Reply to Legit, but dumb question about MoCo (property values & housing)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I work in county government.  Backstory:

1. MoCo decline is real and has been going on for a while.  Elrich not the cause.  You can go to empowermontgomery.com and read a whole report about it if you want.

2. To stop that it would be helpful to make MoCo an easier place to do business.

3.  Elrich and his policies and his personality aren't helping with that.

4.  County is already unattractive to businesses, making it also [b]unattractive to rich residents is going to cause tax revenues to collapse.[/b]  Which would have a lot of bad knock-on effects.

5.  If you want housing affordability, it would be much more logical to just support more affordable housing development rather than purposefully try to make the place you want to live so unappealing that nobody else wants to live there.  That would seem to me to be a bad plan for you and everyone else.

Aside, parts of county government are dsyfunctional and it would be fine with me if someone came in and cleaned house (as long as they got rid of the right people).  I have little hope that will actually happen (or if it does they will actually get rid of the right people rather than just do some first-in first-out thing which is probably the opposite of what's needed, honestly).
[/quote]
? there are many cities that don't have a huge "rich resident" population, and their cities aren't collapsing.   As stated up thread, MoCo keeps building new housing but it is not building enough affordable housing. So who is buying those $750K+ THs? Granted, these people aren't "rich" but I hardly think people who can afford such homes are not able to keep the tax base up, especially as we seem to getting more of those people as evidenced by the housing building boom.[/quote]

I didn't say without rich people MoCo would collapse.  I said the tax base would collapse.  If you are OK with cuts to schools, police, fire, etc. as well as increases in property tax for less services then I suppose we have no issue.

As for Elrich, I was being charitable.  Honestly, I don't think he's very bright.  Or at least, in this county of a million people, we could find quite a few brighter than him.  I don't think he's the most terrible person in the world or anything.  Just that I think we can do better.  [/quote]
in bolded you stated.. "unattractive to rich residents is going to cause tax revenues to collapse"... I stated that tax revenues won't collapse just because MoCo is not attractive to rich people since many not so rich but can afford $750K are still moving here.

If OP wants the property prices to tank so that OP can afford to buy here, then yes, school budget would be cut, as would other services.  But I'm not buying "unattractive rich people" will cause the tax revenue to collapse argument. [/quote]

I suppose collapse is relative.  The DC area is very rich.  MoCo could be come the poorest part of the DC area (we are already below average now) and still be relatively wealthy for the country as a whole.  Life would go on.  The unwind would be painful.  So look at PGC government and services now and imagine "worse than that" because PGC was built up around certain budgets, and it can be easier to live within your means on a smaller budget than have a big budget and then suddenly have a small one.

I personally do not think what you are suggesting would be wise for anyone in the County, rich or poor.  I can guarantee you that part of the adjustment would include things like cuts to social services, as well as increases fees (which are sometimes consider regressive taxes). [/quote]

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