By Adam Pagnucco.
“You kill my dog, I kill your cat.” So wrote former Baltimore Sun reporter Mike Dresser fifteen years ago. Dresser was writing about state legislators killing each other’s bills out of spite, a common practice in Annapolis. But it’s not just typical of the state capital because it happens in Rockville too. And once again, the pets are in danger.
Take notice of Bill 22-25, which seeks to end UNITE HERE Local 25’s boycott of the Montgomery County Conference Center. The conference center is owned by the county government and operated by Marriott, which has an adjacent hotel. The union would like to organize it. The bill would impose a labor peace agreement at the conference center, which would require neutrality by any employer in the face of a union organizing campaign. The conference center’s ownership by the county is a unique arrangement in MoCo and the union’s boycott is a political problem considering how many prominent events are held there. Many state legislators have already promised to respect the boycott.
The bill could have been narrowly tailored to cover hotel development projects owned by the county, which would have included the conference center and (currently) nothing else. But instead, its coverage was specified through “economic participation” by the county that specifically included tax increment financing (TIF).
Why is this? There is no TIF covering the conference center. There is no TIF currently anywhere in Montgomery County. But there might be a TIF soon, such as the one proposed by County Executive Marc Elrich for the Viva White Oak development. That TIF has nothing to do with the conference center, so how did it wind up in the bill?
Lock up the dogs and cats, people!
I knew the knives were coming out for Elrich in the council building after he introduced his TIF proposal. While there were vague complaints about “corporate welfare” (unusual for an institution that regularly approves millions of dollars of it), the main complaint alleged that Elrich was a hypocrite for loudly vetoing the council’s twenty-year tax abatement bill for many development projects while simultaneously proposing an advantageous tax arrangement for development in White Oak. I didn’t buy it because I don’t regard tax abatements and TIFs (which charge full property taxes) as the same thing. But I did think, “Hmmmmm. With this much venom dripping on the floor, will a serpent soon rear its scaly head to strike?”
Now while I don’t agree with the specific allegation of hypocrisy above, I can totally see where these folks are coming from about Elrich given his abominable treatment of other politicians. I contrast it to my years at the county council when Ike Leggett was the county executive. Sure, we had disagreements with Ike, but he was a gentleman about it. We did not feel like he was trying to score political points at our expense and he kept the channels of communication open. Elrich, by contrast, doesn’t merely disagree – he blows out vast blasts of fire like Smaug the Dragon, crouching on his hoard inside Lonely Mountain. Of course some council members are going to feel scorched. And some of them are going to breathe fire of their own.
The sad consequence is that Viva White Oak might end up getting charred. These politicians are soooooo desperate to get some kind of win in White Oak given the county’s anemic development record, the national redlining from rent control, our appalling economic performance and – in the case of Elrich and Council Members Will Jawando and Kristin Mink, who opposed attainable housing – a need to show that they favor housing of some kind. So I expect the TIF to pass and maybe a few other odds and ends too. But if pet-killing spats and performative progressivism wind up adding costly and unattractive requirements to the Viva White Oak project, it could very well unravel.
And then with dead dogs and cats filling MoCo pet cemeteries, there will be no one for the politicians to blame but themselves.