MoCo Question B would be a disaster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A good comment from tha article:

I read somewhere that the idea of at-large seats dates back to the post-Civil War South as a way to make sure minorities did not gain political power. Since most all counties were heavily white the minority vote could be easily overcome by at-large voting. However, if one large entity were broken down to several smaller entities, minorities might gain control of at least one small entity since minorities usually were highly concentrated in certain areas (due to housing discrimination). I'm definitely voting for D and B and again st C and A.

You think it's a good comment? I think it's a foolish comment. Of the 4 at-large members who purportedly exclusively represent "Silver Spring":

-1 is an African-American
-1 is a Hispanic-American
-1 is the first openly gay member of the County Council

And the "Silver Spring area" (i.e., most of the east county) is an enormously diverse part of the county. If you're looking for places in Montgomery County where the white folks live and the non-white folks don't, it's not the east county.

Meanwhile, the people pushing ballot measure D are...white folks: upcounty/west county Republicans and big Bethesda developers.

So the number of elected positions is supposed to be by ethnicity and sexual orientation not population with 1-2 not geographic districts with about the same population? If you're AA or Hispanic or gay and don't live in "Silver Spring/Takoma Park" then what? Taxes are taxes, trash pick up is trash, libraries, schools, roads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A good comment from tha article:

I read somewhere that the idea of at-large seats dates back to the post-Civil War South as a way to make sure minorities did not gain political power. Since most all counties were heavily white the minority vote could be easily overcome by at-large voting. However, if one large entity were broken down to several smaller entities, minorities might gain control of at least one small entity since minorities usually were highly concentrated in certain areas (due to housing discrimination). I'm definitely voting for D and B and again st C and A.

You think it's a good comment? I think it's a foolish comment. Of the 4 at-large members who purportedly exclusively represent "Silver Spring":

-1 is an African-American
-1 is a Hispanic-American
-1 is the first openly gay member of the County Council

And the "Silver Spring area" (i.e., most of the east county) is an enormously diverse part of the county. If you're looking for places in Montgomery County where the white folks live and the non-white folks don't, it's not the east county.

Meanwhile, the people pushing ballot measure D are...white folks: upcounty/west county Republicans and big Bethesda developers.

So the number of elected positions is supposed to be by ethnicity and sexual orientation not population with 1-2 not geographic districts with about the same population? If you're AA or Hispanic or gay and don't live in "Silver Spring/Takoma Park" then what? Taxes are taxes, trash pick up is trash, libraries, schools, roads.

Don't argue with me, argue with the white Republicans who honest-to-goodness put a piece in Bethesda Beat arguing that we should get rid of at-large council positions because they're a tool of white supremacy.

[Anonymous]

I’m honestly so curious to see how many folks vote for B. I’m fairly fiscally conservative but B seems like bad economic policy....

But, people don’t like paying taxes. So I kind of think this actually might stand a chance at passing....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m honestly so curious to see how many folks vote for B. I’m fairly fiscally conservative but B seems like bad economic policy....

But, people don’t like paying taxes. So I kind of think this actually might stand a chance at passing....

+1

Very concerned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question B allows the county to push back on the unions. The unions don't want an income tax hike but don't care about a property tax increase. No property tax increase = no money to keep giving the unions whatever they want. Its the only way to a balanced budget.

I also find it amazing that the Elrich supporters seem to think that a property tax really only hurts millionaires living in Potomac. Newsflash but the multi-millionaires living in Potomac do not care about a big hike in property tax and there are not many of them in the count much toward the revenues.

The vast majority of property in MOCO is in the 300K-under 1M bucket. A big hike in property will hurt them. It will r educe the numbers of buyers because people stretching to afford a home will need to reduce their house buying budget to meet the debt to income threshold with higher property taxes. It will price seniors out of their homes or cut substantially into their retirement savings.

The county can't raise the income tax. The property tax is it's main source of revenue. If question B passes make no mistake the rate will go down every year unless the housing market crashes and thus will affect public services including schools, roads and public safety. The county has very limited options for raising revenues to make up for that loss.

They can cut unnecessary expenses. The hazard pay essential employees received should had been much less and stopped when the state moved to phase 2. Bloated pensions and salaries need to be cut. salary freezes. get rid of bogus positions. Stop giving money to developers. If the county wasnt so wasteful, people would be more.supportive of a tax increase.for essential services.

Forced caps on admin positions at the CO. Amyway, I'd rather not vote for B but I don't think we can otherwise trust the council to reign in spending. As to C and D, they sound all well and good but C just create new council and staff positions and will add millions in administrative overheads, I'm voting against that too. D will probably result ins some net savings but still not sure this change is beneficial so why vote for it.

Exactly my sentiments. B seems like the only way to reign in spending and C and D add more overhead without real benefit.

[Anonymous]

These initiatives are the result of the failure to attract world class businesses to MoCo. I am a twenty-eight year resident who is leaving. The lack of business growth leads to 1) poorer results in school - admins listen to employers more than parents 2) higher taxes - since there is no diversity in tax base 3) us versus themism - since some areas prosper more than others. Unfortunately there are no ballot initiatives to change this. Good luck MoCo. This is your Achilles heal - and until you fix this you have a hard road ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m honestly so curious to see how many folks vote for B. I’m fairly fiscally conservative but B seems like bad economic policy....

But, people don’t like paying taxes. So I kind of think this actually might stand a chance at passing....

+1

Very concerned.

I wonder how many people even really understood the differences between the choices.

[Anonymous]

This thread is absolutely full of Republican talking points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m honestly so curious to see how many folks vote for B. I’m fairly fiscally conservative but B seems like bad economic policy....

But, people don’t like paying taxes. So I kind of think this actually might stand a chance at passing....

+1

Very concerned.

I wonder how many people even really understood the differences between the choices.

You know that the council will vote to raise taxes on every single possible occasion. It's a bottomless tax pit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A good comment from tha article:

I read somewhere that the idea of at-large seats dates back to the post-Civil War South as a way to make sure minorities did not gain political power. Since most all counties were heavily white the minority vote could be easily overcome by at-large voting. However, if one large entity were broken down to several smaller entities, minorities might gain control of at least one small entity since minorities usually were highly concentrated in certain areas (due to housing discrimination). I'm definitely voting for D and B and again st C and A.

You think it's a good comment? I think it's a foolish comment. Of the 4 at-large members who purportedly exclusively represent "Silver Spring":

-1 is an African-American
-1 is a Hispanic-American
-1 is the first openly gay member of the County Council

And the "Silver Spring area" (i.e., most of the east county) is an enormously diverse part of the county. If you're looking for places in Montgomery County where the white folks live and the non-white folks don't, it's not the east county.

Meanwhile, the people pushing ballot measure D are...white folks: upcounty/west county Republicans and big Bethesda developers.

So the number of elected positions is supposed to be by ethnicity and sexual orientation not population with 1-2 not geographic districts with about the same population? If you're AA or Hispanic or gay and don't live in "Silver Spring/Takoma Park" then what? Taxes are taxes, trash pick up is trash, libraries, schools, roads.

Don't argue with me, argue with the white Republicans who honest-to-goodness put a piece in Bethesda Beat arguing that we should get rid of at-large council positions because they're a tool of white supremacy.

I'd vote to eliminate the council in favor of direct democracy.

[Anonymous]

So assuming Bethesda Beat is accurate, looks like A and C got the majority while B and D failed. I'm so happy B was a huge failure. It made no sense to limit the council in times of emergency. I was actually fine with either C or D but I'm glad C was approved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So assuming Bethesda Beat is accurate, looks like A and C got the majority while B and D failed. I'm so happy B was a huge failure. It made no sense to limit the council in times of emergency. I was actually fine with either C or D but I'm glad C was approved.

So how much will taxes go up next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So assuming Bethesda Beat is accurate, looks like A and C got the majority while B and D failed. I'm so happy B was a huge failure. It made no sense to limit the council in times of emergency. I was actually fine with either C or D but I'm glad C was approved.

So how much will taxes go up next year?

They haven’t had a unanimous vote to raise them so....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m honestly so curious to see how many folks vote for B. I’m fairly fiscally conservative but B seems like bad economic policy....

But, people don’t like paying taxes. So I kind of think this actually might stand a chance at passing....

+1

Very concerned.

I wonder how many people even really understood the differences between the choices.

You know that the council will vote to raise taxes on every single possible occasion. It's a bottomless tax pit.

Actually, they don't. We've had the Charter Limit in place requiring a unanimous vote for property tax revenue increases for 12 years. In most years, the Council did not vote to raise property tax revenues, and as a result in most years they reduced the property tax rate.

[Anonymous]

Such hypocrisy. You all wonder why poor people in red states vote against their interests when you all do the same here...