News and Views
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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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Will Jawando – A Legacy of Control, Punishment, and Favoritism
Read more: Will Jawando – A Legacy of Control, Punishment, and FavoritismCouncilmember Will Jawando is well into his second term, after winning only 17% of the votes in the 2022 Democratic primaries. In this post we list the bills for which he is the only sponsor, and provide a brief analysis. Legislative Initiatives Below are all the council enactments for which CM Jawando was the only…
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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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CM Laurie-Anne Sayles’ Chief of Staff is an….Interesting Fellow
Read more: CM Laurie-Anne Sayles’ Chief of Staff is an….Interesting FellowNew Montgomery County Councilmember (Democrat, At-Large) Laurie-Anne Sayles has an interesting Chief of Staff. Mr. Ikheloa has his own Wikipedia page / entry and claims he is a prominent “literary critic” who has worked in the “American civil service since 1984.” Indeed, Mr. Ikheloa has worked for many years in the “civil service”, mainly with…
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CM Laurie-Anne Sayles Appears to Attend Will Jawando’s Mega Church (Its Non-Profit Corp Has Received Thousands in Taxpayer Funding)
Read more: CM Laurie-Anne Sayles Appears to Attend Will Jawando’s Mega Church (Its Non-Profit Corp Has Received Thousands in Taxpayer Funding)Revisiting an earlier topic / investigation today, first published here at CleanSlateMoCo.com. It is regarding the non-profit arm of an AME mega-church in the Maryland – DC area that is attended by Montgomery County CM Will Jawando and his wife Michelle, and appears to use this connection to a local politician (and his wife, who…
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MoCo Origins (Part One) – The El Salvador Connection
Read more: MoCo Origins (Part One) – The El Salvador ConnectionThis is part one of an investigative series on the origins of several immigration movements, associated non-profits / NGOs and geopolitical events a world away that have shaped Montgomery County, Maryland into the community it is today. It is also a unique look back at some of the international escapades and adventures of local MoCo…
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We Don’t Build Bridges Anymore – And It is Crushing the DMV Region
Read more: We Don’t Build Bridges Anymore – And It is Crushing the DMV RegionThe District-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) region suffers from a paralysis. Bridge-building paralysis, specifically. In the year 2023, the region’s top traffic bottlenecks stem from a lack of bridges and options to cross water. Don’t let any local politician fool you. The issue is no new bridges. Getting across a river is like crossing a gauntlet for millions…
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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…