Montgomery County property tax hike proposed in County Executive's $6.8 billion FY-2024 budget

Montgomery County elected officials have raised property taxes on homeowners every year since 2010, except for FY-2015, when a 2014 election-year tax cut delivered a whopping average $12 savings to tax-whipped residents (gee, thanks!). It looks like they are going to do it again for FY-2024, as County Executive Marc Elrich (D) released his proposed budget yesterday, and he suggested the largest property tax hike since FY-2017. The extra payday would go exclusively to Montgomery County Public Schools, whose student performance has only declined as bigger and bigger budgets have been approved for it by the County Council. Money has never been the problem at MCPS, only incompetent leadership since the exit of Superintendent Jerry Weast, a clearly-failed curriculum, and an increasingly-stark lack of student safety and security.

There's an even greater problem about the record $3.2 billion outlay for MCPS in Elrich's budget. Due to the disastrous Maintenance of Effort law, the amount spent on MCPS can never go down from one year to the next. So, even as Elrich himself declares "a mild recession could take place later this year," his budget would lock in a required expenditure of at least $3.2 billion for MCPS in the FY-2025 budget - even if a recession deals a severe blow to County revenue. And we're not even talking about the worrisome situation in the banking sector, which is persisting despite a federal bailout of wealthy billionaires at Silicon Valley Bank earlier this week.

What that would mean, is that savings and cuts would have to be found elsewhere in the budget: police, fire, libraries, road maintenance, etc. And the County Council is already cruising toward a rude fiscal awakening, as it has convinced itself, the local media, and enough voters that its rosy budgets of the last few pandemic years were due to councilmembers' overwhelming talent and skill, and not the overwhelming federal cash that poured into the County to cover COVID-19 losses. That money is now being cut off by Uncle Sam.

You wouldn't know it from reviewing the proposed budget. And from a steep tax hike being proposed, you wouldn't know that a majority of County residents are being hit hard by persistent inflation. Not to mention that, for many County residents - particularly the elderly and others on fixed incomes - the current property tax has become the equivalent of a second mortgage they must pay off on their home.

There are other fanciful ideas in the budget announcement, such as the recent canard pushed by the County political cartel that Montgomery County residents are somehow paying less property taxes than some other jurisdictions. This is false, because the assessments on houses are so much higher in Montgomery County than in those jurisdictions that MoCo residents actually pay more. In reality, Montgomery County has the highest real property tax payments, and the highest total tax and fee burden in the Washington, D.C. region. We pay massive income and piggyback income taxes, real estate transfer taxes, energy taxes, cell phone taxes, rain taxes, and more - many of these being taxes that don't even exist in counties around us. 

Our current tax structure and burden are two of the major reasons for our moribund County economy. Montgomery County's economic growth and strength have been at or near rock bottom in the region for more than a decade, as measured by every relevant federal indicator. No major corporation has relocated its headquarters to Montgomery County in over a quarter century. 

Taxes have also been the major cause for the flight of the rich out of Montgomery County, which caused the County's "Rodeo Drive" of Friendship Heights to crash, leaving behind vacant buildings and empty storefronts. Significantly increasing taxes and spending, as we've done and as is being proposed again here, is a reckless move in this context, and total insanity when you factor in the County's massive debt.

One positive thing Elrich's budget proposes? Providing the funding to restore the Office of the People's Counsel, a lawyer who can represent the people in land use matters. This is long overdue, but we don't need a $6.8 billion budget or a property tax hike to make that happen.

MoCo Council hikes property taxes, slouches toward bankruptcy in disaster budget

Property tax bills will rise for almost all Montgomery County residents in the coming year, after the Montgomery County Council approved a disastrous $5.8 billion FY-20 budget Thursday. The vote virtually ensures future tax hikes will be necessary, as the Council also went on a spending spree despite starting off with a $208 million shortfall. Increases in spending on Montgomery County Public Schools, already proven to have no impact on student performance despite record-large MCPS budgets this decade, will be a major cause of tax hikes down the road. Once the MCPS budget is raised, state law requires the Council to maintain that level of spending going forward.

The fact that the Council had no qualms about spending even more than MCPS asked for despite that binding maintenance-of-effort state law raises questions of the councilmembers' fitness for office. Councilmembers approved the massive spending on MCPS while knowing that there are only two uncertain sources to pay the additional $16 million, and one of those is a one-time $5 million possible payment from the state for upgrading the County's long-failing 911 system. The other $11 million? LOL - they'll figure it out. And thanks to the law, we now have to give MCPS - the system that has declined in performance even as spending on it has surged - that amount every single year going forward. We already are in the red every single year as far out as the forecasts go as it is. Heckuva job, Brownie!

"The annual [property tax] bill for the average homeowner will increase," the Council's press release on the budget vote acknowledges - while not admitting the real-world dollar value of that increase, which is far more than the "average" cost cited often by the County. That tax hike comes after the Council and County Executive Marc Elrich promised voters they would not raise taxes. 

Bloated and filled with loot for the Montgomery County cartel, the budget maintains the corrupt Council's MO of "managing the decline," and continuing our slow slouch towards Gomorrah. The Council has failed to take a single action on our economic development crisis since taking office last December, forgoing for another year any sensible attempt to increase our revenue from commercial development or attracting major corporate headquarters - something Montgomery County hasn't been able to do for over twenty years. Instead, the County has sunk to rock bottom by every economic development benchmark, even behind tiny counties like Culpeper and Rappahannock. It's humiliating.

Considering the Council has raised property taxes every year except 2014, imagine what will happen when the national economy goes into a recession. We are now in the weakest position ever to confront such an economic challenge. Given the County's massive debt, the much-touted AAA bond rating will be in jeopardy as soon as bad times hit, and we are due for a bust cycle any month now. Remember: we have to maintain this level of MCPS spending and county employee pay hikes every year no matter how bad the revenue picture gets.

With that in mind, it's obvious that while our leaders may be tools, they aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the drawer. But that's the caliber of leadership you end up with when most voters don't bother to research the candidates before voting, and simply go by the party affiliation after the name. We can't go on like this.

Despite record tax hikes, bungling Montgomery County Council runs up $120 million shortfall

Montgomery County is facing a $120 million budget shortfall, despite record tax hikes on residents in 2016 and 2017. County Executive Ike Leggett has asked every government department to identify 2% budget cuts, and encouraged the Council to follow suit.

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.

MoCo Council passes tax hike budget, bloated with payoffs to donors and allies - and themselves

The Montgomery County Council yesterday unanimously passed another budget that will raise your tax bill for FY-2018, in order to cover their highest-in-the-region salaries, and taxpayer-funded giveaways to political allies in the non-profit and contracting fields. Buried in the Council press release is a legally-required admission that your tax bill will increase, not decrease. That's because, while the Council can technically claim they "held the line on taxes," the corrupt tax system they've put in place automatically hikes taxes based on increased real estate assessments.

Allies of the Council in the local media went even further than the Council's own press release Thursday, falsely declaring that taxes had decreased - even as the release stated otherwise. Fake news. In fact, the Council posted a required ad in local newspapers several weeks ago announcing a budget with an increase in taxes. This follows last year's all-time-high property tax increase of 9% (which many County homeowners found actually translated into tax hikes of 10% or more, based on - yep - those automatic tax hikes that happen whether the Council increases the rate or not), and a major hike in the recordation tax.

So "holding the line" in this case means we're still at the highest level of taxation in Montgomery County history. The Council didn't have to move a muscle to get all that, and a little bit more, from your wallet for this budget.

As I reported a few weeks back, the budget massively overpays for procurement purchases, and funnels money to key donors and political allies in often-duplicative non-profit social services. Some who receive salaries from those non-profits turn portions of their tax hikes into campaign donations for the very councilmembers who voted to approve the funding for their organizations. Funding for a new microlending "Bank of the County Council" can also be "paid forward" by recipients to the campaigns of councilmembers. Those involved in determining who receives the microloans are either directly appointed by the Council, or are within their direct orbits of political influence.

Whether you pay taxes in Montgomery County can also depend on who you are. As I reported this week, developer Regency Centers was found to be in arrears to the County, having not paid their tax bills on two Westbard properties. Yet their development proposals are being pushed through the approval process, at taxpayer expense. As you know, ordinary citizens like you and me can be denied various government benefits and services if we are delinquent on our taxes.

There's a lot in this budget for the beleaguered County taxpayer to review, and perhaps even more for the FBI to examine. Such an examination could turn the Council's unwarranted budget victory lap into a perp walk outside of 100 Maryland Avenue.

Montgomery County Council: Building a better $640 toilet seat...for $22000

Non-profits continue to be one of the biggest sinkholes in the Montgomery County budget, and as a source of political patronage, a hotbed of scandal for elected officials. A bloated Health and Human Services Budget remains just as "taxing" - pun intended. As I've previously mentioned, some non-profit employees who receive salaries and raises from the County Council turn around and write campaign checks to the councilmembers who voted for those outlays of taxpayer funds. Even as that scandal goes uninvestigated, your tax dollars are being wasted in outrageous grants to programs and non-profits that often defy common sense.

From the County that brought you the $900,000-over-budget sewer pipe in Glen Echo Heights, comes their next attempt to emulate the Pentagon's infamous $640 toilet seat. Yesterday, the County Council approved a barrage of budget line-items for County services and non-profits alike for FY-2018. Some were well-justified, and others a complete waste. Among the wasteful items was $22,000 for the purchase of a 4-camera security camera system for the County's new Supervised Visitation Center.

$22,000 for 4 security cameras in the year 2017? That price would certainly have gotten my attention if I were on the Council. If you consider that any County building would already have WiFi, you're talking about the four cameras, and video storage. According to Popular Mechanics, security cameras range in price from $100 to $950. Fixr.com, a website that estimates project costs, states that Network-Attached-Storage devices range from $168 for 1 TB of storage, to $499 for 4 TB. Installation labor costs are estimated by Fixr.com to be $680 for four cameras. In other words, this whole system could be purchased and installed for under $1000, but the Council is picking your pocket for $22,000.

Interestingly, the $22,000 camera figure was not broken out in the Council staff report, but lumped with other costs in a $34,500 line item. The camera cost was mentioned by a staff member testifying before the Council yesterday. Not a single councilmember questioned the cost, and the item passed unanimously.

Montgomery County Council stealing money from senior citizens via "tax credit"

Montgomery County falsely asserts that its proposed FY-2018 budget "holds the line on taxes," and reduces the property tax rate "by 2.5 cents." In reality, homeowners will pay more in property taxes, due to rising assessments. That's not the only doublespeak in the budget. Olney resident Louis Wilen has done the math, and found that the theoretically-generous Homeowners Tax Credit of $692 actually raises the tax bills of senior citizens over 65 who make less than $60,000 a year.

Worksheet by Louis Wilen showing
comparison of issuance of $692 flat credit
versus non-issuance of $692 flat credit
(click to enlarge for greater detail)

Seniors aren't aware of this, Wilen says, because the Homeowners Tax Credit worksheet is not usually provided to homeowners, meaning that the tax credit calculation is hidden from them. For those seniors under the $60,000 income level, that calculation turns the $692 tax credit into a $346 tax increase. Wilen will ask the Council at tonight's budget public hearing to replace the flat $692 credit with a decrease in the property tax rate, to solve the problem for the affected seniors.

Wilen's finding fits a long-time pattern of this County Council, which has a history of imposing flat taxes and fees that hit residents with low or fixed incomes hard countywide. Taking advantage of senior citizens won't help the Council erase the severe trust deficit it has with its constituents, which led to overwhelming passage of term limits last November.

BETHESDA METRO

ELEVATORS

BACK IN BUDGET...

FOR NOW

Construction of new elevators at the Bethesda Metro Center has been in doubt since Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett excluded funding for them from his proposed CIP budget.

Yesterday, a county council committee restored the funding, which has the support of Council President Roger Berliner.

Now the issue will go to the full council.

The elevators, further south on Wisconsin Avenue from the existing Metro entrances, are planned to also provide access to the future Purple Line station under the road and Air Rights Building.

The Purple Line itself is currently unfunded, but continued escalator breakdowns at Bethesda have added a sense of urgency to the elevator project.

I expect that funding to be restored as well. But while we wait for the Purple Line, today's Red Line riders need a reliable and safe entrance.

These elevators would provide that. Failure to build them will continue to reduce Metro ridership while traffic is worse than ever in downtown Bethesda.

EDUCATION

IS NOT A

"BUSINESS"

I have to disagree with Jay Mathews' argument that schools are businesses going through tough times like the newspaper industry.

Mathews made this assertion in a Washington Post column on the situation at Baltimore's KIPP Ujima Village Academy. Ujima Village is one of the highest performing schools in Baltimore, and is a majority-black charter school. Now of course, there are all kinds of arguments about the KIPP program nationwide. Some believe that those scores are inflated by keeping the school's population limited to the best students.

But right now, I'm just talking about his offhand comment regarding schools as businesses. Especially when we have an education crisis, and a minority achievement gap nationwide.

In education, a product is not being produced for profit. Instead, human beings are being given the tools and opportunities to advance themselves in life. We all know that success in America also involves luck, who you know, etc. But a good education gives everyone a chance if they have the determination and are willing to work. We have to control costs and have a fiscally responsible budget. But we can't take the position that schools are a place to cut big when our politicians have mismanaged the county budget. There is plenty of other wasteful spending to eliminate elsewhere. Yet our county council took $80 million away from schools this year, in defiance of state law.

Often today, the scope of education goes beyond the classroom. The Montgomery County Public Schools program to provide free meals to disadvantaged children this summer is an example. Many students in the county are not even receiving the nutrition they need to be successful in school. This and other early childhood education programs will reduce the number of those living in poverty, the number of juveniles in our criminal justice system, and increase the number of Americans attending college.

Proper nutrition, free access to internet resources from home, more assistance to parents who wish to home school their children and other initiatives will help to close the gap. Searching for profits, or charging kids for the budgetary failures of the county council, will not.

COUNTY COUNCIL,

NON-PROFIT

STILL CANNOT

ACCOUNT

FOR

MISSING

TAXPAYER FUNDS

$900,000+ of Taxpayer Funds Missing in Weird

Web of Conflicts of Interest & Mismanagement (or Worse)

Capital Properties' Westbard Lobbying Firm COO

Embroiled in Centro Familia Investigation

The Washington Post and county Inspector General are certainly taking their time investigating what happened to over $900,000 of taxpayer funds gifted to non-profit Centro Familia by your County Council.

As I said when this came up a few months back, don't you think the average citizen would be in some major trouble if they couldn't account for $900,000 in public funds? So what is taking so long to get answers in an age when senior citizens are thrown out of foreclosed homes onto the street on short notice?

According to the Post story, a whopping $450,000 of Centro Familia's $700,000 is county taxpayer funds from the council. That's more than half!

We often hear - just the other night on Channel 6, in fact - that we need to fund non-profits in order to save money in the county budget.

Now, that is absolutely true.

However, that theory is absolutely not true when a) the non-profit is a partisan political actor, and b) the non-profit is providing its services with taxpayer monies exceeding what it would cost the county to provide those same services directly.

You could argue that Centro Familia is guilty of "b."

Again, according to the Post, Centro Familia provides "an early childhood program to about 30 preschoolers." Okay. I'm all in favor of that. In fact, I was recognized by the director of a local early childhood education for my proposals in that area during the 2006 campaign. It is also of special importance to have these programs for very young citizens whose parents' first language is not English. They often have neither the environment conducive to learning, nor even the meeting of basic nutritional needs, that most county children have at home.

But would it cost $750,000 a year (or even the $450,000 per year given by the county) to provide an early childhood program for 30 (30!) children?

I daresay, no.

It also says they have trained over 300 in-home child care providers for children. But that doesn't add up either.

So why is the county council spending your money so freely on Centro Familia?

The Westbard Connection

You may remember I broke the story last year that Capital Properties (now owner of most of Westbard) had hired lobbyists from the firm of Lerch, Early & Brewer to - what else? - lobby the county council to do the bidding of Capital Properties on Westbard.

According to the Washington Post, Lerch, Early & Brewer's Chief Operating Officer is also Chairman of the Centro Familia board. And as such, is mentioned in regards to - and quoted on - this mystery of the vanishing public funds.

This County Council has Zero Fiscal Responsibility

If you run into your local councilmember, you might just want to ask him or her why he or she is giving away your tax dollars with no accountability whatsoever.

For services they could provide directly for less!

And ask them about the portion of that $900,000 that went to "activities 'outside the country.'"

What's that about? What's going on here? Councilmembers?

And where do representatives or employees of Centro Familia "travel" at taxpayer expense?

Gee whiz, I'd like to do some traveling myself! How about giving us citizens a free vacation, councilmembers?

Apparently, the council keeps funding the organization without even examining or requesting the appropriate documentation for the expenditures!

We need fiscal responsibility! And that's going to be the voter's responsibility in 2010, at the county and state levels.

Let us keep that money so we can take vacations this summer.

It is the first day of summer, after all.

INCOMPETENCE

WITHOUT

CONSEQUENCES

New County Budget Method: "Punish the Kids"

County Council Cuts $79.5 Million from

Public Schools; Washington Post Applauds,

Endorses Council's "Inspired" Budget Disaster

Leventhal on Charging Schools for Council's

Budget Mistakes:

Let's Do This Again in the Future!

Can a county executive and council run the county's budget into the ground, take COLAs and step increases from teachers and public safety employees, take away senior citizens' dentures (I'm not making that up), slash education by $79.5 million dollars...

...and avoid media criticism, public outrage, and possibly civil unrest, in a county supposedly obsessed with services and public schools?

The answer, so far, is apparently "Yes!"

Witness yesterday's bizarre editorial in the Washington Post.

After defying state law which requires the county to maintain a minimum level of education funding, the county council then turned around and charged MCPS $79.5 million dollars. Essentially, the council and executive decided to "punish the kids" for their own fiscal incompetence (kind of like how they tried to punish disabled police officers earlier this year).

Over a barrel, Superintendent Jerry Weast agreed to a one-time deal of this sort. This was probably a mistake, in light of the state mandate.

But realizing what a boon this could be, to move school funds over for general kickbacks to political allies and developers, the council soon backed away from the original deal.

In fact, member George Leventhal (D - At Large) was quoted in the Gazette days ago on his enthusiasm for repeating the "punish the kids" practice in future budgets.

The Post's response to the council's disgraceful actions?

The Post says derelict councilmembers should take "justified pride" in their final budget. You know, the one that not only introduced this new "punish the kids" budget method; but also the one that cut compensation for teachers, police, and firefighters.

"Justified pride?!" As Bill Clinton would say, "Give me a break."

Of course, in making such a shady budget move, the council has now risked not only Wall Street's wrath, but a $40 million fine from the state.

You would think that such hubris, such brash disregard for the law and the welfare of the children of Montgomery County, would bring about a tragic end. Schools would lose not only the $79.5 million, but then the county would take another $40 million blow.

And then, you would also think, there would be heck to pay for the county council among parents, the media, and eventually, the voters.

But the Post thunders, Don't you dare punish our county council! in so many words. The Post attempts to shift blame to Dr. Weast, stating that he is "grandstanding," taking "jabs at the council," and "feuding" with our hard-working councilmembers - the same councilmembers that just ran the county into the ground!

In truth, you could argue that Dr. Weast has actually accomplished some things over the last 3 years, unlike our "justifably proud," do-nothing council.

The Post subtly endorses the "punish the kids" accounting method, mainly by stating that the council "didn't want to limit future options." "Punish the kids" is a future option, according to the liberal Washington Post.

As long as there is more money for the developers, special interests, partisan non-profits, and political allies, the Post and assorted Chambers and Boards will heartily endorse our council's "Punish the Kids" budget method.

It's outrageous.

The state board of education should absolutely hold the council accountable, so that their hubris and self-serving contempt for the law - and the residents of Montgomery County - can be known to all.

And shame on the Post for another despicable display of politics-as-usual.