{"id":10130,"date":"2018-04-17T12:31:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T16:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=10130"},"modified":"2018-04-17T12:31:49","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T16:31:49","slug":"clash-on-the-issues-part-ii-is-ballooning-debt-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=10130","title":{"rendered":"Clash on the Issues, Part II: is Ballooning Debt a Problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second in a series about the issue positions of candidates in District 1 based on the debate hosted by Friends of White Flint<\/a>. Today’s post looks at whether the candidates are concerned about the share of the county budget going to service debt, which is approaching 20% according to the question.<\/p>\n

Ana Sol Guti\u00e9rrez<\/strong> doesn\u2019t see County debt as a problem and views it is analogous to a home mortgage, leaving me hoping that we don\u2019t end up under water like so many home owners. She has confidence in analyses showing the county is financially stable but also expressed interest in finding \u201cother funding streams,\u201d which sounds like taxes. Throughout the debate, however, she referred to mysterious state-level funds that the county had left untapped, a perplexing claim from a this long-time delegate on the appropriations committee who should be well placed to direct funds to the County.<\/p>\n

In a similar vein, Bill Cook<\/strong> commended the Council for its balanced budget and well-funded rainy day fund, and blamed \u201creckless\u201d development without appropriate impact taxes for placing additional burdens on county residents.<\/p>\n

Reggie Oldak<\/strong> took a more centrist position, arguing that too much debt is a burden and Montgomery needs to preserve its AAA bond rating. At the same time, she agreed it is shortsighted not to spend on the safety net, leaving me a bit concerned as debt should go to capital, not operating, expenses.<\/p>\n

Noting a lot of agreement among the candidates, Jim McGee<\/strong> took a similar position. He views debt as an \u201cinvestment in the future\u201d but also says we need to see the return on the investment. He also noted aptly that interest rates are rising, so debt will cost more in the future. Economic growth is the real solution to this problem.<\/p>\n

Meredith Wellington<\/strong> was the first to express directly that she is very concerned about the debt gobbling up more of our budget even as revenues have not bounced back and we\u2019ve raised taxes. She supports the affordability guidelines, even though they constrain the county\u2019s ability to borrow, and said we need to set priorities. In short, Wellington was the first to identify rightly that growing debt and flat revenues is not a sustainable fiscal path, and that the county will have to make real choices as a result.<\/p>\n

Andrew Friedson<\/strong> concurred with Wellington. He countered Guti\u00e9rrez\u2019s home mortgage analogy directly, arguing cogently that we cannot do the equivalent of taking out a bigger mortgage or taxing our way out of it. There is certainly little appetite for increased property or income taxes in Montgomery, especially in the wake of the County\u2019s big tax hike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Showing his expertise on the topic, Pete Fosselman<\/strong> noted the $375 million paid in interest last year and the $120 million hole in the current budget. He\u2019s concerned about the County\u2019s AAA bond rating, arguing that we need fiscal discipline and to work better to provide services through nonprofits even as we stop funding politically connected \u201csock puppet nonprofits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once again, voters appear to have a real choice, as candidates expressed broad differences on both debt as a problem and the solutions. All should be concerned with the county bond rating because lower bond ratings mean we pay more in interest and can afford less. As Wellington identified, and Friedson and Fosselman agreed, we are not on a sustainable fiscal path, so debt should be a real concern. The era of difficult choices is far from over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the second in a series about the issue positions of candidates in District 1 based on the debate hosted by Friends of White Flint. Today’s post looks at whether the candidates are concerned about the share of the county budget going to service debt, which is approaching 20% according to the question. Ana … Continue reading Clash on the Issues, Part II: is Ballooning Debt a Problem?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[439,15],"tags":[1490,806,2166,2165,2001,1492,2023],"class_list":["post-10130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-district-1","category-montgomery-county-council","tag-ana-sol-gutierrez","tag-andrew-friedson","tag-bill-cook","tag-jim-mcgee","tag-meredith-wellington","tag-pete-fosselman","tag-reggie-oldak"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-2Do","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10131,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10130\/revisions\/10131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}