Greg Visscher
-
Montgomery County Spent Millions of “American Rescue Plan Act” Funds on Things That Had Nothing to Do with Covid Mitigation or “Resilience”
Read more: Montgomery County Spent Millions of “American Rescue Plan Act” Funds on Things That Had Nothing to Do with Covid Mitigation or “Resilience”A review of information at both Treasury.gov and MarylandTaxes.gov reveals that Montgomery County politicians spent millions of future taxpayer dollars allocated to it via the so-called ‘American Rescue Plan Act’ (ARPA) on things that had nothing to do with Covid-19 disease mitigation or ‘resilience’. The final portion of this funding (via the Federal Government’s largesse…
-
The Montgomery Historical Society’s “The Immigrant Experience” Online Exhibit Reveals CM Jawando Has No Ancestral Ties to the Middle Passage
Read more: The Montgomery Historical Society’s “The Immigrant Experience” Online Exhibit Reveals CM Jawando Has No Ancestral Ties to the Middle PassageA brief follow-up to earlier posts where we clearly showed Montgomery County Councilmember Will (Yemi?) Jawando has made several misleading and outright false claims in official ‘proclamations’ or government communications (e-mails from his office) concerning his familial ancestry and story and how it is intertwined with Black American slavery and overcoming government-supported segregation. The most galling of these…
-
Renters Should Pay More (Immediately) in Taxes Each Fiscal Year to Contribute to MoCo’s Budget and Spending
Read more: Renters Should Pay More (Immediately) in Taxes Each Fiscal Year to Contribute to MoCo’s Budget and SpendingSeveral years ago, even prior to being a homeowner in Montgomery County, Maryland, I came across this article by the fantastic personal finance blogger ‘Financial Samurai’. I majored in economics from the University of Maryland, so I always had an interest in this kind of thing. But even more so then basic economics, personal finance,…
-
Mink’s 2021 Anti-SRO Hearing Testimony to Board of Ed
Read more: Mink’s 2021 Anti-SRO Hearing Testimony to Board of EdCouncilmember Kristin Mink’s 2021 Anti-SRO Hearing Testimony to Board of Ed Included Reference to Questionable Study (and Appears to Conflate Correlation with Causation) In March 2021, activist and now-current Montgomery County Councilmember Kristin Mink supplied written testimony to the MoCo Board of Education in which she urged an end to the Student Resource Officer (SRO)…
-
As Montgomery County Faces Recession Pressures and Uncertainty, Marc Elrich Departs for Taiwan with Member of County Council
Read more: As Montgomery County Faces Recession Pressures and Uncertainty, Marc Elrich Departs for Taiwan with Member of County CouncilTen days after revealing his “recommended” fiscal year 2024 budget for Montgomery County, Maryland, that includes big tax hikes via property tax rates, County Executive Marc Elrich is departing for business and “international smart city” representation in Taiwan. Does it reflect someone concerned about County finances? On March 15, 2023, CE Marc Elrich put out a…
-
Who is Pillaging the Taxpayers Faster: MoCo vs Fairfax Edition
Read more: Who is Pillaging the Taxpayers Faster: MoCo vs Fairfax EditionLocal ABC7 News Affiliate WJLA reporter Nick Minock did some actual investigative journalism yesterday and revealed some pretty stunning facts about the state of our neighbor to the south, Fairfax County, Virginia, and their own local politician’s perks and taxpayer pillaging. Let’s see how Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors stack up to Montgomery County’s Councilmembers…
-
MoCo Sets Aside its Values with “Sister City” Partnership with Xi’an, China
Read more: MoCo Sets Aside its Values with “Sister City” Partnership with Xi’an, ChinaDid you know Montgomery County has five “Sister Cities”? Three are in Asia, one in Africa and one in, yep, Marc Elrich’s favorite country, El Salvador (more on this in another investigative post). Per the ‘about’ page on the County’s Sister City website, the mission here is: People have come to Montgomery County, Maryland from…
-
Investigating the Taxpayer Support of CM Evan Glass’s Former Employer, Gandhi Brigade Youth Medi
Read more: Investigating the Taxpayer Support of CM Evan Glass’s Former Employer, Gandhi Brigade Youth MediMontgomery County Councilmember (and now Council President) Evan Glass’s former employer, a 501c3 charity called Gandhi Brigade Youth Media or GBYM, has raked in State of Maryland and Montgomery County grants, records show. Gandhi Brigade Youth Media states that its mission is to: create communities where young people build the confidence and media skills to express…
-
Revisiting Adam P’s Excellent September 2010 Post on MoCo’s “New Normal” for “Maryland Politics Watch”
Read more: Revisiting Adam P’s Excellent September 2010 Post on MoCo’s “New Normal” for “Maryland Politics Watch”Stumbled upon this while searching for something else related to Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, but here is a devastating, nearly accurate assessment of MoCo’s (and to a degree, Maryland’s) current budget and economic situation in 2023, a full twelve years and six months after this was written up by Adam Pagnucco, now of the…
-
Seeds of Stagnation & Decline (Part 2): Marc Elrich’s Early Years in Takoma Park City Government
Read more: Seeds of Stagnation & Decline (Part 2): Marc Elrich’s Early Years in Takoma Park City GovernmentIn Part 1 of this series, we went through some past Takoma Park City Council meeting notes and discovered that current Montgomery County, Maryland Executive Marc Elrich has always had a general distaste for how people and “developers” (aka entrepreneurs or homeowners seeking better and more profitable use of scarce land) use their private property. …