In yesterday's Gazette, Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) President Doug Prouty said that the County should raise property taxes by $150 million to cover ½ the projected budget shortfall for next year, rather than address some of the serious cost issues highlighted in the County Office of Legislative Oversights report on our structural budget imbalance.
Raising the property tax rate just 8.3 cents sounds so small, doesn't it? But that would be a $400 or greater, per year, increase for most County homeowners. A four hundred dollar tax increase will be devastaing on Montgomery County residents on fixed incomes. And what about the rest of us, folks who themselves haven't seen a pay increase in three or four years. And what about hardworking county residents who pay 30, 40, or 50% of their own health insurance costs, as opposed to Mr. Prouty's interest group who only pays 5 to 10% of their own health costs.
Mr. Prouty is protecting the School Superintendent's proposal to give the teachers a 3.5% pay raise (called a “Step Increase”) and paying for it with what appears to be about a 10% increase in property taxes.
If you really want to see how bad the County's fiscal picture is, read the County Office Of Legislative Oversights reports. Our county has a lot of trimming to do. Sure, the taxpayers are going to have to dig deeper somewhere along the line to fix this. But we cannot tax our way out of this problem. We are way beyond that point.
Bob Astrove
Rockville, MD
Agree that serious cuts need to be made and that taxes/fees likely will be some part of the solution.
ReplyDeleteHowever one of the solutions should also be reducing positions. There are positions in central office that aren't needed and what no one talks about are the number of teachers who don't directly interact with children. There are Staf Development teachers in every building. There are dozens of consulting teachers who evaluate teachers and don't teach. There is a cadre of administrators at the community superintedent level that aren't needed.
I'd rather see the county eliminate jobs that aren't vital to teaching kids first and see where that leaves the siutation.
In regards to health care, the county (not MCPS) needs to run their system better.
ReplyDeleteMCPS actual dollar costs for health care are less per person/family than the county costs and that is despite the reality that MCPS pays a much higher percentage of the cost.
I disagree. BOTH the County Govt and MCPS need to reduce the employer paid side of health care costs. The most basic question is why are there two plans in the first place? Put everyone on the same deal, and all should include the employee picking up about 30% or more of the cost.
ReplyDeleteI do completely agree that non classroom positions need to be cut severely. The unidentified author listed some viable possibilities. Certainly a place to start looking. And what about the "old principal parking lot"; Wigham, Ganious, Currasco, etc... that is $ 1/2 Million right there.
Bob Astrove
Another place where the Board of Education could cut the cost is the disability pay. Much has been made about the disability issues in the police force. MCPS employees' abuse of disability is the same if not worse, but unfortunately no one wants to talk about that. Take a look.
ReplyDeleteBe curious to see this. Where to look?
ReplyDelete