"I already pay enough," said Green, who said she pays $3,000 per year in Prince George's County property taxes. "I don't think they need to make us pay more."

For Arnold Hurley, an art teacher at Crossland High School, eliminating TRIM to raise property taxes could mean not having to dip into his own pocket to buy supplies for his students.

"My budget gets cut every year," Hurley said. "With fewer supplies, you get less work, poorer quality work. When you can't buy materials and quality materials, you can't get good work."

The difference reflected in Green's and Hurley's views of the 1978 Tax Reform Initiative by Marylanders -- known as TRIM -- has Prince George's County officials and state legislators revisiting the issue.

TRIM is a property tax cap that some argue hamstrings the county in its fight for a fair share of state funds. But it is such a prickly issue that some prominent lawmakers shun any association with the move to repeal it.

TRIM was enacted as an amendment to the county charter and can be eliminated either by referendum or by state legislation that would allow the County Council to kill the cap.

"I have been in discussions with [County Executive Jack B. Johnson] and some of the state senators as well as other county officials regarding modifying TRIM," said U.S. Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D-Dist. 4) of Mitchellville. "I think the consensus is that people would like to modify TRIM."

Over the past six months, TRIM has been on the lips of county leaders on the public meeting circuit. The chief complaint they hammer home is that as county and state revenues decrease, so will services.

"I don't think Prince George's County has the money to do the things it needs to do with TRIM in place," Councilman Thomas R. Hendershot (D-Dist. 3) of New Carrollton told The Gazette, repeating a message he has been sending at public forums. "The services you are getting now are about as good as it's going to get for what you are paying. It's that simple."

Johnson (D), who refused repeated requests from The Gazette to comment on the issue, has yet to call for TRIM's repeal. But in several speeches across the county, Johnson has warned of its pitfalls.

Although some want to see it repealed, Donna Hathaway Beck, a schools activist and TRIM supporter, said the issue comes down to trust.

"TRIM was built and reaffirmed on a foundation of mistrust. That mistrust continues, perhaps it has even worsened," Hathaway said. "Does the public school system need more money? Undoubtedly yes. Do we trust those in leadership roles to effectively administer additional funds? Probably not."

Councilman Thomas E. Dernoga (D-Dist. 1) of Laurel contends that both proponents and opponents of TRIM are missing the point: TRIM is not the problem, and tinkering with it is a waste of time and energy.

"What we need to focus on is increasing the tax base. We've done a poor job of that in the past 20 years. Sixty percent of our employees leave the county to go to work," said Dernoga, basing his position on a Prince George's Chamber of Commerce report.

According to the chamber report, in the past 20 years Fairfax County, Va., created 325,000 new jobs and Montgomery County created 187,000 new jobs, while Prince George's produced only 61,000.

"Most of our growth has been in residential housing," Dernoga said, adding that Prince George's has more apartment units and most of the low- and moderate-income housing in the region.

County residents also pay higher income and personal property taxes than those in many other jurisdictions, but because property values in Prince George's are lower, less money is collected than in some other jurisdictions.

Prince George's homeowners pay 96 cents per $100 assessed property value compared to Montgomery County homeowners, who pay 75 cents. But property values are higher in Montgomery County, which generates more revenue.

As Prince George's leaders argue that they need more leverage to generate revenue for a growing population, Ron Walters, a political analyst at the University of Maryland, College Park, said residents are ready to pay more taxes to meet their services needs.

"TRIM has outlived its usefulness. It has been an impediment to financing the services that people who have moved into the county in the past decade say they want," Walters said.

Historical perspective

Del. Joanne C. Benson (D-Dist. 24) of Landover was there in 1978 when a group of residents banded together at a meeting to pass TRIM.

"Research showed us that if we put this initiative in place, in 25 years we were going to see a devastating impact on public education and public safety, and that is exactly what has happened," Benson said.

She said those issues were set aside by longtime residents looking to curb funding for an influx of African-American students enrolling in county schools.

"That initiative was designed to slow down the amount of money allocated to educating children in a certain population," she said. "I was adamantly opposed."

The referendum passed, but came under attack in 1996 in a drive led by then-County Executive Wayne K. Curry (D). On Election Day, 80 percent of voters decided to leave TRIM in place.

Looking back, school board Vice Chairman Howard W. Stone Jr., who worked on the 1996 referendum for Curry, said it came down to trust.

"People have a problem with just giving government a blank check," Stone said.

With such a resounding majority unwilling to repeal the tax cap, some are considering modifying the law instead of repealing it by referendum.

"[TRIM] needs to be repealed," Stone said. "But modifying the tax cap might get more citizen support. I think people would be willing to support modifying TRIM if we earmarked the money specifically for education and public safety."

Prince George's County is not the only jurisdiction with property tax caps. California instituted caps around the same time as Prince George's, said Marie Howland, a professor of urban planning at University of Maryland, College Park, who has studied taxes for decades.

"California has had the same problems with their schools since they passed a real strict tax cap in the '70s," Howland said. "The problem with things like TRIM is that the quality of schools go down, which means the quality of the work force goes down, and the region becomes less competitive. ... It seems like a good idea in the short term, but in the long range, communities suffer.

"It's one of the reasons Prince George's is not as competitive as Howard County and Montgomery County," she said.

Risky business

Stone and others contend the electorate has changed enough since the 1996 referendum to warrant a new effort.

But no elected politician is making that push officially. Such a move would take a well-financed campaign and hold its backers' political futures in the balance.

"It is very dangerous," said Steve Proctor, a county lobbyist. "Attaching one's name to repealing TRIM could be very costly politically."

The future of TRIM could come down to two lawmakers from Baltimore and Montgomery County to overturn the tax cap.

"All of us at the state level don't mind putting out money for programs, but not when they are not willing to help themselves," said Del. Sheila Ellis Hixson (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring, chairwoman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

For the past three years. Hixson and House Appropriations Chairman Howard P. Rawlings (D-Dist. 40) of Baltimore have sponsored a bill aimed at outlawing property tax caps in the state. The bill would amend the Prince George's charter to allow the County Council to vote to repeal TRIM.

Although the bill failed to gain momentum before, Prince George's County House Delegation Chairwoman Carolyn J.B. Howard (D-Dist. 24) of Mitchellville said, the state's patience with TRIM is beginning to run thin, and it might be time for the county delegation to look at repealing the tax cap.

"I am hearing more and more talk about it," Howard said.

The restrictions on taxing property have led state and county officials to find alternatives to bolster the county's budget coffers, resulting in residents seeing new taxes and fees.

For example, in 2002 the state imposed a new cell phone tax to generate $18 million a year for schools. This year, the General Assembly approved a $12,000 surcharge on all new residential units to pay for school construction. In addition, Johnson raised the county income tax from 3.1 percent to 3.2 percent and the County Council increased the park and planning tax, which will result in an average of $70 more for each resident annually.

For now, Prince George's lawmakers continue to discuss only TRIM's negatives because they know that politicians who back the undoing of the tax cap at the state level could find themselves in tough re-election campaigns.

"Circumventing TRIM via state action will only exacerbate that mistrust" of government, Hathaway Beck said.