Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one in this thread said that Moco was going down the tubes, or that the infrastructure was bad. Thats pure gaslighting to pretend that was said here.

What people did say was point out that the article shows serious structural problems in Elrich's budget that will continue- unless something is done to reign in spending and costs.

The tax lever cant be the only play, every time.

I think it is fair to say that the county is going down the tubes. Historically our schools were best in the state (this has not been the case for over a decade now). NOVA has been beating us out in job and economic growth for years as well. Poverty in the county has skyrocketed since the early 2000s. It is a drain on schools, hospitals, county services, etc. We desperately need job growth in the county and Elrich could seem to care less. All he wants to do is put in bike lanes that nobody uses.

The schools still are the best in the state if your student is a serious student (not talking about gifted, just regularly engaged). If you look at the SES/racial subgroups for MCPS and compare to a similar cohort in Howard and Frederick, the performance is similar both on the good and bad side, it's just a numbers game. Nobody's doing any better because you can lead a horse to water (money), but you can't make it drink. The kids have to show up and want to be there, the best ability is availability. Throwing money at MCPS hasn't solved the problem, we've grown that budget to over $3 billion now. Money hasn't solved the problem for DCPS or Baltimore. I don't know what the solution is, but it sure isn't more money because MCPS has more than enough of it.

If MCPS got that and spent accordingly everyone would be better off. Just accept that not everyone values or wants the same things.

There is so much wasteful bloat in Elrich's budget too.

Giving him more money when he can't even wisely administer what he has now seems like a bad plan.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one in this thread said that Moco was going down the tubes, or that the infrastructure was bad. Thats pure gaslighting to pretend that was said here.

What people did say was point out that the article shows serious structural problems in Elrich's budget that will continue- unless something is done to reign in spending and costs.

The tax lever cant be the only play, every time.

I think it is fair to say that the county is going down the tubes. Historically our schools were best in the state (this has not been the case for over a decade now). NOVA has been beating us out in job and economic growth for years as well. Poverty in the county has skyrocketed since the early 2000s. It is a drain on schools, hospitals, county services, etc. We desperately need job growth in the county and Elrich could seem to care less. All he wants to do is put in bike lanes that nobody uses.

The schools still are the best in the state if your student is a serious student (not talking about gifted, just regularly engaged). If you look at the SES/racial subgroups for MCPS and compare to a similar cohort in Howard and Frederick, the performance is similar both on the good and bad side, it's just a numbers game. Nobody's doing any better because you can lead a horse to water (money), but you can't make it drink. The kids have to show up and want to be there, the best ability is availability. Throwing money at MCPS hasn't solved the problem, we've grown that budget to over $3 billion now. Money hasn't solved the problem for DCPS or Baltimore. I don't know what the solution is, but it sure isn't more money because MCPS has more than enough of it.

Anonymous wrote:No one in this thread said that Moco was going down the tubes, or that the infrastructure was bad. Thats pure gaslighting to pretend that was said here.

What people did say was point out that the article shows serious structural problems in Elrich's budget that will continue- unless something is done to reign in spending and costs.

The tax lever cant be the only play, every time.

I think it is fair to say that the county is going down the tubes. Historically our schools were best in the state (this has not been the case for over a decade now). NOVA has been beating us out in job and economic growth for years as well. Poverty in the county has skyrocketed since the early 2000s. It is a drain on schools, hospitals, county services, etc. We desperately need job growth in the county and Elrich could seem to care less. All he wants to do is put in bike lanes that nobody uses.

Anonymous wrote:Elrich is on record saying he basically ignores the "doom and gloom" staffer reports that show the upcoming budget crunch.

Being faced with the ugly numbers, he chooses to just pretend they dont exist.

Elrich wants Moco taxpayers to take the place of the federal government. I believe the FY23 budget had about $200 million in federal pandemic funding that is going away since Biden signed the order ending pandemic aid programs. That's conveniently the approximately $200 million Elrich wants to generate with the 10% tax increase. He's using the natural growth in the revenues to fund his pork/special interest programs (watch the public hearings, read the budget, so much pork/special interest) and shadily using the state law provision to shake down the taxpayers to pay for MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CM Friedson was the author of the charter amendment change on property tax increased. He promoted it as still requiring a majority vote. If this passes on only a majority vote, then he’s accountable. This is why you don’t put nepotism children in important jobs.

I dont know the nepo story about Friedsen, but it would be something if he personally voted against it, knowing full welll it would pass anyway but give him some modest cover in his wealthy district. Sick of his games.

It has to be unanimous. There’s nothing in the (not really relevant) state law that says a county can’t require a unanimous vote to raise the property tax rate. The other counties that used the state law to raise property taxes had not established special procedures for raising taxes so a majority vote was enough for them to raise taxes. Those county councils also lacked the authority to raise taxes at all absent the state law preempting the charter. The Montgomery county council has the authority to raise taxes and is bound by the charter to a unanimous vote.

It was established at the county council meeting that it was simple majority. Call your councilmembers to let them know your feelings, if enough people call maybe they will feel a trend.

Which meeting? I haven’t seen a clear statement that they were going with a simple majority.

Timestamped youtube link to where they brought this up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kye_i6zv2ZQ&t=5481s

Elrich is on record saying he basically ignores the "doom and gloom" staffer reports that show the upcoming budget crunch.

Being faced with the ugly numbers, he chooses to just pretend they dont exist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CM Friedson was the author of the charter amendment change on property tax increased. He promoted it as still requiring a majority vote. If this passes on only a majority vote, then he’s accountable. This is why you don’t put nepotism children in important jobs.

I dont know the nepo story about Friedsen, but it would be something if he personally voted against it, knowing full welll it would pass anyway but give him some modest cover in his wealthy district. Sick of his games.

It has to be unanimous. There’s nothing in the (not really relevant) state law that says a county can’t require a unanimous vote to raise the property tax rate. The other counties that used the state law to raise property taxes had not established special procedures for raising taxes so a majority vote was enough for them to raise taxes. Those county councils also lacked the authority to raise taxes at all absent the state law preempting the charter. The Montgomery county council has the authority to raise taxes and is bound by the charter to a unanimous vote.

It was established at the county council meeting that it was simple majority. Call your councilmembers to let them know your feelings, if enough people call maybe they will feel a trend.

Which meeting? I haven’t seen a clear statement that they were going with a simple majority.