Montgomery County and Maryland continue to find mis-fortune in the world of business, as Virginia - and Northern Virginia in particular - have completely wiped the floor with both in Fortune magazine's 2024 Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 lists. The magazine published the latter list this past Friday. For 2024, seven Virginia-based companies rank in the Global 500; Maryland has only one: Lockheed Martin.
This past May's Fortune 500 list, which is limited to American companies, was equally bad for MoCo and the Old Line State. Virginia has 24 Fortune 500 firms, more than half headquartered in Northern Virginia. Maryland has just four. Montgomery County remains down to only two, after Discovery fled to Knoxville and New York City in 2019.
Perhaps the most humiliating aspect of Discovery's exit was that the Montgomery County Council was not engaged with the company's leaders at all, and was laser-focused on outlawing the use of animals in circuses during the very days that New York and Tennessee were sealing their deal with Discovery.
Montgomery County not only has failed to retain, much less grow, its stable of Fortune 500 companies in recent years, but hasn't attracted a single major corporate headquarters in over a quarter-century. "We don't need the Lockheed headquarters," former County Councilmember Nancy Floreen infamously declared in 2010. The Council's wish could come true: Lockheed recently announced it is shrinking - not growing - its footprint in Montgomery County, selling off its Rockville campus.
Lockheed seems intimately aware that MoCo's elected officials are putting all their effort into helping their developer sugar daddies continue to transform the County into a bedroom community, rather than attracting and keeping high-wage jobs and corporate headquarters like theirs. The aerospace firm is marketing its Rockville campus as a site for townhomes, not corporate offices or research facilities. If that pitch isn't "peak 2024 Montgomery County," I don't know what is. Of course, even former County Executive Ike Leggett sounded the alarm that we were becoming a bedroom community before he left office, an incredible moment of political bravery and candor that surely did not sit well with the Montgomery County cartel.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin hasn't released a statement yet regarding the Fortune Global 500. But he did issue a press release to announce $126 million in State grants to fund preparation of business-ready sites across the Commonwealth. It's important to remember that the paradigm of Virginia crushing Montgomery County and Maryland in economic development predates Youngkin and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. The issue isn't necessarily partisan, either. While Montgomery County's Republican residents have been denied any representation on the County Council through clever gerrymandering of Council districts since 2002, Virginia's booming business growth and 21st-century corporate HQ haul have come under one GOP and two Democratic governors. And several of America's top states for business have Democratic governors.
In contrast, Montgomery County and Maryland continue to self-sabotage their own "fortunes" in economic development. We have to be honest that this sabotage has been fully intentional. A new Potomac River crossing could have long ago given us direct access to Dulles International Airport, the only airport in the region with the flight frequency and global destinations demanded by CEOs and top executives. We've never completed our master plan highway system, when so many large companies are rightly focused on logistics, and seek states that invest in infrastructure like Virginia has. "Business-ready sites? What's that?" Most of our County elected officials have been tasked by their developer sugar daddies to convert as many existing or planned office and retail properties to luxury housing as possible. And they are delivering, as a quick drive around the Montgomery Mall, Wheaton, Germantown, Tower Oaks, or King Farm areas in recent years will reveal.
As a result, our County economy has been moribund since shortly after the MoCo cartel seized a majority of seats on the Council in 2002. The destruction of our business sector that began in December of that year has only accelerated over time. They're laughing at us in Arlington, Fairfax, Herndon, Manassas, and Richmond. But as more and more of the region's highest regressive tax burden shifts onto the shoulders of Montgomery County residents, the only smiles here are on the faces of the MoCo cartel, and the elected officials they totally control.
"I really don't care, do you?"
ReplyDeleteYou better care when your taxes shoot thru the roof, because business pay a lot of taxes. But maybe you not a taxpayer then
DeleteMontgomery County and Maryland are concentrating on sanctuary city and state policies, not policies which would bring businesses.
ReplyDeletemoco is a laughing stock no night life & restaurants
ReplyDelete45 style of lying.
Delete8:28: They are correct about having no nightlife. Until 2012, we actually had some, but the County Council cratered the "nighttime economy" after that.
DeleteJust what did we have that the county destroyed?
Delete11:23: There used to be bars in downtown Bethesda with people lined up outside to get in at night from the 70s to the very early 2010s. There were more 24 hour businesses, including the Tastee Diner, and in the final years there were food trucks awaiting bar patrons at closing time. Rockville had places like The Orange Ball, and the Silver Diner was open 24 hours.
DeleteThey have restraunts however they are all either chain or chinese no more mom and pop places. Drove them all out with recycling regulation, oil use restrictions and their silly bag tax!
DeleteMoco sucks! The democrats have destroyed it without a doubt!
ReplyDeleteTotally agree and Neil Potter said he was going to do that and he started it back in the mid 1990's and every county exec has continued!
DeleteInstead of blaming the council, we should blame the residents that vote people to make the county into a bedroom community. Any infrastructure project or business is voted down, delayed, or criticized by endless “community input”. Different mentality than Virginians. Doesn’t help that MoCo is aging and older people are more resistant to change. A bad cycle.
ReplyDeleteVirginians hate to build roads to get around on. So there!
DeleteI would agree with you however most of the residents here only see one thng and look for one thing when voting: a straight Democrat ticket. In doing that they insure that not only the county but the state stays the same or gets worse. Best example look at the fool who is the governor and he is no better with his fake smile and constant laugh than Harris!
DeleteNothing like comparing apples to oranges is there? A WHOLE state vs a county, how dumb can you get.
DeleteTo the 1st reply, that’s literally my point. Voters voted for this.
DeleteTo the 2nd reply: I meant NoVa, not all of Virginia.
There is no doubt that there is a generational problem: no one in the 25 to 34 crowd moves back here (all in Clarendon and Arlington) . No serious business considers coming here; White Flint will remain a wasteland for decades I believe. All brought to you by the dimwits of today’s socialist/Democratic party. Economic ruin, educational ruin and societal decay.
ReplyDeleteLiterally 9 of the 10 houses on my block are owned by people in their 20s and 30s. What on earth are you even talking about, boomer?
DeleteWell that is good news and all politics are local, but all County leaders including state Senator Feldman acknowledge there is a problem drawing this demographic back to Moco. Clearly you are a leftist name caller desperate to ignore macroeconomic data. Do you even understand what that means?
ReplyDelete