Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I think there is plenty of room to criticize Elrich, most of the county's collective bargaining agreements are in the last of their 3 year periods. I believe it is legally difficult for the county executive to back out of those agreements but the council does have that authority. So folks should look to see what the Council does.

But they could reduce staff/spendig. No need for layoffs either, just natural attrition like don't fill positions when people retire.

Anonymous wrote:While I think there is plenty of room to criticize Elrich, most of the county's collective bargaining agreements are in the last of their 3 year periods. I believe it is legally difficult for the county executive to back out of those agreements but the council does have that authority. So folks should look to see what the Council does.

Anonymous wrote:Elrich is spinning it (so is Moore with state tax increases). It's not "for the schools". It's one big pot of money. Other expenses are increasing too (like salaries across the board at 3% or higher for all county employees). The prop tax increase is to cover increased spending overall, not specifically for MCPS.

This is all despite that property values have gone up, so they're getting more property taxes (in actual dollars) than last year, even at the same property tax rate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut their salaries. Increase their health care costs. Reform pensions.

Enough is enough. The entire DMV economy is going through a recession. They can't keep bleeding taxpayers to enrich themselves. Taxpayers are not cash cows with unlimited money they can bleed dry. They're lucky they simply have a job.

MCPS employees are not "enriching themselves" but compensation costs are too high given the stagnant tax base. If tax revenues crater due to DOGE things will get really bad fast and the more they increase spending now, the fewer options we will have in the future

If you are raising salaries while the entire economy around you is crumbling and there is massive job loss, you are enriching yourself. Period. MoCo cops and teachers are lucky they even have jobs and a salary. The idea of raising taxes so they can get salary boosts while everyone else is unemployed is absolutely DISGUSTING. They can pound sand. They have some money to buy food while there is about to be thousands of people that have $0 to buy food. And they want people with $0 to pay more tax? F YOU.

Except this year, we are seeing the public sector tank first, and in domino effect, as the federal level affects the state level, and the state level affects the local level. Given the tremors in the economy, why doesn't Elrich pull back to the rate of inflation - 2.5% -- on salary increases? But, no...he has the teachers' union to court for an endorsement as an at-large council candidate next election.

I'm not condoning or condemning the raises because I don't know what went into the determination, but I can say that government generally lags behind the private sector by at least a year. So if everyone in the private sector got good raises last year, it tends to hit public sector employees this year, because they have to wait to see how tax revenues are coming in. In the same vein, it takes about a year for public sector salaries to tank, after it tanks in the private economy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut their salaries. Increase their health care costs. Reform pensions.

Enough is enough. The entire DMV economy is going through a recession. They can't keep bleeding taxpayers to enrich themselves. Taxpayers are not cash cows with unlimited money they can bleed dry. They're lucky they simply have a job.

MCPS employees are not "enriching themselves" but compensation costs are too high given the stagnant tax base. If tax revenues crater due to DOGE things will get really bad fast and the more they increase spending now, the fewer options we will have in the future

If you are raising salaries while the entire economy around you is crumbling and there is massive job loss, you are enriching yourself. Period. MoCo cops and teachers are lucky they even have jobs and a salary. The idea of raising taxes so they can get salary boosts while everyone else is unemployed is absolutely DISGUSTING. They can pound sand. They have some money to buy food while there is about to be thousands of people that have $0 to buy food. And they want people with $0 to pay more tax? F YOU.

Anonymous wrote:Btw, this budget includes money for a 3-5% general wage adjustment (police get the most, but at least 3% for everybody) as well as 3.5% step increases for eligible employees in the county government. Similar for MCPS employees. Totally unaffordable. In six months there will have to be furloughs and RIFs.

Anonymous wrote:So tone deaf. mcps and the county need a DOGE. We have so many useless contracts and consultants we are paying for. Cut those. My husband is a government contractor. My company is doing rounds of layoffs and it is likely I will be unemployed in a few months. Not to mention the property tax increase that is assuming a value that isn’t a true. I am terrified for my family. If we both lose our jobs, what do we do? The market is getting more and more flooded. And yes, we are actively looking but hard to find a job when you are in your 50s.Wasn’t the casino revenue supposed to go to schools in the state?
Elrich: cut costs. Don’t raise taxes.

Anonymous wrote:Please DOGE MoCo and MCPS especially. So much wasted money at MCPS while outcomes keep declining.

How about no..

How about stop sucking and be business friendly? Look at MoCo now....so much trouble because it relies so much on the goobermint for jobs.

Anonymous wrote:https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/03/14/elrich-proposes-tax-rate-increase-to-fund-budget/

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich announced Friday he is proposing a 3.5% property tax rate increase in order to fully fund Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) $3.65 billion budget request for the upcoming fiscal year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut their salaries. Increase their health care costs. Reform pensions.

Enough is enough. The entire DMV economy is going through a recession. They can't keep bleeding taxpayers to enrich themselves. Taxpayers are not cash cows with unlimited money they can bleed dry. They're lucky they simply have a job.

MCPS employees are not "enriching themselves" but compensation costs are too high given the stagnant tax base. If tax revenues crater due to DOGE things will get really bad fast and the more they increase spending now, the fewer options we will have in the future

If you are raising salaries while the entire economy around you is crumbling and there is massive job loss, you are enriching yourself. Period. MoCo cops and teachers are lucky they even have jobs and a salary. The idea of raising taxes so they can get salary boosts while everyone else is unemployed is absolutely DISGUSTING. They can pound sand. They have some money to buy food while there is about to be thousands of people that have $0 to buy food. And they want people with $0 to pay more tax? F YOU.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut their salaries. Increase their health care costs. Reform pensions.

Enough is enough. The entire DMV economy is going through a recession. They can't keep bleeding taxpayers to enrich themselves. Taxpayers are not cash cows with unlimited money they can bleed dry. They're lucky they simply have a job.

MCPS employees are not "enriching themselves" but compensation costs are too high given the stagnant tax base. If tax revenues crater due to DOGE things will get really bad fast and the more they increase spending now, the fewer options we will have in the future