Hold The Line, Montgomery County!

I have spent quite a few column inches in this blog talking about Montgomery County, which I have called home, more because of inertia than anything else, for virtually my entire life.  The county government has a well-deserved reputation for taxing its residents and spending money like it's water, and its managers are now finding, in this miserable economy, that it's damn tough to turn off that tap. 

The county is now facing a 400 million dollar deficit for next year, and it's pretty much run out of options for finding that kind of cash.  Eighty percent of the county's budget goes to salaries for county employees, including cops, firefighters and teachers, and the county is going to have to ask all of those workers to forgo pay raises for a second year in a row. 

These kinds of pay freezes have become commonplace in other jurisdictions, as well as in the private sector, but it's almost unheard of in Montgomery, where employee unions have ruled the roost for too many decades.  As I've written before, this is the kind of power that can develop when there is no level of bipartisanship within the ranks of elected officials.  Montgomery County does not have a single Republican in power at the local or state level, and now we are paying the price for the myopia of our voters.  I'm not arguing that the GOP has better ideas, just that diversity and moderation is underserved here. 

The Washington Post has an op/ed piece today that makes an excellent argument to County Executive Isiah Leggett and School superintendent Jerry Weast to hold the line on pay hikes and cost-of-living increases, but it will be a mighty struggle for them to hold off the unions that have run roughshod over taxpayers for too many years. 

I say all of this despite the fact that my wife is a county schoolteacher.  We certainly could use the money that a pay raise or a COLA would bring in.  But we need fairness more than we need money.  As the Post points out, others are learning to make do with less.  Montgomery County workers need to join us.

Thank Goodness For Inertia!

If it wasn't for inertia, I'd have up and moved out of Montgomery County by now!  Just a quick folo to yesterday's story about the county's broken traffic light computer system.  As you'll recall, my main rant was that the county was providing free commuter bus service - a move that cost the county thousands of dollars to no apparent benefit. 

Well, today, there's good news!  The traffic lights are fixed!  And to celebrate, guess what the county is doing?  It's providing free commuter bus service again today!  More money down the drain!  But it's OK... This is Montgomery County, where the streets are all paved with gold! 

Spare me.

Another Shining Moment For Montgomery County!

It's been a frustrating couple of days for commuters in Montgomery County. The 30-year-old computer that controlled more than 750 traffic lights in the county crashed the other night, leaving the lights with no way of adjusting their timing to account for rush hours. The lights still operated, but in many cases, their timing patterns made no sense, and thousands of commuters were left sitting through series of frustrating short-cycles.

This really falls into the unfortunate category of "sh** happens". No one likes it, but really - what are you going to do, other than frown and bear it until the problem is fixed? Well, here in the peoples' republic of Montgomery County, our leaders are loathe to sit on their hands and do nothing. Better to provide some kind of "fix", even if it does nothing and costs the county a lot of money!

The county, in all its wisdom, is providing its Ride-On commuter bus service for free today. Is this really supposed to provide some sort of relief? How many cars is this going to take off the roads? Are people who normally drive going to abandon their cars in favor of riding on unfamiliar buses? Will this get them to work any faster?

The answers are no, none, no and no. Regular Ride-On riders are getting treated to freebies today, and county managers are getting the opportunity to show they are doing "something" to address the traffic issues. I don't know what an average day's revenue is on Ride-On, but it has to run in the 10's of thousands of dollars. But now, we've given up that money, all to allow some bureaucrats to demonstrate they are "on the case".

Hey, Montgomery County! Sometimes NO solution is a better solution!

Speed Cameras Save Lives? No. Budgets? Yes!

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett is in a no-win situation these days. The county's finances are in shambles, just like virtually every other county in the U.S., and Leggett has to find a way to balance the budget. He's cutting about 400 jobs, local bus routes, library hours and various other programs, all of which are prone to gripes from various factions in Montgomery.

He's proposing to impose an ambulance fee, a move that has already been declared "dead on arrival" by the paid fire personnel who would be charged with imposing it (not that they should have any say at all in the matter). And then there's this one-sentence item from today's Washington Post:

Drivers on Montgomery's streets would see the number of stationary speed cameras increase to 60 under Leggett's plan. With the additional cameras, the program is projected to raise $15.7 million for the budget year that begins July 1.

Wait a minute. I thought speed cameras were regarded primarily as a "safety" measure, not a revenue -generator. So why would the County Executive order up more of them in order to add to the bottom line? I'll tell you why... Because speed cameras are nothing BUT a revenue-generator - and a decreasingly effective one at that, I'd bet!

I regularly pass by two sets of county speed cameras. The ones on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase, and the one on Georgia Avenue in Olney. I was nabbed a couple of times in Chevy Chase when the cameras were new, but have not been caught since then, and I've never been caught in Olney.

I can tell you that those two blocks are two of the safest blocks in America, because everyone slows down to the speed limit as they pass by the cameras. Of course, they are speeding right up to the boxes, and they resume their speeding a block later, but by God, those blocks where the cameras are actually located? SAFE!

I would bet that after initial spikes in revenue, those areas are starting to see a drop-off in the number of tickets they generate, because regular commuters are wise to them... therefore, the need for more cameras throughout the county.

This is all a sham. I think I'd feel better about the cameras if the county would just call them what they are... a deliberate money-making tax on leadfoot drivers. You can't convince me that speed cameras are making our streets safer when many, if not most, of these cameras are located on level-ground straightaways in areas where the speed limit is already artificially set too low.

I'd have less of a problem if the speed limits were set at more reasonable speeds. But then the revenue levels would drop.

We can't have THAT now, can we?

Here's Proof We haven't Learned A Thing...

As the federal stimulus money starts to pour out of the government's coffers into state and regional agencies, the decision-makers at the local levels are getting to decide how to best spend the money. The idea (at least as far as I understand it) is to use that dough to create jobs by fixing infrastructure - preferably in projects that will take a good long time to complete. The hope is that by the time these projects are completed, the economy will be in good enough shape to sustain the workers who will be benefitting now from the stimulus program.

So can anyone explain to me why Metro is planning to spend a huge chunk of its stimulus money - not on capital projects - but to keep the current system going? Metro has a 30 million dollar budget hole, and was looking at cutting service to close the gap until board chairman Jim Graham stepped in with a plan to use stimulus money instead.

Critics say using stimulus money to balance Metro's budget this year will only move the problems to next year, when no new stimulus money will be forthcoming. But Graham told us at WMAL today he's optimistic the economy will recover enough by next year so that Metro won't have the same budget problems it has now.

Isn't this how America got into the trouble it's in today? By spending money NOW and worrying about how to pay our bills later? Using optimism as some sort of credit plan is not the smartest idea I've heard, either, Mr. Graham!

Metro loses money with every person who rides a train. For every dollar you spend to ride Metro, some government (MD or VA or DC or the Feds) is paying another dollar to subsidize your trip. By failing to cut service, Metro is hoping to keep people riding. That is all well and good from a public policy standpoint. But the more people ride, the more it costs taxpayers to keep them riding. Financially, it could very well make sense to cut some of the lower-volume train and bus service.

Montgomery County, which I have railed on regularly in this blog, will release its budget plan this week, and County Executive Ike Leggett is promising he will not use a single stimulus dollar to balance the county's books. I have a lot of problems with how Montgomery County conducts its business, but I am with Mr. Leggett on this point.

If your credit cards are at their spending limit and you find a wad of cash in the street, you don't go buy yourself a new car... you pay down your debt.

It's called being fiscally responsible. Montgomery County (at least in this case) is.

Metro is NOT.

Thank You, Robin Ficker!

We offer a hearty congratulations and our deepest thanks this morning to an obnoxious pain-in-the-ass loudmouth whose very name has been little more than the punchline of a joke for the past three decades. Robin Ficker is an anti-tax gadfly in Montgomery County - someone who has railed against tax-and-spend local government for decades - and someone who had become accustomed to being roundly ignored by both local lawmakers and voters.

Ficker is known mostly for getting anti-tax referendums placed on county ballots - referendums that have been soundly defeated, until now. After a count of absentee ballots, Ficker's latest amendment has actually been approved by voters. The measure, which requires a unanimous vote of the county council to increase taxes beyond a cap set by the county's charter, will likely have little effect, and will likely be reversed as soon as lawmakers can figure out a way to do it.

But in passing Ficker's amendment, voters have done two things. They have told lawmakers to find other ways to generate revenue aside from increasing taxes. And more importantly, they have reminded elected officials that there IS more than one valid point of view in Montgomery County. Ficker himself told the Washington Post, "As evidenced by this vote, there are a lot of homeowners who feel their voices are not being heard," he said. "Someone is going to give these bipartisan homeowners a voice."

When I was a news director, I didn't take Robin Ficker very seriously, and neither did anyone I worked with in the media. Thank God for his thick skin and stubborn determination. Thank you, Robin Ficker.

Rockville Tea Party!

Just as the colonists of Boston sent a message to the king, voters in Montgomery County have sent a warning shot to the County Executive and Council... I gleefully give you this editorial from today's Washington Post:

The Montgomery Tax Revolt
Voters send a clear message to Rockville: Cut spending and curb union influence.

Friday, November 7, 2008; A18


THE JOKE HAS always been that Montgomery County residents never met a tax they didn't like. Voters, tired of being a punch line, sent a contrary message to county leaders on Tuesday: Stop the tax hikes and start spending less. Half of Montgomery voters supported a measure that would make it more difficult to raise the limit on property tax rates. The ill-advised measure, which could hinder the County Council's ability to raise revenue in a time of fiscal crisis, became an outlet for voters frustrated with spending in Rockville. It's unclear whether the measure will pass -- it's ahead by a few hundred votes with thousands of absentee and provisional ballots uncounted -- but, whatever the outcome, Montgomery lawmakers would be wise to take voters' concerns seriously.

The possible success of the measure, peddled by anti-spending ideologue Robin Ficker, isn't a total validation of Mr. Ficker's three-decade crusade against taxes. But it is a repudiation of the county government's warped fiscal priorities. The council, and County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), buckled to union pressure last year and approved audacious pay increases that far exceeded inflation and defied common sense. The raises, which total 8 percent this year for many county employees, contributed to a severe budget deficit that forced the council to approve a 13 percent increase in property tax rates earlier this year. Taxpayers, incensed by the increase, wondered why they had to bear the brunt of the budget crunch. At a time when the county is shedding jobs and many feel lucky to have a steady paycheck, shouldn't county workers also contribute to a solution?

No doubt many voters also may have had in mind the recently reported excesses of the county's disability retirement program. More than 60 percent of Montgomery police officers who retired in the past four years are collecting service-related disability payments. Some officers have legitimate complaints; others are gaming the system and taking taxpayers for a costly ride. Reforming the disability program would have tangible fiscal benefits -- $35 million was awarded for service-related disability benefits in fiscal 2008. Reform would also send a message to voters that county leaders are serious about rebuffing excessive union influence.

Mr. Leggett could reinforce that message if he takes a firm position in negotiations about possible pay concessions. Usually the soul of conciliation, Mr. Leggett must make the case that it's better for union leaders to compromise on wage hikes than risk the council's deciding not to fully fund the increases. The council must buttress Mr. Leggett by making clear that such threats aren't idle. The alternative will be serious budget cuts that reduce services and cut jobs. That's no laughing matter.

A Cautionary Tale...

I'm breaking my "no more presidential election blogging" rule just long enough to note that John McCain's 11th hour campaign tactic is to point out the dangers of having one party controlling everything. Without any effective "pushback" from an opposition party, some better ideas are inevitably going to end up in the trash can, and a good chunk of the nation will, at least for the next two years, essentially be without a voice in the business of America.

McCain is right.

For evidence of this, let's look at my hometown of Montgomery County, Maryland, where even liberal Republicans have been seemingly forever driven from office. Without any GOP dissent, the County Council has effectively killed a proposal to charge ambulance fees, a move than would have generated 14 million dollars in revenue at a time when the county is facing a 250 million dollar deficit. This is the same county that earlier this year killed a proposal to sell alcohol on Sundays because the evils of selling booze outweighed the potential extra revenue that Sunday sales would bring.

As usual, politics are at play here, and there's no yin to counter the yang. Volunteer firefighters are leading the fight to kill the ambulance fee, because they say they shouldn't be required to charge people for services when they themselves are providing their time for free. That's all well and good, but it doesn't pay the county's bills.

If the ambulance fee is approved, the volunteers are promising to fight back and place the issue on the ballot in 2010. And guess what else will happen in 2010? Every single member of the county council will be up for re-election, and members of the council don't want their names on the same ballot as an unpopular fee that they supported.

With all of our elected officials sleeping in the same political bed, there's no one with the political will to fight the status quo in Montgomery County. And taxpayers are paying the price.

Keep that in mind when the Democrats control the House and the Senate and the White House.

And keep your checkbook handy.

Push Is Coming To Shove

The Washington Post is reporting that Montgomery County will ask the teachers union to go back to the bargaining table and negotiate to eliminate pay raises for teachers next year. In fact, the county will likely be looking to eliminate pay raises for all county employees. At the risk of angering my kindergarten-teaching wife, I say it's about time the county stands up to the labor unions in Montgomery!

The county is facing a 250 million dollar shortfall, and that is AFTER a county tax hike that increases homeowners' property tax bills by an average of 13 percent. If we, as the "employers", have to take a hit, then our employees must swallow hard and take a hit as well. As I have written previously, it is simply rediculous for public sector workers to expect eight percent pay raises when the private sector employees whose taxes support those public jobs are going without raises, or in some cases, (such as mine), are losing their own jobs altogether.

The only caveat I would have to cutting teacher pay raises is that if they have to make the sacrifice, then so should all county workers. Forgoing pay raises for the year will, by itself, wipe the county's deficit in half. It sucks, but it simply MUST be done.

Feeling Pretty Smug On The Beach!

A glance at the newspaper (you remember newspapers, don't you?) this morning conjured up not one, but TWO familiar themes for discussion...

After devoting his entire career to raising taxes, it seems Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett has finally raised the white flag and chosen an alternative to reaching directly into your pocket... In the long-standing American political tradition of opposing an idea before supporting it, Leggett has reluctantly come out in favor of legalizing slot machines in Maryland! All I can say is - Jump in, Ike... the water is warm! Leggett is not breaking open a roll of quarters to play the machines just yet - he says slots are the lesser of two evils, with the other evil being tax increases... But in a county where lawmakers have never seen a new tax they didn't like, this is real progress!



Also in the paper - the return of an oldie but goodie to this blog... More proof that the new ballpark for the Washington Nationals is proving to be a loser for the DC government. Not only is the team holding up its rent payment by arguing that the stadium is not "essentially complete", but tax revenues for the park are well behind projections, because the city foolishly figured on more than 3 million people visiting the stadium in its first year. It looks like attendance is going to come up about 700, 000 bodies short. Look - the Nationals stink - but more importantly, there is no culture for baseball in this town, and it is going to take YEARS for the team to reach that mark... and it will only do THAT if the Nats are flirting with a playoff spot... something that will not be happening any time soon!



Finally, a follow up to my previous entry concerning my visit with a financial planner during this week of global economic confusion. All went well during my visit with Dan from Merrill Lynch, but he was clearly scrambling to keep up with his nervous customers. I am admittedly lousy with money management, but in this case, it turns out one of my blunders almost certainly saved me some money. The money from my most recent 401k has been sitting as cash in a Merrill Lynch account for the past couple of months because I had never gotten around to investing it. Dan tells me that is normally a bad idea (duh.) because the money should be invested so it can grow... However, as lousy as things have been lately, Dan says I definitely saved money by sitting on the sidelines! So let's hear it for me!

I'm Probably Lucky To Be Alive

For more than 13 years of my life, I lived literally around the corner from Leisure World, a retirement community for "active" seniors - some of them no doubt a bit TOO active for their own good. With none of my usual sarcasm or wit, I present you with this news item from today's Washington Post:

A man and a woman, both 92, were fatally injured Saturday night in Montgomery County when the car in which they were riding crashed near the Leisure World retirement development, authorities said.

The woman was identified as Eunice Wolman, the wife of David Wolman, 96, who was driving the car that crashed about 7 p.m. on Norbeck Road near Georgia Avenue in the Silver Spring area. David Wolman suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.

The man who died was identified as Max Rubin. His wife, Libby, also 92, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

All four occupants of the car lived at Leisure World, and one neighbor said she thought that they were returning home after dining out.

Police said David Wolman's Buick was going east on Norbeck when it drifted onto a shoulder. The driver overcorrected, and the car crossed into the opposite lane and then left the road. It struck a stop sign and a tree, fatally injuring both backseat passengers, police said.

A neighbor of the Wolmans described them last night as "a very, very loving couple." "They went everywhere together, did everything together," Rena Shochet said.

Although well into his 90s, she said, David Wolman appeared to be a careful, capable driver. "He was sharp," Shochet said.

Call me ageist if you want, but would ANY OF YOU be comfortable knowing you could be sharing a two-lane road with a 96-year-old driver? God bless him for living that long, but this poor man just killed his wife, and he could have killed someone else, too!

I don't care if our seniors vote... The people they elect need to pass a law putting an age limit on driving!

Why Do I Still Live Here?

Well, the short answer of why I continue to call Montgomery County home is that the housing market is in the tank, but beyond that, I really DO wonder sometimes why I stay in the county that I've called home virtually my entire life.

Regular readers of this blog have heard me bitch in the past about the broken county government that has never seen a tax it didn't like. It simply costs way too much to live here, and it's largely because the labor unions representing county workers are pulling the puppet strings that control our elected leaders. I say this, by the way, as the husband of a county school teacher.

The latest abuse and waste? A new audit from the county shows that more than 60 percent of the county cops who have retired over the past four years were placed on disability as they walked out the door - ensuring them of 2/3rds of their full-time pay for the rest of their lives tax-free. One of the "disabled" officers who retired won a fitness competition just a year after retiring! If the officers had simply taken retirement benefits, they would have been entitled to 60 percent of their salaries, and would have been taxed on that money. Their benefits would also have dropped considerably once they started receiving social security.

I don't know enough about labor contracts or the law to know whether anything can be done about any of this, but I DO know that there's plenty of fraud being committed, and as a taxpayer, I'm being left holding the bill again.

What's really at the bottom of all this is the imbalance of power in Montgomery County politics, where there is not a SINGLE elected Republican officeholder. The Democrat lawmakers are all beholden to the labor unions that helped them get elected - the same unions that can damned sure get them UN-elected if they don't toe the line. The Democrats would never admit to this, but they (and county residents) were better off when there were still a few liberal Republicans around to offer some pushback. Instead, the County Executive and Council are in many ways just pawns to the real power base.

Where have you gone, Howie Denis? A county turns its lonely eyes to you!

This Just In! The Washington Post Reads My Blog!

I opined last week that Montgomery County is nuts to give its employees what amounts to an eight percent pay raise at a time when its private-sector taxpayers (like me) are having to forgo pay increases or even losing their jobs (like me) during this recession. Well, the Washington Post editorial board, which obviously reads "Life On The Beach" nearly as devotedly as Randy Bernstein does, apparently agrees with me.

In one of the paper's top op-ed pieces today, the Post says the county council NOT only raised property taxes this week AND preserved the eight percent raises, it ALSO gave cops a 14 percent pension increase, gave firefighters a compounded three-year 28 percent pay raise, including an 11 percent hike in 2010 alone, and boosted retirement contributions for county workers as well.

The Post editorial speaks of a love affair between the county government and its labor unions. I believe the issue has more to do with the lack of political balance in Montgomery County. I have no great affection for Republicans over Democrats, but there are no checks and balances in my hometown... No yin and yang... No one politically capable of calling out their colleagues on the other side of the aisle because there IS NO other side of the aisle.

And now we're paying the price. Well, those of us who don't work for the county, anyway.

We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place!

(everybody sing!) ... if it's the last thing we ever do!


I'm speaking of course, about living in Montgomery County, Maryland - a jurisdiction that I have called home for my entire life... a county whose elected leaders have never seen a tax they didn't like!


At a time when inflation is up, home values are down and recession is looming, the County Executive and County Council are bickering over how deeply to stick it to homeowners. Now, I've been covering these kind of squabbles for years, so none of this comes as a surprise - but I can't help but wonder what geniuses approved what amounts to an 8 percent pay increase for most county employees. I've been reading in the paper about how county workers are the "most precious resource" the county has. I have no beef with the services I receive, but somehow I think county TAXPAYERS - the people who foot the bill - are somewhat more precious than employees. What world do these people live in where they think an 8 percent pay hike is normal, even in GOOD economic times?

Like I said, none of this is surprising to me in the Peoples' Republic of Montgomery County, but what's really burning my britches today is the fact that as much as the county likes to increase spending, it balks at efforts to generate any new revenue that does not come straight from my pocket! County Executive Ike Leggett has shot down a proposal to open county liquor stores on Sundays - a simple step that could put another million dollars a year in the county's coffers. Leggett has shot down the idea, saying the potential social ills could outweigh any financial benefit.

Ike - I don't know about you, but whether the liquor stores are open on Sunday or not, the rising cost of living here is enough to drive me to drink!