Reply to 5/12 County Council Meeting -- Gutting MCPS Budget Request to the Tune of $180M

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Reply to "5/12 County Council Meeting -- Gutting MCPS Budget Request to the Tune of $180M"

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[quote=Anonymous]Council just voted to adopt the income tax reductions

2.7% up to 50k MD taxable income
3% 50-150k
3.3% 150k+

These are progressive brackets, but just like fed brackets, someone earning $1M will pay the same rate on their first $50k as someone earning just $50k.  Staff estimated that everyone earning under $600k will receive an overall income tax break from the flat 3.2% that has been in effect since 2004.  This decimates revenue and requires either revenue elsewhere to meet [i]some[/i] of the service need (like MCPS), use of borrowing or "rainy day" reserves to do the same (nearly everyone says no to that, probably rightly) or more service reductions (like the MCPS personnel decimation list, discussed in a separate thread).

It clearly was set up by Council as the first vote to lay the groundwork to eliminate the eliminate the resident-owner ITOC ($692 credit against property tax) that was meant to counter the increase to 3.2% all those years ago and keep, effectively, more overall within the county, as non-resident landlords would not benefit.  That's now all but certain, along with the remote possibility of overall property tax increases if they want to close gaps.  [i]This[/i] developer-friendly Council, most specifically Natali Fani-Gonzàlez and Andrew Friedson (who has gone into his shell with this subject now being a third rail for his County Executive campaign), might continue to find ways to keep it focused on residents -- they already insulated many special interests from future property tax with their misuse of Payment In Lieu Of Tax (PILOT) arrangements.

Nobody changed their position from last week's straw vote.  They did not even discuss other proposals.  Gonzàlez, true to form, repeatedly insisted that this was all [i]data[/i], as if only considering one possibility and analyzing that presented the kind of holistic data which would inform a good decision.[/quote]

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