Elrich property tax increase

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't MCPS already get like 60% of all tax revenue? Time and time again it has been shown that dumping more money into schools doesn't provide better outcomes. Japanese, Chinese Singaporean, and Swedish students run laps around American students, and they spend far less mony per pupil. Baltimore spends near the most money per pupil and they have like 3% math proficiency rate in many schools.Taxing people out of their homes and using schools and education as an excuse is a terrible idea. Teach better and force parents to parent better. No amount of money can make people be better parents. There are just a lot of lowlifes in MoCo that drag down the whole system, so I don't know why people think money will fix it.

It hovers around 50%, let's not exaggerate

[Anonymous]

fwiw, I am a county employee. If this tax increase and associated salary increases to through (because that’s what it is paying for, wages), I will make almost $17,000 more by July 2024.

Fantastic for me! But is it the wisest reason for such an aggressive tax hike? Moderation has never been Marc’s strong suit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't MCPS already get like 60% of all tax revenue? Time and time again it has been shown that dumping more money into schools doesn't provide better outcomes. Japanese, Chinese Singaporean, and Swedish students run laps around American students, and they spend far less mony per pupil. Baltimore spends near the most money per pupil and they have like 3% math proficiency rate in many schools.Taxing people out of their homes and using schools and education as an excuse is a terrible idea. Teach better and force parents to parent better. No amount of money can make people be better parents. There are just a lot of lowlifes in MoCo that drag down the whole system, so I don't know why people think money will fix it.

It hovers around 50%, let's not exaggerate

That's still a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone needs to calm down.

1- it won't happen. The number will be reduced to something more reasonable (the last time the council raised the property taxes for the schools, every incumbent was ousted in the next election - the council members will remember this)

2 - instead of screaming at the council not to do this everyone should be screaming at them for some oversight into MCPS. Only govt department/agency not to have an Inspector General, and it takes up more than half of the county budget! Programs that don't work - cut them! Someone needs to take a pen and rearrange their budget, putting more teachers in classrooms with smaller class sizes

3 - our schools are in huge trouble (special ed, teacher shortages, sub shortages, crumbling facilities), and something big needs to be done. I'd like to see a huge shake up at central office, wipe out most of the existing staff, and start over with a complete reorganization (and fewer central office staff, more bodies in classrooms and smaller class sizes).

And if we don't do this, or something (anyone have any good ideas, and no, not charters which have no oversight and no accountability and use public dollars for private schools, sometimes private religious schools), the massive behavior problems teachers are facing this year will get worse, and our public education system will get worse

When did that happen with all the incumbents being voted out?

If the current council passes this nonsense, they'll get voted out too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't MCPS already get like 60% of all tax revenue? Time and time again it has been shown that dumping more money into schools doesn't provide better outcomes. Japanese, Chinese Singaporean, and Swedish students run laps around American students, and they spend far less mony per pupil. Baltimore spends near the most money per pupil and they have like 3% math proficiency rate in many schools.Taxing people out of their homes and using schools and education as an excuse is a terrible idea. Teach better and force parents to parent better. No amount of money can make people be better parents. There are just a lot of lowlifes in MoCo that drag down the whole system, so I don't know why people think money will fix it.

Yes, and raising taxes so MCPS can invest in more unproven RJ practices or hire even more Central Office staff seems like a bad idea. They need to at least try and cut the waste before anything like this can be on the table.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any way Joe citizen can file a complaint/petition against this? He's going through a big loophole, circumventing the will of the voters' 2020 Election Question A, and disingenuous about it as there are bunch of other things increasing as well. There was no thought given to reallocating other funds to schools and public safety and keeping overall budget the same. The public hearings feel like they are checking off a box, they are so condescending.

Wonder if he can really get away with this.

[Anonymous]

Why doesn't the county only raise taxes on people who don't use the property as their principal residence. So, for example, no change for principal residences, and 30% increase for all others? I would support that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any way Joe citizen can file a complaint/petition against this? He's going through a big loophole, circumventing the will of the voters' 2020 Election Question A, and disingenuous about it as there are bunch of other things increasing as well. There was no thought given to reallocating other funds to schools and public safety and keeping overall budget the same. The public hearings feel like they are checking off a box, they are so condescending.

Wonder if he can really get away with this.

There is no loophole. He’s lying. The state law does not apply to our charter.

He proposed his own version of a charter amendment on property taxes in 2020, 8 years after this state law was passed. If the state law negates the current charter, it would have also negated the charter amendment that Elrich proposed. Never once did he mention this possibility. Never once did his chief administrative officer, who sponsored the state law and testified on Elrich’s proposed charter amendment, mention this possibility. So Elrich and Madaleno were either lying then or they’re lying now. Don’t let them get away with it. Tell your council members that we expect a unanimous vote to raise taxes.

[Anonymous]

Elrich isn’t on the council, right? Presumably it’s up to the council to decide how this state law affects its voting threshold, not Elrich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone needs to calm down.

1- it won't happen. The number will be reduced to something more reasonable (the last time the council raised the property taxes for the schools, every incumbent was ousted in the next election - the council members will remember this)

2 - instead of screaming at the council not to do this everyone should be screaming at them for some oversight into MCPS. Only govt department/agency not to have an Inspector General, and it takes up more than half of the county budget! Programs that don't work - cut them! Someone needs to take a pen and rearrange their budget, putting more teachers in classrooms with smaller class sizes

3 - our schools are in huge trouble (special ed, teacher shortages, sub shortages, crumbling facilities), and something big needs to be done. I'd like to see a huge shake up at central office, wipe out most of the existing staff, and start over with a complete reorganization (and fewer central office staff, more bodies in classrooms and smaller class sizes).

And if we don't do this, or something (anyone have any good ideas, and no, not charters which have no oversight and no accountability and use public dollars for private schools, sometimes private religious schools), the massive behavior problems teachers are facing this year will get worse, and our public education system will get worse

When did that happen with all the incumbents being voted out?

I believe it was 2018, but need someone with more time to double check

I don't believe the councilmembers were voted out in 2018. They were term limited, because of an amendment that was voted on and passed in 2016.
https://elections.maryland.gov/elections/2014/results/General/gen_results_2014_2_by_county_160.html
https://elections.maryland.gov/elections/2018/results/general/gen_results_2018_2_by_county_16-1.html
https://wamu.org/story/16/11/09/on_third_try_voters_adopt_term_limits_in_montgomery_county/

If they actually pass this outrageous tax increase, they need to get voted out. But probably won't because not enough moderates vote. ~80k votes gets you elected in a county of 1.1M...sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't the county only raise taxes on people who don't use the property as their principal residence. So, for example, no change for principal residences, and 30% increase for all others? I would support that.

Because we have a housing shortage that leads to high prices. If we want affordable housing in this county then we need to encourage more investment rather than put up barriers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't the county only raise taxes on people who don't use the property as their principal residence. So, for example, no change for principal residences, and 30% increase for all others? I would support that.

Because we have a housing shortage that leads to high prices. If we want affordable housing in this county then we need to encourage more investment rather than put up barriers.

But mainly we can't do it because the county can't charge different rates based on principal residence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course.

Democrats in MoCo are incapable of growing the economy and controlling spending. The only solution ever is to raise taxes.

Go look up the entire employment history of virtually everyone running MoCo. They've hardly ever had real jobs in their entire careers and have only worked for the govt, think tanks, or communist activist org fluff. They entirely depend on tax dollars funding their salaries, so of course they want to raise taxes. By 'not keeping up with inflation', they really mean they feel like their own personal salaries aren't keeping up with inflation, therefore raise taxes.

MoCo is turning into Baltimore - huge taxes that will cause the base to flee, flight of businesses due to hostile govt policies, and a downward death spiral where the only solution is to keep raising taxes. R.I.P. MoCo.

Preach it brother: this is truth thus all you’ll get from the willfully arrogantly ignorant is grief. I retire in a few years and will move to
Florida. Bye bye suckers! (I just hope the house market doesn’t crash before that. If I can’t sell my house, Democrats will put me in their debtors prison).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't the county only raise taxes on people who don't use the property as their principal residence. So, for example, no change for principal residences, and 30% increase for all others? I would support that.

Because we have a housing shortage that leads to high prices. If we want affordable housing in this county then we need to encourage more investment rather than put up barriers.

But mainly we can't do it because the county can't charge different rates based on principal residence.

But it could charge a different effective rate by increasing the income tax offset credit and raising the base rate.

Higher property taxes also affect affordability. They’re going to drive rents up and PITI. There’s no formula for increasing the tax rate that avoids making housing here less affordable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't the county only raise taxes on people who don't use the property as their principal residence. So, for example, no change for principal residences, and 30% increase for all others? I would support that.

Because we have a housing shortage that leads to high prices. If we want affordable housing in this county then we need to encourage more investment rather than put up barriers.

But mainly we can't do it because the county can't charge different rates based on principal residence.

But it could charge a different effective rate by increasing the income tax offset credit and raising the base rate.

Higher property taxes also affect affordability. They’re going to drive rents up and PITI. There’s no formula for increasing the tax rate that avoids making housing here less affordable.

Yeah, as a mom and pop SFH landlord, I would have to increase my rents by appropriate amount. But there is some rent increase cap now? What the...