Dozens of liquor, other stores sue Prince George’s Co. over new fee

Prince George’s County, Maryland, has been sued by a group of business owners who say a new fee passed earlier this year by the county council and allowed to become law by County Executive Aisha Braveboy is illegal.

The law, passed in the spring, assesses a $5,000 annual fee on the owners of liquor stores, tobacco stores, gun stores and consolidated storage businesses. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs say the council dubbed it as a “use and occupancy” fee, but that it’s actually a tax, and that under state law, the county can’t assess that without state permission.

Other businesses can continue to pay the one-time fee of $370.

“It’s an illegal tax,” said Tim Maloney, the lawyer representing the 50-plus businesses that are part of the lawsuit. “The county has no authority to impose a special tax on liquor stores, or storage facilities, or gun ranges, or vape shops, any of those things.”

A spokesperson for County Executive Aisha Braveboy declined to comment. The law was never signed by her, but she told WTOP shortly after the legislation passed that she wouldn’t veto it because of the supermajority that passed it.

“We always have to balance what we want and desire as a county with the practical realities of business,” Braveboy said after the legislation passed but before it became law.

At the time, she said she wasn’t going to veto the bill, and knew that meant the county would have to defend it in court.

“The reality is it pass...