Reply to Who do you think will win MoCo county exec?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Jawando’s base is a bit broader than Elrich’s base. Sure, Jawando’s colleagues don’t seem to care for him. But a lot of people don’t care for Jawando’s colleagues, so the more the other council members complain about Jawando, the more some people will like him. This dynamic helped Elrich in his first run for executive.[/quote]

It's not just Jawando's colleagues, though. In MoCo, a lot of folks are involved in political life. Maybe something minor like a meet-and-greet or more time consuming like a volunteer council on pedestrian safety.

Every time one of those regular folks has to interact with Jawando (or his team), he loses a vote.[/quote]

I'm always wary of these "likeability" tests. People don't need to be likeable to do a good job, and conversely people can be likeable but have awful policies. Likeability tests is how we destroyed people like Hillary Clinton.[/quote]

Likeability matters a lot more at the local level, though. Municipal politics are much closer to the impacted humans, which means it matters more whether an elected official and his team can productively interact with commissions, or with constituent groups. [/quote]

I am a member of a constituent group and Jawando has been great. Friedson just mansplains and Glass seems angry and mean. [/quote]

They are all terrible. Jawando will just be more of the same as Elrich - just totally fiscally irresponsible and lots of terrible choices. But at least he has put out a budget proposal, awful as it may be. Glass and Friedson haven't really shared what they would do if it were up to them.[/quote]

He’s shown himself to be more fiscally responsible so far. Where are the Glass and Friedson budget proposals? Or are they just going along with NFG’s tax increases?[/quote]

No, Jawando's budget proposal is truly awful. He is proposing cutting a lot of stuff that will have to be paid for later. Classic kick the can down the road bs so he can give the unions their full and unaffordable raises. [/quote]

People can disagree about what to cut. Friedson and Glass have claimed to oppose increasing taxes but they haven’t come out with any cuts. Until they have a plan that doesn’t include a big tax increase, Jawando owns this issue and my vote. [/quote]

Maybe because they are working within the council president's framework. Which is what a council is supposed to do. But maybe it's hard for some to deal with women in leadership positions. [/quote]

The council president’s framework includes a 12 percent property increase for a home assessed at the median home price in Montgomery County. The rate of increase is even higher for cheaper homes. If a landlord did this, it would be a constructive eviction (and illegal).  I’m happy to have some alternatives instead of groupthink around big tax increases.

I haven’t heard the council president complain that Jawando is willing to cut. If Friedson and Glass are happy following someone else, they shouldn’t be running for executive. [/quote]

For now, they are still on the council and should still be working collaboratively to pass a budget. But one of them cares more about his performative budget approach than real solutions[/quote]

The rest of the council is ceding the tax lane to Jawando in the CE race. If the council passes any tax increase above what Jawando proposed, he’ll be able to run on not wanting to raise taxes. If the NFG proposal is what the council adopts, then Jawando can run on resorting progressive taxation too. The CE race is basically over if the NFG budget passes.

I haven’t heard a good explanation of why the increases can’t be held closer to inflation than what Elrich proposed so that we can avoid a tax increase. Anyone could challenge Jawando’s line items, but this is a big budget with a lot of line items. A 4.2 percent spending increase, which is what Jawando proposed, is a very large increase in this economy.

If you don’t like Jawando’s proposed cuts, propose some different ones. We don’t need to rewrite the tax code and impose big increases on residents to have an adequate county government. [/quote]

85-90% of the budget is compensation and he refuses to touch it. That's why his proposal sucks.  That's where the fat is, and he won't touch it [/quote]

Have Glass or Friedson come forward with a budget proposal that addresses compensation?[/quote]

As a County resident, I really don't want them cutting (including failing to give increases) wages to teachers, police, fire or deputy sheriffs. I moved here for good schools and safety....they are woefully understaffed on police (see the thread about how they can't even put SROs back in schools because they don't have the bodies), and the teacher situation is also not good (although I think a lot of the teachers would trade the comp increases for some relief on the amount of work they have to do, which is ever-increasing).  I wouldn't say there is "fat" in the comp packages for any of these core County employees, which is where most of the County costs are.  
[/quote]

That is exactly what Fani-Gonzalez proposed. Her proposal cuts wages and still increases taxes. Friedson endorsed her budget after she released it. Jawando made his own budget that neither cuts taxes nor wages. It’s unclear where Glass is. [/quote]

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