Politics
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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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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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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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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…
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File an MPIA: An Easy Action Step
Read more: File an MPIA: An Easy Action StepThough CleanSlateMoCo offers an open platform for you to submit your viewpoints, opinions and research, it is often hard putting pen to paper. We get it! You know you aren’t satisfied with the conditions of the county. You might even know specific issues that really bother you. But the writing is hard. We wanted to…
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Who Exactly Was Advocating for HOME Act. Only the .001% of MoCo
Read more: Who Exactly Was Advocating for HOME Act. Only the .001% of MoCoSocial media has been flooded with pictures of a packed county council room with supporters holding signs and giving testimony. The perception is that there is a wide and inclusive foundation of support for the HOME Act. But is that really the case? Let’s take a closer look at who sent the participants and what…
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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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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)…
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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…
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Marc Elrich’s “Core 19th Century Beliefs”: Seeds of Stagnation Part 3
Read more: Marc Elrich’s “Core 19th Century Beliefs”: Seeds of Stagnation Part 3You can view Part 1 of the series here, and Part 2 here. “Maybe we need a formalized format that brings labor and others into an active discussion on what principles we might agree on – heaven knows that Republicans coalesce around their core 19th century beliefs.” The above “zinger” towards ‘Republicans’ was excerpted from…