Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ronald Reagan campaigned as a fiscal conservative, but once in office, he funneled a lot of money into defense contracts, some of them worthwhile, but many less so ("Star Wars") that were conducted by contractors in Va. We called them "Beltway Bandits" but they were almost all on the VA side. See the DCUM thread on "FFRDCs." Bush the younger doubled down with more money, and huge deficits, to contractors like Booz-Allen and CACI (waterboarding anyone?). The DoD financed a networking scheme that led to the Internet --- designed at a building on Wilson Blvd. in Rosslyn, where there is a plaque. SAIC bought the rights from Network Solutions in what may have been a very shady deal to allow them to charge a fee for registering a dot.com address. A license to print money. Bottom line: Defense money, paid for by taxpayers, made NOVA.

Maryland is no different but it’s government health money instead of defense.

Anonymous wrote:tldr: People tend to live near their jobs — when they can afford to do so. Looks like war is more lucrative than health.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moco is on the Baltimore city game plan. Just look to balt city if you want to see the future of moco.

Racism is sad

Different poster here, but someone who has been around local politics for decades. Montgomery County has been poorly run for almost a decade. It doesn't matter your politics. Those in charge are more about saying the right things rather than ensuring that anyone is doing the right things. Processes matter. High performance matters. Accuracy matters. Accountability matters. Nobody is examining those processes except the OIG and she's finding a bunch of messes.

That's what erodes local government. Baltimore City is a good example. Although there are some process improvements there. Prince George's County was another example, but they've been doing much better internally over the past 15 years or so. It's not about race. It's about an internal culture of excellence. It was much better under Leggett, here. Not perfect. But better.

Leggett was even worse than Elrich. Remember Leggett’s permitting office? They took twice as long the permitting office does now to do inspections and the head of permitting accidentally gave away part of the capital crescent trail to Ourisman.

Elrich is shutting down our trash incinerator before we have any viable alternative in place.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moco is on the Baltimore city game plan. Just look to balt city if you want to see the future of moco.

Racism is sad

Different poster here, but someone who has been around local politics for decades. Montgomery County has been poorly run for almost a decade. It doesn't matter your politics. Those in charge are more about saying the right things rather than ensuring that anyone is doing the right things. Processes matter. High performance matters. Accuracy matters. Accountability matters. Nobody is examining those processes except the OIG and she's finding a bunch of messes.

That's what erodes local government. Baltimore City is a good example. Although there are some process improvements there. Prince George's County was another example, but they've been doing much better internally over the past 15 years or so. It's not about race. It's about an internal culture of excellence. It was much better under Leggett, here. Not perfect. But better.

Leggett was even worse than Elrich. Remember Leggett’s permitting office? They took twice as long the permitting office does now to do inspections and the head of permitting accidentally gave away part of the capital crescent trail to Ourisman.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery County had the highest median family income out of any county in America with more than 20,000 residents in the 1980s. It was close to the top in the 70s as well.

Now it’s ranked 20th, with 5 counties in NoVa in front of it. What has changed since the 1980s and can it change course?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/03/21/which-is-richerfairfax-and-montgomery-lead-census-bureaus-list-of-wealthiest-large-counties/48976a8b-e4cf-4aac-8c4b-a3bd43d10c92/

Fairfax and Montgomery counties, the Washington area's two most affluent suburbs, are also the two richest large counties in the nation, according to a new compilation of data by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Four county equivalents called boroughs in oil-rich and high-priced Alaska have even higher median household incomes, the bureau said, but none of them has more than 20,000 residents. The highest is Bristol Bay, Alaska--median income $33,516, population 1,094.

The rankings, published in the Census Bureau's new County and City Data Book, come from the 1980 census.
Fairfax and Montgomery were also at the top of the county income heap in the 1970 census. At that time, the rankings were compiled according to median family income and placed Montgomery slightly ahead of Fairfax.

In the new data, incomes are given for households, including not only families, which the census defines as married couples and their children living at home, but also unmarried couples, roommates and singles.

By this reckoning the median household income for Fairfax is $30,011, more than a thousand dollars above the $28,987 reported for Montgomery. However, Montgomery is still slightly ahead of Fairfax in median family income, $33,702 to $33,173

I blame it on the bad liberal leadership.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery County had the highest median family income out of any county in America with more than 20,000 residents in the 1980s. It was close to the top in the 70s as well.

Now it’s ranked 20th, with 5 counties in NoVa in front of it. What has changed since the 1980s and can it change course?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/03/21/which-is-richerfairfax-and-montgomery-lead-census-bureaus-list-of-wealthiest-large-counties/48976a8b-e4cf-4aac-8c4b-a3bd43d10c92/

Fairfax and Montgomery counties, the Washington area's two most affluent suburbs, are also the two richest large counties in the nation, according to a new compilation of data by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Four county equivalents called boroughs in oil-rich and high-priced Alaska have even higher median household incomes, the bureau said, but none of them has more than 20,000 residents. The highest is Bristol Bay, Alaska--median income $33,516, population 1,094.

The rankings, published in the Census Bureau's new County and City Data Book, come from the 1980 census.
Fairfax and Montgomery were also at the top of the county income heap in the 1970 census. At that time, the rankings were compiled according to median family income and placed Montgomery slightly ahead of Fairfax.

In the new data, incomes are given for households, including not only families, which the census defines as married couples and their children living at home, but also unmarried couples, roommates and singles.

By this reckoning the median household income for Fairfax is $30,011, more than a thousand dollars above the $28,987 reported for Montgomery. However, Montgomery is still slightly ahead of Fairfax in median family income, $33,702 to $33,173

I blame it on the bad liberal leadership.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

I really have no clue what this means (and I'm a MoCo resident), but I think you might be reading and watching too much right-wing media. MoCo is actually a leader in health sciences, pharma, and biomedical research, and there is tons of business formation around those industries. That might not be as splashy as Amazon, but Amazon wants to eliminate basically all jobs in favor of AI, so I'm fine with MoCo not catering to different industries besides tech and data centers.

DP. There is almost no net business formation in Montgomery County. The employment metrics are all terrible.

Can you please post whatever metrics you're talking about as compared with whatever jurisdiction you idolize?

Here is an article comparing Montgomery County the rest of the region:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/07/10/moco-economy-keeps-lagging-part-four/

Wow, MoCo is doing pretty well. It gained businesses in 2023, while Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, and Loudoun all lost businesses. I guess those data centers aren't such a great thing after all.

Also, it's funny how the author wasn't pleased with the 2023 data, so he goes on to pick random time periods to try to make the point he wants. The next chart is 2019-2023, then 2008-2023. No rhyme or reason for his methodology.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

I really have no clue what this means (and I'm a MoCo resident), but I think you might be reading and watching too much right-wing media. MoCo is actually a leader in health sciences, pharma, and biomedical research, and there is tons of business formation around those industries. That might not be as splashy as Amazon, but Amazon wants to eliminate basically all jobs in favor of AI, so I'm fine with MoCo not catering to different industries besides tech and data centers.

DP. There is almost no net business formation in Montgomery County. The employment metrics are all terrible.

Can you please post whatever metrics you're talking about as compared with whatever jurisdiction you idolize?

Here is an article comparing Montgomery County the rest of the region:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/07/10/moco-economy-keeps-lagging-part-four/

Wow, MoCo is doing pretty well. It gained businesses in 2023, while Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, and Loudoun all lost businesses. I guess those data centers aren't such a great thing after all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

I really have no clue what this means (and I'm a MoCo resident), but I think you might be reading and watching too much right-wing media. MoCo is actually a leader in health sciences, pharma, and biomedical research, and there is tons of business formation around those industries. That might not be as splashy as Amazon, but Amazon wants to eliminate basically all jobs in favor of AI, so I'm fine with MoCo not catering to different industries besides tech and data centers.

DP. There is almost no net business formation in Montgomery County. The employment metrics are all terrible.

Can you please post whatever metrics you're talking about as compared with whatever jurisdiction you idolize?

Here is an article comparing Montgomery County the rest of the region:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/07/10/moco-economy-keeps-lagging-part-four/

Anonymous wrote:Moco is on the Baltimore city game plan. Just look to balt city if you want to see the future of moco.

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery County had the highest median family income out of any county in America with more than 20,000 residents in the 1980s. It was close to the top in the 70s as well.

Now it’s ranked 20th, with 5 counties in NoVa in front of it. What has changed since the 1980s and can it change course?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/03/21/which-is-richerfairfax-and-montgomery-lead-census-bureaus-list-of-wealthiest-large-counties/48976a8b-e4cf-4aac-8c4b-a3bd43d10c92/

Fairfax and Montgomery counties, the Washington area's two most affluent suburbs, are also the two richest large counties in the nation, according to a new compilation of data by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Four county equivalents called boroughs in oil-rich and high-priced Alaska have even higher median household incomes, the bureau said, but none of them has more than 20,000 residents. The highest is Bristol Bay, Alaska--median income $33,516, population 1,094.

The rankings, published in the Census Bureau's new County and City Data Book, come from the 1980 census.
Fairfax and Montgomery were also at the top of the county income heap in the 1970 census. At that time, the rankings were compiled according to median family income and placed Montgomery slightly ahead of Fairfax.

In the new data, incomes are given for households, including not only families, which the census defines as married couples and their children living at home, but also unmarried couples, roommates and singles.

By this reckoning the median household income for Fairfax is $30,011, more than a thousand dollars above the $28,987 reported for Montgomery. However, Montgomery is still slightly ahead of Fairfax in median family income, $33,702 to $33,173

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My perspective is that there MoCo has a huge, and ever growing, population of low-income illegal immigrants.

Also, Maryland and MoCo are anti-business, pro-tax jurisdictions. It would defy logic for any major business operation to stand up operations in MoCo.

The County Executive and Council have implemented sanctuary policies that prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

That is not true. They have implemented policies that follow the constitution. Under Obama, he was able to for relationships between ICE and moco police so ICE could deport criminals (not preschool teachers) and not violate the constitution. Obama deported more immigrants from MOCO than any other president.

Thank you! Obama was deporting people left and right and no one here said anything about ICE being Nazis back then and it was a much nicer county. Bring Obama and Homan back. We need Dems back that are hard line on immigration.