Economy
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Stop the Spend – A Non-Partisan Initiative
Read more: Stop the Spend – A Non-Partisan InitiativeStop the Spend is an initiative to constrain the growth of county spending to the rate of inflation. We are currently collecting signatures to have our initiative appear on the November ballot. A few weeks ago a group of us from Stop the Spend were out gathering signatures. One resident asked me, “Are you a…
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Tax the Rich and the Underserved Pay the Price
Read more: Tax the Rich and the Underserved Pay the PriceIf you were standing on a cliff watching others jump to their deaths, would you follow? Common sense says no. Yet Montgomery County is poised to do exactly that, repeating policies that have already failed elsewhere. This year’s proposed 5.5% expansion of the county budget comes with a steep cost: a 6.3¢ per $100 increase…
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Is There Such a Thing as Good Public Debt?
Read more: Is There Such a Thing as Good Public Debt?There is no such thing as a “bad” doughnut. Go to the beloved Donut King in Kensington and try to find one. In contrast, there is definitely a difference between good and bad public debt. In a recent meeting at Poolesville’s city hall, Council Member Will Jawando promoted the possibility of the county taking out…
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A Plea for Responsible County Finances
Read more: A Plea for Responsible County Finances“We don’t have the money,” according to MoCo Exec Marc Elrich and Council President Natali Fani-González. They promise us they will talk about how to get more money, and they do not rule out increasing our taxes. In fact they warn us to expect taxes to be increased. Targeted tax increases. We all know who…
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Rezoned and Still Missing the Middle—Part 2: Dismantling the Colony
Read more: Rezoned and Still Missing the Middle—Part 2: Dismantling the ColonyIn 1632, King Charles I granted Lord Baltimore a charter to settle an area of new New World delineated by the Atlantic Ocean, 40th degree latitude, the Potomac River, and islands in the Chesapeake Bay. Charles named the area Maryland. Because Baltimore was chummy with Charles, he received very enticing terms of ownership. And we…
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Rezoned and Still Missing the Middle—Part 1: Cost Accounting
Read more: Rezoned and Still Missing the Middle—Part 1: Cost AccountingAnyone who cares about affordable housing supports rezoning—including President Biden’s administration and more recently the Senate’s bi-partisan ROAD to Housing Act. For my part, I’ve written dozens of articles in favor of blanket rezoning the acres upon acres of single-family lots throughout Montgomery County to increase the supply and lower the price. Unfortunately, recent experience…
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Feds, the progressives are your friends no longer
Read more: Feds, the progressives are your friends no longerIn Los Angeles there is an area between Westwood and Santa Monica that is home to several large federal installations (FBI, VA, various agency extension offices). If a fed gets laid off from one of those agencies, there is plenty of work available in LA’s entertainment, hospitality, manufacturing, and other industries. In New York there…
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ZTA 25-02: A Small Step Toward a New Age in Affordable Housing
Read more: ZTA 25-02: A Small Step Toward a New Age in Affordable HousingThe last attempt at zoning reform was ZTA 19-01, introduced by former council member Hans Riemer. The highlight of that reform was a blanket approval allowing homeowners to build accessory dwelling units (ADU) on their properties (subject to constraints). That reform did almost nothing to alleviate the cost of housing, so council members Andrew Friedson…
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Central Planners from MoCo at the Root of State’s Energy Crisis – and Your Skyrocketing Energy Bills
Read more: Central Planners from MoCo at the Root of State’s Energy Crisis – and Your Skyrocketing Energy BillsMaryland’s beleaguered taxpayers are also getting smacked with energy rate hikes and the resulting large power bills this summer as the mid-Atlantic electrical grid operator (PJM Interconnection) struggles to ensure reliable power to homes, businesses and families across the region. Since reliable energy is a lifeblood for business operations and production (food, retail goods, transport,…
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How Badly is MCPS Red-lined?
Read more: How Badly is MCPS Red-lined?I’ve mentioned several times that MCPS is redlined based on affluence: affluent families live in areas where the schools are successful, and struggling families live in areas where the schools struggle along with them. In this post I present a visualization of this claim. Step 1: Identify the schools’ rankings Niche.com provides a succinct ranking…