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
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
At another blog another resident complains about tax increases
Scanning through the blog site (http://nancyfloreen.blogspot.com) of Nancy Floreen one of our Council members I found this wonderful comment on the already passed yearly budget. Since I couln't say it any better I have copied it here:
Anonymous Bogdan said...
Dear Mrs. Floreen,
Let me start by thanking you for publishing this blog that indeed contains useful information and most importantly allows your constituents to express their opinions. Your willingness to speak your mind and open yourself to potential criticism deserves appreciation. Unfortunately, I am afraid that this is where my agreement with your actions ends.
I am deeply dissapointed at the actions of the council in regard to the budget. As should have been expected after years of spending with abandon and irrational increases that were disproportional to any sustainable income stream, the council was faced with a significant budget deficit. This was blamed on the slowing economy when in fact the council is the only one who should be held responsible and now should pay the piper. Well, I was just kidding, as in fact the residents are the one who in the opinion of the council have to pay. With an irony that somehow escapes the council the solution of a budget crunch that is "caused by hardship in the economy" is to put even more hardship on the county residents by increasing their property taxes. No need to insult our intelligence by saying the tax rates are not changed, because increasing the cap on yearly collections -breaking the county charter in the process, but hey, who is counting-the result is a more than 13% increase in the property tax bill.
How did we get here? Well its not so complicated, by agreeing to just about any spending proposal. The council has been a never ending source of "worthy" programs that desperately needed funding. A program here, a program there, after all who can argue with more funding for schools? The fact that we need to consider how much is enough should not bother us because there is never enough. The council should have listened to my son's Social Sciences teacher who in a lesson explained that "needs" are unlimited but "resources" are not. This is exactly the job of the council, to have the power of restraint and only spend cautiously and only the money we actually have. In my opinion you should receive an F at this test.
You ask at the end of your entry on May 16, how would we have balanced the budget. Well for starters I would have never increased the budget a cent more that the revenues. Now, its kind of late and the medicine is harder to take but in fact still very easy to understand. The budget needs to be cut until it equals the money we actually have-no dumping on resident by taxes and fees increases. It will be my pleasure to come back to discuss more specific budget issues another time.
Thank you.
May 19, 2008 6:17 PM
Anonymous Bogdan said...
Dear Mrs. Floreen,
Let me start by thanking you for publishing this blog that indeed contains useful information and most importantly allows your constituents to express their opinions. Your willingness to speak your mind and open yourself to potential criticism deserves appreciation. Unfortunately, I am afraid that this is where my agreement with your actions ends.
I am deeply dissapointed at the actions of the council in regard to the budget. As should have been expected after years of spending with abandon and irrational increases that were disproportional to any sustainable income stream, the council was faced with a significant budget deficit. This was blamed on the slowing economy when in fact the council is the only one who should be held responsible and now should pay the piper. Well, I was just kidding, as in fact the residents are the one who in the opinion of the council have to pay. With an irony that somehow escapes the council the solution of a budget crunch that is "caused by hardship in the economy" is to put even more hardship on the county residents by increasing their property taxes. No need to insult our intelligence by saying the tax rates are not changed, because increasing the cap on yearly collections -breaking the county charter in the process, but hey, who is counting-the result is a more than 13% increase in the property tax bill.
How did we get here? Well its not so complicated, by agreeing to just about any spending proposal. The council has been a never ending source of "worthy" programs that desperately needed funding. A program here, a program there, after all who can argue with more funding for schools? The fact that we need to consider how much is enough should not bother us because there is never enough. The council should have listened to my son's Social Sciences teacher who in a lesson explained that "needs" are unlimited but "resources" are not. This is exactly the job of the council, to have the power of restraint and only spend cautiously and only the money we actually have. In my opinion you should receive an F at this test.
You ask at the end of your entry on May 16, how would we have balanced the budget. Well for starters I would have never increased the budget a cent more that the revenues. Now, its kind of late and the medicine is harder to take but in fact still very easy to understand. The budget needs to be cut until it equals the money we actually have-no dumping on resident by taxes and fees increases. It will be my pleasure to come back to discuss more specific budget issues another time.
Thank you.
May 19, 2008 6:17 PM
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The Gazette Reports that Property Tax Bills Bring Sticker Shock
The Gazette paper of July 16, on the front page, reports that interviews with Montgomery County citizens who have received their 2008 tax bills found that even though their community home values have decreased in recent months their tax bills have increased substantially. This is caused by the 3 year assessment cycle that may have evaluated their home in a previous year when home prices were much higher while their current home value has gone down and that is not reflected in their bill. Thus they must pay a substantial tax increase made much worse because the County has raised the current tax rate by more than 10% over the cap value. See the Gazette article here for a more detailed description of what is happening:
http://www.gazette.net/stories/071608/montnew181059_32357.shtml
Be aware that the worse is yet to come because it is estimated that next year's budget deficit may be $250 million and would have to be covered by yet again a real property tax increase unless the County takes actions to cut expenses. You may have read that the School system has requested an additional $5 million for added fuel costs for the school bus system. While the average citizen has been forced to economize in these difficult times the County Council has refused to do the same. By waving a 30% county union wage increase in our faces we have been left to absorb more taxes while these high paid union workers, many of whom do not even live in Montgomery County, go on their merry way to enjoy the largess we are providing them. At next election time we must show the present Council membership what we think of their extravagant use of our tax dollars. What do you think?
http://www.gazette.net/stories/071608/montnew181059_32357.shtml
Be aware that the worse is yet to come because it is estimated that next year's budget deficit may be $250 million and would have to be covered by yet again a real property tax increase unless the County takes actions to cut expenses. You may have read that the School system has requested an additional $5 million for added fuel costs for the school bus system. While the average citizen has been forced to economize in these difficult times the County Council has refused to do the same. By waving a 30% county union wage increase in our faces we have been left to absorb more taxes while these high paid union workers, many of whom do not even live in Montgomery County, go on their merry way to enjoy the largess we are providing them. At next election time we must show the present Council membership what we think of their extravagant use of our tax dollars. What do you think?
Monday, July 7, 2008
Ambulance Service Fees Now Needed
Because Montgomery County has run up it huge budget deficit by its wasteful policies and unreasonable union-demanded wage increases new sources of revenue are continually being evaluated. The current one in today's news is to establish ambulance fees for those who need the services of a 911 medical call. See this Washington Post link for details of this newest of taxes to be paid by the taxpayers of the county:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/0706/AR2008070601975.html
The County Executive tells us that this fee will be paid by our medical insurance carriers as if costs borne by them won't eventually raise the insurance payments we must make in order to be covered. For those who cannot pay the fee and do not have insurance, these fees will be waived. What is next for our taxpayers to pay for -- the call for police assistance or for the firemen to come check out the odor of smoke in our homes? All of this to assuage the demands for county union employees to receive their three year 30% wage increase and the Councils refusal to mitigate the amount of this raise. Remember that a recent Post editorial estimated that a 2% reduction in the average current 8% yearly increase would probably have avoided all the bedlam that has now occurred. To illustrate the personal costs to taxpayers, my own home with greatly reduced current market value saw a tax bill climb from about $2800 last year to over $3300 this year. Where is the justice in what is going on?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/0706/AR2008070601975.html
The County Executive tells us that this fee will be paid by our medical insurance carriers as if costs borne by them won't eventually raise the insurance payments we must make in order to be covered. For those who cannot pay the fee and do not have insurance, these fees will be waived. What is next for our taxpayers to pay for -- the call for police assistance or for the firemen to come check out the odor of smoke in our homes? All of this to assuage the demands for county union employees to receive their three year 30% wage increase and the Councils refusal to mitigate the amount of this raise. Remember that a recent Post editorial estimated that a 2% reduction in the average current 8% yearly increase would probably have avoided all the bedlam that has now occurred. To illustrate the personal costs to taxpayers, my own home with greatly reduced current market value saw a tax bill climb from about $2800 last year to over $3300 this year. Where is the justice in what is going on?
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