By Adam Pagnucco.
A new poll of likely Montgomery County Democratic primary voters finds that only 8 percent support raising property taxes “on all existing residents and businesses.” Unfortunately for them, that is exactly the proposal from County Executive Marc Elrich’s recommended FY27 operating budget now on the table at the county council. Perhaps such misfortune will extend to any politicians supporting such an idea.
The poll was conducted by Data for Progress on behalf of Greater Greater Washington (GGW). The crosstabs can be found here. This is its methodology statement.
From February 10 to 19, 2026, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 409 likely Democratic primary voters in Montgomery County, Maryland using SMS and web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and geography. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error associated with the sample size is ±5 percentage points. Results for subgroups of the sample are subject to increased margins of error. Partisanship reflected in tabulations is based on self-identified party affiliation, not partisan registration.
Most of the poll asked questions about housing, which is one of GGW’s primary policy priorities. We will get to some of that in a bit. One question related to tax and budget. The poll asked:
Montgomery County has an anticipated $854 million budget shortfall over the next six years. Ninety percent of the county’s tax revenue comes from property taxes and income taxes, meaning current residents and businesses pay to support the public services we all use.
Which of the following solutions do you think the county council and executive should pursue? Select all that apply.
These were the answers. Note that their total exceeds 100 percent because respondents were allowed to pick more than one option.
52%: Raise property taxes on the wealthiest existing residents and businesses.
44%: Incentivize more people to live and work here to increase tax revenue.
12%: Cut services to save money.
10%: The county council and executive should not pursue any of the above solutions.
8%: Raise property taxes on all existing residents and businesses.
6%: Don’t know.
Since the margin of error is +/- 5 points, the first two options are statistically tied. On the option of exclusively raising taxes on the rich, state law makes that hard for the county government to do. I’ll have more on that subject in a future column.
These are the crosstabs of groups supporting a property tax hike on “all existing residents and businesses.”
13%: Very liberal
11%: Male
10%: College
9%: 45+
9%: Homeowner
9%: White
8%: Renter
6%: Female
6%: Moderate
6%: Under 45
5%: Somewhat liberal
4%: No college
2%: Black/African American
This is overwhelming opposition among all groups of likely Democratic primary voters. (Imagine what these numbers would be if casual Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters were included.) And a property tax hike on “all existing residents and businesses” is exactly what is in Elrich’s budget. (It’s also exactly what the council passed three years ago.)
Here are a few other questions of interest.
The poll asked, “If your council member supported a proposed housing development in your neighborhood, would you be more likely or less likely to vote for them in their re-election?” 33% said more likely and 27% said less likely, a statistical wash. This counters the traditional fear that many politicians have of development opponents.
The poll asked, “In Montgomery County, the number of permits issued for the construction of new multifamily buildings, like rental apartments and for-sale condominiums, fell from over 2,000 permits in 2024 to about 50 permits in 2025. When thinking about this, which comes closest to your view?” 54% said this was a major issue, 21% said it was a minor issue, 12% said it was not really an issue at all and 13% said “Don’t know.”
The poll asked respondents how comfortable they would be if new housing were built at varying distances from them. Generally, the farther away the housing was, the more comfortable respondents were with it. However, at the closest distance – “in your neighborhood or subdivision” – 30% said they were very comfortable, 27% said they were somewhat comfortable, 11% said they were a little comfortable, 25% said they were not comfortable at all and 7% answered “Don’t know.” Again, this suggests that while development opponents may be loud, they are not necessarily representative of all opinions even in their own neighborhoods.
There is more to see in this poll and you can view the crosstabs here. But broad-based tax hikes are THE issue right now, and primary voting Democrats have spoken loud and clear on this.
Their answer is NO.