If you are making $150,000 and live in Montgomery County in the year 2026, you are squarely middle class. If you are making $75,000 (the Council's laughably-outdated measure of a Joe Six Pack), you're effectively poor, and maybe getting by paycheck-to-paycheck - if you're lucky. Interestingly, no one in the local press besides me is pointing this reality out. But that's par for the course for our media Fifth Column of fellow travelers.
Affordability? Hah! The Council, which draws itself a $168,000 salary at taxpayer expense each year for their part-time Council "jobs," is once again laughing at you. Yes, this is the same Council who insiders say refer to you, the taxpayers, behind closed doors as "losers" and "suckers." Well, you lost again yesterday, your bank account will lose even more, and you'll be a sucker for sure if you vote to re-elect these incompetent criminals this November.
You're paying double what you were for groceries just six years ago, gas prices are skyrocketing, cars are priced as luxury items now, utility bills are crushing you monthly, and insurance companies are price-gouging you with impunity. What does the Council do to address the affordability crisis? Raise your income tax, raise your property tax, raise the fees you pay, and - get this - eliminate the Income Tax Offset Credit that homeowners were eligible for. That makes two property tax hikes in one budget!
Now, the Council provided its farcical definition of "rich" as those of you making $150,000 and up. Do you know what they consider a lavish mansion? Homes worth $800,000 and up. It's not just their policies that are stuck in the Woodstock era, but their entire grasp on economics. Then again, nobody on the Council went to Yale or Harvard exactly. $800,000 and up? That's basically any home inside the Beltway that's not an as-is fixer-upper, and a huge percentage of homes outside the Beltway.
Think about the federal government workers the Council claimed they were so worried about. A large percentage of those workers are making $150,000 and up. Now they're getting slammed with a double property tax increase, and an income tax hike. You can see that the Council doesn't give a damn about you or your struggles, or about the rest of us private sector taxpayers.
Who does the Council give a damn about?
The Montgomery County cartel that gets them elected, and from whom they take their marching orders. That's the real estate developer oligarchs, the Council-connected "non-profits" who funnel taxpayer funding they receive back to the campaign accounts of councilmembers, and certain labor unions. All got fully funded in this budget. Montgomery County Public Schools got a massive increase in funding, while their enrollment of actual students is dwindling by the year. Make it make sense.
When you think of these synthetic-left councilmembers raising taxes on hardworking middle class residents at a time of financial struggle, think of the oligarchy. Think of the 20-year property tax exemption that the Council provided for their millionaire and billionaire oligarch developer sugar daddies just months ago. It applies to nearly every apartment development, and therefore is robbing the County coffers of billions in revenue. That fiscal impact was already felt this year. Billions going into the pockets of billionaires, instead of schools, police officer hiring, infrastructure, libraries and parks, for at least the next twenty years.
Who will make up for all that lost revenue, and the structural budget deficit the Council itself created earlier this century? Once again, the Council made clear: You, the taxpayer. You, the homeowner. You, the small business owner. You are the loser they mock. And the cartel oligarchs are once again the winners they reward - with your hard-earned income, and your equity and security in the home that was the biggest investment of your life. It turns out the government owned it all along!
Taxes going up, government and elected official salaries going up, traffic camera ticketing going up, and friends of the Council getting rich at the expense of taxpayers - all this happened in Bell, California, and elected officials there went to prison. All this is happening in Montgomery County right now. The County where oligarchs get richer, and their puppets on the Council drop an anvil on the middle class to make sure the numbers work out.
Incredibly, police have no description of the suspect, not even a gender. They say that County officers and Metro Transit police canvassed the area, the White Flint Metro station, Metro trains, and other Metro stations, but came up empty-handed. The suspect appears to have melted into the ether.
Police are asking anyone with information regarding this homicide to visit the Crime Solvers of Montgomery County, MD website at www.crimesolversmcmd.org and click on the “www.p3tips.com” link at the top of the page or call 1-866-411-8477. Tips with information leading to an arrest may be eligible for a reward from $250 up to $10,000. Tipsters may remain anonymous.
Yet another shocking violent crime has been committed in broad daylight in Montgomery County, a disturbing new trend in the County's six-year crime wave that has picked up steam this spring. An adult male was fatally shot outside of the Marriott North Bethesda Hotel and Conference Center at 5701 Marinelli Road in Rockville around 11:37 AM this morning. Yes, that's AM, not PM. One would like to assume it would be safe to walk outside this hotel at 11:37 PM. It's astonishing that one now must be hesitant to do so just before lunchtime under bright sunshine.
According to Montgomery County police, officers were dispatched to respond to a report of a shooting outside the hotel. Upon arrival, first responders found an adult male in "serious condition." The victim was subsequently declared deceased, and police say they are investigating the case as a homicide.
@TheDMVLive reports on X that the victim was shot in the back of the head outside the hotel around 11:35 AM, and that the alleged shooter fled on foot toward the White Flint Metro station across Rockville Pike.
Whether it is a gunfight inside a Silver Spring grocery store or outside of a Westbard Avenue bowling alley, a gun being fired at students in a downtown Bethesda park at lunchtime, or someone being shot in broad daylight outside a hotel in White Flint at 11:35 AM, these things were not happening in Montgomery County twenty - or even ten - years ago.
What is happening to our community, and why do we keep electing the people who have done this to us?
Police have not released descriptions of the suspects. They did not indicate how the three avoided appearing on the many surveillance cameras inside the CVS. This was - yet again - another violent crime taking place during daylight hours, the latest trend in the six year Montgomery County crime wave.
Squishable is relocating inside Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. The plush toy retailer won't be going far, though. It is going to be across from its current location. That location has temporarily closed because it takes time and some doing to corral these creatures and herd them across the corridor.
Francesca's has permanently closed at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. They had one of the longest closing sales I've seen outside of some of those rug shops. Then again, the demise of the fashion boutique chain was also a long one. Francesca's filed for bankruptcy over five years ago. Westfield is probably not losing sleep over this closure, as it has recently agreed to leases with a number of tenants that would be considered an upgrade from Francesca's.
Eight months after I first reported that HEYTEA was looking into opening its second Montgomery County location at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, the chain has posted coming-soon signage at its future space on Level 1. It will be in the former Luggage Plus space, between L'Occitane en Provence and Vydration. Where is Luggage Plus? It has moved upstairs in the same wing, to a space right outside of Macy's Home.
Now, you may be saying, do we need another tea shop in Montgomery County, or even at the mall? Yes, you do, because HEYTEA is one of the most innovative and popular tea chains in the world. When they opened their first Maryland location in Rockville, the line was out the door.
What is the secret of HEYTEA's success? In 2012, in a small alleyway called Jiangbianli in Jiangmen, China, its young founder invented cheese tea, the product that would become the company's signature beverage. The brand's other signature is its worldwide popularity on social media, stimulated by the company's effort in creating Instagram-ready store interiors and packaging, and drinks that have as much appeal to the camera eye as to the taste buds.
A carnival with an anti-drug message for children has returned to the parking lot at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. L.E.A.D Fest, an initiative produced by the organization Law Enforcement Against Drugs, will be at the mall tonight through Sunday May 10, 2026. A parent or guardian must accompany children under 18, some rides require a parent to also ride along, only clear bags will be allowed into the carnival area, and no face coverings are allowed, unless required for a medical reason.
Tickets can be purchased online. It's intriguing to have an anti-drug event in a county and state whose leadership are strongly pro-drug. Worth contemplating, is why your elected officials want you to be zonked out on mind-altering drugs. Just say no!
Shiki Fusion is now open at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. Asian fusion restaurants are experiencing a revival in Bethesda, or maybe they just never went out of style. Bethesda just got a Chinese-Thai fusion gastropub in Six Ways to Sunday. Now here is a Japanese-Thai menu at Shiki Fusion.
The restaurant is celebrating the opening by offering a complimentary appetizer or dessert to all dine-in customers through May 14, 2026. Look for Shiki Fusion on Level 3 of the mall, right across from the entrance to the AMC Montgomery 16 cineplex. Just take the escalator up from the Dining Terrace food court. You can't miss the Trumpian gold letters on the side, with an arrow pointing the way up. Even the Montgomery County Council would be able to find it!
