Montgomery County - What Happened?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest I have with Elrich's "one play playbook" of always and only raising taxes, is he makes no effort to improve the services those taxes provide.

Does anyone in Moco feel like schools are great? Roads? Policing?

It is just a relentless assault on affordability, with nothing to show for it. He never demands good government, or improved metrics to actually measure the services provided, or holds any kind of tough conversations with the unions. It's just "more, more, more" with nothing to show for it.

1. Schools aren’t the responsibility of the county executive. If you have complaints about the schools — and you definitely should — school board is the race for you.

2. All three candidates have opposed fixing the roads. That’s one place the council and Elrich have been in broad agreement. Friedson takes it a step further by pretending the private sector can develop more with no impact on infrastructure.

3. Crime is way down, so what’s the complaint exactly?

Accountability in the county government is dead. The employee unions won. But Elrich didn’t hand them that victory on his own. In fact, Friedson and Stewart just handed the unions a big victory by sponsoring a bill giving them full control over the pension fund with no accountability.

I don’t like higher taxes either but we need the revenue. Friedson made it a lot easier for taxes to be raised by leading the charter amendment a few years ago to allow revenue to automatically increase as fast as property values went up instead of having the default rates tied to growth and broad inflation. His next step was sponsoring bills to exempt his donors from paying taxes entirely.

If one of these candidates gets specific about what they’ll cut and what impact their cuts will have on tax rates, I’d happily vote for that candidate. I’m not holding my breath for that to happen because they’ve all voted for all the spending. Jawando and to a lesser extent Glass have so far been the only ones who are realistic about the budget.

My broader point was as the executive calls for (another) tax increase- do you think any of the above have improved? Is Moco better or worse?

As for schools- the executive controls the power of the purse, so he/she absolutely has a lot of the responsibility for the success for failure of MCPS.

The executive proposes a budget, which is then changed by the council. The council almost always passes the budget burger with a veto-proof majority and therefore has more control over the budget than the executive. Notably, every member of the council has supported the MCPS increases.

This race is really about rent stabilization. If Friedson wins, the landlords only need six votes to repeal this t. Meanwhile, Friedson is also delaying a committee hearing on the anti-price fixing bill, so if Friedson wins there’s a good chance tenants will have no protections a year from now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest I have with Elrich's "one play playbook" of always and only raising taxes, is he makes no effort to improve the services those taxes provide.

Does anyone in Moco feel like schools are great? Roads? Policing?

It is just a relentless assault on affordability, with nothing to show for it. He never demands good government, or improved metrics to actually measure the services provided, or holds any kind of tough conversations with the unions. It's just "more, more, more" with nothing to show for it.

1. Schools aren’t the responsibility of the county executive. If you have complaints about the schools — and you definitely should — school board is the race for you.

2. All three candidates have opposed fixing the roads. That’s one place the council and Elrich have been in broad agreement. Friedson takes it a step further by pretending the private sector can develop more with no impact on infrastructure.

3. Crime is way down, so what’s the complaint exactly?

Accountability in the county government is dead. The employee unions won. But Elrich didn’t hand them that victory on his own. In fact, Friedson and Stewart just handed the unions a big victory by sponsoring a bill giving them full control over the pension fund with no accountability.

I don’t like higher taxes either but we need the revenue. Friedson made it a lot easier for taxes to be raised by leading the charter amendment a few years ago to allow revenue to automatically increase as fast as property values went up instead of having the default rates tied to growth and broad inflation. His next step was sponsoring bills to exempt his donors from paying taxes entirely.

If one of these candidates gets specific about what they’ll cut and what impact their cuts will have on tax rates, I’d happily vote for that candidate. I’m not holding my breath for that to happen because they’ve all voted for all the spending. Jawando and to a lesser extent Glass have so far been the only ones who are realistic about the budget.

My broader point was as the executive calls for (another) tax increase- do you think any of the above have improved? Is Moco better or worse?

As for schools- the executive controls the power of the purse, so he/she absolutely has a lot of the responsibility for the success for failure of MCPS.

The executive proposes a budget, which is then changed by the council. The council almost always passes the budget burger with a veto-proof majority and therefore has more control over the budget than the executive. Notably, every member of the council has supported the MCPS increases.

This race is really about rent stabilization. If Friedson wins, the landlords only need six votes to repeal this t. Meanwhile, Friedson is also delaying a committee hearing on the anti-price fixing bill, so if Friedson wins there’s a good chance tenants will have no protections a year from now.

I think the election is about way more than that one issue- but rent stabilization has already proven to be an awful law in Moco as new unit construction is WAY down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest I have with Elrich's "one play playbook" of always and only raising taxes, is he makes no effort to improve the services those taxes provide.

Does anyone in Moco feel like schools are great? Roads? Policing?

It is just a relentless assault on affordability, with nothing to show for it. He never demands good government, or improved metrics to actually measure the services provided, or holds any kind of tough conversations with the unions. It's just "more, more, more" with nothing to show for it.

1. Schools aren’t the responsibility of the county executive. If you have complaints about the schools — and you definitely should — school board is the race for you.

2. All three candidates have opposed fixing the roads. That’s one place the council and Elrich have been in broad agreement. Friedson takes it a step further by pretending the private sector can develop more with no impact on infrastructure.

3. Crime is way down, so what’s the complaint exactly?

Accountability in the county government is dead. The employee unions won. But Elrich didn’t hand them that victory on his own. In fact, Friedson and Stewart just handed the unions a big victory by sponsoring a bill giving them full control over the pension fund with no accountability.

I don’t like higher taxes either but we need the revenue. Friedson made it a lot easier for taxes to be raised by leading the charter amendment a few years ago to allow revenue to automatically increase as fast as property values went up instead of having the default rates tied to growth and broad inflation. His next step was sponsoring bills to exempt his donors from paying taxes entirely.

If one of these candidates gets specific about what they’ll cut and what impact their cuts will have on tax rates, I’d happily vote for that candidate. I’m not holding my breath for that to happen because they’ve all voted for all the spending. Jawando and to a lesser extent Glass have so far been the only ones who are realistic about the budget.

My broader point was as the executive calls for (another) tax increase- do you think any of the above have improved? Is Moco better or worse?

As for schools- the executive controls the power of the purse, so he/she absolutely has a lot of the responsibility for the success for failure of MCPS.

The executive proposes a budget, which is then changed by the council. The council almost always passes the budget burger with a veto-proof majority and therefore has more control over the budget than the executive. Notably, every member of the council has supported the MCPS increases.

This race is really about rent stabilization. If Friedson wins, the landlords only need six votes to repeal this t. Meanwhile, Friedson is also delaying a committee hearing on the anti-price fixing bill, so if Friedson wins there’s a good chance tenants will have no protections a year from now.

I think the election is about way more than that one issue- but rent stabilization has already proven to be an awful law in Moco as new unit construction is WAY down.

You’re right. It is about more than rent stabilization. Developers are also counting on Friedson to keep the subsidies running and eviscerate the county’s inclusionary zoning law.

Rent stabilization is not the reason construction is down. Construction is down because rents are down and vacancy is up. In the months immediately following the passage of the rent stabilization law, new building starts went up, not down. Construction stopped when Trump won and made clear he was going to slash federal jobs.

Also, rents are down! Why isn’t everyone celebrating that? That was supposedly a major goal of the county’s housing policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest I have with Elrich's "one play playbook" of always and only raising taxes, is he makes no effort to improve the services those taxes provide.

Does anyone in Moco feel like schools are great? Roads? Policing?

It is just a relentless assault on affordability, with nothing to show for it. He never demands good government, or improved metrics to actually measure the services provided, or holds any kind of tough conversations with the unions. It's just "more, more, more" with nothing to show for it.

1. Schools aren’t the responsibility of the county executive. If you have complaints about the schools — and you definitely should — school board is the race for you.

2. All three candidates have opposed fixing the roads. That’s one place the council and Elrich have been in broad agreement. Friedson takes it a step further by pretending the private sector can develop more with no impact on infrastructure.

3. Crime is way down, so what’s the complaint exactly?

Accountability in the county government is dead. The employee unions won. But Elrich didn’t hand them that victory on his own. In fact, Friedson and Stewart just handed the unions a big victory by sponsoring a bill giving them full control over the pension fund with no accountability.

I don’t like higher taxes either but we need the revenue. Friedson made it a lot easier for taxes to be raised by leading the charter amendment a few years ago to allow revenue to automatically increase as fast as property values went up instead of having the default rates tied to growth and broad inflation. His next step was sponsoring bills to exempt his donors from paying taxes entirely.

If one of these candidates gets specific about what they’ll cut and what impact their cuts will have on tax rates, I’d happily vote for that candidate. I’m not holding my breath for that to happen because they’ve all voted for all the spending. Jawando and to a lesser extent Glass have so far been the only ones who are realistic about the budget.

My broader point was as the executive calls for (another) tax increase- do you think any of the above have improved? Is Moco better or worse?

As for schools- the executive controls the power of the purse, so he/she absolutely has a lot of the responsibility for the success for failure of MCPS.

The executive proposes a budget, which is then changed by the council. The council almost always passes the budget burger with a veto-proof majority and therefore has more control over the budget than the executive. Notably, every member of the council has supported the MCPS increases.

This race is really about rent stabilization. If Friedson wins, the landlords only need six votes to repeal this t. Meanwhile, Friedson is also delaying a committee hearing on the anti-price fixing bill, so if Friedson wins there’s a good chance tenants will have no protections a year from now.

I think the election is about way more than that one issue- but rent stabilization has already proven to be an awful law in Moco as new unit construction is WAY down.

You’re right. It is about more than rent stabilization. Developers are also counting on Friedson to keep the subsidies running and eviscerate the county’s inclusionary zoning law.

Rent stabilization is not the reason construction is down. Construction is down because rents are down and vacancy is up. In the months immediately following the passage of the rent stabilization law, new building starts went up, not down. Construction stopped when Trump won and made clear he was going to slash federal jobs.

Also, rents are down! Why isn’t everyone celebrating that? That was supposedly a major goal of the county’s housing policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest I have with Elrich's "one play playbook" of always and only raising taxes, is he makes no effort to improve the services those taxes provide.

Does anyone in Moco feel like schools are great? Roads? Policing?

It is just a relentless assault on affordability, with nothing to show for it. He never demands good government, or improved metrics to actually measure the services provided, or holds any kind of tough conversations with the unions. It's just "more, more, more" with nothing to show for it.

1. Schools aren’t the responsibility of the county executive. If you have complaints about the schools — and you definitely should — school board is the race for you.

2. All three candidates have opposed fixing the roads. That’s one place the council and Elrich have been in broad agreement. Friedson takes it a step further by pretending the private sector can develop more with no impact on infrastructure.

3. Crime is way down, so what’s the complaint exactly?

Accountability in the county government is dead. The employee unions won. But Elrich didn’t hand them that victory on his own. In fact, Friedson and Stewart just handed the unions a big victory by sponsoring a bill giving them full control over the pension fund with no accountability.

I don’t like higher taxes either but we need the revenue. Friedson made it a lot easier for taxes to be raised by leading the charter amendment a few years ago to allow revenue to automatically increase as fast as property values went up instead of having the default rates tied to growth and broad inflation. His next step was sponsoring bills to exempt his donors from paying taxes entirely.

If one of these candidates gets specific about what they’ll cut and what impact their cuts will have on tax rates, I’d happily vote for that candidate. I’m not holding my breath for that to happen because they’ve all voted for all the spending. Jawando and to a lesser extent Glass have so far been the only ones who are realistic about the budget.

My broader point was as the executive calls for (another) tax increase- do you think any of the above have improved? Is Moco better or worse?

As for schools- the executive controls the power of the purse, so he/she absolutely has a lot of the responsibility for the success for failure of MCPS.

The executive proposes a budget, which is then changed by the council. The council almost always passes the budget burger with a veto-proof majority and therefore has more control over the budget than the executive. Notably, every member of the council has supported the MCPS increases.

This race is really about rent stabilization. If Friedson wins, the landlords only need six votes to repeal this t. Meanwhile, Friedson is also delaying a committee hearing on the anti-price fixing bill, so if Friedson wins there’s a good chance tenants will have no protections a year from now.

How is it about rent stabilization? Most people in the county don't rent.

it's very hard to change the CE's recommended budget in any substantive way. When he builds a budget on a tax increase, the entire budget has to be dismantled in a matter of weeks and rebuilt. CE had 9 months to put it together and the council has 2 months to fix and approve something. Again, this is why he should have at least tried to be collaborative and get some buy-in from Council before crafting the epic disaster he sent across the street.

And Friedson is not delaying Bill 8-26. ?? Jawando waited until February to introduce it. And then they have to wait at least 2 weeks (and usually 3) for a mandatory public hearing. Public hearing was scheduled for March 10, four weeks later. Perhaps a slight delay. I think there was a reess in there somewhere though. But Friedson has no control over that.

But that was right before budget. They all know that (with this year's exeption for immigration legislation) no bills get committee review until after budget. It has been like that for years. Again, not something Friedson has any control over. The council president maybe.

If they had some backbone, they'd disapprove all the union contract provisions that cost money, like compensation increases.

They'd make maintenance of effort a ceiling and not a floor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest I have with Elrich's "one play playbook" of always and only raising taxes, is he makes no effort to improve the services those taxes provide.

Does anyone in Moco feel like schools are great? Roads? Policing?

It is just a relentless assault on affordability, with nothing to show for it. He never demands good government, or improved metrics to actually measure the services provided, or holds any kind of tough conversations with the unions. It's just "more, more, more" with nothing to show for it.

1. Schools aren’t the responsibility of the county executive. If you have complaints about the schools — and you definitely should — school board is the race for you.

2. All three candidates have opposed fixing the roads. That’s one place the council and Elrich have been in broad agreement. Friedson takes it a step further by pretending the private sector can develop more with no impact on infrastructure.

3. Crime is way down, so what’s the complaint exactly?

Accountability in the county government is dead. The employee unions won. But Elrich didn’t hand them that victory on his own. In fact, Friedson and Stewart just handed the unions a big victory by sponsoring a bill giving them full control over the pension fund with no accountability.

I don’t like higher taxes either but we need the revenue. Friedson made it a lot easier for taxes to be raised by leading the charter amendment a few years ago to allow revenue to automatically increase as fast as property values went up instead of having the default rates tied to growth and broad inflation. His next step was sponsoring bills to exempt his donors from paying taxes entirely.

If one of these candidates gets specific about what they’ll cut and what impact their cuts will have on tax rates, I’d happily vote for that candidate. I’m not holding my breath for that to happen because they’ve all voted for all the spending. Jawando and to a lesser extent Glass have so far been the only ones who are realistic about the budget.

My broader point was as the executive calls for (another) tax increase- do you think any of the above have improved? Is Moco better or worse?

As for schools- the executive controls the power of the purse, so he/she absolutely has a lot of the responsibility for the success for failure of MCPS.

The executive proposes a budget, which is then changed by the council. The council almost always passes the budget burger with a veto-proof majority and therefore has more control over the budget than the executive. Notably, every member of the council has supported the MCPS increases.

This race is really about rent stabilization. If Friedson wins, the landlords only need six votes to repeal this t. Meanwhile, Friedson is also delaying a committee hearing on the anti-price fixing bill, so if Friedson wins there’s a good chance tenants will have no protections a year from now.

How is it about rent stabilization? Most people in the county don't rent.

it's very hard to change the CE's recommended budget in any substantive way. When he builds a budget on a tax increase, the entire budget has to be dismantled in a matter of weeks and rebuilt. CE had 9 months to put it together and the council has 2 months to fix and approve something. Again, this is why he should have at least tried to be collaborative and get some buy-in from Council before crafting the epic disaster he sent across the street.

And Friedson is not delaying Bill 8-26. ?? Jawando waited until February to introduce it. And then they have to wait at least 2 weeks (and usually 3) for a mandatory public hearing. Public hearing was scheduled for March 10, four weeks later. Perhaps a slight delay. I think there was a reess in there somewhere though. But Friedson has no control over that.

But that was right before budget. They all know that (with this year's exeption for immigration legislation) no bills get committee review until after budget. It has been like that for years. Again, not something Friedson has any control over. The council president maybe.

If they had some backbone, they'd disapprove all the union contract provisions that cost money, like compensation increases.

They'd make maintenance of effort a ceiling and not a floor.

Friedson has voted for all the compensation increases. That’s the structural deficit right there. He also supported using reserves to cover operating expenses. His record and rhetoric don’t match.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest I have with Elrich's "one play playbook" of always and only raising taxes, is he makes no effort to improve the services those taxes provide.

Does anyone in Moco feel like schools are great? Roads? Policing?

It is just a relentless assault on affordability, with nothing to show for it. He never demands good government, or improved metrics to actually measure the services provided, or holds any kind of tough conversations with the unions. It's just "more, more, more" with nothing to show for it.

1. Schools aren’t the responsibility of the county executive. If you have complaints about the schools — and you definitely should — school board is the race for you.

2. All three candidates have opposed fixing the roads. That’s one place the council and Elrich have been in broad agreement. Friedson takes it a step further by pretending the private sector can develop more with no impact on infrastructure.

3. Crime is way down, so what’s the complaint exactly?

Accountability in the county government is dead. The employee unions won. But Elrich didn’t hand them that victory on his own. In fact, Friedson and Stewart just handed the unions a big victory by sponsoring a bill giving them full control over the pension fund with no accountability.

I don’t like higher taxes either but we need the revenue. Friedson made it a lot easier for taxes to be raised by leading the charter amendment a few years ago to allow revenue to automatically increase as fast as property values went up instead of having the default rates tied to growth and broad inflation. His next step was sponsoring bills to exempt his donors from paying taxes entirely.

If one of these candidates gets specific about what they’ll cut and what impact their cuts will have on tax rates, I’d happily vote for that candidate. I’m not holding my breath for that to happen because they’ve all voted for all the spending. Jawando and to a lesser extent Glass have so far been the only ones who are realistic about the budget.

My broader point was as the executive calls for (another) tax increase- do you think any of the above have improved? Is Moco better or worse?

As for schools- the executive controls the power of the purse, so he/she absolutely has a lot of the responsibility for the success for failure of MCPS.

DP. Not exactly. The Superintendent makes a recommendation to the Board of Ed. The BOE basically rubber stamps that -- they can make changes, but rarely do (at least they rarely do for anything of consequence).

This BOE request is then presented to the County Exec for inclusion in their recommended budget for the whole county. The CE recommended budget can include that total amount requested by the BOE or less (or more, at least theoretically). That CE-recommended budget goes to the County Council for approval/funding, and the Council can make it's own decisions on the total for MCPS.

The CE or Council can object to something and "take it out" by under-requesting/under-funding to the tune of the specific amount of a line item, but they can't strike the line item, itself. The BOE would simply know that that was the CE or Council's intent, but they could decide to re-allocate from other things. E.g., if the Council didn't want to fund $5M for Chromebooks, they could reduce funding for MCPS by that amount in comparison to the requested amount, but the BOE could then decide to move $5M from, say, athletics and buy Chromebooks anyway.

If they do that, though, they would set up a more contentious relationship with those who approve funding. Usually what happens is that the CE or Council says the request is too much, maybe signaling some particular items they don't favor, and then asks the BOE to suggest "non-recommended reductions" (i.e., what the BOE/MCPS would live without if funding were to be below the request by a certain amount) prior to their final decision on budget recommendation/final funding.

Of course, it's MCPS who then suggests those non-recommended reductions for the BOE to rubber stamp in a reply. The system is supposed to be such that there are checks and balances, but the reality is that there is diffusion of accountability across the BOE, CE and Council, with so much finger pointing that citizen stakeholders can't effectively advocate, much less vote in change (made all the harder by the hegemony that is MoCo) and with MCPS administration largely making the decisions.

Even the BOE is so limited in their time/allowed activity and so bereft of ability to demand meaningful data with which they might make alternate plans that the rubber stamp is close to all they could do, even if they wanted to make changes. The other option would be to really upset the apple cart/bring things to a halt -- good luck getting a majority there, especially with staggered terms and whole-of-county voting for each seat (including districted seats, unlike County Council). They are also constrained by the allowances of the MD state BOE/Dept. of Ed, under whose auspices they operate.

All that said, the CE and Council don't get too deep into the weeds of MCPS operations except for the top-line number and a few headline-type items that play politically. You see this when they do talk about schools in committee or in full session -- there's a good amount they don't understand compared to, say, MCCPTA leaders who try to pay attention to the BOE meetings.

To the prior PP's point, I'd love to know what each CE candidate (and any Council candidates) would give up/cut to better fund schools instead of raising taxes, but I doubt we'll get any kind of answer there -- it's all political downside if they provide one.

[Anonymous]

Isn't cheaper to replace county employees with contractors to decrease the budget. I see soo many county employees sleeping while in a county vehicle, bus, or dump truck parked while the vehicle is still running. Wasting our tax dollars. Contract some of this work out and safe some money.

[Anonymous]

You know you can never rely on this public utility WSSC. They said they are coming today Friday and they didn't show up. You think they would call and say so. I called at eleven am this morning and they said it would be Monday instead of today which is Friday. They hire these minority contractors because they have the cheapest prices doing the work and their work is terrible. They say they are coming one day, so you cancel your day for them, take off work, and they don't show up. They don't even call. Then when you call them, they make up an excuse like they had an emergency or the truck broke down. It amazes me that a utility company tolerates this crap.

[Anonymous]

They have fired the meter reader that read our meter. Some how he mis reads it and we get a bill for 8K and 10K. Then when they investigated they found out the meter reader was messing up and fired him.

[Anonymous]

I guess every utility has some bad apples or bad contractors.

[Anonymous]

I'm seeing a lot of people in Montgomery County with Virginia tags. I notice they are bad drivers too. Speed and cut people off. Could these people be residents that have their cars tagged in Virginia to avoid tickets they get in Montgomery County?

[Anonymous]

I've seen a guy with West Virginia tags everyday at the coffee shop. I've seen some Florida tags too but someone said they could be a rental.

[Anonymous]

I went to the drive in atm machine at Bank of America to get some cash in Montgomery County. As soon as the cash came out, a man came up to the car and said "excuse me, I'm trying to catch the metro and need some spare change". I told him, " meet me around front". I drove around front and kept on going. This joker has been arrested so many times at this bank in early morning hours he never spends time in jail. They arrest him and let him go. Every time. He has a different story every time. This has been going on for at least ten years. Last time he said he locked his keys in his car and needs cash to catch the metro to go home to get the spare set of keys. The time before that. He forgot his wallet and wanted to buy breakfast at McDonalds next door. The time before that he said his wife is in the hospital and he needs gas money to go see her. The police care but their hands must be tied. The police said , "just say no" to the person. But ,he approaches you in your face. That to me is attempted robbery. Arrest him for loitering. You tell the bank, which they use to have a guard outside and they say yeah we know about him. Well do something or I'll bank elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've seen a guy with West Virginia tags everyday at the coffee shop. I've seen some Florida tags too but someone said they could be a rental.

Firefighter maybe? Almost none of them live in the county