By Adam Pagnucco.
County Executive Marc Elrich’s FY27 recommended operating budget is already notorious for its property and income tax increases as well as its advocacy for new special taxing districts. (More on the latter is coming soon.) But it also includes a lot of large fee increases. Elrich sent over a package of memos enumerating those fee increases to the council shortly after releasing his budget.
Here are a few of them.
Transportation Fees and Fines
A new fee of up to $75 for driving, standing or parking in a bus lane.
A new “CZ permit” for businesses and employers that would charge $205 per month in the Bethesda Parking Lot District and $140 per month in the Silver Spring and Wheaton Parking Lot Districts. No explanation for the higher fee in Bethesda is given.
A new electric vehicle charging fee in the Bethesda, Silver Spring and Wheaton Parking Lot Districts of $0.50 or less per kWh.
An increase in the monthly permit in the Silver Spring Parking Lot District from $132 to $195 per month (48%).
In the Wheaton Parking Lot District, fee increases from $1.25 to $2.50 or less per hour for parking in spaces within right of way of public streets, from $1.00 to $2.00 or less per hour for parking in spaces on a surface parking lot and from $1.00 to $1.75 or less per hour for parking in spaces in a parking garage.
A new fine of $60 for parking on a bikeway.
A new residential parking permit hearing fee of $250.
911 Fee
The county charges a monthly fee on phone bills to finance its 911 system. The executive comments, “The revenues attributable to the County 9-1-1 fee of $1.47 per month are no longer projected to be sufficient to cover the County’s operational costs for the 9-1-1 system and should be increased to $1.93.” This is an increase of 32%.
Solid Waste Charges
An increase in the disposal fee applying to single-family households and dwellings in buildings comprised of six or fewer dwelling units from $56.21 to $61.43 per household (up 9%).
A decrease in the base systems benefit charge applying to single-family households and dwellings in buildings comprised of six or fewer dwelling units from $87.17 to $83.48 per household (down 4%).
An increase in the incremental systems benefit charge applying to single-family households and dwellings in buildings comprised of six or fewer dwelling units from $244.34 to $257.14 (up 5%).
An increase in the base systems benefit charge applying to multi-family properties in buildings comprised of seven or greater dwelling units from $25.81 to $26.94 per dwelling (up 4%).
An increase in the incremental systems benefit charge applying to multi-family properties in buildings comprised of seven or greater dwelling units from $3.95 to $5.76 per dwelling (up 46%).
Additional solid waste charge increases on non-residential properties of 10%.
Note: the total systems benefit charge on multi-family properties would rise from $29.76 to $32.70 (up 10%). The county’s rent control law allows a maximum rent increase of 5.7% this year and has an absolute cap of 6%. Can multi-family owners recover these fee increases through rent increases or must they eat them? (Also note that Elrich wants to levy a 6% property tax increase.)
Water Quality Protection Charge
The base rate for the county’s water quality protection charge would rise from $147.00 per Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU) to $157.50 (up 7%).
Community Use of Public Facilities Fees
Community use of public facilities (CUPF) fees are charged to residents and organizations seeking to rent county-owned properties. The executive wrote:
The FY27 Recommended Budget includes revised fee rate increases of 7.5 – 12.5 percent for Montgomery County Public Schools and a 10 – 12 percent for Silver Spring Civic Building. The 7.5 percent increase would apply to Category A users (Before and After-School Childcare, Nonprofit Cultural Schools, Government) and Category B users (Nonprofits and County Residents), while the 12.5 percent increase would apply to Category C users (Commercial and Non-County Residents). The 10 percent increase would apply to Category A users (Government and Public Agencies) and Category B users (Government/Public Agencies, County Residents, and Nonprofits), and the 12 percent increase would apply to Category C users (For-Profit and Non-County Residents).
For the sake of comparison with these fee increases, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates that the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria CPI-U rose by 2.4% between November 2024 and November 2025, the most recent increase estimated as of this writing.
The executive’s proposed fees can be downloaded from the link below. The FY26 solid waste fee schedule can be found here and the FY26 water quality protection charge can be found here.