As one crosses over the county boundary into Montgomery County from Howard County, near Ashton-Sandy Spring, you’ll see a road sign that says “Welcome to Montgomery County: Building a Drug-Free Community”.
It is a pretty standard sign – and has been there for years. A throwback to a time when MoCo – and Maryland – genuinely did not want to have a population addicted to drugs.
But as I drove by it this weekend, it occurred to me just how incoherent – and utterly false – this sign is in 2023.
Montgomery County actively promotes liquor and pot sales now (to just adults “of course”). It isn’t a building a drug-free community… its actively pursuing a local economy and tax base that is, at least in part, based on drug and liquor sales. Repeated calls to privatize liquor sales have been rebuffed by the geriatric County Executive, who insists the liquor distribution business is essential to MoCo’s budget (it isn’t).
Other incoherence abounds beyond just this false signage.
The Montgomery County Council wants predictable, stable rents and a stable rental market… by introducing more unpredictable taxes and rent control regulations? It claims to want affordable housing… but their litany of taxes and land-use regulations and building code regs will definitely make housing prices climb ever-higher. There are over 90,000 acres in the county that can’t be used for meaningful home construction.
The Montgomery County government claims to want to fight “hate / violence” yet the County Executive vocally denigrates MoCo residents who belong to another political party from his. One of the members of the County Council has compared American Muslim parents to “white supremacists” for having a different opinion on public school curriculum policy.
The Montgomery County government claims to want to help the poorest or the “working poor” in our County, yet their energy policies and energy tax make energy more unpredictable and more expensive – a de-facto regressive tax on the poor. The County Council votes to allow WSSC to raise regressive water use rates on MoCo families as well. More regressive taxation.
Members of the Montgomery County Council claim to promote safety and to be responsive to residents concerned about crime — yet their actions and bills are usually milquetoast in support of police and other safety personnel, at best. More often, they are making it even more difficult for public safety personnel to do their jobs.
The list goes on and on.
Can such incoherence from the top result in a prosperous, thriving community? It never has before. It is much more likely that this incoherence will lead to further inflation and economic stagnation, not to mention cultural / institutional decay. But the good news is that options remain to both “turn the tide” on this incoherence from on high and, failing that, to live a prosperous life outside of the Council’s “model society”.
