Anonymous wrote:I will not be voting for, and or I will be voting against anybody who voted to eliminate this:

Voting in favor were Fani-González, Balcombe, Evans, Katz, Luedtke and Stewart.

Voting no were Friedson, Glass, Jawando, Mink and Sayles.

But I conveniently noticed that the people who are voting against are people who are running for county executives. I’m sure if they weren’t running they would be voting for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the average property price is close to $1m this targets the wrong people and is overly broad. One day rhe Democrats will realize this.

The average property price is not close to $1m

Data are funny. Andrew Friedson, Artie Harris and Jason Sartori all loudly proclaimed that the average MoCo detached SFH was over $1M when promoting the AHS initiative. Thing was, that was a mean, with heavy influence from multi-million-dollar sales, when they all knew that a median would be a more appropriate measure of affordabity. And it didn't consider available attached/multi-family dwellings, because those weren't what they said people needed (though the housing they were suggesting be allowed to fill in the detached SFH neighborhoods would be so). But putting that fuller picture out there wouldn't make a selling narrative for them, now, would it?

Of course average prices for all MoCo properties, including attached & multi-family are not (yet) close to $1M, especially as a median. I think the prior PP was remembering the above rhetoric, though.

I’m still not clear on how more rental apartments help people buy homes. Friedson’s argument seemed to be “we know you want cheaper houses to buy, so here are some rentals, and here are some property tax breaks for people who build rentals.” It makes no sense. The overwhelming majority of renters would rather purchase, so why do they keep pushing rentals?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thr communist council is pulling a Baltimorification on MoCo. Stifling taxes. Hostile to businesses. Declining school quality and rolling out the carpet for importing poverty that the socialists say you must pay for because of some equality mumbo jumbo.

They are going to tax everyone into fleeing the county. Their budgets will continue to get worse because they refuse to cut spending. As the tax base keeps eroding, their only solution will be to keep increasing taxes. The vicious cycle will get worse until the whole thing collapses and MoCo is Baltimore 2.

Just FYI, no one takes you seriously with these silly comparisons to Baltimore. You do this in every thread about MoCo, and I'm sure you think it's so clever, but it's not. Do you really believe that someone is going to wander through downtown Bethesda and think to themselves, "oh dear, we're so close to this turning into Baltimore"? Or that everyone clamoring to buy a house in the Whitman district is worried that it's turning into some awful school that you'd find in Baltimore? If you actually live in MoCo (which I doubt), please move because MAGAs like you are toxic.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

There are too many structural deficits now. This bill makes the structural deficit worse. Next year will be another property tax rate increase or they'll compress the income tax brackets again so they're not progressive.

The council -- every member -- voted to approve the labor agreements. They need to honor those agreements now, as much as I agree that they were irresponsible in the first place.

There aren't great options for county executive. Friedson is a hard no because he keeps exempting his donors from paying property taxes. That leaves Glass and Jawando. Glass has followed along with Friedson and doesn't seem to engage on the budget much. His two big issues in seven years were no right on red and leaf blowers. Jawando is too far left but he did good work on the budget this year and has been the driving force on slowing spending growth this year, much more so than the other members.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the average property price is close to $1m this targets the wrong people and is overly broad. One day rhe Democrats will realize this.

The average property price is not close to $1m

Data are funny. Andrew Friedson, Artie Harris and Jason Sartori all loudly proclaimed that the average MoCo detached SFH was over $1M when promoting the AHS initiative. Thing was, that was a mean, with heavy influence from multi-million-dollar sales, when they all knew that a median would be a more appropriate measure of affordabity. And it didn't consider available attached/multi-family dwellings, because those weren't what they said people needed (though the housing they were suggesting be allowed to fill in the detached SFH neighborhoods would be so). But putting that fuller picture out there wouldn't make a selling narrative for them, now, would it?

Of course average prices for all MoCo properties, including attached & multi-family are not (yet) close to $1M, especially as a median. I think the prior PP was remembering the above rhetoric, though.

Anonymous wrote:Thr communist council is pulling a Baltimorification on MoCo. Stifling taxes. Hostile to businesses. Declining school quality and rolling out the carpet for importing poverty that the socialists say you must pay for because of some equality mumbo jumbo.

They are going to tax everyone into fleeing the county. Their budgets will continue to get worse because they refuse to cut spending. As the tax base keeps eroding, their only solution will be to keep increasing taxes. The vicious cycle will get worse until the whole thing collapses and MoCo is Baltimore 2.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the average property price is close to $1m this targets the wrong people and is overly broad. One day rhe Democrats will realize this.

The average property price is not close to $1m

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/

You and Bethesda Magazine don't understand tax brackets.

Filers reporting $150,001 to $900,000 in taxable income will pay less income taxes in Tax
Year 2027 when compared to the flat 3.2% tax rate in Tax Year 2026.

The tax break will
be reduced to $0 at $900,000 of taxable income



https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/news/montgomery-update-homeowners-could-pay-higher-taxes-under-new-council-plan-eliminate-tax-credit-fewer-families-experiencing-homelessness-public-safety-progress-silver-spring

I opened that link and searched for those key words, and I didn't see anything that stated the bolded. Can you point me to the section and key words?

Also, that link is from Elrich from May 1. The Bethesda article is the County Council's proposal from May 8. They are not the same.

Anonymous wrote:When the average property price is close to $1m this targets the wrong people and is overly broad. One day rhe Democrats will realize this.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

There are too many structural deficits now. This bill makes the structural deficit worse. Next year will be another property tax rate increase or they'll compress the income tax brackets again so they're not progressive.

The council -- every member -- voted to approve the labor agreements. They need to honor those agreements now, as much as I agree that they were irresponsible in the first place.

There aren't great options for county executive. Friedson is a hard no because he keeps exempting his donors from paying property taxes. That leaves Glass and Jawando. Glass has followed along with Friedson and doesn't seem to engage on the budget much. His two big issues in seven years were no right on red and leaf blowers. Jawando is too far left but he did good work on the budget this year and has been the driving force on slowing spending growth this year, much more so than the other members.

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.

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