It is critical to put the County's troubled finances and ongoing structural deficit into the context of the fake economic impact statements presented at Tuesday's Westbard sector plan worksession. Those forecasts projected a net "profit" for the County from the proposed Westbard redevelopment. In reality, we've definitively found that development and the property and impact taxes it generates do not cover the increased costs of government services, transportation, schools, utilities and other infrastructure.
Consider the explosive growth within the County over the last decade, including Clarksburg growing 800%, and places like Damascus, which is in the process of tripling in size. Yet, the County is running a deficit every single year, they claim they can't afford to build the M-83 Highway, and MCPS continues to operate with overcrowded schools countywide.
If development paid its own way, we wouldn't be in this fiscal mess. There is not a shred of evidence to support the idea that Westbard would be any different, and no one challenged the executive branch employees who made the rosy and false predictions on Tuesday.
42 comments:
It looks like Dyer has deleted two comments demanding to know how much he actually pays in property taxes.
#DodgingDyer
12million goes to healthcare for undocumented immigrants, the liquor board sucks up money and the council and govt employees are over paid.
"12million [sic] goes to healthcare for undocumented immigrants"
[citation needed]
Like Trump, Dyer really brings out the racists.
To 5:57 am read front page Friday Wall Street journal
@ 6:09 AM - Given that it is no longer Friday, perhaps you could provide a link to the relevant headline or article? Or just quote the relevant headline directly?
5:41
It's no business of a troll to know any of Dyer's personal information. What a schmuck! Keep up the excellent reporting Robert!
"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference"
Winston Churchill
The council members attitudes toward concerned Westbard residents, particularly Berliner and Leventhal , were on full display this week. It was disgusting to watch.
If Dyer doesn't pay any property tax himself, then that's relevant to a discussion on property taxes.
If Dyer doesn't pay the cost of his own housing, then that's relevant to a discussion of support for moderate-income residents looking for housing.
5:41: What possible relevance does my tax bill have to the story above?
7:01: #ThrowTheBumsOut!
7:15: How so?
6:09 reporting this issue for wsj was louise radnofsky
They can say whatever they want, but in reality this is due to the Supreme Court's Wynne decision. Counties need to replace the tax revenue they're losing from part-year and non-residents so they're going to raise taxes any way they can on residents rather than adjusting budgets and reining in the inducements they give developers.
What a cluster.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/illegal-immigrants-get-public-health-care-despite-federal-policy-1458850082
Trump/Hogan 2016
@ 10:25 AM - You don't keep up with the news, do you?
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/24/maryland-gov-larry-hogan-a-republican-says-donald-trump-shouldnt-be-nominee/
He'll fall in line like his BFF Christie.
"Big Fat Friend"?
Hogan is a land developer like Trump. They have a lot in common. GOP love voting for these guys then complaining about them.
"Consider the explosive growth within the County over the last decade..."
So much for "moribund", eh?
"including Clarksburg growing 800%, and places like Damascus, which is in the process of tripling in size."
Accepting, for a moment, your hysterical exaggeration as fact, where do you suggest that these new residents live instead?
"they claim they can't afford to build the M-83 Highway"
What's this silly obsession with the M-83?
This is Leggett's usual lack of leadership.
Blaming the Wynne case. What a joke. First, while the Wynne decision was reached last year, it had been in the courts for many years. Businesses with pending court cases not only declare them, but they also make a provision for the potential loss in their financial books. Why did MoCo not do this?
In other words, they've known about Wynne for years and the potential for an unfavorable outcome. Why didn't they plan for it? Incompetence or lack of leadership?
Second, the Wynne decision affected many US states, not just Maryland. Have we heard of other jurisdictions raising taxes and blaming Wynne for it? Heck, just look next door to Howard County, which is what started the whole Wynne case in the first place. Here's what their County Exec (Kittleman) had to say at his state of the county address:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/howard/ph-ho-cf-state-of-the-county-0225-20160218-story.html
Note there's no mention of Wynne? Yes, it will affect them too, but he's not using that as an excuse. He's making tough decisions, like real leaders do.
6:17: Population growth is not economic development (the costs outweigh the new revenue), nor does it create high-wage jobs.
My Clarksburg numbers are directly from the U.S. Census - are you accusing them of "hysterical exaggeration" as well?
The failure to build the M-83 isn't silly - it's an outrage. The Council approved the development upcounty, but never built the promised road to support it. Funds developers paid for roads were clearly diverted elsewhere, and that's just one more reason we need an FBI investigation of the MoCo political cartel at the Council and Planning Department levels.
"we need an FBI investigation of the MoCo political cartel at the Council and Planning Department levels."
You can't just sic the FBI on people because you don't like them.
9:59: There's plenty of solid evidence to justify an FBI investigation. The Farm Road case alone requires it. That case has never even been investigated by anyone but the Planning Board itself, which used a development attorney who had contributed $10,000 to Doug Gansler, who had the final say as to whether the state would investigate or not.
Can you guess how Gansler ruled?
And then the PB chair who hired the attorney ends up working for his firm when she retires from the PB.
This is a lot more serious than whether "you don't like them."
It's past time for the FBI to turn over every rock in the planning department and County Council. I suspect several current and past officials - under the Bob McDonnell standard - would be facing felony charges.
So, have you actually contacted the FBI about your concerns? And, if not, why not?
I agree with @5:30. I don't know much about these incidents that would lead to FBI investigation, but I'm going to state with confidence that the agents from the FBI's local field office are not regular readers of the comments section on Dyer's blog. Has Dyer reported this to them?
#DodgingDyer
6:33: That hashtag perfectly describes your cowardly behavior iat public meetings where you hide, and then later, take childish potshots from the safety of your computer. Ultimate loserman.
5:46: What's the tip line?
Obviously the Moribundly Sloth-Level-Energy Dyer is at such a low energy state these days that he cannot open a new tab in IE/Firefox, pull up fbi.gov and look up this info himself (or for that matter, call 411 and get the local field office number).
Frankly the whining about property taxes is IMHO off-base and probably most people in MoCo, nay MARYLAND in general, probably do not know how well-off they have it. Go to New Jersey where some towns are paying property taxes 3-4-5 TIMES what they may be paying for comparable property here....well then you have basis for complaining. This is of course keeping in mind that the school district structure there is far different than it is here (NJ unlike MD does NOT do districting county-wide, each town is its own district so you have upwards of 5-600 districts in NJ).
"What's the tip line?"
https://tips.fbi.gov/
That took all of 15 seconds.
You're welcome, Mr. "Journalist".
@ 9:55pm - I'm actually really curious. Is there somewhere that shows that for new housing the costs outweigh the revenue?
Flynn - yeah, there is - Ike Leggett's FY-2017 budget. It's why we have an ongoing structural deficit.
re: Flynn @ 9:52: Actually that is a good question to ponder and I wonder if there is enough publicly available data to crunch to make that determination, regardless of sloth-level-energy statements from His Moribundness.
I mean, just defaulting to "oh yeah just look to the budget" I think vastly oversimplifies that analysis. What are we talking about cost-wise to the county? Hiring more cops, firefighters, teachers, road maintenance once the road has been built by the developers, etc? Yeah some of those are on-going costs but where's your break-even once you factor in all of the other revenue that comes in from permits, property taxes, sales tax, etc. from that particular area?
(Unfortunately this is a problem with us folks that work in IT and thus have to work with all the repositories of "big data" and the by-product, i.e. there is a lot of info to hash and you can get very detailed with analyzing this crap to the n-th degree.)
Maryland has the 6th highest state tax burden on its residents. So 5 states are higher.
But 44 are lower.
@11:07 Yeah we haven't seen much analysis. For example, from what I've read, most of the additional money going to the schools is not to pay for additional teachers -- it's to give raises to existing teachers and more benefits for retired teachers. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the justification for increased funding to MCPS was "we had an increase in number of students" so wouldn't the priority be to hire more teachers? (I know, the real answer is the county is in bed with the teacher's union.)
Leggett never mentions increased revenue either. Sure, the county population has grown so there is more demand for services. But that also means more people paying income taxes, more people buying stuff (sales tax), and more people building houses (real estate tax). Then, 1/3rd of all properties in the County were re-assessed last year = higher property values = increased revenue from property tax. Where did all this income go?
I agree that it's a lot more straightforward than looking at the budget. Soke followup questions might ask if we are spending more per resident, where does that gap come from - that's what the proposed property tax hike is, right? So do new residents help or hurt the situation? A static single budget doesn't give us enough data to really calculate this does it?
Peter, the budget situation speaks for itself - either the revenue doesn't cover the costs, or the Council has done something illegal with the money. Neither is a winning claim to good government.
"the budget situation speaks for itself - either the revenue doesn't cover the costs, or the Council has done something illegal with the money."
LOL, Classic Dyer.
6:45AM - what's your view of the budget situation?
re: Anon @1242 -- well I would agree that it would, although maybe the preference is to just shift teachers around without having a net-increase in hiring? At least where my kids are going to school, this is what they have done as there is one grade that has enough kids to make 5 classes instead of 4 so they move a teacher around as needed.
And personally I don't see what the issue is with raises for teachers (or for that matter, cops or firefighters or similar). IMHO if you are a teacher and you get your masters/doctorate to improve your knowledge or want to move up in MCPS and be a principal or similar then more power to you and you should get compensated appropriately. I don't think we are talking an exorbitant percentage anyway, probably just the 2-3% COLA that doesn't really make a hell of a lot of difference, right?
re: Dyer @6:27 -- the revenue not covering the costs is certainly possible, although it is equally likely that it will at the end of the day if they have underestimated revenue -- not unheard of and it makes news when revenue exceeds all expectations.
The FBI discussion sounds specious, but the state of the County's finances is a legitimate topic for review.
If new development is not producing a revenue surplus for the County, what good is it? The Planning Department, Planning Board and County Council have been dancing to the developers' tune, usually over the the objections of residents. If new development/redevelopment is driving the County further into the red, residents are being hoodwinked.
I don't necessarily agree with Dyer's conclusions, but the issue is a legitimate one.
Robert appreciate your blog, really good stuff here. Too bad re the trolls, they are on other sites as well. Brought to us by developers/PR firms no doubt.
*Don't feed the trolls.*
Again love your blog and keep up the good work.
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