Howard County Retired Service Member Property Tax Credit

County Code section 20.129E uses Tax-Property Article section 9-258 for several groups, and the Department of Finance runs them together as the Aging in Place credit. Two of them are for military retirees. A retired service member who is at least 65 qualifies, as does a surviving spouse of a retired service member who is at least 65 and has not remarried. The code takes "service member" from State Government Article section 9-901, which covers the uniformed services and their reserve components. The credit is 20% of the county tax on the lesser of $650,000 or the assessed value, after the other credits, for up to ten years while the owner stays eligible. It cannot be combined in the same year with the senior tax credit in section 20.129 or the public safety officer credit. The department's page is narrower than the code in one respect. It describes the retiree as "a retired military veteran with 20 years of active-duty service". Section 20.129E(b)(2) says only "a retired service member", so a reserve or Guard retiree, or a member retired for disability with less than 20 years, is within the code. Such a retiree should apply and cite the section. The page says the home must be the applicant's only principal residence, that the application for tax year 2026 was due October 1, 2026, and that the credit does not renew on its own: after the first approval the owner returns a statement of eligibility each year for nine more years.