New MOCo Planning report released

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will need to be a combination of cuts and tax increases. If you look at the report, the data on age concentration and income is scary. The area around Potomac/Bethesda just past the Beltway near River Road has the highest incomes and the aging populations. If a number of those people move into retirement from their senior high income positions there is an immediate drop in revenue. From the retired population, if they start to move their residency to Florida then there is a huge drop. They won't be selling their home so there will not be a new replacement family coming in but the income will be gone for MoCo.

MCPS isn't doing the county any favors either. All the talk of changing the boundaries, breaking up the W schools, diluting magnets, and bussing kids is scaring off new professionals from buying in MoCo.

Additional taxes in MoCo is exactly what MoCo should not do. If you are retired and wealthy, you would be an idiot to remain in MoCo. Increasing taxes in the midst of an economic simply reflects the failure to be realistic and budget appropriately. MoCo leaders must make more budget cuts, radical ones. MoCo already has the highest tax burden in the DMV.

WRONG!!!!!


If you can’t justify raising taxes in a wealthy county during a booming economy (thank you President Obama) then WHEN and WHERE CAN you raise them!?!?

Stop with the chamber of commerce republican talking points. County taxes need to go up. A LOT. Double would be a good start. Triple would be even better. There’s just too much at stake not to raise them. Economic justice depends on leveling the playing field, and the best way to do that is by having those with more, pay more, so that those with less, can also have more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will need to be a combination of cuts and tax increases. If you look at the report, the data on age concentration and income is scary. The area around Potomac/Bethesda just past the Beltway near River Road has the highest incomes and the aging populations. If a number of those people move into retirement from their senior high income positions there is an immediate drop in revenue. From the retired population, if they start to move their residency to Florida then there is a huge drop. They won't be selling their home so there will not be a new replacement family coming in but the income will be gone for MoCo.

MCPS isn't doing the county any favors either. All the talk of changing the boundaries, breaking up the W schools, diluting magnets, and bussing kids is scaring off new professionals from buying in MoCo.

Additional taxes in MoCo is exactly what MoCo should not do. If you are retired and wealthy, you would be an idiot to remain in MoCo. Increasing taxes in the midst of an economic simply reflects the failure to be realistic and budget appropriately. MoCo leaders must make more budget cuts, radical ones. MoCo already has the highest tax burden in the DMV.

WRONG!!!!!


If you can’t justify raising taxes in a wealthy county during a booming economy (thank you President Obama) then WHEN and WHERE CAN you raise them!?!?

Stop with the chamber of commerce republican talking points. County taxes need to go up. A LOT. Double would be a good start. Triple would be even better. There’s just too much at stake not to raise them. Economic justice depends on leveling the playing field, and the best way to do that is by having those with more, pay more, so that those with less, can also have more.

Many of the people you are advocating raising taxes on are not wealthy . They are middle class people struggling to pay off house and student loans, send their kids to college, support a SN child and an elderly relative and pay their crazy high taxes. Your presumption that we are all wealthy is ignorant and short sighted.
Raising funds via a better business climate in the county and a reduction in spending and costs is in order.

It’s nice that you are rich - whoopie for you - but most of the rest of the county (people outside your neighborhood) is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will need to be a combination of cuts and tax increases. If you look at the report, the data on age concentration and income is scary. The area around Potomac/Bethesda just past the Beltway near River Road has the highest incomes and the aging populations. If a number of those people move into retirement from their senior high income positions there is an immediate drop in revenue. From the retired population, if they start to move their residency to Florida then there is a huge drop. They won't be selling their home so there will not be a new replacement family coming in but the income will be gone for MoCo.

MCPS isn't doing the county any favors either. All the talk of changing the boundaries, breaking up the W schools, diluting magnets, and bussing kids is scaring off new professionals from buying in MoCo.

Additional taxes in MoCo is exactly what MoCo should not do. If you are retired and wealthy, you would be an idiot to remain in MoCo. Increasing taxes in the midst of an economic simply reflects the failure to be realistic and budget appropriately. MoCo leaders must make more budget cuts, radical ones. MoCo already has the highest tax burden in the DMV.

WRONG!!!!!


If you can’t justify raising taxes in a wealthy county during a booming economy (thank you President Obama) then WHEN and WHERE CAN you raise them!?!?

Stop with the chamber of commerce republican talking points. County taxes need to go up. A LOT. Double would be a good start. Triple would be even better. There’s just too much at stake not to raise them. Economic justice depends on leveling the playing field, and the best way to do that is by having those with more, pay more, so that those with less, can also have more.

Go ahead and double the County taxes. You will see upper income people fleeing MC. BTW. I am a Democrat, life long. This Country is NOT about equal outcomes, but about equal opportunity. Big difference. You do not get more just because you want it. No one does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a mature economy. It’s reached its plateau. That’s not a bad thing.

Compared to PG, we’re not even in the same scale. Of course PG would show growth. They’ve got nowhere to go BUT up. Who knows, maybe in a few hundred years, they might catch up to us.

Maybe.

Mature economies (whatever that means) still grow. The growth in County income taxes has averaged roughly 0.6% a year over the last 10 years or so, during a good economy. Pretty pathetic. What is going to happen when (not if) the economy turns south. If MC is a mature economy, it certainly needs to reinvent itself. Drive down Rockville Pike. Countless empty store fronts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will need to be a combination of cuts and tax increases. If you look at the report, the data on age concentration and income is scary. The area around Potomac/Bethesda just past the Beltway near River Road has the highest incomes and the aging populations. If a number of those people move into retirement from their senior high income positions there is an immediate drop in revenue. From the retired population, if they start to move their residency to Florida then there is a huge drop. They won't be selling their home so there will not be a new replacement family coming in but the income will be gone for MoCo.

MCPS isn't doing the county any favors either. All the talk of changing the boundaries, breaking up the W schools, diluting magnets, and bussing kids is scaring off new professionals from buying in MoCo.

Additional taxes in MoCo is exactly what MoCo should not do. If you are retired and wealthy, you would be an idiot to remain in MoCo. Increasing taxes in the midst of an economic simply reflects the failure to be realistic and budget appropriately. MoCo leaders must make more budget cuts, radical ones. MoCo already has the highest tax burden in the DMV.

WRONG!!!!!


If you can’t justify raising taxes in a wealthy county during a booming economy (thank you President Obama) then WHEN and WHERE CAN you raise them!?!?

Stop with the chamber of commerce republican talking points. County taxes need to go up. A LOT. Double would be a good start. Triple would be even better. There’s just too much at stake not to raise them. Economic justice depends on leveling the playing field, and the best way to do that is by having those with more, pay more, so that those with less, can also have more.

No doubt, you would advocate for raising taxes during a recession as well as during a booming economy. Great economic model. Tax, tax, always tax. Economic justice means creating more well paid jobs for more people. Increasing taxes does not further that goal.

[Anonymous]

In a booming economy, there should be enough income tax and property tax coming in to fund whatever we need to fund

The idea of having to raise taxes in a time like this just shows the county is run by stupid people

That's crazy that Riemers chief admin officer makes 280k. Source?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In a booming economy, there should be enough income tax and property tax coming in to fund whatever we need to fund

The idea of having to raise taxes in a time like this just shows the county is run by stupid people

That's crazy that Riemers chief admin officer makes 280k. Source?

Elrich. Not Reimer.

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/col/2018/20181211/20181211_4.pdf

[Anonymous]

Thanks

[Anonymous]

MoCo has a high average income only because it has lots of individuals making $100 to $200K a year. Wealthy obviously but not super rich. Other wealthy jurisdictions are very different, whether Silicon Valley and NYC.

[Anonymous]

MoCo has a high average income only because it has lots of individuals making $100 to $200K a year. Wealthy obviously but not super rich. Other wealthy jurisdictions are very different, whether Silicon Valley and NYC.

MoCo is nowhere near some of the major income areas but neither are most areas in the DMV. MoCo does have a concentration of high income earners identified in the report as living between Bethesda/CC and Potomac/Traviliah. This groups makes over 250K and has seen the largest income growth. The individuals making 100K-200K are the next big bucket of tax revenue. Their income growth has been relatively flat.

Property taxes are another source of revenue but the report identifies that in MoCo much of the value growth has been pre-2007. In contrast, surrounding areas in the DMV had similar rapid value growth up until 2007 and have surpassed it. So as MoCo's spending, debt service and costs have rose between 2007-2016 -there was no real correlating property tax revenue increase which results in an operating loss.

If the income is stagnant, the property values stagnant since 2007 levels, no business revenue and debt service, operating costs and spending increases -there is a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

MoCo has a high average income only because it has lots of individuals making $100 to $200K a year. Wealthy obviously but not super rich. Other wealthy jurisdictions are very different, whether Silicon Valley and NYC.

MoCo is nowhere near some of the major income areas but neither are most areas in the DMV. MoCo does have a concentration of high income earners identified in the report as living between Bethesda/CC and Potomac/Traviliah. This groups makes over 250K and has seen the largest income growth. The individuals making 100K-200K are the next big bucket of tax revenue. Their income growth has been relatively flat.

Property taxes are another source of revenue but the report identifies that in MoCo much of the value growth has been pre-2007. In contrast, surrounding areas in the DMV had similar rapid value growth up until 2007 and have surpassed it. So as MoCo's spending, debt service and costs have rose between 2007-2016 -there was no real correlating property tax revenue increase which results in an operating loss.

If the income is stagnant, the property values stagnant since 2007 levels, no business revenue and debt service, operating costs and spending increases -there is a problem.

Agree. MoCo's solution is to tax more, which simply reflects incompetence and an anti-business climate. Jobs start with the private sector, not govt. If you want to reduce income inequality, you need more better jobs, not more taxes. No real growth in income, and no real growth in property values, says it all. Stagnation during a good economy. Incompetence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://aminerdetail.com/new-report-paints-devastating-economic-outlook-for-montgomery-county/

Report certainly destroys the illusion that Montgomery County is doing well. I am a Democrat and County resident. I find the current political leadership appalling. The County has budget issues, and all the County wants to do is to tax more. It already has one of the highest tax burdens in the region. More taxes will simply drive upper income residents out of the County. Close-in County residents will move across the border to DC, with its lower tax burden. Upper upper income folks will move to second homes in Florida or elsewhere. County is attracting low income residents, while turning away high income residents. Note very low growth in income tax revenues. Great economic model. Our region has boomed over the last 10 plus years. Tax revenues should be up. But not in the County. What happens when the likely recession occurs in the next few years. The County's political leadership is clueless.

Agree with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
MoCo has a high average income only because it has lots of individuals making $100 to $200K a year. Wealthy obviously but not super rich. Other wealthy jurisdictions are very different, whether Silicon Valley and NYC.

And those people are the exact ones who aren’t paying their fair share in taxes. If you’re earning over $150K a year, you need to be in a top marginal rate of 90% or more.

You can earn whatever you want. But you’re only keeping $150k. The rest is going to go to the people who need it.

[Anonymous]

Laughing that you all keep thinking there are going to be tax increases. When the Council raised taxes for the first time in nine years two years ago, they all got voted off. Do you really believe the new council would raise taxes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
MoCo has a high average income only because it has lots of individuals making $100 to $200K a year. Wealthy obviously but not super rich. Other wealthy jurisdictions are very different, whether Silicon Valley and NYC.

And those people are the exact ones who aren’t paying their fair share in taxes. If you’re earning over $150K a year, you need to be in a top marginal rate of 90% or more.

You can earn whatever you want. But you’re only keeping $150k. The rest is going to go to the people who need it.

Yes, they are paying their fair share. Sorry. You do not improve incomes by chasing away the rich. If your mentality prevails in MC, you will see thousands (minimum) of professionals fleeing MC, and certainly me. MC already has the highest tax burden in the region. MC must encourage the private sector to grow.