By Adam Pagnucco.
In a vote sure to rile up residents who have been hit by County Executive Marc Elrich’s proposal to raise property taxes by ten percent, the county council has just approved legislation creating a non-competitive job specifically designated for one of its former members. Now will come the consequences.
In their discussion today, no council member publicly acknowledged what every one of them knew – that the county executive created this new position in his office for former Council Member Craig Rice, who left due to term limits in November. Instead, they discussed the work of the position, which is intended to focus on broadband issues. While no one disputed the importance of that work, it’s also noteworthy that the county already has an existing broadband office with an $18.8 million budget and 57.5 full-time equivalent positions.
In the end, the council voted to approve the new job 9-2, with Council Members Evan Glass and Dawn Luedtke voting no. This is what Glass had to say about his no vote.
I have been thinking about this position myself and at this point, I cannot support the creation of this position. We have the Department of Technology and Enterprise Business Solutions that does this work. There are dozens and dozens of individuals who work to advance our technological and broadband capacity throughout the county. Can we do more, should we do more? Absolutely. But we also have 1,500 vacancies in county government. And in the FY24 budget that was provided to us last week by the county executive, there are 137 new tax-supported positions. And if this position is approved today by this passage of this legislation, that’s one more.
I four years ago told the county executive I would be a willing partner in working to streamline and overhaul county government to do right by our hard working employees and to do right by our hard paying taxpayers. And I don’t think that this legislation and the creation of this position moves us toward that common goal. And so I will not be supporting it.
There is no denying that this job is specifically intended for term-limited former Council Member Craig Rice. The county executive put it into writing on March 10. No other members of the public are allowed to compete for the job, which carries a salary of $175,000 and total compensation of $214,391 a year.
Here is the proof – the documents in which Elrich announces his intention to hire Rice for the new six-figure position.
Aside from Glass and Luedtke, this council has chosen not to heed the lessons from the last time a large tax hike was proposed. Back in 2016, County Executive Ike Leggett proposed an 8.7% property tax increase, which was almost as large as Elrich’s ten percent hike of today. Tax opponents used a 25% increase in council pay, which the council had approved three years earlier, to blast the council for alleged greed and delegitimize the entire tax increase. While the council wound up passing the tax hike, furious voters retaliated by passing term limits.
There is no charter amendment on the ballot today, but there is plenty of time to come up with one by the 2024 general election. And the mix of this new job – specially created by the county executive and the council for a former colleague – with a large tax hike is politically toxic.
One can only guess what the ultimate consequences of this vote may prove to be.