{"id":8705,"date":"2017-10-18T07:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T11:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=8705"},"modified":"2017-10-17T23:44:50","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T03:44:50","slug":"where-are-we-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=8705","title":{"rendered":"Where Are We Going?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

Your author has written over a thousand posts over the last decade about state and local politics.\u00a0 Some of those posts were tough.\u00a0 Some called out elected officials by name and others took strong positions on issues that were unpopular with some.\u00a0 But none of them provoked a more negative reaction from the political establishment in Rockville than our three<\/a> recent<\/a> posts<\/a> on the history of MCPS funding.<\/p>\n

Those posts did not contain ad hominem attacks.\u00a0 They relied on budget data to make a point: the county restricted local funding for public schools for seven straight years and relied on state aid to fund the school system until property taxes were raised last year.\u00a0 We then recommended that the school system get small, steady per pupil increases to deal with their needs financed by restraint in the rest of the budget.\u00a0 This was not enjoyed by the officialdom in Rockville.\u00a0 Terms were used like \u201cmisleading,\u201d \u201cdistortions,\u201d and \u201cover the top.\u201d\u00a0 But in the end, the response from Council Member Nancy Floreen<\/a> wound up confirming, not refuting, much of what we wrote<\/a>.\u00a0 There is no real disagreement over the facts of the matter; the budget data tells the same story no matter how it is read.\u00a0 There is only disagreement over how those facts are characterized.<\/p>\n

All of this provokes a thought.\u00a0 Everyone reading this post has suffered a huge defeat at some point in their lives.\u00a0 What does one do?\u00a0 Well, after regaining consciousness and asking, \u201cWhat the hell happened?\u201d many people try to reconstruct what led to the defeat and assess the various factors that contributed to it, including self-inflicted wounds.\u00a0 Then a resolution is made to avoid repeating those mistakes in the future.\u00a0 Sure, we often mess up again.\u00a0 But sometimes we learn and improve.<\/p>\n

For the Rockville political establishment, the 40-point passage of term limits<\/a> was that moment of huge defeat.\u00a0 It was the biggest voter revolt since two consecutive County Councils were thrown out in the 1960s.\u00a0 Where is the self-reflection and soul searching in the wake of that moment?\u00a0 We\u2019d like to see someone in government say, \u201cHere\u2019s what we learned from term limits.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what will be different going forward.\u201d\u00a0 Anyone who does that would deserve great respect.<\/p>\n

Your author speaks regularly to candidates who knock on doors.\u00a0 There is considerable diversity in the views of the voters.\u00a0 Development is one issue provoking different opinions.\u00a0 \u201cWe need more jobs.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWe are overdeveloped.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWe need more affordable housing which is why we need to stop all this building!\u201d\u00a0 (Yes folks, that was an actual quote from a MoCo voter!)\u00a0 But there is also a bit of unease.\u00a0 \u201cMy kid\u2019s school is crowded.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI pay more in taxes but I\u2019m not getting more in return.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m having problems affording the cost of living here and I\u2019m worried that my kids won\u2019t be able to afford to live here.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThe county doesn\u2019t listen to me.\u201d\u00a0 These are not tea partiers or Trump supporters; these are Democrats who regularly vote.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t hatred of incumbents.\u00a0 But lots of folks are asking the same question.\u00a0 Where are we going?<\/em><\/p>\n

The interest groups in the county are asking the same thing.\u00a0 None of them feels content.\u00a0 The business community, the labor folks, the PTAs, the Realtors, the civic community and the rest of them are all uneasy and some are downright unhappy.\u00a0 They have more in common than they believe.\u00a0 What happens when they start talking to each other?<\/p>\n

The 2018 election will not be a normal event.\u00a0 It occurs in the context of a stagnant economy<\/a>, a school system in desperate need, a tight budget, abject failures in the White House and Capitol Hill and voter rejection of the status quo.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t seen anything like this in decades.\u00a0 The good news is that the candidate field is outstanding.\u00a0 Some of the incumbents have tremendous experience and substantial achievements in their records.\u00a0 All of them who were in office in 2010 can claim credit for saving the county from complete fiscal disaster.\u00a0 The non-incumbents are smart, energetic, diverse and gifted in life experience.\u00a0 Many of them would make great elected officials.<\/p>\n

But we need something more.\u00a0 We need to ask: where are we going?\u00a0 And where should we be going?\u00a0 To do that, we have to honestly assess where we\u2019ve been \u2013 even if it means breaking a few eggs \u2013 and then figure out how to move forward.\u00a0 It\u2019s not easy.\u00a0 As the incumbents will tell you, the constraints are real.\u00a0 Do you want to give more money to the public schools?\u00a0 Fine \u2013 then understand the state\u2019s maintenance of effort law and be prepared to raise taxes or control spending elsewhere in the budget.\u00a0 Do you want to improve the economy?\u00a0 Fine \u2013 then avoid increasing the difficulty of doing business in the county, especially when it comes to employer costs and predictability.\u00a0 Do you want to increase incomes?\u00a0 Fine \u2013 that involves a discussion of rebuilding the working and middle classes through encouraging collective bargaining.\u00a0 Do you want to increase funding for school construction?\u00a0 Fine \u2013 then you need to find new revenue or be prepared to restrain the rest of the capital budget.\u00a0 Do you want to help immigrants and people of color?\u00a0 Fine \u2013 then be attentive to the needs of small businesses, which in this county are dominated by owners who are immigrants and people of color.\u00a0 Do you want to close the achievement gap?\u00a0 Fine \u2013 get ready for some difficult discussions about housing policy.\u00a0 We could go on and on.<\/p>\n

These discussions are necessary for us to move forward.\u00a0 They must be honest.\u00a0 They must be driven by data, not ideology.\u00a0 And they must not spare political sacred cows.\u00a0 Because if we don\u2019t figure out where we are going, we will wind up in one place.<\/p>\n

Nowhere.\u00a0 Nowhere at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. Your author has written over a thousand posts over the last decade about state and local politics.\u00a0 Some of those posts were tough.\u00a0 Some called out elected officials by name and others took strong positions on issues that were unpopular with some.\u00a0 But none of them provoked a more negative reaction from … Continue reading Where Are We Going?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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":""},"categories":[151,63],"tags":[1545,1493],"class_list":["post-8705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-montgomery-county","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-montgomery-county"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-2gp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8705","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8705"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8729,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8705\/revisions\/8729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}