MoCo Council At-Large candidate forum tonight in Aspen Hill

A candidate forum for the Montgomery County Council At-Large race will be held tonight, April 26, 2018, at 7:30 PM at the Aspen Hill Library, located at 4407 Aspen Hill Road. The forum is sponsored by the Aspen Hill Civic Association, Friends of the Aspen Hill Library, the Aspen Hill Library Advisory Committee, and the Strathmore-Bel Pre Civic Association.

Among the candidates participating will be Robert Dyer. The event is FREE and open to the public.

WATCH: Robert Dyer on Montgomery Community Media cable TV

WATCH: Robert Dyer at Stand UpCounty - Damascus candidate forum:

MDOT meeting on Hogan Express Lanes plan for I-495, I-270 tonight in Bethesda

The Maryland Department of Transportation held a public meeting last night in Clarksburg to introduce basic information about Gov. Larry Hogan's Express Lanes proposal for I-495 and I-270, and get preliminary feedback from attendees. An identical open house will be held tonight, Thursday, April 19, 2018 from 6:30-8:30 PM at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.

Officials said future meetings will offer more specifics on alternatives, as well as environmental and property issues. Another public meeting will be held this year, and a public hearing on the environmental impact statement in 2019. MDOT anticipates a final Record of Decision on the project in 2020.

Hogan is aiming for an expedited design and approval process for the project, which will largely be built through private funds, costing taxpayers very little. Among the private firms who have already joined the Express Lanes team are Ernst & Young and CDM Smith.

Business groups to hold MoCo Democratic county executive debate April 27

Several Montgomery County and regional business groups will host a debate between Democratic candidates for County Executive on Friday, April 27, 2018 from 8:00-10:30 AM at The Universities at Shady Grove. Republican Robin Ficker is also running for the office, but has not been invited to participate. Attendees will also receive a presentation on County economic indicators from Anirban Basu (pictured) of the Sage Policy Group.

The event is free, but you need to register online in advance.

MoCo Council proposes taxpayer-funded lawyers for illegal immigrants facing deportation

Illegal immigrants

convicted of murder,

rape would be eligible

for taxpayer-funded

lawyers if they have 

a "potentially 

meritorious" case

The Montgomery County Council has introduced a "special appropriation" of $373,957 to fund free lawyers for illegal immigrants facing deportation. County Councilmember Nancy Navarro said she was proud that the Council would use taxpayer funds to defend illegal immigrants from deportation, adding that Tuesday's proposal "doubled down on our commitment to protect our immigrant community."

While the Council resolution claims in one section that illegal immigrants convicted of violent crimes such as murder and rape would not be eligible for the taxpayer-funded legal assistance, that claim is negated by later wording.

On Page 3 of the resolution, the text notes that illegal immigrants convicted of murder, rape, sexual offenses, armed carjacking, kidnapping, child kidnapping, sexual abuse of a minor, child abuse, gang participation, human trafficking and "abducting a child under 16 for prostitution" would be eligible for taxpayer-funded legal counsel if "the individual has a potentially meritorious claim for immigration relief from removal in the form of a claim to United States citizenship, protection under the Convention Against Torture, U/T Visa, or Refugee Adjustment."

A public hearing on the appropriation will be held on May 1 at the County Council Building, located at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville. The County is currently facing a budget shortfall of $208,000,000.

Humiliating: Montgomery County loses another one

Gerber to move

New Jersey HQ to

Rosslyn

The Gerber baby is the latest to hand the Montgomery County Council their [briefcases] in our newest loss to Northern Virginia in the economic development sphere. 1812 North Moore in Rosslyn will be the new address for the baby food giant's world headquarters, bringing 150 more good jobs to Virginia. Gerber has leased 23392 SF of office space at the gleaming new office building.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said the Commonwealth's latest defeat of Montgomery County "reaffirms that Virginia is a prime location for headquarters operations." Gerber joins Northrop Grumman, Hilton Hotels, Volkswagen, Corporate Executive Board, Nestle and Intelsat in Northern Virginia's economic development trophy case. And those are just the ones in recent years - Montgomery County, by contrast, hasn't attracted a single major corporate HQ in two decades, a humiliating comparison.

“Gaining the headquarters of the iconic Gerber brand is an important win for Arlington County and the Commonwealth, and we are thrilled to welcome Gerber to Virginia’s corporate roster,” Virginia's Secretary of Commerce and Trade Esther Lee said in a statement Monday. Virginia will give $862,500 and a Major Business Facility Tax Credit to Gerber. In return, Arlington County will enjoy a $5 million headquarters investment by Gerber, and an estimated $4.2 million in net revenue as a result of the new HQ.

"We are thrilled to welcome Gerber to Arlington's business community," said Katie Cristol, Chair of the Arlington County Board. The Montgomery County Council? Not so much.

MoCo's latest economic development defeat comes on the heels of a devastating report that the County has had the worst new business growth rate in the entire D.C. region; only tiny Falls Church City had a lower growth rate, and has only 12,000 residents to Montgomery's 1.4 million inhabitants.

MoCo Council bill would steal money from disabled, seniors for BRT slush fund

After voting to tax Uber rides to subsidize failing Barwood Cab, which ended with Barwood filing for bankruptcy anyway, now the Montgomery County Council is trying to convert funds the tax earmarked for seniors and the disabled into a slush fund it can use for the $10 billion Bus Rapid Transit boondoggle. Bill 13-18, sponsored by Council President Helpless Hans Riemer, would strip all language from the Uber tax that directed funds to transportation for the disabled, elderly and poor, and "instead allow use of the fund for any transportation purpose in the County."

We already knew that the Uber tax, as I warned in my testimony opposing it, would hurt County residents and Uber drivers alike. Exactly as I predicted, Uber rides became more expensive, Uber drivers are being paid less than they were a few years ago, and no new ride-sharing competitor has entered the Montgomery County market since the tax was imposed.

This also made the County less appealing to the young professionals the Council has tried to publicly claim they wanted to attract, as millennials overwhelmingly use Uber rather than taxicabs. To our stuck-in-the-60s Council, diesel buses and Barwood Cab are still considered state-of-the-art transportation.

But now the Council is adding insult to severe economic injury to the County. When passing the Uber tax, the bleeding-heart language related to improving transportation for the disabled and elderly was used by the Council in the media as a fig leaf, to cover the anti-progress, fight-the-future nature of the Uber tax.

Now the Council is cravenly plotting to steal the money out of the hands of the disabled and elderly, and use it to fund their struggling $10 billion BRT boondoggle. The County, currently facing a $208,000,000 budget shortfall, has been unable to find enough funds for the BRT scheme. They failed to create an independent transit authority twice, which would have had unlimited power to tax and spend with no oversight by any elected official. Recently, they tried and failed to have their allies in Annapolis give them "quick-take" land seizure authority, which would have allowed them to seize homes and businesses - not only for the demolitions BRT will require along each route, but which could also have been sold to generate more money for the unfunded BRT boondoggle.

Desperate for money, the greedy Council will now try to pry it from the hands of disabled, poor and elderly residents, and put it into the pockets of themselves and their developer sugar daddies, whom the whole BRT scheme was dreamed up to profit.

It's outrageous.

It's bad enough Uber and Lyft riders have had to pay more, and via the tax pay Barwood Cab even if they weren't using their services. But to then find out the Council used the disabled and seniors to actually gain a new revenue source for their BRT boondoggle, this is a new low for even this corrupt Council.

Montgomery County Council to raise property taxes, after claiming they wouldn't

Remember when I reported that the Montgomery County Council would raise property taxes again this year, despite elected officials' and the local media's claims otherwise? More proof is in. Here is the announcement the County Council is required to print in local newspapers before they can raise your taxes, and it reads, "The County Council of Montgomery County proposes to increase property taxes."

It also details what I had explained: The County's tax scheme deviously increases taxes automatically each year, in an attempt to trick the public into thinking the Council had nothing to do with it. In fact, as the announcement notes, in order to avoid the automatic tax increase, the Council would have to "reduce its real property tax rate enough to fully offset increasing assessments. The proposed budget does not provide such a reduction.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the
County Council candidate who will lower
taxes, and leave more money in YOUR pocket,
instead of the corrupt County Council's!

Hence your tax rate for FY-2019 will be 4.1% higher, and the Council will steal an estimated $56,120,926 from their constituents' bank accounts in the coming year, on top of what you payed last year. The Council's historic 2016 8.7% tax hike walloped many County homeowners at effective 9%-10% rates based on their rising home assessments. Councilmembers had falsely claimed the increase was for "education," but student performance and graduation rates have actually continued to decline after the tax hike, as they have throughout the decade.

If you re-elect Helpless Hans Riemer and 3 new equally-controlled At-Large candidates chosen by the MoCo political cartel, wait until you see the tax increase you'll get in 2019, 2020, etc. A better choice would be to vote for Robert Dyer, who will offer a #DyerTaxCut, repealing the 2016 property tax and 2010 energy tax hikes incrementally over 4 years. Riemer's own former chief of staff recently noted that the energy tax hike appeared to have a devastating effect on the net number of new businesses created in Montgomery County this decade. MoCo had a net increase of only 6 new businesses, while D.C. and Fairfax enjoyed a net addition of 3000 new businesses each.

Moribund MoCo has lowest new-business growth rate in region

You know a jurisdiction's business climate is at rock bottom, when one of its biggest critics is the former chief-of-staff of that jurisdiction's sitting County Council President. Thus, some of the best analysis of the moribund Montgomery County economy has come from Council President Helpless Hans Riemer's former chief-of-staff Adam Pagnucco on the Seventh State blog. Pagnucco has done it again, producing another set of mindblowing stats on the walking-dead MoCo economy.

In a recent post, Pagnucco showed that, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Montgomery County has the lowest rate of growth of new business establishments in the region since 2000. Only the tiny City of Falls Church has fared worse, and think of how small they are in relation to Montgomery County (they have only 15,000 residents vs. our 1.4 million).

Who was ahead of Montgomery County in new establishment growth? [If you are a Montgomery County elected official, consider this a trigger warning, and an opportune time to slip a paper bag over your head before your constituents read the following list] Loudoun County with 134% growth of new businesses established, Spotsylvania County 86%, Prince William County 82%, Stafford County 79%, Culpeper County 58%, Arlington County 42%, Fauquier County 42%, Warren County 37%, District of Columbia 37%, Rappahannock County 32%, the D.C. region as a whole 32%, Frederick County 31%, Fairfax City 30%, Fairfax County 30%, Manassas City 28%, Manassas Park City 27%, Jefferson WV 23%, Calvert County 22%, Alexandria 20%, Clarke 19%, Charles County 16%, City of Fredericksburg 12%, Prince George's County 12%.

Montgomery County, by contrast, had a paltry 10% growth rate in new establishments.

Good God. Humiliating!

The Montgomery County Council again has their [briefcases] handed to them by...Culpeper County???? LOL. Fredneck??? LOL. Jefferson bleeping West Virginia? Bleep, yes.

We already knew that Montgomery County has failed to attract a single major corporate headquarters in two decades. And that the Maryland Retailers Association reported a net loss of over 2100 retail jobs in Montgomery since 2000. But Pagnucco has found even more staggering statistics to add to the Montgomery Moribundity.

Just looking at the post-recession years alone, 2011-2016, the District of Columbia and Fairfax County enjoyed a net gain of 3000 new establishments each. Over those same years, Montgomery County had a net gain of...6. That's a single digit folks. Six.

And how about this: Pagnucco discovered only 19 new business filings in Montgomery County were recorded with the State of Maryland in FY-2016. Nineteen. 

Again, a total humiliation.

Who beat us that year within our own state? Worcester County was at the top, with 138 new business filings. Somebody call Rodney the Lifeguard to save our drowning County Council!

Pagnucco notes that 2011 was the first fiscal year completely impacted by the County Council's massive 2010 energy tax hike. He ends one of his reports with perhaps the most pertinent question in this election year:

"Which candidates for office do you think can help turn this around?"

Myself, for one. Visit my website to see why I am the best choice for the Montgomery County Council At-Large to turn around Montgomery County's utterly moribund economy.

Golden Bull to become Megamart supermarket in Gaithersburg

Grocery chain Megamart is seeking to open a new Gaithersburg location on the site of the old Golden Bull and parking lot at 7 Dalamar Street. Megamart owns both pieces, and wants to demolish the existing building, replacing it with a 26600 SF supermarket with surface parking.

The 1955 building began its life as Dalamar Skating and Bowling, owned by James and Ethel Wilson. Despite this intriguing past, the City of Gaithersburg has already declared the structure not historic or worthy of preservation. Truck turns to access the new store will require agreement from the adjacent fairgrounds. The store will have 114 parking spaces.

City staff is recommending approval of the project with conditions. The Gaithersburg Planning Commission will take up the proposal at its April 4, 2018 meeting at 7:30 PM.