Elrich property tax increase
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ModeratelyMoco
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Technically it’s in question. If the raise was only for schools, it would not need it. But you can’t increase a ton of budgets across the board and then pretend it is just for schools. See what else is increasing here: https://montgomeryperspective.com/2023/03/16/the-central-fiction-of-elrichs-budget/ As far as other questions about accountability and this money going towards smaller class sizes and teacher pay… don’t count on it. Our county has no accountability and frankly no reason to change that: https://moderatelymoco.com/taxes-up-services-down-why-accountability-matters-more-than-ever/ |
Anonymous
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The wildest part is Elrich (who has always been shall we say "unique" as a politician and in his communications), isnt shying away from it, at all.
99% of politicians in any state or county would at least know that a 10% property tax hike is going to be politically unpopular, if not personal political suicide. He's practically proud of it. |
Anonymous
| Have the council members staked out positions on this yet? |
Anonymous
They first need to address the lack of accountability and runaway spending in MCPS before I'd consider supporting this. I'd like to see cuts to the central office bloat before I take any increase seriously. |
Anonymous
If they are smart they avoid it entirely, since it doesnt need their vote. In theory it would need full council approval unanimously but since it doesnt- why would they go on record for supporting a huge tax increase? |
Anonymous
If they are smart they avoid it entirely, since it doesnt need their vote. In theory it would need full council approval unanimously but since it doesnt- why would they go on record for supporting a huge tax increase? |
Anonymous
Sorry for asking but can you explain? Do they need to vote for it or not? |
Anonymous
Wouldn't the increase in taxes due to increased valuations from inflation be sufficient? |
Anonymous
By law any increase in the property tax requires a unanimous vote by the council, to raise the charter limit. The one exception is the state allows them to go around this to comply with maintenance of effort for schools funding. So, a bit of a gray area- but I dont think it needs their vote- and they are probably quite relieved about that. |
Anonymous
Thats the thing- my property tax goes up every single year- without actually raising the property tax rate. But apparently for Elrich- no, this is not sufficient. |
ModeratelyMoco
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Yea it’s pretty shady because tons of other things are increasing in the budget too but since the increase is just under the increase for MCPS alone, he is making the argument they only need a majority. So much for that charter amendment pushed through with promises of needing an anonymous vote |
Anonymous
But the council still needs to vote on it, right? It's just that it's a majority vote. Elrich cannot do it on his say-so alone, so the council members cannot avoid the issue. |
ModeratelyMoco
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Yes this is true. I think personally they’ll have little trouble getting a majority. With needing unanimous there would be some hard decisions needing to be made to get everyone’s vote |
Anonymous
There is also more political cover to just "approving Elrich's budget" than all of them unanimously passing another big property tax increase like they did a decade ago, or so. |
Anonymous
The fact that they won't trim the wasteful spending in MCPS and jump to this means they're way out of touch with their constituents. |