By Adam Pagnucco.
2025 is now over, and praise be to that! Now it’s time for our annual awards column.
Story of the Year: Change at MCPS
This isn’t just the story of the year – this may be the story of the next two decades. Other than the federal government, MCPS may be the most consequential institution in MoCo. And the changes taking place at MCPS – especially in its redrawing of high school and middle school boundaries and its shift to academic program regions – will reverberate for many years. If MCPS gets this right, it has a chance to enhance school quality for many students who will get the chance to specialize in programs of their choice. If not, both the school district and the county will suffer.
Runner up 1: The disaster of rent control
This is another generational story. County officials were warned about rent control’s many failures but they approved it anyway. The result is redlining by the nation’s real estate financing community and a lonely death of the county’s multifamily construction market.
Runner up 2: Federal government problems
The Trump administration’s decimation of federal jobs and contracting is weakening the entire region’s economy and MoCo’s in particular. The impact on the county’s revenues already has county officials discussing tax hikes and spending cuts.
County Employee of the Year: MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor
OK, technically, MCPS is a state-established agency so Taylor is not a county employee. But county taxpayers directly pay for nearly two-thirds of MCPS’s operating budget and county voters elect his bosses on the school board, so I am going to count him as a county person for the purposes of this column.
Taylor is trying to do a LOT. And there is a LOT to do. Is he getting everything right? Probably not. I wonder if he is tackling too much when he tries to do boundary redrawing, academic program regions, a huge capital budget, security improvements, maintenance improvements, a new headquarters campus, a special education ramp-up, holding schools and more all at the same time. Taylor’s to-do list might be longer than Donald Trump’s enemies list. Is it too much? Maybe, but no one in any county-funded agency is trying harder to make their institution better. That’s why TT is the employee of the year.
Reporter of the Year: Jack Hogan
The Banner’s entry into MoCo in the fall is a major plus for the county. At this point, they may have the largest staff dedicated to covering us, and for a mostly new crew, I have found their content quality to be usually quite good.
Jack Hogan, who used to work for the Daily Record and the Frederick News-Post, is the star of the staff. His reporting reliably hits the intersection between economics, government and politics in a way that’s unusual for local media. He also does a good job of incorporating context and history for a new person. My personal favorite Hogan article is the one he wrote about Beyond Comics in Gaithersburg showing the impact of tariffs on a comics shop. (Reading comic books taught me how to write, folks!) If the Banner can keep Hogan in MoCo for a few more years, he will turn into something special.
Most Significant Political Event: Will Jawando Gets the Apple Ballot
The Apple Ballot, wielded by the Montgomery County Education Association, is the county’s top endorsement. That is even more true than it once was due to the decline of the Washington Post’s influence and interest in local affairs. When the Apple picked Jawando for county executive, that gave a talented candidate who was already running a strong campaign a huge tool to win. Seven months before the Apple dropped, I asked whether Jawando was the front runner in the executive race. He has a much stronger case to make for that designation now.
Scandal of the Year: Millions Wasted on Unnecessary Office Space
County boards overseeing pension and retiree health care funds wasted millions of dollars on half-empty private office space when they were staying in the executive office building for free. No one in the executive or legislative branches lifted a finger to stop it.
Runner up: MCPS’s failures on background checks
This was an unpleasant surprise left to TT by his predecessors. To his credit, he cleaned up the mess in four months.
Target on their Backs Award: MoCo Taxpayers
Despite having about one-sixth of the state’s population, Montgomery County taxpayers will have to pay almost half of the state’s income tax hike from last spring. Now county officials are talking about taxes again after levying three tax hikes in 2023 and proposing income and property tax increases a year ago. With some of the highest income tax rates on the East Coast and county energy taxes that dwarf the rest of the region, when will MoCo’s piggy bank go empty?
Consequential Politician of the Year: Donald Trump
Three years ago, I named my annual Politician of the Year Award after Jamie Raskin. At the time, I thought it was the only way to prevent my giving MoCo’s Hero this award every year. Well, I am going to suspend this practice for one year because the winner is President Donald Trump. I suspect that neither Jamie nor Trump would be happy to see any association between the two of them.
So why does Trump deserve this award? Let’s recall Time Magazine’s tradition of occasionally giving its Person of the Year award to dictators and other controversial figures because they had a substantial impact at the time. There is no question that Trump is driving the agenda of state and local politicians right now. From Governor Wes Moore down to municipal elected officials, Maryland’s leaders are scrambling to respond to the economic conditions and policy decisions created by Trump and his administration. In fact, the question of dealing with Trump will be a major part of the candidates’ platforms in the 2026 election cycle. I wish I could give this award to anyone else next year, so we shall see if congressional elections limit Trump’s ability to shape events in Maryland and beyond for the remainder of his term.
Past Political Awards Archive