Reply to Elrich property tax increase

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Schools, schools, schools,......my arse.

They ALWAYS  try to pawn off tax increases because "it is for the schools!".   This is totally insane. Basically, 10% tax increases in only 2 years on top of reassessments that always go up every few years.  They need double tax increases?  Really?

Newsflash. The economy sucks.  A lot of federal workers lost jobs.  Prices for food, insurance, and utility bills are exploding. Now they want to crush your housing affordability even more.

Is everyone's salaries going up to cover all these rising costs?  Of course not.

There isn't a single tax Dems have never not liked.  It's never a spending problem to them, only a taxation problem.  Cut the number of employees in MoCo govt. Make them pay more money for benefits. Slash their retirement and pensions.  Stop all hiring for 5 years.

They will just have to work more efficiently, boo hoo. [/quote]

I'm a county employee and I agree that compensation and benefits need to be re-examined. It's 80%-90% of the budget. Because local government is a service provider. Unlike federal government which is much more a funding provider.

However, the efficiency thing is a red herring in terms of employees. Everyone is already short staffed.  I've worked in various governments across the DMV and this county actually has good processes. Doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. But we are generally better than most in my experience.

You will have to cut services to get the efficiency you desire. Close libraries more days, cut transfer station days, cut bus routes, cut inspections. Cut pot hole repair, cut trash pick up. Cut fire stations. That will result in fewer staff. And a less inviting Montgomery County.

I haven't looked into this deeply yet but it looks like the Elrich budget proposes raising the county contribution to our retirement from 8% to 9% of our salaries.  I obviously would benefit from this. But is it necessary? Now? Does it merit a tax increase that will cost us all more? That's just one thing. But how many of those little things exist in the proposed budget? How do they add up?

Has anyone looked at pooling our health coverage with other local governments to leverage having a larger covered life population and access lower rates? Can we create a health insurance consortium with Frederick and Howard and Prince George's? The unions probably wouldn't allow it.  But the council could order it through legislation. When we go out to bid for health plans,  do we ask about cost savings if employee copays and deductibles were set at different levels?  Would we get better pricing if we only offered one health plan? Or does having 3 or 4 build in better competition?

I don't know if that type of thing is happening already, but if someone ordered a comprehensive review of benefits and compensation, we would find out.

Oh and procurement sucks. We have to order from local vendors and stuff can cost twice as much than if I could order from Staples or Amazon. It's a policy decision to keep business local. There are a ton of those policy decisions that cost us extra.  We may all agree on some of those policies. Or not. But those are worth examining too. [/quote]

There are quite a few things to cut before we get to libraries and the transfer station.  [/quote]

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