By Adam Pagnucco. With MCPS getting a large funding increase in this year’s budget and doubts surfacing regarding its huge fund balances, use of instructional salaries money and ability to…
Budget and Taxes
By Adam Pagnucco. Montgomery County’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued a new report chronicling problems with the county government’s enforcement of its bag tax law. Specifically, the county…
What Happened to These State Bills?
By Adam Pagnucco. Over the last several months, I wrote about a few state bills that have since been resolved in the most recent session of the General Assembly. Let’s…
Fact Checking Elrich, Part Two
By Adam Pagnucco. Let’s resume evaluating Elrich’s pushback on the council over its recently passed FY24 budget. On school spending Elrich took two tracks on school spending. First, he remarked…
Fact Checking Elrich, Part One
By Adam Pagnucco. Despite getting 98 percent of his FY24 recommended budget funded by the county council, County Executive Marc Elrich went on the attack last week. He criticized the…
Elrich Busts Loose
By Adam Pagnucco. In a rip-roaring press conference on Thursday, County Executive Marc Elrich opened fire on his critics, especially those at the county council. His office sent me a…
The Phantom Cut
By Adam Pagnucco. Question: When is a budget cut not a cut? Answer: When it’s a phantom cut! That means a cut existing only on paper because the item in…
Fani-González on Rental Assistance
By Adam Pagnucco. One of the less noticed stories of the budget is that the county council approved a lot of money for rental assistance. While rent hikes are far…
By Adam Pagnucco. Last Thursday, the great tax hike battle of 2023 came to its dramatic conclusion as the county council raised property taxes by 4.7 percent. That followed the…
MCPS to Council: Let’s Kiss and Make Up
By Adam Pagnucco. MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight and Board of Education President Karla Silvestre have sent a letter to the county council thanking them for their “ongoing support of Montgomery…