taxes
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Maryland / MoCo’s Tax Base is Heavily Reliant on Federal Jobs; So Why Not Open Up the Economy and Diversify?
Read more: Maryland / MoCo’s Tax Base is Heavily Reliant on Federal Jobs; So Why Not Open Up the Economy and Diversify?Maryland politicians are sweating hard about what could happen in January, 2025 when President-elect Donald Trump assumes office as the 47th President of the United States. Headlines like the following by Caley Shannon and Andrea Duran, writing for SoMDNews.com, have been common: Some of this would appear to be click-bait and perhaps, unwarranted fear-mongering. Successive U.S.…
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The Fallacy of the Life Sciences Obsession: Part 2—Betting against the Annapolis casino
Read more: The Fallacy of the Life Sciences Obsession: Part 2—Betting against the Annapolis casinoIn Part 1 of this series we listed the infrastructure the local, state, and county governments are giving away for free for the University of Maryland’s Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC) in North Bethesda—all sited at the coveted Metro North Bethesda station. How wise is this move? The UM-IHC is funded by MoCo, state, and…
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The Fallacy of the Life Sciences Obsession: Part 1—Subsidizing live/work/learn/play but not bus service
Read more: The Fallacy of the Life Sciences Obsession: Part 1—Subsidizing live/work/learn/play but not bus serviceFor many years our county’s officials have been extolling MoCo as a bio-tech center. In his weekly message from August 2, Marc Elrich said MoCo is #3 among all of America’s life science hubs. In a Glass Gazette from July 2024, Council Member Evan glass noted that “Our life sciences sector is incredibly important to…
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So You’re Saying It Can Be Done? Contrary to MoCo’s Tax-Hiking CE and County Council, a Midwest Town Hasn’t Charged Property Tax in 37 Years
Read more: So You’re Saying It Can Be Done? Contrary to MoCo’s Tax-Hiking CE and County Council, a Midwest Town Hasn’t Charged Property Tax in 37 YearsInteresting story today that caught our eye, this one from Realtor.com in their “trends” post: Per this writer Julie Gerstein for Realtor.com, it sounds like a town in Missouri outside of St. Louis is doing just fine for its residents — without levying a property tax at all. Who knew? Well, some of us did. …
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School Vouchers Are Already Here!
Read more: School Vouchers Are Already Here!I’ve written at least nine posts about the need for school vouchers, and I’m convinced that at some point they will become a reality—even in progressive Montgomery County where Superintendent Monifa McKnight and teachers’ union president Judith Martin very likely turned MCPS into a safe space for sexual predators. For our newer readers, here’s a…
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CleanSlate MoCo Spotlight: Local Opponents of Prosperity & Individual Choice – State Delegate Marc Korman (District 16)
Read more: CleanSlate MoCo Spotlight: Local Opponents of Prosperity & Individual Choice – State Delegate Marc Korman (District 16)Occupation: Maryland State Delegate, representing MoCo’s 16th District Affiliations: Maryland Democratic Party. Former legislative assistant to longtime career politician (since 1997!) U.S. Representative Bradley J. (Brad) Sherman of California. Former legislative director to U.S. Representative Brian N. Baird of Washington state (2005-07). Member of the Maryland Legislative Latino Caucus. Also a member of the Maryland Legislative Jewish…
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Forcing MoCo’s Poor to Pay for Our Renewable Sensibilities
Read more: Forcing MoCo’s Poor to Pay for Our Renewable SensibilitiesHere at Clean Slate MoCo we are very cautious about discussing issues at the national level. I’m begging an exception for this post, because we have a confluence of policies at the national and local level that can only be considered a war against the poor. In May 2024 President Biden increased the tariff on…
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Child Investment Fund: bigotry now, prosperity never
Read more: Child Investment Fund: bigotry now, prosperity neverOne of the most amazing books I ever read is Poverty and Prosperity by the economist Deepak Lal. In that book, Professor Lal outlines how freeing the economic markets in India and China raised fully one-fourth of the entire world’s population out of crushing poverty and wealth inequality within 40 years. This book is so…
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You Pay, They Party (Part 2) – MoCo Delegate Wilkins Enjoys a Fun Time at Preakness (Cost to Taxpayers TBD)
Read more: You Pay, They Party (Part 2) – MoCo Delegate Wilkins Enjoys a Fun Time at Preakness (Cost to Taxpayers TBD)The 149th running of the Preakness Stakes occurred this past Saturday and of course the state’s machine political establishment used the occasion to flaunt their wealth and “status” to the rest of us hoi polloi, as well as the nation. Per The Baltimore Sun’s coverage of the events surrounding a five-minute horse race, a good…
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MOVE Away From This Type of Legislation
Read more: MOVE Away From This Type of LegislationAccording to my count, Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations spans 360,586 words, or about 1,088 pages in a 12-point font. I read the entire work, comprehended about 324,527 (90%) of those words, and came to an important conclusion: the conservatives who praise Smith as a champion of unfettered economic freedom are as mistaken as the…