Thursday afternoon the Chair of the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee, Reardon “Sully” Sullivan sent MCM a response to its story about the County Executive’s newly crafted budget plan.
He describes the dilemma faced by the County Council, “The County Council are caught between a rock and a hard place. If the incumbents vote for tax increases, they will be voted out. If they don’t vote for tax increases, they will have to make meaningful cuts.”
On Tuesday, Gordie Breene from the Montgomery County Taxpayer League testified at the Council’s public hearing. Decrying the ever-growing Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) budget, Brenne compared MCPS to Fairfax County Public Schools.
“MCPS overhead, that’s non instruction costs, compares poorly to Fairfax about the same size, 45% for us, 37% for them. Did you know that 182 million or over half of the recommended spending increase is for overhead?”
Breene called for more accountability from the school system tying proof of performance to dollar allocations. “Next year, a council resolution that spending will be tied to results will incentivize management to better control costs and boost academic proficiency. Sound too good to be true? Well, here’s the ugly truth. We’ve spent almost 700 million over maintenance of effort in the last three years and have little to show for it.”
Sullivan finished his response to the budget by pointing out how the course correction by Elrich could prove problematic. “Of specific concern is a fundamentally significant change in the funding of the County’s operating budget from an increase of property tax to an increase of income tax and the resulting confusion this will cause the taxpayers. “
Finally given the changes, Sullivan requested the Council initiate a new series of 3 public hearings in each Council district to “educate the public regarding this matter.”
