Death to that fatass Duggy Duncan....

[MKSheppard]

http://www.gazette.net/200321/montgomer ... 359-1.html

Residents hit for new taxes, charges, fees in $3B budget
by Steven T. Dennis
Staff Writer

May 21, 2003

Montgomery County taxpayers are about to get zapped. Local income tax rates have been raised to the maximum. State property tax rates have surged. A local tax on fuel is tripling. Own a phone? There's a tax on that, too.

Residents will pay an extra $125 per $50,000 in income, $24 per cell phone, $13 per wired phone line and about $40 per home on average for fuel. And homeowners will pay an extra $48 per $100,000 in home value due to a state property tax hike.

All told, the County Council is poised to formally approve a budget Thursday that includes about $145 million in higher taxes on income, fuel and phones and roughly $20 million more from a series of hikes on everything from library fines to permitting fees to bus fares.

The higher taxes -- the biggest jump in a decade -- will pay for a $3 billion budget that increases spending by 5.3 percent while delaying some pay raises and trimming some services in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

"Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong," said County Council President Michael L. Subin (D-At large) of Gaithersburg, referring to cuts in state aid, falling income tax revenue, homeland security costs and even snowstorms.

But more pain may be on the way. At a news conference with the council last week after the budget was agreed to, County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) urged Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) not to slash local aid as he has threatened.

"Normally, this would be the end of our budget year," Duncan said, but he slammed Ehrlich for boasting that he intends to veto a $135 million corporate tax package that will throw the state budget out of balance, likely leading to more cuts in local aid.

"When that shoe drops, there is going to be a huge impact," Duncan said. "That is the real consequence of the rhetoric that is coming out of Annapolis. Real people will get hurt. ... If it wasn't so serious, you might think it was funny. But I assure you, nobody is going to be laughing."

Money for parks, health programs and a raft of other services was cut. Libraries, cleaning services and ballfields were squeezed, and computer upgrades were postponed.

"There are losers in this budget," Subin said. "There are no new initiatives in the school system. There's work with at-risk youth that won't get done, recreational programs canceled, and fewer new library books on the shelves. And we don't nearly have the money we need to build the schools and the roads that ought to be built."

Taxes

A $30 million property tax hike proposed by Duncan to pay for transportation was defeated; council members said rising assessments combined with the increase in the state property tax doomed the measure. Instead, they raised the telephone tax by $23.5 million a year and the fuel tax by $47 million a year, and increased the county income tax to the maximum allowable under state law -- 3.2 percent, which will raise $22 million in the first fiscal year and $75 million a year when fully phased in. The votes on the fuel tax and income tax were unanimous; Councilmen Howard A. Denis (R-Dist. 1) of Chevy Chase and Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg opposed the phone tax.

The council rejected several other tax proposals, including development taxes that would have raised $20 million a year for schools and roads, and a tax on videos that would have raised $1 million a year.

Schools still flush

Public schools will receive about 99 percent of the $1.51 billion requested by the school board and Superintendent Jerry D. Weast. Although $19.5 million was cut from the schools' budget request, the council voted to add $600,000 for 16 new building maintenance workers and $134,900 to avoid cutbacks in Head Start and pre- kindergarten programs.

Weast's signature initiatives of full-day kindergarten and class size reductions will stay in place next year but will not be expanded.

Pay raises for teachers, administrators and support staff will be delayed.

Teachers, who on average earn $58,680 a year, are in the third and final year of 5 percent annual raises. Delaying those raises by 20 weeks will cost each teacher an average of $836, said Mark Simon, president of the county's 11,000-member teachers union.

Union contracts, recently approved by the school board, give 3 percent raises to principals and support staff each of the next three years. Eligible school employees will receive additional raises ranging between 1.5 percent and 3.9 percent from step increases, all delayed for 20 weeks.

The council also cut $3 million from the school system's staff development program and $2 million from central office costs and materials.

County aid to Montgomery College will be about $6 million short of its $170 million budget request. Tuition increases will offset about $1 million of that shortfall. County residents' tuition will rise $7 per credit hour to $86. In-state students who do not live in the county will pay $177 per hour, a $14 hike, and out-of-state students must pay $236 a credit hour, a $21 jump.

Transportation

Duncan's Go Montgomery! transportation plan, which calls for about $100 million a year in local transportation spending and billions in state and federal aid, will get off to a slow start. The council approved $22.2 million in new transportation spending, with another $18 million contingent on Duncan's $27-a-year car tax, which Ehrlich is expected to veto as soon as today.

The new spending includes:

*$5 million in planning and design money for new road and transit projects, including the M-83 highway, widening Longdraft Road and speeding the planning process for widening Goshen Road.

*$1.9 million for 15 buses bought last year, $570,000 for two new natural gas-powered buses and $367,000 for pedestrian safety programs.

Health, human services

The council restored some Health and Human Services programs that Duncan had cut from his budget, but some cuts remain.

Three of the county's five Parent Resource Centers, which provide drop-in educational programs for young children and parents, will be closed next year.

There now are centers at elementary schools in Germantown, Gaithersburg, Rockville, Silver Spring and Takoma Park. The council approved $70,140 to keep two of them open. One will be the center at Emory Grove Elementary School in Gaithersburg, said Jerilynn Matthews, senior administrator with the Housing Opportunities Commission, which administers the program. A decision on the second center has not been made.

The cost to operate all five would have been $186,000 a year.

The Other Way School -- an educational and therapeutic program for 27 middle- and high school students with mental health and behavioral problems, as well as their families -- will not continue next year. Instead the council has allocated $120,000 for a program with fewer mental health services. The cost for mental health services at the Other Way School was $539,000 this year.

Saturday tutoring and mentoring programs at several schools also will continue through the George B. Thomas Learning Academies, but with $250,000 instead of the $400,000 requested.

The council declined to add $2.15 million to pay for services to the disabled not covered under Medicaid, but could reconsider if the state does not make more federal aid available.

The council also provided:

*$240,000 to provide more aid to the six health clinics that serve the underinsured and $100,000 to open three new clinics.

*$200,000 to provide in-home aides to the elderly and disabled, compared with $400,000 requested.

Libraries

The council added $125,000 to open the renovated Bethesda Library in October, one month earlier than scheduled.

And it cut 18 librarian positions, instead of 26 positions proposed.

It reduced staff in the Special Needs library, which serves disabled patrons, and reduced its hours of operation.

Money for materials and books was cut by $268,000, following $1.05 million in cuts over the past two years.

Public safety

Stiff opposition by volunteer firefighters prompted the County Council to nix Duncan's proposals to cut back funding for fire stations in Kensington and Burtonsville and his proposal to charge a fee of up to $650 for ambulance service.

The council also left untouched the 2 percent pay raise for police officers.

The county imposed new fines for motorists caught on film for running a red light -- charging an extra $25 for late payments and another $20 for administrative expenses the county incurs in flagging the Motor Vehicles Administration if the fine is not paid. The fees will raise about $1 million a year.

The council also:

*Rejected the ambulance fee, which would have raised $4 million a year.

*Rejected a proposal to replace 21 administrative staffers at volunteer fire stations with 11 centralized administration staff to save $619,530 a year.

*Rejected proposal to delay a new West Germantown fire station near Route 118 and Clopper Road by a year. The station is on schedule for its opening in fiscal 2005.

*Rejected $343,000 in cuts to staff at Kensington Fire Station 21 and Burtonsville Fire Station 15.

*Increased the number of recruits from 30 to 50 in the county police academy class beginning in July at a cost of $1 million to fill the gaps left by retiring and departing officers.

Unions cut a deal

The county's powerful employee unions managed to fend off any cuts in their pay raises. Instead, they agreed to a 20-week delay, saving the county $19 million.

"I think everyone in this county owes them a huge, huge, huge debt of gratitude," Subin said.

But union leaders stunned council members afterward by insisting that their agreement to the delay was contingent on the governor making additional local aid cuts.

The union leaders said they want the raises fully restored if the governor makes no further cuts to local aid. Subin, through his spokesman, said that was not the deal.

Council members had hinted earlier that cost-of-living increases would be limited to 2 percent for all county employees. Nonrepresented employees and police officers, whose contract negotiated a 2 percent raise, will see no delay in their pay hikes.

Gino Renne, president of county employees union MCGEO, said a 2 percent hike would have led to an ugly showdown. MCGEO members are set to receive 3.75 percent hikes and step increases of 3.5 percent for eligible employees.

The unions agreed to talks only when it became clear that a majority of the council was in favor of limiting raises, Renne said.

He blamed Andrews, normally a staunch union ally, in particular. "That will not be forgotten," Renne warned.

Despite the talk of sacrifice, local unions fared far better than state workers, who are facing a second year of pay freezes and the potential for thousands of layoffs.

Developers

Developers managed to escape the taxman for now.

As land-use attorneys looked on, the council voted 5-4 last week against raising development taxes by about $20 million a year to pay for roads and schools. Developers would have had to pay up to $7,400 in impact fees on new homes once the fees were fully phased in.

"We haven't addressed the school construction crisis," lamented Councilman Thomas E. Perez (D-Dist. 5) of Takoma Park. "Everybody should be sharing the pain, and it's not happening."

The five who voted against raising the tax suggested that the issue should be reconsidered this fall when the council considers amending growth policies, but backers said that delay would cost $10 million, about enough to build a new elementary school.

Councilman Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown said he did not want to vote to raise the tax yet, arguing that he wants to raise it as much as possible and may want to raise it more later.

Councilwoman Nancy M. Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park said she did not know if the rates are high enough and wants a full discussion on the issue before making a decision.

Steven A. Silverman (D-At large) of Silver Spring and George L. Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park fretted the tax would hurt affordable housing efforts.

Councilman Howard A. Denis also opposed raising the tax.

All five of the "no" votes ran last year on a pro-Intercounty Connector agenda and received significant financial backing from developers.

Staff Writers David Abrams, Eric Kelderman and Manju Subramanya contributed to this report.

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My comments:

Jesus christ, we're in a fucking recession, and our goddamned democratic
leaders here in Montgomery County whinge and whine about "cutting
popular social programs", and make some minor cuts and whine to
the world about those "devastating cuts" while actually increasing the
budget total by 5%, and also adding $200 more taxes to the annual
household's load...

Fucking fatasses. I'd like a neutron bomb that kills only liberals delivered
to my home, please.

[Sea Skimmer]

Course what will be really telling is when the economy picks back up, is how many of these hikes will be repealed.

[Glocksman]

and increased the county income tax to the maximum allowable under state law -- 3.2 percent,

Fucking hell!
My state income tax rate is 3.4% and my county income tax is less than 1%.

While Maryland was a decent place to visit, I wouldn't want to live there, especially in Montgomery County.