Reflections on Democratic county executive nominee Marc Elrich and likely successor to Isiah Leggett

   Update July 14, 2018 to include histories of Virginia car tax as a proxy for a local income tax.  More material also added about political populism (good government process) distracting from economic populist fiscal and budget policy of how income and property taxation are spent.


   Well, voters for Marc Elrich ‘won the most numbers’ (of votes) in the Montgomery County, MD Democratic primary for county executive. His voter base carried Marc Elrich to victory in the Democratic primary based on wanting to make the county executive, council and planning board more responsive to citizens not new home builders demonized as ‘developers.'  No, candidates like Marc Elrich are actually more accountable to citizens/civic associations.    


   Individual members of citizens/civic associations constantly deflect their own progressive exceptionalism (lack of economic populism) of maximizing personal aging in place/active adult home sale resale (or rental while waiting for a higher offer) profit, passed down to survivors after dying in place, by projecting their greed onto new housing builders ('developers') with the political populism of campaign finance reform.  Those citizens/civic associations (with a civic federation umbrella group) are 100% homeowner in membership earning high enough incomes to have much discretionary ‘time on their hands’ to build relationships with council and planning board members and staff as well as show up at hearings.  

   No, voters didn’t elect ‘more responsive’ government officials.  All voters did was make #MoCo less welcoming to anybody who earns less than the projected median income of about $145,000 per year by 2030 which would be the end of a hypothetical third term for Marc Elrich and any other council members elected in 2018.

   Note those 2017 signs residents put up when they were resisting ‘President’ Don Trump’s 2017 and 2018 increased deportations and Muslim (entry) travel bans in multiple languages that said

“No matter where you’re from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor,” well, those signs are half right.  “We don’t care where you’re from, we don’t care what you look like, all we care about is what your financial assets and income look like on a mortgage or rental application,” is what the signs should say.


   Again, addressing voters for any candidate other than George Leventhal or Rose Krasnow in the 2018 #MoCo Democratic primary, anyone who doesn’t expect to be earning $145,000 per year by 2028 or 2030 start house hunting or apartment hunting in other counties than MoCo if you want to stay in MD.  Or DC or right-to-work-for-less VA.  That hostile worker climate to create a ‘good business climate’ is why the wages are lower that correspondingly lowers the housing costs.  That local income tax voters pay in MD is replaced in VA by the same bill on the first $20,000 of car value as personal property tax.  So the tax costs of Md and Va. are kind of a ‘wash’ if one does move to VA.  The rate varies by county, like Maryland local income and property taxes, with a state offset that varies too that avoids recurring 'structural' state (commonwealth) of Virginia budget deficits.

       Political populism by rich 1%-er upwardly mobile professional/creative class (actually or aspirationally, by professional clothing, vocabulary and lifestyle choices) destroys economic populism that helps 99% (in actual wealth or lack thereof AKA working class and working poor) retain decent pay and living standard (including affordable, to even earners of 30% of area median incomes, housing distributed to all master plan areas) with an equitable share of productivity gains
 
paid, as net gains, to labor more than capital.


   Trust in executive and legislative branch fiscal policy decisions, on school and other public services, in Prince George’s county by supporters of 1978 TRIM (Tax Reform Initiative by Marylanders)


   10.    Under a new computation model that assesses value at 100 percent rather than at 40 percent, the tax cap became 96 cents per $100 of assessed value in 2001. It has stood, unchanged, ever since.
      
The current debate over TRIM mirrors those of the past. It’s a conversation about government spending, mistrust and keeping up with the neighbors, such as Montgomery and Fairfax counties. In an interview, former delegate [David] Bird, who now lives in Howard County, said he was chagrined to see Prince George’s cap in danger again: “It remains one of the few checks the public has on government. It would be a shame if you don’t let voters decide.” But to [Parris] Glendening and other elected officials [successor executives Jack Johnson and Rushern Baker] trying to balance Prince George’s annual budget, TRIM is one of many reasons the county struggled to make progress improving schools and attracting sought-after businesses.

and 1996 Truth In Taxation

Del. Joanne C. Benson (D-Dist. 24) of Landover was there in 1978 when a group of residents banded together at a meeting to pass TRIM.
"Research showed us that if we put this initiative in place, in 25 years we were going to see a devastating impact on public education and public safety, and that is exactly what has happened," Benson said.
She said those issues were set aside by longtime residents looking to curb funding for an influx of African-American students enrolling in county schools.
"That initiative was designed to slow down the amount of money allocated to educating children in a certain population," she said. "I was adamantly opposed."
The referendum passed, but came under attack in 1996 in a drive led by then-County Executive Wayne K. Curry (D). On Election Day, 80 percent of voters decided to leave TRIM in place.
Looking back, school board Vice Chairman Howard W. Stone Jr., who worked on the 1996 referendum for Curry, said it came down to trust.
"People have a problem with just giving government a blank check," Stone said.
With such a resounding majority unwilling to repeal the tax cap, some are considering modifying the law instead of repealing it by referendum.
"[TRIM] needs to be repealed," Stone said. "But modifying the tax cap might get more citizen support. I think people would be willing to support modifying TRIM if we earmarked the money specifically for education and public safety."
Prince George's County is not the only jurisdiction with property tax caps. California instituted caps around the same time as Prince George's, said Marie Howland, a professor of urban planning at University of Maryland, College Park, who has studied taxes for decades.
"California has had the same problems with their schools since they passed a real strict tax cap in the '70s," Howland said. "The problem with things like TRIM is that the quality of schools go down, which means the quality of the work force goes down, and the region becomes less competitive. ... It seems like a good idea in the short term, but in the long range, communities suffer.
"It's one of the reasons Prince George's is not as competitive as Howard County and Montgomery County," she said.



and Prince George's County Republican Party Central Committee litigants in 2017


Fred Price Jr. and James K. Wass believe the 4 cent increase in the county’s real estate tax rate approved in 2015 violated the county charter’s Tax Reform Initiative by Marylanders, or TRIM, because it happened without voter approval. Price had filed the lawsuit against Prince George’s County with fellow Republican Party Central Committee member Wass.

The lawsuit appeals to have the 2015 tax increase placed on the 2018 ballot as a referendum.

“And, hopefully, reversed,” Price said. “It ought to be rolled back and properly put before the voters.”
Although the suit was initially filed in September 2016, it was amended earlier this year and rulings on various motions have occurred in recent weeks.


“Because the court has rejected all of the motions to dismiss filed by the county, that tells me that we have a legitimate case on hand,” said Tamara Davis Brown of Prince George’s Tax Watch.


are the Prince George’s county local manifestation of Montgomery County’s Republican Robin Ficker-inspired CPI cap on property tax increases with regressively harder votes (7 of 9 until 2008 unanimous 9 member council vote) met in 2016 responded to with term limits to enforce an effective property tax rate and revenue cap.  The all-district council Montgomery County, Md ballot initiative Question C of 2004 served as another 'moderate' Republican (or 'politically independent' 'bipartisan' 'compromise') disruption of economic populism with political populism. 


   Thanks again Montgomery County, MD Democratic primary voters for making the county welcoming in all ways but economic class. Well not entirely.  We’ll have our ‘token’ low income population - whoever can wait 5-10 years for whatever HUD and HOC rent vouchers we’re willing to fund (and apartment landlords are willing to accept) to spend property and income taxes on as long as people can wait 5-10 years on the waiting list continuing to pay ‘free market’ housing costs. The housing ‘free market’ is rigged by variations on the same ‘as few new residents as possible while plausibly denying the nimby position’ expressed in terms like this


"other county needs, including the adequacy of schools, roads, transportation and green space, as well as environmental stewardship, safety, and care for our seniors,"

 theme at every Planning Board and County Council master, sector, project plan and subdivision staging (formerly known as growth) policy hearing since, and probably before, 2002.