I hope the president’s budget will feature a hefty increase in appropriations for NASA. Because pretty soon there’ll be no one left on this planet to borrow money from.
Posted in Uncategorized [...] 
The Carnival features a wide look around what bloggers in and about Maryland are writing.  The infamous Berwyn Heights raid, the Chesapeake Polar Bear Plunge, tuition freezes, and the usual stunning photos from the Ridger.
Posted in Maryland Bloggers Alliance [...] Cabdrivers in Washington are trying to organize now, in protest of a coming decision that may change the required fare measurement system, from the zone maps to a metered system. Personally, I don’t have an inclination for zones or meters – or any other system. And I don’t that [...]
Yeah, Governor O’Malley would like you to think so. He claims that his budget will ensure that “the rich will pay more”, and that “everyone will pay their fair share.” For example, he claims that his plan will increase taxes on corporations (by eliminating the technique of “combined reporting”), [...]
Currently, home sellers are required to inform buyers of what is currently being paid in property taxes. That amount is not very informative to the prospective buyer, however, because the tax usually jumps after a sale. (The 10% cap on property tax increases gets lifted when the property [...]
Montgomery County executive Ike Leggett has a tentative agreement with Live Nation to bring a different concert hall to the Silver Spring location. That concert hall could carry the name of the legendary Fillmore arenas. Construction costs for the project are estimated at about $10 million, of which [...]
When it comes to schooling, one size doesn’t fit all. Charter schools are one of the easier ways to give parents some choice about their children’s education. Charter schools also provide some wiggle room from the stifling bureaucracy of the Board of Education / teacher union nexus. Charter schools [...]
The county divides crime into two categories. Here are the statistics for 2006:
Part 1 Crimes (more serious offenses) reported were up 5.4% over the previous year, including:
15 Murders
141 Rapes
1,166 Robberies
133 Aggravated Assaults
3,804 Burglaries
16,860 Cases of Larceny
2,493 Auto Thefts.
Part 2 [...]
Come January, the governor has to propose a balanced budget to the General Assembly. Everyone has been waiting to hear how he’s going to deal with the billion and half dollar projected deficit. We know he’s not going to propose any substantial cuts in spending. On the other hand, Maryland [...]
The county put out a press release this week, patting itself on the back for the latest odd expenditure. Apparently, some people approaching the Silver Spring Metro station from East-West Highway needed some extra help getting into the station. MoCo provided $400,000 to WMATA to open [...]
I wanted to alert readers about a couple of opportunities to voice your opinions on budgetary issues.
*** County Budget: The Council is having a hearing on Tuesday, Sept 11th, and asking for input on the following questions:
Thank God that Montgomery doesn’t have to deal with the problems of New Orleans. Hurricanes, flooding, looting, and environmental contamination would leave us in a miserable state, as well. We can learn something from their tragedy, though.
The cost of rebuilding housing is one of the main factors inhibiting the regrowth [...]
Having drawn the short straw, Thomas Perez was tasked by Martin O’Malley with providing the governor some cover on allowing slots at race tracks. His recent report concludes that the state must support the horse racing and horse breeding industries in Maryland, using either general revenues or proceeds from legalizing [...]
This blog is mostly devoted to examining the Leviathan of Montgomery County government, but also keeps an eye on Leviathan at the state level, too. Stephanie at Jousting for Justice takes Governor O’Malley to task for seeking a frightening expansion of state power.
The state keeps a database of DNA [...]
Good news and bad news on the concert hall front: County spokesman Patrick Lacefield is reporting that the Birchmere deal is dead (hooray!).
The Birchmere ownership, according to the articles, is a little confused, and didn’t seem to expect this. “To date, the Birchmere has not been given a plausible [...]
The 12th Carnival of Maryland has been posted at Maryland Politics Today. The Carnival, which is loosely affiliated with the Maryland Bloggers Alliance, is a biweekly roundup of blogs covering issues in the state.  This carnival includes posts on the nature of progressive income taxation, green herons [...]
Buried in a Gazette story about parking in Bethesda was a reference to a car-mounted surveillance system called Auto Vu. Driving down a street, Auto Vu can monitor and log in all the license plates it passes — up to one thousand plates per hour. In cities like DC, [...]
So here’s the problem the county council faces. Each time they build something new, or add a new spending project, those interest groups that benefit are grateful. After a while, though, the taxpayers grumble, tired of ponying up for the white elephants. (Mixed metaphor, sorry) A council member who proposes [...]
In order to have permission to build housing, the county requires that developers also build a certain amount of lower-cost housing units. The number of Moderately Priced Dwelling Units (MPDUs, to you) is based on a proportion of the number of total housing units being built.
For the moment, let’s put [...]
The latest edition of the Carnival of Maryland is available , courtesy of Mike’s Nether Land. The Carnival is a biweekly look at blog posts from around Maryland. This week’s includes a nice selection of areas (Eastern Shore, Washington suburbs, Baltimore), and topics (politics, frustrations of commuter bus service, [...]
When you’re looking at a budget deficit of one billion, five hundred million dollars, as is the state of Maryland, there are a few different ways of attacking the problem.
Years ago, Charlie Peters of the Washington Monthly explained the history of strategic responses to budget problems. For example, [...]
There’s a lot of heated discussion about the state’s structural deficit for the next fiscal year. This isn’t news; it was discussed during the last General Assembly session, but the legislators decided not to address it. (Surprise!)
So for fiscal year 2009 (which begins in July 2008), the state is committed [...]
The office of the state comptroller has announced that they have seized $49,870 in federal payments to sixty vendor companies, in order to retrieve unpaid Maryland taxes. You have to wonder at the level of effort necessary to make this sting happen: the bureaucratic machinery, the intergovernmental coordination with the [...]
Check out the ninth Carnival of Maryland, a periodic roundup of blogs from around the Free-ish State. Entries in the Carnival range from the fate of blue crabs to the hunt for cheap gas.
Thanks to Aaron at Technosailor for editing the Carnival [...]
The Silver Spring Transit Center is to be constructed at the Silver Spring Metro station, beginning this fall. Here’s the description of the project from the Department of Public Works and Transportation:
“The eight acre site will be developed to accommodate a multi-level, pedestrian friendly complex supporting rail [...]
A report from a Baltimore-based advocacy group reveals that schools are spending less on at-risk children, even after receiving massive Thornton funds to help those children. Officials from Advocates for Children and Youth testified that schools in 2006 spent $23 million less than 2005 on programs targeting at [...]
We have a horrible, unspeakable problem in Montgomery County. People from other countries are coming here and working hard at productive jobs. Fortunately, there are some very prescient and perceptive people aware of the terrible threat posed by landscaped lawns and restaurants serving pupusas.
Help Save Maryland, a nativist [...]
When last we looked, County Executive Ike Leggett had evaluated the MCPS budget request, and recommended funding 99% of the budget request ($1.97 billion out of $1.99 billion requested). As a reminder, that’s a 6.3% increase over least year.
That increase is not enough for the unions, however. Hundreds of [...]
That’s County Executive Isiah Leggett, thrilled with the settlement reached with Barry Taylor of Barry’s Magic Shop in Wheaton. The county had used eminent domain to wrest the shop’s building away from the landlord. Barry’s had operated for three decades in that location, but the county decided that the [...]
I see a press release advertising a recent event called by Council Member Roger Berliner. More than one hundred people went to the Council Office Building to “share thoughts on protecting the environment.” Also on the agenda: “identifying best practices” for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Doesn’t the council have [...]
There’s a pathetic story in the Gazette this week, putting another face on the housing crunch in the county. In this case, it’s the city of Takoma Park doing its best to force people to live elsewhere.
Here we have a hard-working family renting out apartments in two buildings, but [...]
One in a series of posts looking at the proposed county budget, released this week by County Executive Isiah Leggett.
From the anguished cries of the Montgomery County Education Association (the teachers’ union), you would think that the county executive’s proposed budget for the school system envisions 60-child classrooms and [...]
Sigh. After blowing over a hundred million dollars on Strathmore and the Black Rock Center, the county is now seeking to further subsidize the wealthy by paying out taxpayer dollars to establish (surprise!) another arts center in the county. This time, the issue is bringing the Birchmere to Silver Spring.
The [...]
Years ago, Dr. William Niskanen taught us the prime directive for bureaucrats: maximize your budget. Maryland now needs a big budget for building two large mass transit projects: the Purple Line, running from New Carrollton to Bethesda, and the Corridor Cities Transitway, which would connect Clarksburg to the outer [...]
The municipality where I live is an endlessly fascinating place. Sitting right next to the nation’s capital, Montgomery features family farms dating from the 18th century, as well as some of the world’s most advanced biological engineering enterprises. The county government, with a budget that is the envy of some [...]
