Andrew 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 examine the matter, let’s go back to candidate Joe Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate.
As Biden was going through his short list of VP candidates, he was put under explicit pressure by Black activists. Some prominent personalities threatened that “the Black vote ain’t free.” Personally, I admire this approach. It shows that America’s “two-party system” is much more of a mélange than what is commonly believed, and when they have a favorable bargaining position, special interests can secure a tangible achievement for their constituencies.
Unfortunately, that sophisticated bargaining tactic isn’t playing out in MoCo’s politics. Friedson is well into his second term, and hasn’t done much against an increasingly destructive and imperious progressive faction. For example, if you’ve lived in Montgomery County for more than a lunch break, you are aware of several longstanding problems:
- Hardly any MARC rail service along the Brunswick line.
- No Metro stops in Gaithersburg, Germantown, or Clarksburg
- No mid-county connector road
- Declining employment and economic environment
- Hostile business environment
- Unhealthy reliance on residential property taxes
- Deteriorating school system
- Clogged traffic along the I-270, comprising four of Maryland’s eight longest bottlenecks
- Missing outer beltway
- Population decline, and emigration to surrounding counties and states
Except for the declining population, all of these problems have been festering for 30 years. Addressing any one of them improves the lives of far more people than the members of the teachers’ union and their administrators. All of the missing infrastructure and educational systems could be built privately, costing the county nothing except providing or re-zoning the land.
On the eve of the budget vote, CMs Friedson and Balcombe could have adopted a simple posture: We give the vindictive teachers’ union everything they want, but in return we get one of the above reforms. Any one. Just one. That what the Black activists successfully did for Kamala Harris. Instead, Balcombe betrayed her constituency, and Friedson is leaving us incrementally improved, but on balance worse off, than when he entered office five years ago.
To be fair, Friedson has extreme reservations with the budget. Below are some brutally redacted extracts from the statement he issued on May 18.
“I have deep concerns with this property tax increase…we could live within our means as other jurisdictions around us have. They found ways to fund public education and public employees without raising taxes….”
Then why did he vote for the tax increase? Why didn’t he secure any meaningful concessions in return?
“Unlike some on Capitol Hill, I do not believe we should hold the government hostage due to policy disagreements, even significant ones.”
That is not the statement of a leader who stands for the future, for growth, for stability, and for equity. A leader of conviction does hold government “hostage,” stands up to fellow council members, and takes criticism from aggressive special interest groups, in order to pursue reforms for the broader good.
“So soberly and cautiously, based on my respect for the will of the body, I voted to approve this budget, recognizing that it will now create even tougher decisions moving forward.”
Tougher decisions notwithstanding, hopefully next year it will be an easier decision for CM Friedson to stand up to the ruinous progressives. We are relying on him, and hopefully but now less convincingly on CM Balcombe, to give us a brighter future—even if it means the county’s residents don’t pay for the county’s retirees all of their aristocratic pension benefits.
