I enjoy reading Adam Pagnucco’s “Montgomery Perspective” posts from time to time. Anyone who wants a helpful perspective on Montgomery County government machinations, Democrat machine “insider baseball” deliberations and some interesting takes on the ramifications of MoCo Council policy should read it. Adam was a former chief of staff for former Councilmember Hans Riemer. Yes, the Hans Riemer that tried to press for mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for County employees, while his wife worked in ‘government affairs’ for the mega-cap pharmacy corporation called Pfizer. Yes, the Hans Riemer that ran for County Executive and very likely cost David Blair the County Exec nomination in the Democratic primary (Adam Pagnucco supported David Blair for County Executive).
Adam P has also been on the front lines of what many would call ‘big labor’ politics – he is a former researcher for LIUNA, the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters – per his own ‘about’ page on http://www.MontgomeryPerspective.com. These are all what I – and probably other political “science-y” people/observers would call “labor Democrats”. They were the traditional base of the Democratic party in America, at least in the past (now the base seems to be unions of a different sort). Men and women who work in the trades and with their hands and want fair representation and compensation for the occupational health risks they take at work, most days. Although I am pro right-to-work in terms of state policy (as opposed to closed-shop, mandatory unionization), I can understand their concerns and reasons for labor organizing. I don’t demolish old, lead-filled buildings for a living or renovate asbestos-filled rooms or crawl spaces with mold. It isn’t easy work.
The AFL-CIO’s Independent Expenditures summary for 2022 is show below, lifted from OpenSecrets.org. You can see this is a wholly-Democratic party supporting organization, although individual members might have different ideas on candidates:
Anyways, Adam P’s writings on his blog and his “policy lens” comes across as an old-school ‘labor Democrat’ who just (generally) supports whatever the Democrat machine in MoCo or the broader party apparatus in Maryland is doing. Tax hikes hitting the poor and middle class, or the real estate businesses in MD or MoCo (the same ones that employ unionized labor)? Writes Adam in “Crossroads Part Five” [about rent control and its future effects]:
Yes, they’re a problem. Yes, the increases to recordation and impact taxes are large. But MoCo is not the only jurisdiction that raises taxes. Tax increases were rare across the region this year but they are not rare every year.
That’s a spin to run cover for the Democratic machine in MoCo and the delegates it sends to the statehouse, who in turn vote to spend ever more, without the revenues to back it up. Tax hikes are more common in Montgomery County and Prince George’s counties compared to county peers in Virginia or West Virginia because, as we’ve explained, the mandates coming from Annapolis on education spending are unsustainable for the counties and even the local politicians know it. Virginia does not have this mandate problem emanating from Richmond. And according to nonpartisan watchdog and government accounting research org Truth In Accounting, Virginia (and even West Virginia) reported taxpayer surpluses in 2022 at the state level. Maryland has a taxpayer burden of over $13,000 per resident. That burden means no help from Annapolis when MoCo needs to “plug” a budget hole or needs more for future education funding. We are on our own despite sending a ton of tax dollars to Annapolis.
His spin on taxes also glosses over that nearby Loudon County, VA also just reduced its “Personal Property Tax Rate” in 2023:
To further mitigate the impact of rising values of vehicles, the Board of Supervisors adopted a Fiscal Year 2024 budget that includes a five-cent reduction of the personal property tax rate to $4.15 per $100 in assessed value for tax year 2023. This is the first reduction in this rate since the late 1980s.
Ever see MoCo politicians or Marc Elrich propose something like that? Even once in the past few decades? No. The County Council and Executive also stayed completely silent as the Maryland gas tax rate jumped yet again this July 1st, punishing the poor. Elrich was quick to do a photo op at a Bethesda restaurant this week however, calling for state lawmakers to get rid of “tip” wage categories (i.e. institute minimum wage for tipped restaurant employees too, whether these employees want an end to their tips or not).
Anyways, getting to the point of this post: it seems like Adam Pagnucco, a partisan and longtime labor Democrat insider, someone who once worked for a politician (Hans Riemer) who used “Republican” as a slur in his quixotic bid for County Exec last year… even Adam Pagnucco appears to be waking up to the problems of having too much socialist-leaning ideological capture on the County Council. How do we know? Because one of Adam’s un-named sources for his post on the future of MoCo’s real estate and multi-family housing development in the wake of rent control legislation passing this month in Council said the following, and Adam courageously published it in full:
One must never forget that since Montgomery’s County executive/council form of government was created in 1970, we have always had liberal county governments. Until now. Thanks to our very first ideological county executive and his council allies, facts and common sense are daily being replaced by “alternative facts” and short-term political expediency. It is the mirror image of Trumpian-style government.
“Alternative facts” and “short-term political expediency”, indeed. But this short-term political expediency predates Mr. Elrich or the current County Council, as we’ve written about before. It is a by-product of running out of “other people’s money” and one-party rule. Still, kudos to Adam Pagnucco for posting this and maybe we will see more old-school labor Democrats wake up. These aren’t politicians interested in promoting economic growth via policy. They are interested in managing economic decay and decline in MoCo.
More to come.
