of Anne Arundel County's property tax rate cap. This cap is linked to a formula that sets a property tax rate to maintain the county's revenue. While the economy is growing and home values go up, that rate falls, meaning Schuh's savings are linked directly to the growth of the economy.

Most recently Schuh's administration and the County Council cut the tax rate from 90.4 to 90.2, resulting in about $8 a year in savings for homeowners with $400,000 homes.

Residents did directly benefit when Schuh's administration reduced the county income tax rate from 2.56 percent to 2.5 percent.

Abortion

Near the end of the debate Annapolis resident Jules Buckley - and wife of Mayor Gavin Buckley - sent a text message to moderator Rick Hutzell, editor of Capital Gazette.

She asked the candidates about their stance on abortion after a county resolution was introduced by County Councilman Michael Peroutka, R-Millersville. That resolution deemed "preborn" children as worthy of protection and human rights. Anti-abortion advocates argue life begins at conception and that the act of abortion is murder.

The resolution was defeated in a close vote.

Schuh said he is "pro-life" but is focusing his attention on county issues, and abortion is a state and federal problem.

He might be focusing on county issues, but his administration took a stance on the bill, supporting it before it was amended to remove a requirement the Anne Arundel County Department of Health track the number and emotional impact of abortions within the county.

Pittman said he supported a women's right to choose and was surprised the county executive weighed in on the resolution. Pittman brought up the fact that he waited all night to oppose the resolution - he was there late - and opposed the language requiring the county health department collect data.

That language was cut from the bill before the vote.

Credit: By Chase Cook - [email protected]

Caption: Democratic candidate Steuart Pittman, left, and incumbent Republican Steve Schuh make their opening remarks during the Anne Arundel County executive debate Thursday.

photos by Jen Rynda/baltimore sun media group