Spending
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Non-Profit Cronyism in MoCo – Siphoning Millions From We the Taxpayers
Read more: Non-Profit Cronyism in MoCo – Siphoning Millions From We the TaxpayersMontgomery County is engaged in egregious political cronyism with the “non-profit”, CASA. This is an established fact and one we will not stop exposing. And kudos to Adam Pagnucco at MontgomeryPerspective.com for diving even deeper into the issue today (though he dare not type the word “cronyism” about the County Council or Marc Elrich). What is…
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Personal Thoughts on Street Safety
Read more: Personal Thoughts on Street SafetyThe lead image was photographed close to the Montrose Road offramp of the I-270. There is nothing more stirring, jolting, or heartbreaking than driving by a small memorial marking where a fatal accident occurred. We see them on Old Georgetown Road, Georgia Avenue, and interstate onramps. Was the victim a careless pedestrian looking at an…
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The White Oak Façade Improvement Smells a Bit Odd
Read more: The White Oak Façade Improvement Smells a Bit OddMontgomery 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…
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WSSC Office of Inspector General Reporting on In-House Procurement Office Performance Reveals Much to “Be Improved”
Read more: WSSC Office of Inspector General Reporting on In-House Procurement Office Performance Reveals Much to “Be Improved”As we previously posted, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) pretty much always gets what it wants from Montgomery County Council politicians, particularly when it asks for approval on water/sewer rate hikes for the upcoming fiscal year. These rate hikes hit your wallet and mine and increase the cost of living for each and every resident…
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The 2024 Budget Vote, When the Reformers Failed Us
Read more: The 2024 Budget Vote, When the Reformers Failed UsAndrew Friedson is by far a more compassionate, thoughtful, and caring member of the County Council than its progressive members, and CM Marilyn Balcombe has earned well deserved credibility as an advocate for a much neglected up-county population. Tragically, when it came to their votes for the 2024 budget, both let us down. Before we…
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Re-Branded as “Action Youth Media”, Gandhi Brigade Youth Media (a MoCo Taxpayer Grantee) Still Appears to be Promoting Only Certain Types of “Activism” Through Art
Read more: Re-Branded as “Action Youth Media”, Gandhi Brigade Youth Media (a MoCo Taxpayer Grantee) Still Appears to be Promoting Only Certain Types of “Activism” Through ArtBack in March we highlighted current Councilmember Evan Glass’s former employer / non-profit, Gandhi Brigade Youth Media or GB Youth Media. The organization gets thousands in public money each year. In fact, it got a pretty sweet deal back in March 2018, as Mr. Glass was navigating his way through primaries and running for County…
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MoCo’s Housing Programs and Associated Failure
Read more: MoCo’s Housing Programs and Associated FailureThis 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…
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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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Who Got the Money?
Read more: 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…
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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…