Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Op here and asking in earnest.

What *actually* would you like to see, here, in local government? I'm assuming your're Republican/right-leaning unaffiliated or fiscally conservative Democrat of some kind. What kind of council/executive would you want?

I'm not PP, but I'll bite.

Reasons I don't like Elrich:
- $15/hour minimum wage. This was done for the union vote. I get the idea -- ensure a living wage. But this just passes the costs to employers, and it's not a great way to handle it. It doesn't consider family situation (# of people in household) nor other income coming in. Instead, the best way to deal with this problem is to just raise the Earned Income Tax Credit. That look at total household income as well as household size, and is already issued by MD anyway. It would be easy to up it for people in MoCo. But, that doesn't make the unions happy.

Why I don't like the minimum wage at $15 is that some people at entry-level, like a 20-year old starting their first job, aren't really worth $15/hour. Now they're shut out of the labor market, even if they provide value at $10/hour instead. What we're going to see is companies that move any jobs they can do Frederick County or Howard County since they have lower minimum wages.

- Tax increases. Marc voted to raise property taxes. The overall county budget has increased much faster than the county population. They're spending disproportionately more compared to population growth or inflation.

- A perfect example of overspending is the $400k to a non-profit to fund legal defense for illegal immigrants. The organization decided it didn't want it due to the strings attached (can't fund the defense of violent criminals). A prudent Council member would have voted against the proposal at that point. Instead, Elrich votes in favor of it, in the hope that some other non-profit will magically appear that wants the money. What a waste -- spending money that no one wants!

- Failure to end the DLC (liquor) monopoly. We're the only county in MD like this, and one of the few in the entire country. Surely our needs aren't so special compared to everywhere else in the US. The reason Elrich won't privatize is there are 300 union members working at DLC. All that has been proposed is to open this to competition. Why are the union members so afraid of this? If they provide great service and selection, then people won't go to the private stores anyway, will they?

Now the claim is that DLC brings $30mln into the county coffers, and where will we find the money to make up from it..? Guess what -- the minimum wage increase will cost the County about that much per year, as they'll now need to raise wages of county workers like lifeguards and snack bar attendants at the county parks.

Elrich is not what this county needs. He's had 12 years on the Council to show it.

My 14 year old working at a pool snack bar earned close to $10/hour, as do babysitters. Same kid now 18 works in a medical lab for $15 an hour and that will help fund college This is out of touch. Young adults that I know of working lifeguard jobs to try to help pay for college earning $10 an hour have trouble paying for food and basics like a new lifeguard suit. Let’s not be so stingy. The minimum wage in DC is $15 and there are plenty of jobs there.

The low minimum is also why we have a lot of illegal immigrants doing jobs here ( which we all pay for in taxes via providing benefits ) as they are the only ones wanting to do certain jobs for such a low wage. When the wages are so low that people need food stamps and energy and rent assistance to survive it’s costing the tax payer instead of the business.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Op here and asking in earnest.

What *actually* would you like to see, here, in local government? I'm assuming your're Republican/right-leaning unaffiliated or fiscally conservative Democrat of some kind. What kind of council/executive would you want?

I'm not PP, but I'll bite.

Reasons I don't like Elrich:
- $15/hour minimum wage. This was done for the union vote. I get the idea -- ensure a living wage. But this just passes the costs to employers, and it's not a great way to handle it. It doesn't consider family situation (# of people in household) nor other income coming in. Instead, the best way to deal with this problem is to just raise the Earned Income Tax Credit. That look at total household income as well as household size, and is already issued by MD anyway. It would be easy to up it for people in MoCo. But, that doesn't make the unions happy.

Why I don't like the minimum wage at $15 is that some people at entry-level, like a 20-year old starting their first job, aren't really worth $15/hour. Now they're shut out of the labor market, even if they provide value at $10/hour instead. What we're going to see is companies that move any jobs they can do Frederick County or Howard County since they have lower minimum wages.

- Tax increases. Marc voted to raise property taxes. The overall county budget has increased much faster than the county population. They're spending disproportionately more compared to population growth or inflation.

- A perfect example of overspending is the $400k to a non-profit to fund legal defense for illegal immigrants. The organization decided it didn't want it due to the strings attached (can't fund the defense of violent criminals). A prudent Council member would have voted against the proposal at that point. Instead, Elrich votes in favor of it, in the hope that some other non-profit will magically appear that wants the money. What a waste -- spending money that no one wants!

- Failure to end the DLC (liquor) monopoly. We're the only county in MD like this, and one of the few in the entire country. Surely our needs aren't so special compared to everywhere else in the US. The reason Elrich won't privatize is there are 300 union members working at DLC. All that has been proposed is to open this to competition. Why are the union members so afraid of this? If they provide great service and selection, then people won't go to the private stores anyway, will they?

Now the claim is that DLC brings $30mln into the county coffers, and where will we find the money to make up from it..? Guess what -- the minimum wage increase will cost the County about that much per year, as they'll now need to raise wages of county workers like lifeguards and snack bar attendants at the county parks.

Elrich is not what this county needs. He's had 12 years on the Council to show it.

+1. Couldn’t agree more. Believe Elrich will raise taxes and spend money on a lot of unnecessary things. Also believe he will only represent and cater to people of Takoma Park and liberals for which I do not identify as a moderate Democrat who lives in Gaithersburg/Tockville. I believe he is out of touch with needs of people in north and west part of county.

The entire county has become about supporting Silver Spring, Wheaton and especially Takoma Park. SS and Takoma makes up most of the Council because of the at large reps. They get elected by the SS, Takoma, Wheaton people and also the elite in Potomac who want certain NIMBY demands met (no school on their school property - the horrors!).
Then they have the middle class from Bethesda, Gaithersburg, and Rockville fund everything while receiving endless building projects , traffic nightmares and school problems.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Op here and asking in earnest.

What *actually* would you like to see, here, in local government? I'm assuming your're Republican/right-leaning unaffiliated or fiscally conservative Democrat of some kind. What kind of council/executive would you want?

I'm not PP, but I'll bite.

Reasons I don't like Elrich:
- $15/hour minimum wage. This was done for the union vote. I get the idea -- ensure a living wage. But this just passes the costs to employers, and it's not a great way to handle it. It doesn't consider family situation (# of people in household) nor other income coming in. Instead, the best way to deal with this problem is to just raise the Earned Income Tax Credit. That look at total household income as well as household size, and is already issued by MD anyway. It would be easy to up it for people in MoCo. But, that doesn't make the unions happy.

Why I don't like the minimum wage at $15 is that some people at entry-level, like a 20-year old starting their first job, aren't really worth $15/hour. Now they're shut out of the labor market, even if they provide value at $10/hour instead. What we're going to see is companies that move any jobs they can do Frederick County or Howard County since they have lower minimum wages.

- Tax increases. Marc voted to raise property taxes. The overall county budget has increased much faster than the county population. They're spending disproportionately more compared to population growth or inflation.

- A perfect example of overspending is the $400k to a non-profit to fund legal defense for illegal immigrants. The organization decided it didn't want it due to the strings attached (can't fund the defense of violent criminals). A prudent Council member would have voted against the proposal at that point. Instead, Elrich votes in favor of it, in the hope that some other non-profit will magically appear that wants the money. What a waste -- spending money that no one wants!

- Failure to end the DLC (liquor) monopoly. We're the only county in MD like this, and one of the few in the entire country. Surely our needs aren't so special compared to everywhere else in the US. The reason Elrich won't privatize is there are 300 union members working at DLC. All that has been proposed is to open this to competition. Why are the union members so afraid of this? If they provide great service and selection, then people won't go to the private stores anyway, will they?

Now the claim is that DLC brings $30mln into the county coffers, and where will we find the money to make up from it..? Guess what -- the minimum wage increase will cost the County about that much per year, as they'll now need to raise wages of county workers like lifeguards and snack bar attendants at the county parks.

Elrich is not what this county needs. He's had 12 years on the Council to show it.

+1. Couldn’t agree more. Believe Elrich will raise taxes and spend money on a lot of unnecessary things. Also believe he will only represent and cater to people of Takoma Park and liberals for which I do not identify as a moderate Democrat who lives in Gaithersburg/Tockville. I believe he is out of touch with needs of people in north and west part of county.

Anonymous wrote:

Op here and asking in earnest.

What *actually* would you like to see, here, in local government? I'm assuming your're Republican/right-leaning unaffiliated or fiscally conservative Democrat of some kind. What kind of council/executive would you want?

I'm not PP, but I'll bite.

Reasons I don't like Elrich:
- $15/hour minimum wage. This was done for the union vote. I get the idea -- ensure a living wage. But this just passes the costs to employers, and it's not a great way to handle it. It doesn't consider family situation (# of people in household) nor other income coming in. Instead, the best way to deal with this problem is to just raise the Earned Income Tax Credit. That look at total household income as well as household size, and is already issued by MD anyway. It would be easy to up it for people in MoCo. But, that doesn't make the unions happy.

Why I don't like the minimum wage at $15 is that some people at entry-level, like a 20-year old starting their first job, aren't really worth $15/hour. Now they're shut out of the labor market, even if they provide value at $10/hour instead. What we're going to see is companies that move any jobs they can do Frederick County or Howard County since they have lower minimum wages.

- Tax increases. Marc voted to raise property taxes. The overall county budget has increased much faster than the county population. They're spending disproportionately more compared to population growth or inflation.

- A perfect example of overspending is the $400k to a non-profit to fund legal defense for illegal immigrants. The organization decided it didn't want it due to the strings attached (can't fund the defense of violent criminals). A prudent Council member would have voted against the proposal at that point. Instead, Elrich votes in favor of it, in the hope that some other non-profit will magically appear that wants the money. What a waste -- spending money that no one wants!

- Failure to end the DLC (liquor) monopoly. We're the only county in MD like this, and one of the few in the entire country. Surely our needs aren't so special compared to everywhere else in the US. The reason Elrich won't privatize is there are 300 union members working at DLC. All that has been proposed is to open this to competition. Why are the union members so afraid of this? If they provide great service and selection, then people won't go to the private stores anyway, will they?

Now the claim is that DLC brings $30mln into the county coffers, and where will we find the money to make up from it..? Guess what -- the minimum wage increase will cost the County about that much per year, as they'll now need to raise wages of county workers like lifeguards and snack bar attendants at the county parks.

Elrich is not what this county needs. He's had 12 years on the Council to show it.

Anonymous wrote:



The ‘Council’ is awful and is why the county is a run down dysfunctional mess. Thankfully a lot of the ‘Council’ will now be different - no more Leaventhal and Roger Berliner (who did absolutely nothing for Bethesda except add traffic & F$&@ things up), right? But you’ll still have Nancy Navarro ‘crying on the dais’ to get more benefits for our noncitizen friends in Silver Spring and Wheaton via cutting benefits to us ‘rich’ people who can’t pay out of pocket for the schooling for our kids and things like Rec centers, right? & Hans?
The MoCo Council is just a big clown car nonsensical money grabbing misery.

Op here and asking in earnest.

What *actually* would you like to see, here, in local government? I'm assuming your're Republican/right-leaning unaffiliated or fiscally conservative Democrat of some kind. What kind of council/executive would you want?

I've spoken with Elrich at length about this race. Despite what some want you to believe, he does not want to raise your taxes, property or otherwise. He wants small businesses to thrive. He wants Amazon to come here. He wants to grow our tax base to provide infrastructure for inevitable development. To pay for this he wants to make sure developers, who are going to profit anyway because you aren't going to stop development in the DC metro, to pay their fair share in impact fees. If they don't, YOU get the bill. He also wants to cut out BS spending by restructuring county government. He himself has said he's not a "tax-and-spend" guy and looks for things like procurement reform and other ways to reduce wasteful spending. This all just makes sense.

So I'm asking, what would you prefer? The county government to not raise impact fees on developers AND cut your taxes and just cut all kinds of spending and reduce its size, and then have everything privatized? And you think your overall out-of-pocket expenses will NOT increase? The very line that people use when talking about our economic situation is "grow our tax base"... well what's the use of that, if they don't tax it? Do you honestly believe in trickle-down economics? If so, why? How do you think your model will work?

And for people who actually plan on voting for Robin Ficker... for one minute I'll roll with it and give you a HUGE benefit of the doubt and assume that he's not a senile, heckling, lunatic... where exactly is he consistent on his economic policies? Ok, so he says he doesn't want to raise your property taxes. (Marc doesn't either). Does he want to cut them? Who else's taxes is he going to cut? How exactly has he said he intends to address the budget shortfall? He also wants to lure Amazon? Great. So, is he going to extract revenue from business? If you've attended any forums, you'll have heard Ficker throw out some surprisingly leftwing positions on the environment and minimum wage - then contradict himself. Is there any evidence of Ficker ever demonstrating that he knows what he's talking about? Or that he's fully thought out.... anything? I don't even see him as a logically consistent conservative, fiscal or otherwise. It seems like he just operates on throwing out some red meat about "Term Limits because we don't like the Council that raised your property taxes!" or "I support the Environment - look at my green yard signs!" or "I would have raised the minimum wage to $15 sooner!" (YES, he has said that!) or "Everyone should run a mile every day, I could beat you in a bike race, Marc Elrich is fat!" (Each of these are actual things he's said, in an actual political discussion) I get the protest vote temptation. I've been tempted to do so myself. The crowded Democratic closed primary may have resulted in someone you're not crazy about eke out a win here or there. But unless you're far gone enough to think that the orange blob in the White House is doing a good job, don't you at least want someone competent who has a fully-baked approach to solve our county's economic problems?

Looking for an honest answer here. I really do want to know your perspetive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually there are quite a few Ficker signs in Bethesda, Wheaton and up county. I’ve seen a sparse few in Silver Spring. We don’t have a sign but support Ficker also.

Why isn’t there a decent republic candidate? Why is there just crazy Robin Ficker?
Why have any republicans and young repub groups and no decent candidates? Why??

I have a friend in the local GOP. The issue was they often run candidates at the county-level just for show, as they never have a chance of winning in a county-wide race where they are outnumbered 3-to-1. The reason they even run someone is the state-wide and national Republican party needs them to put up people so they show they are trying. In return, they get some appointee jobs in the state or federal government.

So the County Exec thing threw them for a loop. They went for business as usual and only Ficker threw his hat in. Then the Dems mess up and get super-left Elrich, and Floreen throws her hat in. Now they actually have a chance. The GOP candidate usually gets around 1/3 of the vote, so he actually has a fighting chance now that the Dems are split between Elrich and Floreen.

I guess they'll learn a lesson about putting up viable candidates in the future, as they reallly may have a chance.

The best thing for MoCo and also the GOP is to have open primaries in the future. Then the top 2 from any party go to the general election. There is a reason this is also fair to voters also -- 1/3rd of registered voters in MoCo have no party affiliation (so can only vote for non-partisan offices in the primary -- school board), yet MoCo has public financing of candidates, so voters of any party should be able to choose any candidate, since they are paying for their campaign through tax money anyway.

Anonymous wrote:Actually there are quite a few Ficker signs in Bethesda, Wheaton and up county. I’ve seen a sparse few in Silver Spring. We don’t have a sign but support Ficker also.

Why isn’t there a decent republic candidate? Why is there just crazy Robin Ficker?
Why have any republicans and young repub groups and no decent candidates? Why??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your property taxes went up one time, in 9 years, to help schools. Stop whining.

Here's a copy of the MoCo budget. Take a look at page 3:

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OMB/Resources/Files/omb/pdfs/FY18/psp_pdf/74-ScheduleB-ALL-FY2018-APPR-Publication-Report.pdf

School spending went up 2.5%, MoCo General fund went up 3.7%.

So the increase in spending is more in the general fund than for schools. Schools barely get an inflation-rate increase.

But year round schooling is being added in Silver Spring and also Saturday School - complete with many school system employees being paid twice to do their jobs. Meanwhile, the middle class gets disgusted and ends up paying out of pocket for private for their kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marc will win. Don’t worry.

He’s indicated a willingness to work together with Council to budget and make policy. If he can really create a collaborative effort, I think things will run very smoothly.

We will see how political he is, I guess. I don’t know that aspect of him. I won’t forgive Ike for giving County employees a 14% raise over two years during his re-election campaign when we were barely out of a recession. We are still digging out of structural service cuts that impact residents. Marc better not repeat that kind of stuff. We are likely to have at least a little recession during his term.

Wait now he wants to work with the Council? Would have been nice if he demonstrated capacity to do so while he was an actual council member.

The ‘Council’ is awful and is why the county is a run down dysfunctional mess. Thankfully a lot of the ‘Council’ will now be different - no more Leaventhal and Roger Berliner (who did absolutely nothing for Bethesda except add traffic & F$&@ things up), right? But you’ll still have Nancy Navarro ‘crying on the dais’ to get more benefits for our noncitizen friends in Silver Spring and Wheaton via cutting benefits to us ‘rich’ people who can’t pay out of pocket for the schooling for our kids and things like Rec centers, right? & Hans?
The MoCo Council is just a big clown car nonsensical money grabbing misery.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in Tysons and I often end up driving behind another Maryland driver, this woman in a blue Prius with TWO Marc Elrich stickers and a Raskin sticker. I can't help but thinking, if you stopped electing people like Elrich and maybe, God forbid, considered electing some Republicans once in a while, you wouldn't have to commute to Northern Virginia to work.

She also always listens to the worst techno music with the windows down.

Oh, to be a 20-something again, back when I knew everything.

99% she lives in Takoma Park or Silver Spring, lives with roommates and spends money brunching with her #woke friends while voting for candidates who promise free stuff. More than once uttered the words "Bernie would have won" and gets most of her news from The Young Turks.

Classic.

I think you just described a third of Marc Elrich’s constituency.
Another third being wealthy NIMBYs (her parents?)
The other third being retired Takoma Park hippies stuck in the 60s (her grandparents?)

It’s all about the free stuff - anyone who has a decent job is ‘rich’ and you need to appropriate their money because ‘you deserve it’.
Never mind that we’re struggling to feed, and educate our families (which include elderly and disabled members) and will need to move out of MoCo due to the expense (and no return on that expense as everything is going to Silver Spring, Wheaton & Takoma- except the traffic) and now the insane traffic but we’re ‘rich’ so tax tax tax!

Anonymous wrote:Marc will win. Don’t worry.

He’s indicated a willingness to work together with Council to budget and make policy. If he can really create a collaborative effort, I think things will run very smoothly.

We will see how political he is, I guess. I don’t know that aspect of him. I won’t forgive Ike for giving County employees a 14% raise over two years during his re-election campaign when we were barely out of a recession. We are still digging out of structural service cuts that impact residents. Marc better not repeat that kind of stuff. We are likely to have at least a little recession during his term.

Wait now he wants to work with the Council? Would have been nice if he demonstrated capacity to do so while he was an actual council member.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in Tysons and I often end up driving behind another Maryland driver, this woman in a blue Prius with TWO Marc Elrich stickers and a Raskin sticker. I can't help but thinking, if you stopped electing people like Elrich and maybe, God forbid, considered electing some Republicans once in a while, you wouldn't have to commute to Northern Virginia to work.

She also always listens to the worst techno music with the windows down.

Oh, to be a 20-something again, back when I knew everything.

99% she lives in Takoma Park or Silver Spring, lives with roommates and spends money brunching with her #woke friends while voting for candidates who promise free stuff. More than once uttered the words "Bernie would have won" and gets most of her news from The Young Turks.

Classic.

I think you just described a third of Marc Elrich’s constituency.
Another third being wealthy NIMBYs (her parents?)
The other third being retired Takoma Park hippies stuck in the 60s (her grandparents?)

Anonymous wrote:I work in Tysons and I often end up driving behind another Maryland driver, this woman in a blue Prius with TWO Marc Elrich stickers and a Raskin sticker. I can't help but thinking, if you stopped electing people like Elrich and maybe, God forbid, considered electing some Republicans once in a while, you wouldn't have to commute to Northern Virginia to work.

She also always listens to the worst techno music with the windows down.

Oh, to be a 20-something again, back when I knew everything.

Ha! So true, indeed so true. I think I’ll call the Ficker office about a yard sign.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes sense in some ways to make developers pay, but the more burdens we put on businesses, the more they will just leave us for other counties..

I might vote for Blair in the general just to make a point

How do you vote for someone who isn’t running?

Write-in vote -- purely symbolic

There is no way to write someone in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes sense in some ways to make developers pay, but the more burdens we put on businesses, the more they will just leave us for other counties..

I might vote for Blair in the general just to make a point

How do you vote for someone who isn’t running?

Write-in vote -- purely symbolic