The shortfall seemed to take the Council by surprise, despite projections of a structural deficit as far out as the forecast goes. More knowledgeable observers know exactly why revenues are down - the County's private sector economy has been moribund for some time, and the wealthiest residents are fleeing to lower-tax jurisdictions like Loudoun, Fairfax, Frederick and Howard Counties. Montgomery has dropped far out of the Forbes Richest Counties Top Ten list in 2017.
Add in the heavy debt load councilmembers have run up, and the fiscal scenario worsens still. How much debt is there? If County debt was a department, it would be the third-largest department in Montgomery County government. Yikes.
The spendthrift County Council has also engaged in a hurricane of wasteful spending. In just one example, earlier this year they approved $22000 for a surveillance camera system that, in the real world, can be purchased and installed for under $1000. Importantly: this expenditure was not itemized in public budget documents, instead lumped into a $34500 line item. Multiply this by every budget item, and we could be talking about millions in wasted funds. Don't expect this Council to identify them!
What raised eyebrows among many who follow the County budget closely yesterday was the petulant insistence by some councilmembers that they would not make major budget cuts. Considering that taxes are at a record level, many are wondering what planet these folks are speaking to us from. Leggett warned at an NAACP meeting last week that the Council simply cannot use a tax increase to solve shortfalls in the coming years. He clearly knew then what became public yesterday - we have a $120 million shortfall.
Prediction: The County Council will use another tax increase to close the budget shortfall, as they have every year since 2010. Then they will be voted out of office in November 2018.
30 comments:
We Need more money.......mo money....mo money....MoCo Council....the Liberials will pay more taxes because they feel bad.
The fools.
There is waste to be sure, just as there is waste in any large organization. The larger problems are structural. The council needs to go back and reassess the assumptions underlying its growth plan, because something is clearly not working.
I just wish you had a new sign to post every time this happens.
7:23 AM The sign says it all. Expresses the frustrations of Bethesda residents.
Interesting news. Where did you hear it from?
Did Dyer get permission to use that picture from The Simpsons?
I guess it's better than "Betrayed By Save Westbard".
Doesn’t the report say the shortfall is due to more tax extension filings than anticipated? How would deferred revenue be the fault of the county?
8:02: Uh, because they spent too much and weren't able to handle the revenue shortfall as a result? Think about it.
This is the same problem every other state is having, same problem the fed govt is having.
More and more of the revenue goes to paying interest on debt leaving less and less to cover current and future expense.
Your $1000 "solution" is preposterous and has been soundly trounced by those in the know of those systems. Buying a couple cameras and cords online and plugging them in is not the same thing as was proposed. You know that as well as anyone.
8:27: No, it has to do with taking on too much debt, and raising taxes so high that your largest revenue base leaves for other counties. And having a moribund economy with insufficient revenue being generated by commercial businesses.
My $1000 solution can be verified online by anyone. In 2017, one can indeed put together a professional 4-camera surveillance system for under $1000, including installation. If they'd let us know what contractor they're buying from, maybe we could find they're a big campaign contributor overcharging that much.
So you don't even know what the contract specifically includes? Then you're not matching like-systems, components, quality and security measures?
I can pick up an Ibanez bass for a couple hundred dollars but it'll never work as well or sound as good as a '62 Fender J-Bass.
Anna is absolutely correct -- in one breath you say the council has been opaque about what they're buying, and in the next you claim that the expenditure is unreasonable. How do you know? But we can take this statement at face value:
"In 2017, one can indeed put together a professional 4-camera surveillance system for under $1000, including installation."
This is laughably untrue. As a professional who has contracted for such services, I can tell you that a single camera for an enterprise-grade system is going to cost more than this. Let alone cabling, head unit, backups for compliance with government-mandated retention -- and we haven't even gotten to installation labor, warranty/service contract, etc. Your $1,000 "solution" from Costco is simply not comparable to an enterprise-grade system. Not even close.
I have asked you on several occasions for a link to the document in which this item is specified. You have never provided any response. Can you or can you not provide the source document for your claim that the Council is spending (the completely reasonable amount of) $22k on a surveillance system?
Dyer: "Uh, because they spent too much and weren't able to handle the revenue shortfall as a result? Think about it."
That's literally what they're doing. It's a projected shortfall for FY18 so they're trimming departments in anticipation of that. Dyer is so stupid that he whines when the county does what he says they should do.
RobertHans DyeReimer
One in the same.
Robert's hate of Reimer is the only reason I know who Reimer is.
What if MoCo covers the shortfall by implementing a 500% stupidity tax on the author of this blog, the author of this comment, and all other comments? I feel like the public would rally behind such a proposal. In the words of the great Warren Buffet, tax me more!
Not sure that would raise much more tax income....
@1:18 - me too!
It's odd that Dyer is so obsessed with taxes and deficits but hasn't commented on the tax plans have passed the House and Senate.
In which blogger Robert Dyer calls for security cameras to monitor signboards outside local schools, because a local Bart Simpson used the sign to insult Dyer's hero Trump.
"Leggett warned at an NAACP meeting last week that the Council simply cannot use a tax increase to solve shortfalls in the coming years."
How come you didn't report that last week, in your article about the NAAACP meeting?
A $1,000 system is pretty easily hacked or compromised. Wouldn’t even dream of putting something like that in for a setting like this. No chance.
Let me guess...Radio Shack?
To be fair, Dyer has been chasing this dream for 11 years now.
Here is a gem from his first year:
"The Washington Post continues to lose credibility. Recent weeks have found the Montgomery County Government placing huge ad buys in the Montgomery Extra published on Thursdays. The question is, does paying the Post massive amounts of our taxpayer dollars help ensure the continued puff-piece, lovefest coverage of the Montgomery County Government and its Democratic elected officials?"
"Remember the Post's Ahab-like quest to defeat Hugo Chavez in Venezuela? The latest economic news from Venezuela is positive: consumer spending is up, as is use of consumer credit. Ownership society; the Post can't stand it."
https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2017/12/teen-suicides-in-montgomery-co-has-community-talking-and-it-could-save-lives/
Hey Dyer - Since you're a fan of toll roads, and an even bigger fan of Virginia - do you have any comment about the $40 tolls on I-66 this week?
8:10: It appears they are working exactly as designed. Remember, these are not Express Lanes; this is a toll road encouraging carpooling. In order to keep traffic flowing, the price has to go up.
When you have Express Lanes, you can simply return to the regular travel lanes if you are priced out.
It's clear some special interests are trying to play up the tolls to discourage road/Express Lane construction, banking that the public will not understand how the I-66 toll facility works. A developer-backed group has been tweeting like mad about it.
10:22: If my lowball and adequate surveillance system can be purchased AND installed for under $1000, clearly we are overpaying at $22,000.
6:50: Update for the information-challenged: Hugo Chavez died several years back.
2:50: I have, and my initial reaction is, I don't like them. They're written by the swamp creature Republicans on Capitol Hill.
How many times must you be told that your $1,000 system is absurdly inadequate?
...and why do you continue to refuse to provide a link to your source document for the $22k claim?
6:50 quotes Dyer and Dyer calls him information-challenged. TFF.
Dyer, if you somehow wound up on the Council, and you implemented that $1,000 4-camera system in the County office building, you'd be facing a huge lawsuit in the event anyone got hurt.
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