Why Vote For Doug Rosenfeld?

Montgomery County is facing the most difficult times it has seen in recent memory.  Under our current County Executive and Council the County's budget deficit has grown to $1 billion.  In a $4 billion budget, that means we do not know where one dollar of every four dollars we spend is coming from.

For the first time in the County's history our bond rating has been placed on a negative watch list by a national debt rating agency.  Losing the County's AAA bond rating not only will result in increased expenses when the County seeks to borrow money, but also gives a negative impression to companies interested in doing business here.

Last year, also for the first time in the County's history, the County distinguished itself by violating the State law which requires the County to maintain a minimum level of funding for our public schools by underfunding the public schools by $79.5 million.  That violation of law exposed the County to a potential penalty of $23.4 million in lost State education funding.  This year, under our current County Executive and Council, the County intends to "double down" on its violation of that same law by underfunding its schools by at least $138 million.  Except for tiny, rural Wicomico County, Montgomery County stands alone among the 24 Maryland Counties in seeking to underfund its schools.  In a County that prides itself on its public school system, and which hopes to attract businesses that require highly educated employees, the signal these actions send is that our public school system is no longer a priority.

At the same time that they are breaking the State's education funding law, our current County Executive and Council are also breaking the contracts that the County negotiated with its public employees.  Police officers, firefighters, teachers, office workers and others -- across the board, our County Executive and Council are failing to honor negotiated agreements.  And these failures are not restricted to withheld raises, which everyone understands may be a necessary measure in the current economy.  More important than these lost raises are the County's failure to adequately fund retiree pensions and health benefits -- obligations that only grow larger the longer they are ignored.  Just this past legislative session the General Assembly rejected a proposal that would require the County to pay teacher pension obligations that are currently paid by the State.  That issue will loom large again for the next County Executive.

Any major corporation looking for a place to locate, when they Google this County, will read press reports of our unprecedented budget deficit, our jeopardized bond rating, our growing lack of commitment to funding public education, and our underfunded long-term obligations to public employees.  They will naturally ask themselves: Is it prudent to locate in Montgomery County in light of these trends?  It will not help matters that our current County Executive and Council elected to double the County's energy tax in an effort to close the budget gap, or that they did so overnight, or that they had wished to make the increase retroactive.

So what were our current County Executive and Council doing these past four years, when they could have been systematically restructuring County government to avoid an inevitable fiscal collapse?  Spending money.  More specifically, they were preoccupied authorizing the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars in County funds to advance their so-called "Smart Growth Initiative."  This involved funding the purchase of land and buildings to relocate numerous County agencies that employ thousands of County workers -- people who the County no longer can afford to pay and, and in some cases, even continue to employ.  As the County's fiscal climate became more and more desperate, the buying spree continued.  Our County Executive requested, and the Council approved, the purchase of the Finmarc Property ($32 million); the Webb Tract ($46.5 million); the Casey 6 & 7 Properties ($30 million); and the GE Tech Property ($76.3 million).  According to a recent Council memorandum, the total price tag of the "Smart Growth Initiative," including design and construction costs, is now $370 million -- and counting.  At the same time that the County was seeking to underfund its schools by $79.5 million, our County Executive and Council were approving the expenditure of $108 million associated with the GE Tech Property.

The current County Executive and Council have confused their efforts to plan for progress with actual progress.  Whether it be White Flint, Science City or the Webb Tract, in their haste to bring new people to the County our County Executive and Council have had too little regard for the interests of people who live here now.  One of the hallmarks of a progressive community is its regard for its existing residents.  Lose that, and we lose our sense of community.  Lose our sense of community, and we lose what makes Montgomery County "home" to those people who already live here.  Science City is too large for surrounding communities to absorb.  The Webb Tract is an inappropriate location for noxious uses like a "burn building" and a race track.  A pasture bordering the historically designated community of Washington Grove is not a proper location for a truck repair facility. 

We need to change course.  The fiscal challenges we now face are here to stay.  We need to reaffirm our priorities, first by focusing on the delivery of core services: education, public safety, transportation and essential social services.  We have to deliver these services more effectively and efficiently.  We have to understand that in a County of nearly a million people, individual taxpayers alone cannot shoulder the burden.  We need to grow our corporate tax base.  We have a tremendous amount to offer corporate employers, and in order to promote the County we need to immediately establish a professionally managed office of economic development that is second to none.  Our current County Executive has spent 20 years in County office growing this government.  His actions to date speak for themselves:  he cannot and will not shrink it.  I will.

I am not a professional politician.  I was educated as an economist, journalist, and lawyer.  I believe in stating simply what I mean.  So let me be clear.  As County Executive I pledge to do the following:

1.  I will establish a professional office of economic development that is second to none.

2.  I will fully fund our public schools as required by State law.

3.  I will negotiate sustainable contracts with our public employees, and I will honor them.

4.  I will address the issues of our public employee pensions and retiree health benefits head-on, to ensure that workers understand what they will receive when they retire, so they can plan accordingly.

5.  I will scale back Science City.

6.  I will reverse course on the Smart Growth Initiative.  

7.  I will restructure County government so that the County spends within its means.  There will be no sacred cows. 

I believe this County has a unique opportunity to reaffirm its status as one of the finest places to live in the continental United States.  But we must act quickly.  And we must act decisively.  I ask for your support as I move forward in this election and seek to RESTORE MONTGOMERY'S PROMISE.