The Gazette Publishes More Letters Regarding Recent MoCo Real Property Tax Increase

From The Gazette edition of July 23 Letters to the Editor, here is one of three complaining about the recent tax increases. People are very unhappy when they see their new tax bill and realize that more increases will be needed for next years budget because real property values continue to decrease and the concomitant tax base is thus going down. The only choice the County has is to institute expenditure cut backs RIGHT NOW! The place to start is with out of control County workforce salaries which have been increased by nearly 30% over three years. This is unsustainable. Read on-----
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Open letter to County Executive Isiah Leggett:



I am writing to vigorously voice a complaint. I just reviewed my 2008 property tax bill. I was totally shocked by the magnitude of my property tax increase, 11.6 percent over the 2007 levy.

I further reviewed my property tax increases over the last 10- and five-year periods. In both cases the annual increase averaged 3.2 percent. I thus am totally dismayed by the 2008 year-to-year increase.

As a retired person trying to live on a fixed income, in an environment where earnings on savings are down considerably, increases like this are making the county tax hostile to retired people like myself.

You and the County Council members are good people trying to manage a county during austere times with growing demands. Your ‘‘Dear Montgomery County Taxpayer” note, signed by you and Councilman Mike Knapp and provided with our tax bills, appears to take pride in the fact that ‘‘the property tax rate remains unchanged.” However, because of the county property price escalation bubble, the magnitude of the resulting tax increase is reprehensible.

The council members and you have been elected by taxpayers like myself. I must conclude that the resulting budget compromise reached for the 2008 property tax year was more directed toward serving the ‘‘special interests” of the organizations funded through the county budget and insensitive to the needs of your constituency. Tell me, would the county electorate return you and the council to office if you promised them an 11.6 increase in their property tax bills?

Before trying to deal with the 2009 budget, I would suggest you insist that all organizations in the county submit budgets that are at least 5 percent less than 2008 levels.

Let the organizations funded by the budget know that these are austere times and insist they develop budgets consistent with your fiscal guidance. They must be tasked with the problem of running their operations in a fiscally constrained environment. Failure to do so should result in draconian budget reductions at the executive and County Council level.

I suggest you also strongly consider a reduction of the excessive and callous salary increments previously approved for county employees. Industry and government operations across the country are not providing their employees with a 28 percent increase over three years. This would help restore fiscal sanity to county expenditures.

I can accept a situation where the county’s needs are increasing consistent with inflation. I cannot accept an 11.6 percent increase. Please share this with your colleagues.

Richard B. Jasinski, Potomac