Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are for paying teachers well. MCPS does pay its teachers well, but I think many people would still be OK with a raise.

But the central office and admin growth has been unreal, and no one has ever called him (Elrich), or MCPS out about this.

I hope there's a successful legal challenge to his attempt to use this loophole. You can't just keep raising taxes on residents. There's no effort to reign in rampant malfeasance in MCPS or the runaway growth of Central Office jobs. Also, he isn't doing more to grow the economic base but instead just throws up his hands and causes harm to the county's future with his irresponsible tax and spend policy. Wish we could recall him.

The frustrating part to me is this 10% tax hike is explicitly being stated as "because of inflation".

OK, thats true! It's a real thing, for sure. But to treat the county taxpayers as an endless ATM as if we are also not personally affected by said inflation in basically every cost- is just so insulting.

Property values have increased because of this inflation, granting them comparable tax revenue increases so a hike is unnecessary. Further, the problem is that Elrich has no interest in addressing MCPS's irresponsible spending on foolish initiatives and their endless hiring of more Central Office administrators.

Assuming that this is the problem - Elrich has no authority or ability to do this.

He does have the authority to tell them to set a budget and force them to make some tough choices. If they stopped wasting money on overhead and silly studies, there'd be plenty left for other things.

He has the authority to say anything he wants. And so do I, a random anonymous poster on DCUM. And they will listen just as much to me as they do to him.

He has the authority to recommend a budget that funds MCPS at maintenance of effort levels and nothing more. The council has the authority to pass a budget that does the same thing. They don’t have to fund MCPS at this requested level.

If they pull this nonsense with anything other than a unanimous vote, the next step should be a spending cap in the charter and lawsuits from property owners because the state loophole doesn’t even apply to our charter.

Then somebody or some people need to make some noise about this, because they are proceeding with the understanding it only needs a majority vote. I believe there are enough votes on the council to pass this if it really does only need a majority vote.

Vote them all out of office.

+1000

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are for paying teachers well. MCPS does pay its teachers well, but I think many people would still be OK with a raise.

But the central office and admin growth has been unreal, and no one has ever called him (Elrich), or MCPS out about this.

I hope there's a successful legal challenge to his attempt to use this loophole. You can't just keep raising taxes on residents. There's no effort to reign in rampant malfeasance in MCPS or the runaway growth of Central Office jobs. Also, he isn't doing more to grow the economic base but instead just throws up his hands and causes harm to the county's future with his irresponsible tax and spend policy. Wish we could recall him.

The frustrating part to me is this 10% tax hike is explicitly being stated as "because of inflation".

OK, thats true! It's a real thing, for sure. But to treat the county taxpayers as an endless ATM as if we are also not personally affected by said inflation in basically every cost- is just so insulting.

Property values have increased because of this inflation, granting them comparable tax revenue increases so a hike is unnecessary. Further, the problem is that Elrich has no interest in addressing MCPS's irresponsible spending on foolish initiatives and their endless hiring of more Central Office administrators.

Assuming that this is the problem - Elrich has no authority or ability to do this.

He does have the authority to tell them to set a budget and force them to make some tough choices. If they stopped wasting money on overhead and silly studies, there'd be plenty left for other things.

He has the authority to say anything he wants. And so do I, a random anonymous poster on DCUM. And they will listen just as much to me as they do to him.

He has the authority to recommend a budget that funds MCPS at maintenance of effort levels and nothing more. The council has the authority to pass a budget that does the same thing. They don’t have to fund MCPS at this requested level.

If they pull this nonsense with anything other than a unanimous vote, the next step should be a spending cap in the charter and lawsuits from property owners because the state loophole doesn’t even apply to our charter.

Then somebody or some people need to make some noise about this, because they are proceeding with the understanding it only needs a majority vote. I believe there are enough votes on the council to pass this if it really does only need a majority vote.

Vote them all out of office.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taxes of 1.10 will match Rockville city and Fairfax County. The county is getting more urbanized and the budget needs to catch up. sadly, I also have to admit that poor people are more expensive to support than the wealthy. As Poverty increases in the US, governments do have to spend more money.

Are you serious? Fairfax County doesn't have a county income tax, Montgomery does. The goal should be to match overall tax burden to Fairfax County, not item tax for tax, because we have taxes they don't. The ones that they have and we do not (e.g. car tax) are not significant compared to ours. We will always lose if you do this.

If the county wanted to eliminate the income tax and the energy tax to be like Fairfax I would be ok with that.

Anonymous wrote:Taxes of 1.10 will match Rockville city and Fairfax County. The county is getting more urbanized and the budget needs to catch up. sadly, I also have to admit that poor people are more expensive to support than the wealthy. As Poverty increases in the US, governments do have to spend more money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taxes of 1.10 will match Rockville city and Fairfax County. The county is getting more urbanized and the budget needs to catch up. sadly, I also have to admit that poor people are more expensive to support than the wealthy. As Poverty increases in the US, governments do have to spend more money.

Are you serious? Fairfax County doesn't have a county income tax, Montgomery does. The goal should be to match overall tax burden to Fairfax County, not item tax for tax, because we have taxes they don't. The ones that they have and we do not (e.g. car tax) are not significant compared to ours. We will always lose if you do this.

Anonymous wrote:Taxes of 1.10 will match Rockville city and Fairfax County. The county is getting more urbanized and the budget needs to catch up. sadly, I also have to admit that poor people are more expensive to support than the wealthy. As Poverty increases in the US, governments do have to spend more money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all just don't get it. Why do we lose out on big business HQ to VA all the time? Part of it is access to Dulles, which we can't do anything about. However, another big part of it is big companies want to move to where their educated employees children can go to excellent schools. MCPS has been backsliding for a little over a decade.

I'm not crazy enough to suggest money is the solution to all the MCPS problems. But SOMETHING must be done

Does MCPS spend substantially less per student that FCPS or ACPS? I bet not.

Baltimore spends a ton per pupil, yet look at the test results. Money is not the solution to everything. Better teaching, better parenting, better discipline, period. Why is it that Japanese students can mop the floor with American students and they spend a lot less per head?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are for paying teachers well. MCPS does pay its teachers well, but I think many people would still be OK with a raise.

But the central office and admin growth has been unreal, and no one has ever called him (Elrich), or MCPS out about this.

I hope there's a successful legal challenge to his attempt to use this loophole. You can't just keep raising taxes on residents. There's no effort to reign in rampant malfeasance in MCPS or the runaway growth of Central Office jobs. Also, he isn't doing more to grow the economic base but instead just throws up his hands and causes harm to the county's future with his irresponsible tax and spend policy. Wish we could recall him.

The frustrating part to me is this 10% tax hike is explicitly being stated as "because of inflation".

OK, thats true! It's a real thing, for sure. But to treat the county taxpayers as an endless ATM as if we are also not personally affected by said inflation in basically every cost- is just so insulting.

Property values have increased because of this inflation, granting them comparable tax revenue increases so a hike is unnecessary. Further, the problem is that Elrich has no interest in addressing MCPS's irresponsible spending on foolish initiatives and their endless hiring of more Central Office administrators.

Assuming that this is the problem - Elrich has no authority or ability to do this.

He does have the authority to tell them to set a budget and force them to make some tough choices. If they stopped wasting money on overhead and silly studies, there'd be plenty left for other things.

He has the authority to say anything he wants. And so do I, a random anonymous poster on DCUM. And they will listen just as much to me as they do to him.

He has the authority to recommend a budget that funds MCPS at maintenance of effort levels and nothing more. The council has the authority to pass a budget that does the same thing. They don’t have to fund MCPS at this requested level.

If they pull this nonsense with anything other than a unanimous vote, the next step should be a spending cap in the charter and lawsuits from property owners because the state loophole doesn’t even apply to our charter.

Then somebody or some people need to make some noise about this, because they are proceeding with the understanding it only needs a majority vote. I believe there are enough votes on the council to pass this if it really does only need a majority vote.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are for paying teachers well. MCPS does pay its teachers well, but I think many people would still be OK with a raise.

But the central office and admin growth has been unreal, and no one has ever called him (Elrich), or MCPS out about this.

I hope there's a successful legal challenge to his attempt to use this loophole. You can't just keep raising taxes on residents. There's no effort to reign in rampant malfeasance in MCPS or the runaway growth of Central Office jobs. Also, he isn't doing more to grow the economic base but instead just throws up his hands and causes harm to the county's future with his irresponsible tax and spend policy. Wish we could recall him.

The frustrating part to me is this 10% tax hike is explicitly being stated as "because of inflation".

OK, thats true! It's a real thing, for sure. But to treat the county taxpayers as an endless ATM as if we are also not personally affected by said inflation in basically every cost- is just so insulting.

Property values have increased because of this inflation, granting them comparable tax revenue increases so a hike is unnecessary. Further, the problem is that Elrich has no interest in addressing MCPS's irresponsible spending on foolish initiatives and their endless hiring of more Central Office administrators.

Assuming that this is the problem - Elrich has no authority or ability to do this.

He does have the authority to tell them to set a budget and force them to make some tough choices. If they stopped wasting money on overhead and silly studies, there'd be plenty left for other things.

He has the authority to say anything he wants. And so do I, a random anonymous poster on DCUM. And they will listen just as much to me as they do to him.

He has the authority to recommend a budget that funds MCPS at maintenance of effort levels and nothing more. The council has the authority to pass a budget that does the same thing. They don’t have to fund MCPS at this requested level.

If they pull this nonsense with anything other than a unanimous vote, the next step should be a spending cap in the charter and lawsuits from property owners because the state loophole doesn’t even apply to our charter.

Then somebody or some people need to make some noise about this, because they are proceeding with the understanding it only needs a majority vote. I believe there are enough votes on the council to pass this if it really does only need a majority vote.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are for paying teachers well. MCPS does pay its teachers well, but I think many people would still be OK with a raise.

But the central office and admin growth has been unreal, and no one has ever called him (Elrich), or MCPS out about this.

I hope there's a successful legal challenge to his attempt to use this loophole. You can't just keep raising taxes on residents. There's no effort to reign in rampant malfeasance in MCPS or the runaway growth of Central Office jobs. Also, he isn't doing more to grow the economic base but instead just throws up his hands and causes harm to the county's future with his irresponsible tax and spend policy. Wish we could recall him.

The frustrating part to me is this 10% tax hike is explicitly being stated as "because of inflation".

OK, thats true! It's a real thing, for sure. But to treat the county taxpayers as an endless ATM as if we are also not personally affected by said inflation in basically every cost- is just so insulting.

Property values have increased because of this inflation, granting them comparable tax revenue increases so a hike is unnecessary. Further, the problem is that Elrich has no interest in addressing MCPS's irresponsible spending on foolish initiatives and their endless hiring of more Central Office administrators.

Assuming that this is the problem - Elrich has no authority or ability to do this.

He does have the authority to tell them to set a budget and force them to make some tough choices. If they stopped wasting money on overhead and silly studies, there'd be plenty left for other things.

He has the authority to say anything he wants. And so do I, a random anonymous poster on DCUM. And they will listen just as much to me as they do to him.

He has the authority to recommend a budget that funds MCPS at maintenance of effort levels and nothing more. The council has the authority to pass a budget that does the same thing. They don’t have to fund MCPS at this requested level.

If they pull this nonsense with anything other than a unanimous vote, the next step should be a spending cap in the charter and lawsuits from property owners because the state loophole doesn’t even apply to our charter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are for paying teachers well. MCPS does pay its teachers well, but I think many people would still be OK with a raise.

But the central office and admin growth has been unreal, and no one has ever called him (Elrich), or MCPS out about this.

I hope there's a successful legal challenge to his attempt to use this loophole. You can't just keep raising taxes on residents. There's no effort to reign in rampant malfeasance in MCPS or the runaway growth of Central Office jobs. Also, he isn't doing more to grow the economic base but instead just throws up his hands and causes harm to the county's future with his irresponsible tax and spend policy. Wish we could recall him.

The frustrating part to me is this 10% tax hike is explicitly being stated as "because of inflation".

OK, thats true! It's a real thing, for sure. But to treat the county taxpayers as an endless ATM as if we are also not personally affected by said inflation in basically every cost- is just so insulting.

Property values have increased because of this inflation, granting them comparable tax revenue increases so a hike is unnecessary. Further, the problem is that Elrich has no interest in addressing MCPS's irresponsible spending on foolish initiatives and their endless hiring of more Central Office administrators.

Assuming that this is the problem - Elrich has no authority or ability to do this.

He does have the authority to tell them to set a budget and force them to make some tough choices. If they stopped wasting money on overhead and silly studies, there'd be plenty left for other things.

He has the authority to say anything he wants. And so do I, a random anonymous poster on DCUM. And they will listen just as much to me as they do to him.

He has the authority to recommend a budget that funds MCPS at maintenance of effort levels and nothing more. The council has the authority to pass a budget that does the same thing. They don’t have to fund MCPS at this requested level.

If they pull this nonsense with anything other than a unanimous vote, the next step should be a spending cap in the charter and lawsuits from property owners because the state loophole doesn’t even apply to our charter.

Oh yes, underfunding MCPS, what a politically popular idea!

They could fund MCPS as much as they wanted but they might have to cut back on their nonsense. MCPS also hasn’t yet shown it needs more money.

I wouldn't give them a penny more until they cut back on all the central office overhead. It's gotten out of control.

Then you need to get yourself elected to the County Council.