Anonymous wrote:Is there a tax liberals never like?

It is always a taxation problem, never a spending problem. $150,000 isn’t even a lot of money in 2026. They are raising taxes on the middle class. Taxes keep going up, but incomes don't. Maybe the county govt needs to learn to live within its means like all of its residents. Cut jobs, freeze pay increases for the next 5 years, cut pensions, cut benefits and force employees to pay more for their own healthcare. You know, the same crap 99% of Americans face who have jobs outside of the county govt.

Elrich as county executive has been robbing Peter to pay Paul in his budgets for years. There are so many structural defects now, that as the council tries to cut line item by line item, it's discovering that it's not so easy to find cuts in inadequately funded budgets. Go look at all the supplemental appropriations needed to pay for known services that he didn't pay for up front. Go look at the year end transfers as he switched funding among all the departments, again, because many were budgeted inaccurately.

Council is at fault too because they never bother to correct things. The easiest and most prudent thing would have been to hold COLAS at 2%. Employees will still get a huge raise. Just not quite as huge. It would have slowed spending and made the fiscal cliff the county faces in FY28 more manageable. But council is a bunch of cowards. They are doing whatever feels publicly expedient to make constituents happy. The "feel good" votes instead of the "good government" votes. They are cowards and disgusting to watch

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even Elrich thinks this plan raises taxes too much.

Elrich is self serving because he's running for council.

To be fair, it’s a higher increase for more than half of homeowners than the increase that he proposed. It’s a lower increase for wealthier people. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. He’s not like Friedson or Glass, opposing this tax increase while offering no spending cuts or alternative revenue proposals.

Anonymous wrote:Even Elrich thinks this plan raises taxes too much.

Elrich is self serving because he's running for council.

Even Elrich thinks this plan raises taxes too much.

Anonymous wrote:So for a married couple with an income taxable income of 140k, our county taxes would go down?

Your income taxes would go down a little next year. If you also own a house, your property taxes would go up a lot this year and every year after.

Anonymous wrote:So for a married couple with an income taxable income of 140k, our county taxes would go down?

The article is unclear, but the way it's worded, it seems it's per person income, so yea, if your HHI < $150K, it should go down. But, again, wording didn't seem too clear.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this is a dumb policy, but it's literally only a 0.1% increase. That is only $1,000 more income taxes if you make around 1.15M per year. This is a negligible amount of taxes and most people won't care.

Then make it voluntary and YOU can pay it

Feel free to move to PG, DC or VA. I feel like if you live in MoCo you know what you're getting.

So for a married couple with an income taxable income of 140k, our county taxes would go down?

Anonymous wrote:If it means we can shelter more new neighbors fleeing Trump and red states then I don’t mind paying a little more.

Unfortunately it doesn’t mean that at all. Over time, this proposal will add to the structural deficit. Your goal, which is a good one, would be better accomplished by preserving the ITOC, passing a small property tax rate increase, and using the proceeds to fix the structural deficit and fund more income-restricted housing.

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Anonymous wrote:WTF $150K here is nothing. Is this $150K for single filers?

MoCo keeps increasing taxes rather than thinking about cutting the budget. And the kids are not doing any better year after year of giving MCPS more money.

So sick of this place.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2026/05/08/straw-vote-divided-county-council-supports-progressive-income-tax-structure/

This is funnier:

The ITOC is a $692 property tax credit for homeowners who claim their home as their principal residence. It used to be automatically applied to qualifying county property tax bills, but homeowners now have to fill out a one-time application to receive it.

Elrich has spoken out on multiple occasions against the proposed elimination of the ITOC, which he says will result in most homeowners paying more than they would under his proposal to raise the property tax rate.

Supporters of the proposed elimination of the ITOC emphasize that the credit does not benefit everyone, including people who qualify but may not be aware of it.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide the credit equally to everyone,” Balcombe said on Friday. “Renters don’t get this credit, it is owner-occupied eligible only.”

Renters don't need the credit because they don't pay property taxes in the first place. Idiots.

Property taxes are paid from rental income, idiot

Renters don’t make rental income. Renters are the ones who have rent costs

+1. Rents have nothing to do with property taxes. Some buildings in the county pay nothing in property in taxes. These same buildings have some of the highest rents in the county. Even if there were a connection between rents and property taxes, the market is so soft right now that landlords wouldn’t be able to pass along the cost of a tax increase.

Why are some property owners paying no property taxes at all? Are those basically “subsidized” developers? In other words, those who promise they set aside a few units with lower rent?

Because Andrew Friedson keeps sponsoring bills to give developers full tax abatements. The number of affordable units isn’t above what’s required for any other development. He is very clear that his intent is to subsidize market rate apartment construction. It’s been an interesting experiment to see the impact (or lack of impact) that property tax breaks have on rents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a tax liberals never like?

It is always a taxation problem, never a spending problem. $150,000 isn’t even a lot of money in 2026. They are raising taxes on the middle class. Taxes keep going up, but incomes don't. Maybe the county govt needs to learn to live within its means like all of its residents. Cut jobs, freeze pay increases for the next 5 years, cut pensions, cut benefits and force employees to pay more for their own healthcare. You know, the same crap 99% of Americans face who have jobs outside of the county govt.

Of course the Democrats are always raising taxes on the middle class. Sometimes the upper middle class, sometimes the whole middle class. They talk about taxing the very rich or corporations, but this is ALL TALK. Doing so would require re-writing the entire U.S. tax code, or changing the way we file taxes completely.

It's because there aren't enough rich people. It sounds good, but the math doesn't math.

Anonymous wrote:WTF $150K here is nothing. Is this $150K for single filers?

MoCo keeps increasing taxes rather than thinking about cutting the budget. And the kids are not doing any better year after year of giving MCPS more money.

So sick of this place.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2026/05/08/straw-vote-divided-county-council-supports-progressive-income-tax-structure/

Good. They can afford it. Tax the rich!!!!

If it means we can shelter more new neighbors fleeing Trump and red states then I don’t mind paying a little more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WTF $150K here is nothing. Is this $150K for single filers?

MoCo keeps increasing taxes rather than thinking about cutting the budget. And the kids are not doing any better year after year of giving MCPS more money.

So sick of this place.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2026/05/08/straw-vote-divided-county-council-supports-progressive-income-tax-structure/

This is funnier:

The ITOC is a $692 property tax credit for homeowners who claim their home as their principal residence. It used to be automatically applied to qualifying county property tax bills, but homeowners now have to fill out a one-time application to receive it.

Elrich has spoken out on multiple occasions against the proposed elimination of the ITOC, which he says will result in most homeowners paying more than they would under his proposal to raise the property tax rate.

Supporters of the proposed elimination of the ITOC emphasize that the credit does not benefit everyone, including people who qualify but may not be aware of it.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide the credit equally to everyone,” Balcombe said on Friday. “Renters don’t get this credit, it is owner-occupied eligible only.”

Renters don't need the credit because they don't pay property taxes in the first place. Idiots.

Property taxes are paid from rental income, idiot

Renters don’t make rental income. Renters are the ones who have rent costs

+1. Rents have nothing to do with property taxes. Some buildings in the county pay nothing in property in taxes. These same buildings have some of the highest rents in the county. Even if there were a connection between rents and property taxes, the market is so soft right now that landlords wouldn’t be able to pass along the cost of a tax increase.

Why are some property owners paying no property taxes at all? Are those basically “subsidized” developers? In other words, those who promise they set aside a few units with lower rent?

Anonymous wrote:Is there a tax liberals never like?

It is always a taxation problem, never a spending problem. $150,000 isn’t even a lot of money in 2026. They are raising taxes on the middle class. Taxes keep going up, but incomes don't. Maybe the county govt needs to learn to live within its means like all of its residents. Cut jobs, freeze pay increases for the next 5 years, cut pensions, cut benefits and force employees to pay more for their own healthcare. You know, the same crap 99% of Americans face who have jobs outside of the county govt.

Of course the Democrats are always raising taxes on the middle class. Sometimes the upper middle class, sometimes the whole middle class. They talk about taxing the very rich or corporations, but this is ALL TALK. Doing so would require re-writing the entire U.S. tax code, or changing the way we file taxes completely.