By Adam Pagnucco.
Montgomery County has many needs from Annapolis. We depend heavily on state aid for MCPS. We are desperate for transportation funding which is in short supply these days. Some in our county government would like more flexibility in setting tax rates. And we often have a stake in state legislation, whether it’s on criminal justice, housing, environmental issues, energy, business regulation and much, much more.
All of this has been true for as long as anyone can remember. And so, every one of our county executives from Jim Gleason on has had to deal with the governor and the General Assembly – for better and worse. Our current county executive, Marc Elrich, was just in Annapolis calling on the state to increase taxes on corporations and wealthy people. That’s not a new thing for political progressives like Elrich. But Elrich amped it up by agreeing with Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman that campaign contributions from wealthy donors impede progressive taxation. Maryland Matters carried this quote from Elrich:
Elrich said the frequent criticism is that governments “have to live within our means.”
“These are not set down by some god on high and engraved in stone. It’s actually a decision about your tax policy and the tax rate,” said Elrich, adding later: “We need to redefine our means. And fair taxation redefines our means to brings money into the state budget and brings money into local budgets that let us do the things we need to do to be successful and to be competitive.”
But Elrich agreed with Pittman that some lawmakers may feel indebted to donors.
“Those checks do not come without strings,” said Elrich. “Nobody should be confused. You’ll hear people say these are our friends. Yeah. OK. They’re friends and the friends will come with asks.”
The latter shot outraged Senate President Bill Ferguson, one of the most powerful players in Annapolis. Maryland Matters printed these quotes from the senate president.
“There was an article today in which a number of county executives across the state questioned the motives of the members of this body,” said Ferguson. “I just remind them that it is often that we have policy differences here and there. But when they come down and continuously ask for help over and over, and then decide to do a press conference, questioning the motives of the members of this chamber, I would encourage them to really rethink that approach.”
“It’s hard to get what you want when things happen, and you question the motives of the members of this chamber,” said Ferguson. “So, we’ll see how that plays out for them in the long run.”
Why would Elrich antagonize the very people whose votes he needs? One of my Elrich-watching sources recently told me: “Marc doesn’t care about winning. He cares about being right.”
I have known Elrich since 2006 and this is one of the most insightful statements about him that I have heard. This latest episode is a vivid illustration of this component of Elrich’s personality.
How is this playing in the state capital? Here are a few quotes from my source network in and around Annapolis about Elrich’s remarks (and also those of Pittman). All of them have years of experience in working on state legislation.
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“Marc Elrich is an embarrassment. He came to Annapolis and impugned the motives of his own Montgomery County members. I can’t think of anything more damaging. He should lock himself in Rockville and leave the lobbying to the professionals–Mel Wenger and Rich Madaleno. This mistake is almost certainly unrecoverable.”
“It was both incorrect and incredibly stupid.”
“The comments from the Montgomery County County Executive reflect a fundamental lack of understanding on how to get things done and achieve your goals in Annapolis. Insulting state legislators, the jury pool when it comes to state policy and state funding, is clearly not the way to go.”
“This is another example of Elrich being Elrich and disregarding the advice of MoCo leadership in Annapolis about how to play the game. Definitely counter productive.”
“I think the backfire is deserved. Whether or not there is an element of truth in what they say is a secondary issue and some lawmakers might depend on business contributions more than others–often the minorities with few rich friends or a community with a habit of donating to political campaigns. Questioning the motive of lawmakers is a non-starter. This is not a new issue and if this is the only thing we do to those big corporations, then it’s more bearable. But it’s one of countless things we do to make ourselves less attractive as a locale. So with fewer corporations to even pay any corporate income tax, the people those county executives want to help are just going to be stuck in low-wage jobs for longer before they can move up the ladder.”
“Does Elrich do anything right? In Rockville or Annapolis? In dealing with Jeffrey Buddle [the fire fighters union president]? Questioning people’s motives is dumb politics.”
“Alleging some legislators are servants for large corporate interests–while not entirely off-base–is rarely a successful strategy for securing votes from those legislators. I sincerely hope there aren’t long-term repercussions from this.”
“Their comments were deeply insulting to the legislators because they assume that there can’t be legitimate policy differences on revenue questions. The reaction I’ve heard around town is that it’s very Trumpian to engage in personal attacks questioning a person’s motives when you may just have a disagreement on policy. Their comments made it less likely that anything in that bill passes, not more likely. Seems like a pretty bad strategy to insult the people you are trying to get to vote for something.”
“Marc is embarrassing. He doesn’t know how things work in Annapolis. He should get advice before he opens his mouth.”
“I would say that no one who has worked with Elrich should be surprised at this latest stunt. Marc always believes he is the smartest guy in the room, and if you disagree with him, then you’re the problem. Just look at his souring relationship with IAFF [the fire fighters union]. He always seems more interested in being right than getting things done.”
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There were a few other quotes that I could not use because they might get this site banned from social media or Google.
Among other things, Elrich badly wants Annapolis to allow him to levy split property tax rates so he can charge more on commercial properties to pay for transportation spending. That’s going to be harder to get when he is attacking state legislators and getting chided by the senate president in public. As a matter of fact, this will make it more difficult for Montgomery County to get anything out of Annapolis.
But our county executive thinks he is “right.” At least we can take comfort in that.