Just about every week County Executive Marc Elrich sends out a video message. Almost all of these messages pertain to policy, commemorations, awards, meetings, and the CE’s outs-and-abouts. The message from September 1 was quite different. He gave us a view of his home, his gardening, and to some extent his personal life. Mr. Elrich…
Montgomery County Executive and 35-year career politician Marc Elrich was out with stale talking points and more spin this Friday, Sept 8th, as he gave a recorded “Message from the County Executive”. First, Elrich crowed on about the County’s “33 year low in unemployment numbers” and referenced the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics jobless rate…
Montgomery County Exec Marc Elrich and County Councilmember Kristin Mink trekked up to the White Oak area of eastern Silver Spring, MD last week to take photos with a giant check of “Maryland State Legislative Bond” money (see photo below, courtesy of MontgomeryCountyMD.gov). Doling out other people’s money is a past-time of politicians – but…
Yesterday I came across a crowing tweet (sorry, “post” on “X”) by County Exec March Elrich discussing the long-awaited “revitalization” of the vacant, neglected Burtonsville Crossing retail center in eastern Montgomery County. CE Elrich was basically issuing a press release on behalf of the “MD14 Team” which consists of a slate of local MoCo politicians…
Remember 2014? A throwback to a time, just nine years ago, when Montgomery County seemed “governed” by responsive adults. MoCo was still highly taxed, its small businesses burdened and frequently regulated with local ordinances that started in California, not in MD. It was still stagnating, economically, and it couldn’t hold a match to Northern VA’s…
Montgomery County’s Consolidated Retiree Health Benefits Trust (the fund used to pay out retiree healthcare expenses for former MCPS and Montgomery College employees, among other county retirees) is under-water and has less then 50% of the assets needed to satisfy projected liabilities/claims in the years ahead, per official reporting issued by Montgomery County government and…
As we pointed out in January of this year, Montgomery County’s Department of Environmental Protection is obsessed with promoting “electric vehicles” (EVs) as a means to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and build confidence in ecofriendly transportation options among the public.” County Executive Marc Elrich is also obsessed with “EVs” and electric / battery-powered busses. He tweeted…
Residents of Montgomery County are gathering signatures to get a question on the November 2024 election ballot that, if passed, would limit the County Executive to only two consecutive terms in office, not the current three. Under the current MoCo charter, a County Executive can serve three consecutive terms, which spans twelve years. This would…
This 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…