How do we end Montgomery County socialism?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

This is such a strange thread ... It reminds me of watching cable news ... just a bunch of shouting heads and aphorisms and little spoon-size bits of actual news.

I've lived all over MoCo ... Damascus, Silver Spring, Potomac and Chevy Chase ... and been happy living here, and I'm a moderate/liberal Dem who works for a Fortune 500 company.

I'll admit I'm not steeped in local politics, and appreciate the bits of argument about actual issues, whether its public transportation, tax rates, affordable housing or other topics ... but the hyperbolic "it's all going to hell" rhetoric just sounds like bar stool philosophy.

[Anonymous]

I imagine at least one of the "anti socialists" on this thread was the person in the white Lexus SUV who shook their fist at me in my old Toyota with one liberal bumper sticker, and tried to run me off the road in Moco, along with their klassy Trump bumper stickers and REOPEN MARYLAND in not insane (/s) all caps masking tape in their back window. Sigh. Such sane people.

[Anonymous]

You can't.

MoCo residents are dumb. They'll constantly vote in far left wing morons to be county exec and on the council. MoCo is screwed. Jobs and business killing left wingers will always be in control. Dumb voters who's only solution are to raise taxes because they entitlement syndrome for everything are a permanent fixture. You're only recourse is to get the hell out before it is too late and MoCo becomes like a mini Illinois with massive debt problems.

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can't.

MoCo residents are dumb. They'll constantly vote in far left wing morons to be county exec and on the council. MoCo is screwed. Jobs and business killing left wingers will always be in control. Dumb voters who's only solution are to raise taxes because they entitlement syndrome for everything are a permanent fixture. You're only recourse is to get the hell out before it is too late and MoCo becomes like a mini Illinois with massive debt problems.

Who is far left wing, and what have they implemented that is far left?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can't.

MoCo residents are dumb. They'll constantly vote in far left wing morons to be county exec and on the council. MoCo is screwed. Jobs and business killing left wingers will always be in control. Dumb voters who's only solution are to raise taxes because they entitlement syndrome for everything are a permanent fixture. You're only recourse is to get the hell out before it is too late and MoCo becomes like a mini Illinois with massive debt problems.

Who is far left wing, and what have they implemented that is far left?

Bag tax, tree tax, rain tax.

Or there's the left-wing list of every possible social support:
Increased unemployment benefits, increased earned income tax credit, rent support, eviction moratorium, $15 minimum wage. Taken on their own, each is fine, but altogether it becomes massive handouts -- too much -- when any one or two of those can address the issue they are aiming for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can't.

MoCo residents are dumb. They'll constantly vote in far left wing morons to be county exec and on the council. MoCo is screwed. Jobs and business killing left wingers will always be in control. Dumb voters who's only solution are to raise taxes because they entitlement syndrome for everything are a permanent fixture. You're only recourse is to get the hell out before it is too late and MoCo becomes like a mini Illinois with massive debt problems.

Who is far left wing, and what have they implemented that is far left?

Bag tax, tree tax, rain tax.

Or there's the left-wing list of every possible social support:
Increased unemployment benefits, increased earned income tax credit, rent support, eviction moratorium, $15 minimum wage. Taken on their own, each is fine, but altogether it becomes massive handouts -- too much -- when any one or two of those can address the issue they are aiming for.

If you are so poor that paying 5 cents for a plastic bag hurts you, then you probably would benefit from all the left-wing policies you list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
At the root of this problem is our socialism for developers, rugged F-You capitalism for everyone else including small businesses. We roll out the red carpet for developers with low taxes, breaks on impact fees, and rezoning the crap out of everywhere when we're not even building the units we zoned for. The last thing MoCo needs is another high rise development with bottom floor retail and high end single bedroom units. The housing crisis is not for single young professionals looking to rent a luxury apartment for $2K+ a month - the housing crisis is for families looking for a place to purchase and to settle down. There is a lack of affordable, multi-bedroom family style units. We can and should build more duplexes and townhouses, yes, but the type we have are prohibitively expensive and are usually from teardowns of older single family homes that were cheaper. We are zoned beyond carrying capacity for the infrastructure we have built it's not NIMBYism to want those who profit from real estate development to, god forbid, help PAY for the infrastructure and social services that attract diverse taxpaying residents here.

But instead, we keep electing the same type of councilmembers - people bought off by developers, offering them tax breaks, claiming if we just zone for X more units and offer Y tax incentives then we'll help the housing crisis, when the only type of housing that comes with it is not the type of housing there is an actual demand for. So we instead get a lot of glitzy high rise apartments that no one who actually wants to STAY in Moco can afford or wants to live in long term, with retail space that small biz can't afford to rent and then ends up being filled with more Chipotles and Starbucks. It's quite sad.

The thing is, the county has the MPDU program so if you build a development, you _must_ set aside some (10-15%) of units for affordable housing. The developers are doing that -- they are required to. It seems like a reasonable solution, or are you saying they should up that percentage?

My issue is all the development we see is only residential. You need a mix. Offices are great, because they pay taxes, provide jobs, and don't use many services (the office building doesn't have kids in school). I guess the saying the county is anti-business is holding true as most of the companies seem to be setting up shop in NoVa not MoCo. Then the office parks are getting converted to residential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can't.

MoCo residents are dumb. They'll constantly vote in far left wing morons to be county exec and on the council. MoCo is screwed. Jobs and business killing left wingers will always be in control. Dumb voters who's only solution are to raise taxes because they entitlement syndrome for everything are a permanent fixture. You're only recourse is to get the hell out before it is too late and MoCo becomes like a mini Illinois with massive debt problems.

Who is far left wing, and what have they implemented that is far left?

Bag tax, tree tax, rain tax.

Or there's the left-wing list of every possible social support:
Increased unemployment benefits, increased earned income tax credit, rent support, eviction moratorium, $15 minimum wage. Taken on their own, each is fine, but altogether it becomes massive handouts -- too much -- when any one or two of those can address the issue they are aiming for.

If you are so poor that paying 5 cents for a plastic bag hurts you, then you probably would benefit from all the left-wing policies you list.

Just because I can afford to pay a tax doesn't mean the tax is a good tax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The thing is, the county has the MPDU program so if you build a development, you _must_ set aside some (10-15%) of units for affordable housing. The developers are doing that -- they are required to. It seems like a reasonable solution, or are you saying they should up that percentage?

My issue is all the development we see is only residential. You need a mix. Offices are great, because they pay taxes, provide jobs, and don't use many services (the office building doesn't have kids in school). I guess the saying the county is anti-business is holding true as most of the companies seem to be setting up shop in NoVa not MoCo. Then the office parks are getting converted to residential.

You want the developers to build new office space that there's no demand for?

The MPDU program is good, as far as it goes, but it doesn't go very far. It's only for new development, and it's still too expensive for people who are very poor. There need to be more programs than just solely the MPDU program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Bag tax, tree tax, rain tax.

Or there's the left-wing list of every possible social support:
Increased unemployment benefits, increased earned income tax credit, rent support, eviction moratorium, $15 minimum wage. Taken on their own, each is fine, but altogether it becomes massive handouts -- too much -- when any one or two of those can address the issue they are aiming for.

The so-called rain tax is a state tax, and it requires property owners to pay for the stormwater that runs off their property. Sounds like personal responsibility to me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The thing is, the county has the MPDU program so if you build a development, you _must_ set aside some (10-15%) of units for affordable housing. The developers are doing that -- they are required to. It seems like a reasonable solution, or are you saying they should up that percentage?

My issue is all the development we see is only residential. You need a mix. Offices are great, because they pay taxes, provide jobs, and don't use many services (the office building doesn't have kids in school). I guess the saying the county is anti-business is holding true as most of the companies seem to be setting up shop in NoVa not MoCo. Then the office parks are getting converted to residential.

You want the developers to build new office space that there's no demand for?

The MPDU program is good, as far as it goes, but it doesn't go very far. It's only for new development, and it's still too expensive for people who are very poor. There need to be more programs than just solely the MPDU program.

There is Section 8 at the federal level for the very poor. Then in terms of MPDU, here's a list of all 71 MPDU retnal buildings in the county: https://apps.montgomerycountymd.gov/dhca-mpdu/Rental/List

The reason developers aren't building office space is the county is anti-business and no one wants to lease it. Why don't developers in NoVa have this problem? How many existing office parks are being converted to housing over there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The thing is, the county has the MPDU program so if you build a development, you _must_ set aside some (10-15%) of units for affordable housing. The developers are doing that -- they are required to. It seems like a reasonable solution, or are you saying they should up that percentage?

My issue is all the development we see is only residential. You need a mix. Offices are great, because they pay taxes, provide jobs, and don't use many services (the office building doesn't have kids in school). I guess the saying the county is anti-business is holding true as most of the companies seem to be setting up shop in NoVa not MoCo. Then the office parks are getting converted to residential.

You want the developers to build new office space that there's no demand for?

The MPDU program is good, as far as it goes, but it doesn't go very far. It's only for new development, and it's still too expensive for people who are very poor. There need to be more programs than just solely the MPDU program.

There is Section 8 at the federal level for the very poor. Then in terms of MPDU, here's a list of all 71 MPDU retnal buildings in the county: https://apps.montgomerycountymd.gov/dhca-mpdu/Rental/List

The reason developers aren't building office space is the county is anti-business and no one wants to lease it. Why don't developers in NoVa have this problem? How many existing office parks are being converted to housing over there?

Lots, evidently: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicaffairs/new-fairfax-county-policy-helps-empty-offices-suburban-neighborhoods-convert-new-uses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is such a strange thread ... It reminds me of watching cable news ... just a bunch of shouting heads and aphorisms and little spoon-size bits of actual news.

I've lived all over MoCo ... Damascus, Silver Spring, Potomac and Chevy Chase ... and been happy living here, and I'm a moderate/liberal Dem who works for a Fortune 500 company.

I'll admit I'm not steeped in local politics, and appreciate the bits of argument about actual issues, whether its public transportation, tax rates, affordable housing or other topics ... but the hyperbolic "it's all going to hell" rhetoric just sounds like bar stool philosophy.

I used to be right there with you but when the MCPS BOE started talking changing policies and ordering studies that hinted at busing, I started paying attention to the BOE, the CC, and the CE and am mortified by some of their priorities. Our proximity to DC and NoVA means that no matter how bad our politicians are, MoCo will probably always be a decent place to live. But quality of life and our ranking among other DC metro counties continues to fall.