MoCo Council bill would steal money from disabled, seniors for BRT slush fund

After voting to tax Uber rides to subsidize failing Barwood Cab, which ended with Barwood filing for bankruptcy anyway, now the Montgomery County Council is trying to convert funds the tax earmarked for seniors and the disabled into a slush fund it can use for the $10 billion Bus Rapid Transit boondoggle. Bill 13-18, sponsored by Council President Helpless Hans Riemer, would strip all language from the Uber tax that directed funds to transportation for the disabled, elderly and poor, and "instead allow use of the fund for any transportation purpose in the County."

We already knew that the Uber tax, as I warned in my testimony opposing it, would hurt County residents and Uber drivers alike. Exactly as I predicted, Uber rides became more expensive, Uber drivers are being paid less than they were a few years ago, and no new ride-sharing competitor has entered the Montgomery County market since the tax was imposed.

This also made the County less appealing to the young professionals the Council has tried to publicly claim they wanted to attract, as millennials overwhelmingly use Uber rather than taxicabs. To our stuck-in-the-60s Council, diesel buses and Barwood Cab are still considered state-of-the-art transportation.

But now the Council is adding insult to severe economic injury to the County. When passing the Uber tax, the bleeding-heart language related to improving transportation for the disabled and elderly was used by the Council in the media as a fig leaf, to cover the anti-progress, fight-the-future nature of the Uber tax.

Now the Council is cravenly plotting to steal the money out of the hands of the disabled and elderly, and use it to fund their struggling $10 billion BRT boondoggle. The County, currently facing a $208,000,000 budget shortfall, has been unable to find enough funds for the BRT scheme. They failed to create an independent transit authority twice, which would have had unlimited power to tax and spend with no oversight by any elected official. Recently, they tried and failed to have their allies in Annapolis give them "quick-take" land seizure authority, which would have allowed them to seize homes and businesses - not only for the demolitions BRT will require along each route, but which could also have been sold to generate more money for the unfunded BRT boondoggle.

Desperate for money, the greedy Council will now try to pry it from the hands of disabled, poor and elderly residents, and put it into the pockets of themselves and their developer sugar daddies, whom the whole BRT scheme was dreamed up to profit.

It's outrageous.

It's bad enough Uber and Lyft riders have had to pay more, and via the tax pay Barwood Cab even if they weren't using their services. But to then find out the Council used the disabled and seniors to actually gain a new revenue source for their BRT boondoggle, this is a new low for even this corrupt Council.

Montgomery County Council to raise property taxes, after claiming they wouldn't

Remember when I reported that the Montgomery County Council would raise property taxes again this year, despite elected officials' and the local media's claims otherwise? More proof is in. Here is the announcement the County Council is required to print in local newspapers before they can raise your taxes, and it reads, "The County Council of Montgomery County proposes to increase property taxes."

It also details what I had explained: The County's tax scheme deviously increases taxes automatically each year, in an attempt to trick the public into thinking the Council had nothing to do with it. In fact, as the announcement notes, in order to avoid the automatic tax increase, the Council would have to "reduce its real property tax rate enough to fully offset increasing assessments. The proposed budget does not provide such a reduction.

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County Council candidate who will lower
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Hence your tax rate for FY-2019 will be 4.1% higher, and the Council will steal an estimated $56,120,926 from their constituents' bank accounts in the coming year, on top of what you payed last year. The Council's historic 2016 8.7% tax hike walloped many County homeowners at effective 9%-10% rates based on their rising home assessments. Councilmembers had falsely claimed the increase was for "education," but student performance and graduation rates have actually continued to decline after the tax hike, as they have throughout the decade.

If you re-elect Helpless Hans Riemer and 3 new equally-controlled At-Large candidates chosen by the MoCo political cartel, wait until you see the tax increase you'll get in 2019, 2020, etc. A better choice would be to vote for Robert Dyer, who will offer a #DyerTaxCut, repealing the 2016 property tax and 2010 energy tax hikes incrementally over 4 years. Riemer's own former chief of staff recently noted that the energy tax hike appeared to have a devastating effect on the net number of new businesses created in Montgomery County this decade. MoCo had a net increase of only 6 new businesses, while D.C. and Fairfax enjoyed a net addition of 3000 new businesses each.

Moribund MoCo has lowest new-business growth rate in region

You know a jurisdiction's business climate is at rock bottom, when one of its biggest critics is the former chief-of-staff of that jurisdiction's sitting County Council President. Thus, some of the best analysis of the moribund Montgomery County economy has come from Council President Helpless Hans Riemer's former chief-of-staff Adam Pagnucco on the Seventh State blog. Pagnucco has done it again, producing another set of mindblowing stats on the walking-dead MoCo economy.

In a recent post, Pagnucco showed that, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Montgomery County has the lowest rate of growth of new business establishments in the region since 2000. Only the tiny City of Falls Church has fared worse, and think of how small they are in relation to Montgomery County (they have only 15,000 residents vs. our 1.4 million).

Who was ahead of Montgomery County in new establishment growth? [If you are a Montgomery County elected official, consider this a trigger warning, and an opportune time to slip a paper bag over your head before your constituents read the following list] Loudoun County with 134% growth of new businesses established, Spotsylvania County 86%, Prince William County 82%, Stafford County 79%, Culpeper County 58%, Arlington County 42%, Fauquier County 42%, Warren County 37%, District of Columbia 37%, Rappahannock County 32%, the D.C. region as a whole 32%, Frederick County 31%, Fairfax City 30%, Fairfax County 30%, Manassas City 28%, Manassas Park City 27%, Jefferson WV 23%, Calvert County 22%, Alexandria 20%, Clarke 19%, Charles County 16%, City of Fredericksburg 12%, Prince George's County 12%.

Montgomery County, by contrast, had a paltry 10% growth rate in new establishments.

Good God. Humiliating!

The Montgomery County Council again has their [briefcases] handed to them by...Culpeper County???? LOL. Fredneck??? LOL. Jefferson bleeping West Virginia? Bleep, yes.

We already knew that Montgomery County has failed to attract a single major corporate headquarters in two decades. And that the Maryland Retailers Association reported a net loss of over 2100 retail jobs in Montgomery since 2000. But Pagnucco has found even more staggering statistics to add to the Montgomery Moribundity.

Just looking at the post-recession years alone, 2011-2016, the District of Columbia and Fairfax County enjoyed a net gain of 3000 new establishments each. Over those same years, Montgomery County had a net gain of...6. That's a single digit folks. Six.

And how about this: Pagnucco discovered only 19 new business filings in Montgomery County were recorded with the State of Maryland in FY-2016. Nineteen. 

Again, a total humiliation.

Who beat us that year within our own state? Worcester County was at the top, with 138 new business filings. Somebody call Rodney the Lifeguard to save our drowning County Council!

Pagnucco notes that 2011 was the first fiscal year completely impacted by the County Council's massive 2010 energy tax hike. He ends one of his reports with perhaps the most pertinent question in this election year:

"Which candidates for office do you think can help turn this around?"

Myself, for one. Visit my website to see why I am the best choice for the Montgomery County Council At-Large to turn around Montgomery County's utterly moribund economy.

Police searching for man who vanished in Rockville

Montgomery County police are asking the public's help in locating a man who vanished in Rockville last month. Tibebe Yorannes Shenkute, alias "Michael Johnson," is described by police as a black male, 5′ 6″ tall, weighing 150 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. When he was last seen in Rockville, he was wearing a brown pullover jacket, sweater, button-down shirt and pants (with no confirmed descriptive colors).

Shenkute is a former resident of Rockville, but had been recently staying in Gaithersburg. He is also known to frequent the Silver Spring area. Police and his family are concerned for his welfare.

Anyone with information regarding Johnson’s whereabouts is asked to call the police non-emergency number at 301-279-8000.

Mayor & Council to hold closed session Thursday morning

Rockville's Mayor and Council have scheduled a closed session for tomorrow morning, April 5, 2018 at 9:00 AM, in the Diamondback Terrapin Conference Room at City Hall. According to the agenda, the meeting is to receive legal advice, and to consider a proposal for a business to locate, expand, or remain in the city. It may also involve discussion of the acquisition of real property with a "public purpose."

The City of Rockville has not been publicly identified as a potential home for Amazon's HQ2, but County officials have not publicly confirmed all of the specific properties they are offering to the company. White Flint has been the area most-discussed in relation to the Amazon search so far.

Thursday's meeting is not open to the public.

Mayor & Council to host Twinbrook neighborhood meeting April 10

Rockville's Mayor and Council will host a neighborhood meeting in the Twinbrook community this coming Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at 7:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Twinbrook Recreation Center, located at 12920 Twinbrook Parkway, according to the meeting agenda.  Any person with a disability who requires assistance in order to attend this meeting is asked to call the ADA Coordinator at 240-314-8100.

NASA Federal Credit Union opening new Rockville location (Photos)

NASA Federal Credit Union is opening a new location in Rockville. Their branch will now be in Wintergreen Plaza.

The Upper Marlboro-based credit union has previously been found in Rockville next to burger joint Fuddrucker's down the Pike, which is part of the land that will be soon redeveloped by Saul Centers. NASA Federal Credit Union will continue to have the coolest sign of any financial business in Rockville. Now next to Habit Burger Grill, we can say the NASA folks do love their hamburgers.