By Adam Pagnucco.
Below are the top ten stories on Montgomery Perspective in April 2026, ranked by page views.
1. Friedson on Taxes and Budget: “That is Crazy”
3. Fani-González to Elrich: “It’s Your Time to Move On”
4. MCGEO Blasts “Culture of Favoritism and Nepotism” in Housing Department
5. MoCo’s Exploding Infrastructure Backlog
6 (tie). Council Members Start to Align Around Executive Candidates
6 (tie). Our Kids and Communities Need Fields. Don’t Shut Them Down.
8. Fani-González’s Bold Budget Proposal
9. Is This a Prohibited Contribution Under Public Financing?
10. Jawando Releases Plan to Balance Budget with No Property Tax Increase
April was the month when the upcoming primary election, the budget and taxes all collided – especially in the context of the county executive race. That will intensify in May.
But from a policy perspective, the most important post was MoCo’s Exploding Infrastructure Backlog. As of two years ago, county agencies had an infrastructure backlog of nearly $4 billion with no long-term plan to resolve it. The county official who is most honest about this issue is MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor, who requested a huge capital budget to deal with it. (Prediction: he is not going to get everything he wants.)
An even bigger problem than MCPS is the county’s aging transportation infrastructure. County Executive Marc Elrich would like to create new tax districts to pay for transportation spending. That proposal may receive some attention from the county council after the budget but it’s unlikely to be resolved before the primary.
This month, I will begin rolling out answers to this site’s questionnaire for county executive and county council candidates. As someone who used to work for campaigns, I am sympathetic to candidates who have to complete dozens of these things every cycle. Back in 2018, I described them as the Worst Part of Campaigning. So I only asked ten questions. I gave candidates three weeks to complete them and I reminded them twice. In the end, about two-thirds of them provided answers. Whether you agree with their responses or not, everyone who responded deserves respect. Read what they have to say, think about it and vote!