How do we end Montgomery County socialism?

[Anonymous]

The real trouble coming is the overly generous pension funds - combined with a greater county responsibility for them. The state is basically saying if you want to overpay civil servants go ahead but the responsibility is on you and your taxpayers. Erlich won’t even get rid of 300 Union jobs with the liquor monopoly (which would increase private sector jobs like crazy) so he certainly doesn’t have political will for real change. Work from home will eventually destroy the county’s limited geographical advantage - which will ultimately force a more business friendly regime. This is Sim City with a crazy union guy in player one position. (Well let’s be real: Gino Renne is in the real player one position). Google him to find out who really runs MoCo. It ain’t Erlich. Hans understands this - and is on a quixotic run for that reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real trouble coming is the overly generous pension funds - combined with a greater county responsibility for them. The state is basically saying if you want to overpay civil servants go ahead but the responsibility is on you and your taxpayers. Erlich won’t even get rid of 300 Union jobs with the liquor monopoly (which would increase private sector jobs like crazy) so he certainly doesn’t have political will for real change. Work from home will eventually destroy the county’s limited geographical advantage - which will ultimately force a more business friendly regime. This is Sim City with a crazy union guy in player one position. (Well let’s be real: Gino Renne is in the real player one position). Google him to find out who really runs MoCo. It ain’t Erlich. Hans understands this - and is on a quixotic run for that reason.

While I agree with you about the pensions. Virginia has a state liquor monopoly, so that argument doesn’t make sense and then you need to consider the type of jobs: restaurant workers. We need more six figure jobs not more $4/hr + tips jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real trouble coming is the overly generous pension funds - combined with a greater county responsibility for them. The state is basically saying if you want to overpay civil servants go ahead but the responsibility is on you and your taxpayers. Erlich won’t even get rid of 300 Union jobs with the liquor monopoly (which would increase private sector jobs like crazy) so he certainly doesn’t have political will for real change. Work from home will eventually destroy the county’s limited geographical advantage - which will ultimately force a more business friendly regime. This is Sim City with a crazy union guy in player one position. (Well let’s be real: Gino Renne is in the real player one position). Google him to find out who really runs MoCo. It ain’t Erlich. Hans understands this - and is on a quixotic run for that reason.

Curious why you would post all of this but not know the name of the current county executive? Since you support Riemer, I am curious if he would agree that the purpose of his campaign is union busting. It may actually be true, who knows?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To end Montgomery County socialism, you need to get people in Montgomery County to stop voting for socialists, which would require having people in Montgomery County be not supportive of socialism.

If we changed our electoral system from a closed party primary to a top 2 primary, it would make a big difference.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To end Montgomery County socialism, you need to get people in Montgomery County to stop voting for socialists, which would require having people in Montgomery County be not supportive of socialism.

If we changed our electoral system from a closed party primary to a top 2 primary, it would make a big difference.

This.

Unfortunately, it’s not clear how this can happen just at the county level. Would require the Assembly to change the law in some manner, even if to allow for discretion for counties to hold open primaries for county-level offices. Nothing good ever really happens in Annapolis, so let’s not get our hopes up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To end Montgomery County socialism, you need to get people in Montgomery County to stop voting for socialists, which would require having people in Montgomery County be not supportive of socialism.

If we changed our electoral system from a closed party primary to a top 2 primary, it would make a big difference.

This.

Unfortunately, it’s not clear how this can happen just at the county level. Would require the Assembly to change the law in some manner, even if to allow for discretion for counties to hold open primaries for county-level offices. Nothing good ever really happens in Annapolis, so let’s not get our hopes up.

The best hope for change on things like this in the county is via referendum. However, I'm not sure if this can be done at the county level as a referendum, or if it would need to be state-wide. It's a lot more work to get enough signatures for a state-wide referendum. Even Ficker would hae trouble pulling it off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To end Montgomery County socialism, you need to get people in Montgomery County to stop voting for socialists, which would require having people in Montgomery County be not supportive of socialism.

If we changed our electoral system from a closed party primary to a top 2 primary, it would make a big difference.

This.

Unfortunately, it’s not clear how this can happen just at the county level. Would require the Assembly to change the law in some manner, even if to allow for discretion for counties to hold open primaries for county-level offices. Nothing good ever really happens in Annapolis, so let’s not get our hopes up.

The best hope for change on things like this in the county is via referendum. However, I'm not sure if this can be done at the county level as a referendum, or if it would need to be state-wide. It's a lot more work to get enough signatures for a state-wide referendum. Even Ficker would hae trouble pulling it off.

It is dictated by state law. Parties are allowed to decide for themselves to have open or closed primaries. Individual jurisdictions cannot override state election law, but I think that may be limited to statewide offices. For example, Takoma Park allows voters 16 and older to vote in local elections, but they have to set up their own parallel voter registration and election process to do so. Having to undertake some sort of parallel process to vote on council seats for a county of one million people, even if it is only to create separate ballots and vote counting mechanisms, would probably not be reasonably feasible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To end Montgomery County socialism, you need to get people in Montgomery County to stop voting for socialists, which would require having people in Montgomery County be not supportive of socialism.

If we changed our electoral system from a closed party primary to a top 2 primary, it would make a big difference.

This.

Unfortunately, it’s not clear how this can happen just at the county level. Would require the Assembly to change the law in some manner, even if to allow for discretion for counties to hold open primaries for county-level offices. Nothing good ever really happens in Annapolis, so let’s not get our hopes up.

The best hope for change on things like this in the county is via referendum. However, I'm not sure if this can be done at the county level as a referendum, or if it would need to be state-wide. It's a lot more work to get enough signatures for a state-wide referendum. Even Ficker would hae trouble pulling it off.

It is dictated by state law. Parties are allowed to decide for themselves to have open or closed primaries. Individual jurisdictions cannot override state election law, but I think that may be limited to statewide offices. For example, Takoma Park allows voters 16 and older to vote in local elections, but they have to set up their own parallel voter registration and election process to do so. Having to undertake some sort of parallel process to vote on council seats for a county of one million people, even if it is only to create separate ballots and vote counting mechanisms, would probably not be reasonably feasible.

The Silver Spring/Takoma Park contingent will protect itself no matter what. That's why Evan Glass proposed the referendum question expanding Council to 11 members, to counter the referendum question making all Councilmembers district representatives. It's costing the County taxpayers millions to add those two new Councilmembers, between salaries and staff salaries, and the renovation costs to the council office building necessary to house Councilmembers in a manner in which they feel entitled.

They will do whatever they can to protect their power.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The Silver Spring/Takoma Park contingent will protect itself no matter what. That's why Evan Glass proposed the referendum question expanding Council to 11 members, to counter the referendum question making all Councilmembers district representatives. It's costing the County taxpayers millions to add those two new Councilmembers, between salaries and staff salaries, and the renovation costs to the council office building necessary to house Councilmembers in a manner in which they feel entitled.

They will do whatever they can to protect their power.

PP is a sore loser^^^ That ballot measure passed in 2020, 62.5% to 37.5% (298,167 for; 179,196 against). Whereas the referendum question getting rid of the at-large representatives lost, 42.5% to 57.5% (201,737 for; 273,112 against).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The Silver Spring/Takoma Park contingent will protect itself no matter what. That's why Evan Glass proposed the referendum question expanding Council to 11 members, to counter the referendum question making all Councilmembers district representatives. It's costing the County taxpayers millions to add those two new Councilmembers, between salaries and staff salaries, and the renovation costs to the council office building necessary to house Councilmembers in a manner in which they feel entitled.

They will do whatever they can to protect their power.

PP is a sore loser^^^ That ballot measure passed in 2020, 62.5% to 37.5% (298,167 for; 179,196 against). Whereas the referendum question getting rid of the at-large representatives lost, 42.5% to 57.5% (201,737 for; 273,112 against).

Did you really just go and look up county referendum results to do a na-na routine on an anonymous message board?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The Silver Spring/Takoma Park contingent will protect itself no matter what. That's why Evan Glass proposed the referendum question expanding Council to 11 members, to counter the referendum question making all Councilmembers district representatives. It's costing the County taxpayers millions to add those two new Councilmembers, between salaries and staff salaries, and the renovation costs to the council office building necessary to house Councilmembers in a manner in which they feel entitled.

They will do whatever they can to protect their power.

PP is a sore loser^^^ That ballot measure passed in 2020, 62.5% to 37.5% (298,167 for; 179,196 against). Whereas the referendum question getting rid of the at-large representatives lost, 42.5% to 57.5% (201,737 for; 273,112 against).

Did you really just go and look up county referendum results to do a na-na routine on an anonymous message board?

No, I looked up county referendum results because I was curious about the results.

Why do people keep whining on anonymous message boards about the "Silver Spring/Takoma Park contingent"? The issues are:

1. Upcounty voter turnout is low
2. More people live downcounty than upcounty
3. Upcounty candidates have not had messages/campaigns that appeal to downcounty voters

Whining on anonymous message boards won't change anything about any of those 3 issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only way to end it is to vote out the county council and county executive. The county council is one giant echo chamber with one lemming idea after another. County executive just hasn't gotten anything done, which is part of why people elected him I think - a status quo candidate. It's been years of suboptimal growth, and I don't know why we keep voting for these losers to continue to suboptimal growth.

We also need to fix the primary system. Basically whoever wins the primary wins the general election, and you can win the primary with less than 30% of the vote...so stupid. They need to send the top two vote-getters to a run-off so you don't have candidates who never stood a chance siphoning votes away from the top candidates.

How can we end something that doesn't exist in the first place?

Again, semantics. I really wish people would stop calling it socialism because people start arguing how it is/is not socialism. Whatever it is, it's just ineffective government, inefficient government, irresponsible spending (yay we get two more people on the county council likely with nothing original to say), and not creating an environment that's competitive with DC or other surrounding jurisdictions. I don't understand the status quo folks. If you're not moving forward, then you're moving backwards, because everyone else is not content with standing pat.

I absolutely agree with this.

Basically since the financial crisis (and actually even a little bit before), this county has been horribly mismanaged. Run into the ground by people who seem to prefer posturing over the hard work of governing. People who think that subsidizing developers is economic development. People who love to talk about how rich we are as a reason why we can afford their pet cause, while we gradually get poorer and poorer. Adjusted for inflation, median household income in 2016 was lower than it was in 1989. That’s a real accomplishment.

What worries me the most is that after finally removing the ossified cadre of mediocre electeds who prioritized their own longevity in office over the county. We have only replaced them with what mostly seem to be unserious clowns (excepting Friedson) who have seemingly confused good governance with maximizing engagement on social media.

I find the politics of this county to be absolutely childish. Spending 100% of the time trying to figure out how to increase the number of poor residents while totally disinterested in trying to figure out how to improve the number of high wage jobs and make the county more attractive to high wage earners. There is a blasé attitude about wealth and economic growth that borders on arrogance.

Could not have said it better myself. Especially in the part I highlighted. FARMS have skyrocketed over the past 20 years and then politicians complain about school budgets. Why have FARMS skyrocketed and massive food lines sprung up all over the county during the pandemic? Everyone knows the answer, but no one wants to admit that the County Council and the activist groups they obediently serve created these problems while also pretending they don't exist.

But they will spend more attention to trying to turn every road in the county into a bike lane that only an infinitesimal amount of people actually use.

So much mismanagement of revenue. When people continually see their tax dollars being squandered on purple line train wrecks and pet projects for interest groups, they will leave. Then it becomes harder and harder to tax OnE oF tHe RiChEsT CoUnTiEs iN tHe CoUnTRy, because in fact, MoCo has been on a downhill slide while other areas have been gaining in overall household wealth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The Silver Spring/Takoma Park contingent will protect itself no matter what. That's why Evan Glass proposed the referendum question expanding Council to 11 members, to counter the referendum question making all Councilmembers district representatives. It's costing the County taxpayers millions to add those two new Councilmembers, between salaries and staff salaries, and the renovation costs to the council office building necessary to house Councilmembers in a manner in which they feel entitled.

They will do whatever they can to protect their power.

PP is a sore loser^^^ That ballot measure passed in 2020, 62.5% to 37.5% (298,167 for; 179,196 against). Whereas the referendum question getting rid of the at-large representatives lost, 42.5% to 57.5% (201,737 for; 273,112 against).

Did you really just go and look up county referendum results to do a na-na routine on an anonymous message board?

No, I looked up county referendum results because I was curious about the results.

Why do people keep whining on anonymous message boards about the "Silver Spring/Takoma Park contingent"? The issues are:

1. Upcounty voter turnout is low
2. More people live downcounty than upcounty
3. Upcounty candidates have not had messages/campaigns that appeal to downcounty voters

Whining on anonymous message boards won't change anything about any of those 3 issues.

You live a very sad and unfortunate life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The Silver Spring/Takoma Park contingent will protect itself no matter what. That's why Evan Glass proposed the referendum question expanding Council to 11 members, to counter the referendum question making all Councilmembers district representatives. It's costing the County taxpayers millions to add those two new Councilmembers, between salaries and staff salaries, and the renovation costs to the council office building necessary to house Councilmembers in a manner in which they feel entitled.

They will do whatever they can to protect their power.

PP is a sore loser^^^ That ballot measure passed in 2020, 62.5% to 37.5% (298,167 for; 179,196 against). Whereas the referendum question getting rid of the at-large representatives lost, 42.5% to 57.5% (201,737 for; 273,112 against).

Did you really just go and look up county referendum results to do a na-na routine on an anonymous message board?

No, I looked up county referendum results because I was curious about the results.

Why do people keep whining on anonymous message boards about the "Silver Spring/Takoma Park contingent"? The issues are:

1. Upcounty voter turnout is low
2. More people live downcounty than upcounty
3. Upcounty candidates have not had messages/campaigns that appeal to downcounty voters

Whining on anonymous message boards won't change anything about any of those 3 issues.

You live a very sad and unfortunate life.

As opposed to someone who makes repeated ad hominem attacks, who must have an ideal home life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only way to end it is to vote out the county council and county executive. The county council is one giant echo chamber with one lemming idea after another. County executive just hasn't gotten anything done, which is part of why people elected him I think - a status quo candidate. It's been years of suboptimal growth, and I don't know why we keep voting for these losers to continue to suboptimal growth.

We also need to fix the primary system. Basically whoever wins the primary wins the general election, and you can win the primary with less than 30% of the vote...so stupid. They need to send the top two vote-getters to a run-off so you don't have candidates who never stood a chance siphoning votes away from the top candidates.

How can we end something that doesn't exist in the first place?

Again, semantics. I really wish people would stop calling it socialism because people start arguing how it is/is not socialism. Whatever it is, it's just ineffective government, inefficient government, irresponsible spending (yay we get two more people on the county council likely with nothing original to say), and not creating an environment that's competitive with DC or other surrounding jurisdictions. I don't understand the status quo folks. If you're not moving forward, then you're moving backwards, because everyone else is not content with standing pat.

I absolutely agree with this.

Basically since the financial crisis (and actually even a little bit before), this county has been horribly mismanaged. Run into the ground by people who seem to prefer posturing over the hard work of governing. People who think that subsidizing developers is economic development. People who love to talk about how rich we are as a reason why we can afford their pet cause, while we gradually get poorer and poorer. Adjusted for inflation, median household income in 2016 was lower than it was in 1989. That’s a real accomplishment.

What worries me the most is that after finally removing the ossified cadre of mediocre electeds who prioritized their own longevity in office over the county. We have only replaced them with what mostly seem to be unserious clowns (excepting Friedson) who have seemingly confused good governance with maximizing engagement on social media.

I find the politics of this county to be absolutely childish. Spending 100% of the time trying to figure out how to increase the number of poor residents while totally disinterested in trying to figure out how to improve the number of high wage jobs and make the county more attractive to high wage earners. There is a blasé attitude about wealth and economic growth that borders on arrogance.

Could not have said it better myself. Especially in the part I highlighted. FARMS have skyrocketed over the past 20 years and then politicians complain about school budgets. Why have FARMS skyrocketed and massive food lines sprung up all over the county during the pandemic? Everyone knows the answer, but no one wants to admit that the County Council and the activist groups they obediently serve created these problems while also pretending they don't exist.

But they will spend more attention to trying to turn every road in the county into a bike lane that only an infinitesimal amount of people actually use.

So much mismanagement of revenue. When people continually see their tax dollars being squandered on purple line train wrecks and pet projects for interest groups, they will leave. Then it becomes harder and harder to tax OnE oF tHe RiChEsT CoUnTiEs iN tHe CoUnTRy, because in fact, MoCo has been on a downhill slide while other areas have been gaining in overall household wealth.

It's incredible to me that Montgomery County has the second lowest median housing costs in the region after PG County and they want to make it cheaper. Like what? There is a reason why housing in PG County is cheap. And there is a reason why it is more expensive in Arlington and Fairfax. These people don't have a clue. I am not sure what the future holds, but I am not optimistic.