All Postings
-
Read more: Claw back the Improperly Issued Income Tax Offset Credits (ITOC)
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…
-
Read more: Who Got the Money?
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…
-
Read more: After years of same party rule, income inequality hasn’t improved
After years of same party rule, income inequality hasn’t improved
In 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…
-
Read more: Montgomery County Spent Millions of “American Rescue Plan Act” Funds on Things That Had Nothing to Do with Covid Mitigation or “Resilience”
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…
-
Read more: Progressives use your words, but not your dictionary…
Progressives use your words, but not your dictionary…
I’ve been studying the “woke” (critical social justice) movement since the Evergreen State riots in 2017. I have always identified as a classic liberal, and I still do. I am self-employed, and one could easily argue that I work in the progress business; I earn more when my clients do well, less and sometimes none…
-
Read more: The Montgomery Historical Society’s “The Immigrant Experience” Online Exhibit Reveals CM Jawando Has No Ancestral Ties to the Middle Passage
The Montgomery Historical Society’s “The Immigrant Experience” Online Exhibit Reveals CM Jawando Has No Ancestral Ties to the Middle Passage
A 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…
-
Read more: Equity Emphasis Areas Are Still Technocratic Top-Down Central Planning — And It Doesn’t Work for MoCo
Equity Emphasis Areas Are Still Technocratic Top-Down Central Planning — And It Doesn’t Work for MoCo
The 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…
-
Read more: File an MPIA: An Easy Action Step
File an MPIA: An Easy Action Step
Though 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…
-
Read more: Who Exactly Was Advocating for HOME Act. Only the .001% of MoCo
Who Exactly Was Advocating for HOME Act. Only the .001% of MoCo
Social 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…
-
Read more: Renters Should Pay More (Immediately) in Taxes Each Fiscal Year to Contribute to MoCo’s Budget and Spending
Renters Should Pay More (Immediately) in Taxes Each Fiscal Year to Contribute to MoCo’s Budget and Spending
Several 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,…