What would it take for Bethesda to secede from Montgomery County?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you willing to pay a lot in taxes for this? Think about all the county services you get -- 911, fire, police, school budget, etc.. Would they have to buy out all the county owned buildings like the schools?

Bethesda residents already pay a lot in taxes, I suspect proportionally more than many other parts of the county because incomes are higher.

Good question on the school buildings. I guess one could argue that our previous taxes paid for those buildings already.

Tax rates are the same across the county. You pay more because your home value is higher. That doesn't mean you are due more services. And no, just because you all paid taxes to the county, it doesn't mean you own those schools buildings.

Right? That was about the dumbest thing I've ever read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fury over westbard is simply the wealthy not wanting to open up Bethesda to middle class or even upper middle class people. It's the worst kind of classism and economic segregation. Same sentiments and mindsets at play in the Bethesda schools and the opposition to kids from other areas of MoCo attending programs that could ultimately allow them to feed into BCC. These parents oppose it purely on the basis of classism - and yes, racism - with the pretext of overcrowding as the issue.

They like thier schools white and rich. Yes, please secede you bigoted snobs.

Speak for yourself. I'm neither white nor rich but I do think that MoCo has been engaging in development without doing appropriate studies on traffic and school enrollment. And there's no pretext on overcrowding-look at Bethesda Elementary-even with its new addition-it's been overcapacity and that's before new developments come on line from the new Bethesda Plan. You would realize that no one is making up the overcrowding issue if you had kids in public school.

I do have kids in public school - many schools in MoCo are overcrowded. That's not why parents are trying to clamp down on programs that bring kids in from other areas. It's the excuse, it's not the reason. The traffic is a BS pretext. You don't mind the high rises in DT Bethesda for rich people - you know the ones that sit atop the fancy retail stores. You do mind the ones that are open to "affordable housing".

You're completely incorrect-I mind all overcrowding--26-28 kids in a Kindergarten class is too much, whether they're the kids of 1%ers or the housekeeper who cleans their houses. So don't quit your day job, you're terrible at reading the minds of anonymous people posting on the Internet.

[Anonymous]

Would love for Bethesda to incorporate. Then those businesses and developers could work on the eastern side of the county where we need redevelopment. Hate driving to Bethesda and Rockville for everything.

[Anonymous]

My gosh there is a lot of misinformation in this thread, and yes I've read it all.

1. Schools: MCPS is a separate legal entity from the county government with its own elected board. The only relationship between MCPS and the county government is that the county council is responsible for appropriating its budget. That is it. MCPS owns all of its own land and makes its own decisions on the disposition of the land that it owns. MCPS provides education to all residents of the county, regardless of whether they live in an incorporated town/city or not. The incorporation of Bethesda will have no affect own ownership of the schools because they always have and will always be owned by MCPS unless there is a proposal to break up MCPS into smaller school districts. So no, if Bethesda decides to incorporate it will not have to buy or build any of its own schools.

2. Infrastructure & Services: as ludicrous as this may sound to people who don't live in Bethesda, our infrastructure and services are extremely poor when similarly compared to Takoma Park or Silver Spring. And that should be self-evident considering that 4 out of 8 county council members are from Takoma Park. Just drive around Sligo Ave, Dale Drive, etc in Silver Spring and then come out to Bethesda. You will notice an absurd difference.

3. Taxes: Incorporated towns and cities can decide a la carte to pick and choose which county services they want to use and which they do not, so the base level of taxes paid to the county changes as a result, depending of which county services the municipality uses and which it does not. You will therefore find, if anyone bothered to look, that the county taxes paid in Rockville, Gaithersburg and Takoma Park are very different as a result.

I personally support incorporation and feel that it should be a long-term goal, seeing that the effort will probably take some years. However, as an interim measure the county can take immediate steps to ensure people are better representing by putting a charter amendment before voters to increase the number of districts and reduce the number of at-large seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My gosh there is a lot of misinformation in this thread, and yes I've read it all.

1. Schools: MCPS is a separate legal entity from the county government with its own elected board. The only relationship between MCPS and the county government is that the county council is responsible for appropriating its budget. That is it. MCPS owns all of its own land and makes its own decisions on the disposition of the land that it owns. MCPS provides education to all residents of the county, regardless of whether they live in an incorporated town/city or not. The incorporation of Bethesda will have no affect own ownership of the schools because they always have and will always be owned by MCPS unless there is a proposal to break up MCPS into smaller school districts. So no, if Bethesda decides to incorporate it will not have to buy or build any of its own schools.

2. Infrastructure & Services: as ludicrous as this may sound to people who don't live in Bethesda, our infrastructure and services are extremely poor when similarly compared to Takoma Park or Silver Spring. And that should be self-evident considering that 4 out of 8 county council members are from Takoma Park. Just drive around Sligo Ave, Dale Drive, etc in Silver Spring and then come out to Bethesda. You will notice an absurd difference.

3. Taxes: Incorporated towns and cities can decide a la carte to pick and choose which county services they want to use and which they do not, so the base level of taxes paid to the county changes as a result, depending of which county services the municipality uses and which it does not. You will therefore find, if anyone bothered to look, that the county taxes paid in Rockville, Gaithersburg and Takoma Park are very different as a result.

I personally support incorporation and feel that it should be a long-term goal, seeing that the effort will probably take some years. However, as an interim measure the county can take immediate steps to ensure people are better representing by putting a charter amendment before voters to increase the number of districts and reduce the number of at-large seats.

What's so bad about your infrastructure?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My gosh there is a lot of misinformation in this thread, and yes I've read it all.

1. Schools: MCPS is a separate legal entity from the county government with its own elected board. The only relationship between MCPS and the county government is that the county council is responsible for appropriating its budget. That is it. MCPS owns all of its own land and makes its own decisions on the disposition of the land that it owns. MCPS provides education to all residents of the county, regardless of whether they live in an incorporated town/city or not. The incorporation of Bethesda will have no affect own ownership of the schools because they always have and will always be owned by MCPS unless there is a proposal to break up MCPS into smaller school districts. So no, if Bethesda decides to incorporate it will not have to buy or build any of its own schools.

2. Infrastructure & Services: as ludicrous as this may sound to people who don't live in Bethesda, our infrastructure and services are extremely poor when similarly compared to Takoma Park or Silver Spring. And that should be self-evident considering that 4 out of 8 county council members are from Takoma Park. Just drive around Sligo Ave, Dale Drive, etc in Silver Spring and then come out to Bethesda. You will notice an absurd difference.

3. Taxes: Incorporated towns and cities can decide a la carte to pick and choose which county services they want to use and which they do not, so the base level of taxes paid to the county changes as a result, depending of which county services the municipality uses and which it does not. You will therefore find, if anyone bothered to look, that the county taxes paid in Rockville, Gaithersburg and Takoma Park are very different as a result.

I personally support incorporation and feel that it should be a long-term goal, seeing that the effort will probably take some years. However, as an interim measure the county can take immediate steps to ensure people are better representing by putting a charter amendment before voters to increase the number of districts and reduce the number of at-large seats.

Interesting--is the charter amendment even on the table?