Economy
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David Stein, do you have one corpuscle of compassion?
Read more: David Stein, do you have one corpuscle of compassion?Within the last week over 1,000 employees were laid off from the State Department. More layoffs are coming at the Department of Education. According to “National Public” Radio (not much of either), as of June 6 this year 59,000 federal jobs disappeared since Trump entered office. There is surely more to come. For some of…
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Stop More Housing N.O.W. / ZTA 25-02!! – It Doesn’t Do What it Promises to Do
Read more: Stop More Housing N.O.W. / ZTA 25-02!! – It Doesn’t Do What it Promises to DoA growing number of County residents and community groups are speaking out against the “More Housing N.O.W.” legislation, specifically Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 25-02 scheduled to be taken up by the County Council in July. Some Council Members are promoting the bill as a step toward increasing affordable housing options for teachers, firefighters, nurses, and…
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Affordable housing: We need bulldozers, not corridors
Read more: Affordable housing: We need bulldozers, not corridorsGo to the soft-drink aisle of the supermarket, stand in front of the display for 16.9 oz Coca Cola bottles, and you will see something absolutely amazing. The level of the beverage inside the bottles is almost identical. You’ll probably never find a bottle with exactly 16.9 ounces, but all of them—millions of them—will be…
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Affordable Housing Is Not a Public Benefit
Read more: Affordable Housing Is Not a Public BenefitIn a previous post we introduced Maria, an irresponsible alcoholic parent. Her sister Juanita is fortunately much more responsible. Juanita’s daughter broke a leg during hyperactive cheerleading tryouts, and the orthopædist recommended a waterproof cast. Juanita runs to the medical supply store and sees an item for $200—exactly the amount she budgeted for medical emergencies.…
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Non-Competitive Knowledge Transfer Contracts
Read more: Non-Competitive Knowledge Transfer ContractsThough briefly mentioned in the last article, here we will take a deeper dive into the 5 most expensive of the 13 knowledge transfer contracts that the county currently has in place. Each of these contracts were direct awards to an individual. We have redacted the names of the contract recipients. Person 1 – Awarded…
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Mini DOGE on MoCo Contracts
Read more: Mini DOGE on MoCo ContractsUnder the Montgomery County Code, § 11B-14, the County can award non-competitive contracts. With these contracts, multiple businesses or entities are not required to compete on the price of services. The results of a recent Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request were recently sent to CleanSlate MoCo that outline the 154 non-competitive contracts that the…
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Jawando’s and the Teachers’ Union’s Questionable Morals on Housing Policy
Read more: Jawando’s and the Teachers’ Union’s Questionable Morals on Housing PolicyScenario: Maria’s child is running a 103℉ fever. She rushes the child to the nearest urgent care facility. The receptionist asks for an insurance card and a $100 copay. Maria stalls: if she pays the $100, she won’t have enough money to buy herself beer and cigarettes. Instead, Maria gambles on the child’s recovery and…
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Finally, MoCo can diversify its economic base (and Marc Elrich is helping)
Read more: Finally, MoCo can diversify its economic base (and Marc Elrich is helping)Prior to Trump II, study after study recommended that Montgomery County dilute its reliance on the federal government as a primary employer. For example, in the Sage Policy Group’s 2018 report The Coming Storm: How Years of Economic Underperformance are Catching up with Montgomery County: Between 2006 and 2016, Montgomery County lost 12,511 private sector…
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Is there empathy anywhere in America for Montgomery County?
Read more: Is there empathy anywhere in America for Montgomery County?Uber drivers are a variegated bunch. Some of them are overworked, some of them have too much free time. Some are chatty, some are sullen. Taking an Uber ride from Denver’s charming Union Station, I scored one of the overworked, chatty ones. “Where are you coming in from?” he asked. “Just outside the Washington, DC…
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Does Andrew really care about your wallet?
Read more: Does Andrew really care about your wallet?After nearly 8 years of saddling MoCo residents with increased taxes and higher costs of living, a pending announcement to run for County Executive has Andrew Friedson pivoting to “care about the financial burden of living in Montgomery County.” Marc Elrich released his proposed budget this year, once again asking taxpayers to agree to have…