MOCO360 Opinion: Should the County Council make raising property taxes easier? Requiring a unanimous vote makes good fiscal sense.

The Charter Review Commission’s recent report recommended several changes to controls over how the County Council approves spending and revenues. Among these was a recommendation to reduce the number of councilmember votes required to approve a property rate increase–from unanimous to just eight of the 11 votes. Without a public hearing, the council is expected to vote on this recommendation on July 9 and seem likely to agree with the lower bar of eight votes and place it on the November ballot as a referendum.

Be wary. In 2020, the council placed its own referendum (Question A) on the ballot that was deceptively labeled as “Limit Tax Rate Increases,” while a competing grass-roots citizen petition (Question B) to prevent property tax revenue increases from exceeding the CPI (Consumer Price Index) rate was placed second on the ballot, and pejoratively labeled “Prohibit Override.” Inevitably Question A passed. 

The Montgomery County Taxpayers League is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization comprised of county residents and focused on good government by the county to achieve efficient and effective operations and tax equity. We believe a unanimous vote to increase property taxes is an essential control over county spending. We do not stand alone. County voters have repeatedly voted–in 2008, 2018 and in 2020–to require a unanimous vote to increase property tax rates and they should not be ignored. 

Here are six reasons why you should ask councilmembers to retain the unanimous vote requirement for tax rate increases before the council votes on a proposed referendum:

1. The county has excess reserves: Last year the council approved a 4.7% tax rate increase with just seven votes and that, combined with huge appraisal increases, clobbered homeowners and renters with what amounted to the maximum tax increase permitted under state law of 10%. The tax rate increase was unnecessary because it produced a revenue gusher this year, and next year’s was forecast to yield excess reserves of 15.4%. A unanimous vote would have prevented this...

https://moco360.media/2024/06/29/opinion-should-the-county-council-make-raising-property-taxes-easier/