Reply to Why do people hate Elrich?

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "Why do people hate Elrich?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]His policies will continue to discourage job creation in MD, especially relative to VA and DC.  Lack of jobs will reduces the county's tax base and hurts property values, which itself reduces tax revenues.

To continue with the current level of county spending, never mind all the new things Elrich wants, would require increases in tax rates to make up for the above.  And that, in return, will lead some of the wealthier county residents to move to VA or DC to avoid the higher tax burden in MoCo/MD.  While it is tempting to say good riddens and don't let the door hit your rear on the way out, if we lose wealthier residents we lose the tax revenue needed to fund all the things the county wants to provide

A death spiral is too dramatic, but if MoCo doesn't keep itself at least nominally competitive with the surrounding areas, it isn't going to be good for county residents -- rich or poor.  And the poor will probably suffer more because they can less easily just move across state lines.
[/quote]

Good sounding answer to my question. (I’m OP). But what are these policies that will prevent job creation? Specifically? Where is Floreen different?[/quote]

NP here. Specifically:

- Elrich pushed hard for the $15/hour minimum wage increase, backed by unions. This is anti-business. Any business that can move part of their business out of MoCo will. It's just a few miles up 270 to Frederick County, that has a lower minimum wage. Imagine if you're a HVAC or plumbing business -- move a few miles from Gaithersburg to Frederick and now you're not forced to pay $15/hour even to the admin assistants.

If Elrich really cared about ensuring families had a living wage, he would have pushed to increased the EITC (earned income tax credit). That looks at family size and _total_ family income, and gives money to those who don't make a certain threshold. It's already in place in the Fed and MD tax system, so MoCo could just add a piggyback payment on to it.

Instead,  Elrich's minimum wage will make it difficult for people to get entry-level jobs. A 20 year old who wants their first job doesn't have the skills to earn $15/hr yet. Elrich has effectively locked them out of the MoCo labor market.

- Regulations. Bag tax. Plastic bags are bad for the environmnet so let's tax them. I sort of understand that, but why tax _paper_ bags also? They are typically made from 100% recycled paper, and are fully recyclable.

- One that came up this week -- banning smoking _outdoors_ in restaurants. Elrich wants to ban it. That's anti-business. Let the business decide if they want to ban smoking outdoors (on their patio) or not. If customers don't like the smoking, they will vote with their feet and the business may decide to ban it.. or vice versa. We don't need regulations for this.

- Elrich's ideas on transportation. He's basically ignored upcounty (Clarksburg, Germantown, etc) and his solution to the traffic problems is to make a reversible lane on I-270 and add in BRT (buses). Upcounty is way spread out -- buses won't work effectively. 270 needs to be widened. Businesses need this -- this is a main artery connecting MoCo to major transportion hubs, like Hagerstown and Parkersburg (huge logistics centers).

There's more.. but that's just a start.[/quote]

OP here. Thanks, this is the kind of well-thought out, detailed and specific answer I was asking for. While it will not change my mind (that's not really what I was looking for) but I really wanted to know the business perspective. My hope is that Elrich will work with the Council and small business owners and economic advisers (for which he chose David Blair, remember him?) and arrive at the best compromise. I read the Sage Policy Group report about the impending economic crisis, but hearing from Elrich directly made it sound like he wasn't as anti-business as implied, but the Post and others insisted otherwise, so I needed more detail and context.
Your points are solid and it's something to think about, though I think a lot of it is fundamentally seeing things a different way. It looks like you are more of an ideological libertarian and have different priorities.

That said, I said this before that I am a single-issue voter on environmental policy. I find the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate report (that says we have twelve years to change our ways) to be more concerning and I prioritize lowering emissions over absolutely everything else. Based on this, I was 85% leaning Elrich with the 15% hesitation because of the urbanist argument that his housing policies might promote sprawl. However, Elrich clarified his "anti-density" position as in favor of a variety of units, for families and singles, instead of mainly one bedroom and studio apartments which are more "dense." I am categorically against adding more roads, expanding roads or anything that incentivizes people to drive. I favor companies that allow teleworking above all.

I know most of you might not share my priorities and I honestly don't mean to sound condescending about it, but I truly fear that too much emphasis on business growth will lead us to the situation in which the planet has reached the point of no return "but shareholder profits reached an all-time high." If the private sector, beyond the top good actors, whips itself into perfect shape, then great. But what I see at least at the local level is a fetish for business growth and competition with Virginia for shiny objects like Amazon but I think our competition should be about who has the lowest impact and carbon footprint and race to 100% renewables. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics