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[quote=Anonymous]On the business friendliness problem: Yes, Montgomery County has been falling behind for a while, and it's not the reasons you think.

Sure, permitting processes are convoluted, almost Soviet in some cases.... and Elrich has worked to restructure that.

Taxes on development are actually LOW! They are 99 cents per square foot versus $1.40 in Tysons Corner. Here's the problem though: commercial development costs are owed up front, rather than at the back end, so it's exorbitantly expensive to break ground here but then the county gets comparatively little for it over time.

We also had a revenue flow problem which, thankfully, voters corrected when they voted for Question A in 2020.  Property tax revenue was hamstrung for 30 years, shifting the burden on older residents while newer residents were contributing less and less. This was because the tax revenue was pegged at inflation (which, not counting this year, meant that it couldn't grow by very much even as new properties were being assessed). Now, thankfully, the tax RATE is limited at inflation, which means all will reasonably contribute to their fair share while revenue can continue to grow.
This means we can pay for nice things like public infrastructure projects like Virginia has. The Purple Line can stop being a regional joke. Meanwhile, Virginia has the Silver Line and two airports. They also developed partnerships with JMU, UVA, GMU and other universities to have a highly developed local talent pool for big tech companies.

Elrich has actually begun a similar partnership program with the University of Maryland. This, plus Montgomery County's #2 position in the country for Biotech, right behind Boston, is promising. Elrich, if you were actually paying attention, has done a lot of cool things for businesses, especially in the upcounty and I-270 area. Opening up sites for light industrial, biotech feeder programs and incubators. Apprenticeship programs and working with Montgomery College to provide more opportunities in the skilled trades.

Much of Montgomery County's poor business reputation is from the lack of infrastructure, up-front commercial development costs, and then the rest honestly, is heresay. So-and-so and the Washington Post says MoCo is bad for business, the County Executive is a Socialist, and that's what people repeat over and over again.[/quote]

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