Economy
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Maryland’s Sky-High Regressive Gas Tax Set To Increase Yet Again, July 1, 2023
Read more: Maryland’s Sky-High Regressive Gas Tax Set To Increase Yet Again, July 1, 2023Maryland residents will experience another crushing increase in cost of gasoline at the pump this summer drive season across Maryland. This is all courtesy of a Martin O’Malley-era law passed by Maryland Democrats in Annapolis that insanely ties gasoline tax rate increases to the rate of inflation. Energy costs themselves are a main driver of…
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MoCo’s Housing Programs and Associated Failure
Read more: MoCo’s Housing Programs and Associated FailureThis post, part 4 in a series on our county’s distorted housing market. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here, and Part 3 here. At the time of this writing, the powerful and controlling County Council is considering two rent-control measures that, in the words of the less powerful but equally controlling County Executive Marc…
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Claw back the Improperly Issued Income Tax Offset Credits (ITOC)
Read more: Claw back the Improperly Issued Income Tax Offset Credits (ITOC)The Montgomery County Council invited submissions of testimony related to the FY24 Budget on April 13, 2023. One resident, Louis Wilen, submitted testimony and supporting documents that make a strong case for the County to recover over $100 million in improperly issued Income Tax Offset Credits (ITOC). Mr. Wilen is no stranger to identifying fiscal…
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Who Got the Money?
Read more: Who Got the Money?In an effort to have budget and spending transparency, the County publishes the spendingMontgomery data dashboard that compiles revenue and spending information. You can dive into the data, and even download the data for your own analysis. We jumped into the 2023 Expenditure Ledger and downloaded the data so we could run a more comprehensive…
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After years of same party rule, income inequality hasn’t improved
Read more: After years of same party rule, income inequality hasn’t improvedIn 2017, Adam Pagnucco published an article entitled, MoCo’s Mighty Seven Zip Codes. The article examined the income disparities across a county that, while having a reputation for being wealthy, is actually a county with just very concentrated wealth. The article concluded, after utilizing data from 2011-2015, that: “with the exception of its wealthiest zip…
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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…
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Equity Emphasis Areas Are Still Technocratic Top-Down Central Planning — And It Doesn’t Work for MoCo
Read more: Equity Emphasis Areas Are Still Technocratic Top-Down Central Planning — And It Doesn’t Work for MoCoThe Metro Washington Area’s “Council of Governments” (MWCOG or just COG) is a regional body that says on its “About Us” page / shadow box that it is: the one place in metropolitan Washington that regularly brings leaders together to develop solutions to the region’s major challenges. But has it developed solutions to the region’s major…
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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,…
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Rent Control: Prejudice in the Form of Legislation
Read more: Rent Control: Prejudice in the Form of LegislationDuring the Obama and Trump administrations, the federal government inflated the currency, but you blame the landlords for rent increases. Prices of food are going up, but you put price controls only on the landlords. Prices of insurance are going up, but you put price controls only on the landlords. Prices of fuel are going…
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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…