MoCo

Per Montgomery County: Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich and County Councilmembers Marilyn Balcombe, Sidney Katz and Laurie Ann-Sayles this week joined the County’s Community Action Board at a graduation ceremony for 21 residents who participated in the 2023 Community Advocacy Institute (CAI).

The County Executive encouraged the 21 graduates to utilize the skills they learned in the program to help make Montgomery County a more equitable place to live for all residents. The CAB provides governance to the DHHS’ Community Action Agency, including Head Start, and facilitates the CAI. Since 2016, there have been 126 graduates from the program. Many now serve on County advisory groups and nonprofit boards, along with participating actively in a variety of advocacy efforts.

Per Montgomery County: Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich celebrated the 24th Annual Recycling Awareness Week by honoring recipients of the County’s Recycling Achievement Awards for outstanding achievements in waste reduction, reuse and recycling. The ceremonies, at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, recognized individuals, multi-family properties, businesses, organizations and government facilities. Recycling Awareness Week is a designated week each year during which the County highlights and showcases the achievements of our community and honors them for their efforts to help the County reach its goals of reducing waste and recycling more, aiming for Zero Waste.

“Since 1999, Montgomery County has celebrated its own Recycling Awareness Week by highlighting the hard work and commitment by our businesses, government agencies, multi-family properties, and individuals,” said County Executive Elrich. “Each year, the list of awardees includes more recipients who recognize the importance of reducing waste and recycling more. I am thankful for today’s awardees who are taking action to help us achieve our goals as we aim for Zero Waste.”

“The Council’s budget deliberations carefully balanced our strong and steadfast commitment to our students and teachers with our residents’ many other priorities, while also upholding our responsibility to be fiscal stewards of taxpayer dollars,” said Glass. “We fully funded teacher contracts and met salary and benefit agreements for our hardworking first responders, police and healthcare workers. At the same time, we cut the County Executive’s proposed 10 percent property tax hike by more than half. I’m grateful to my Council colleagues who brought new and unique perspectives to the table and shared a commitment to transparency and oversight every step of the way.”

The Council’s budget deliberations this year focused on balancing the needs of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) with those of other County agencies and departments, as well as reducing the 10-cent property tax rate proposed by County Executive Marc Elrich. Following weeks of deliberations and careful review of Council and committee recommendations, the Council lowered the proposed tax rate and was still able to provide historic funding for MCPS.

The 11 members of the Council had very different views and opinions on this budget. Some wanted higher taxes, some wanted lower. This is what democracy looks like. The end result was one of consensus, recognizing that we all supported the labor contracts of our county and school employees, maintaining a strong social safety net, and preserving our reserve fund.

While there may be disagreements about the details of the budget, there should be no disagreement that this budget process has been more transparent than any other in recent memory. Each committee chair reported their recommendations to the full Council in open, televised meetings and I abolished the omnibus budget consent calendar.