Reply to What would it take for Bethesda to secede from Montgomery County?

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[quote=Anonymous]My gosh there is a lot of misinformation in this thread, and yes I've read it all.

1. Schools: MCPS is a separate legal entity from the county government with its own elected board. The only relationship between MCPS and the county government is that the county council is responsible for appropriating its budget. That is it. MCPS owns all of its own land and makes its own decisions on the disposition of the land that it owns. MCPS provides education to all residents of the county, regardless of whether they live in an incorporated town/city or not. The incorporation of Bethesda will have no affect own ownership of the schools because they always have and will always be owned by MCPS unless there is a proposal to break up MCPS into smaller school districts. So no, if Bethesda decides to incorporate it will not have to buy or build any of its own schools.

2. Infrastructure & Services: as ludicrous as this may sound to people who don't live in Bethesda, our infrastructure and services are extremely poor when similarly compared to Takoma Park or Silver Spring. And that should be self-evident considering that 4 out of 8 county council members are from Takoma Park. Just drive around Sligo Ave, Dale Drive, etc in Silver Spring and then come out to Bethesda. You will notice an absurd difference.

3. Taxes: Incorporated towns and cities can decide a la carte to pick and choose which county services they want to use and which they do not, so the base level of taxes paid to the county changes as a result, depending of which county services the municipality uses and which it does not. You will therefore find, if anyone bothered to look, that the county taxes paid in Rockville, Gaithersburg and Takoma Park are very different as a result.

I personally support incorporation and feel that it should be a long-term goal, seeing that the effort will probably take some years. However, as an interim measure the county can take immediate steps to ensure people are better representing by putting a charter amendment before voters to increase the number of districts and reduce the number of at-large seats.[/quote]

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