According to Marimow, this would add funding to improve four neighborhood recreation centers, long a goal of Action In Montgomery, a multi-faith Social Justice group which is associated with District 4 Special Elections candidate Pat Ryan. If you don't believe me, see his campaign website.
Is the County Council rapidly -- and outside of standard process -- informally adopting the positions of many, if not all, of the candidates for the District 4 Special Election?
It's starting to look that way! I certainly proposed that perhaps the best way to deal with fiscal uncertainties in the unfolding economic crisis is to put off Capital Improvement Projects until we at least know what's our financial position. I'm on record with video on this.
The Council is prepared to put off a lot of high-dollar projects, as they should. Montgomery County is at the upper end of widely accepted standards of debt load for a public entity. According to Marimow, delays would include:
[...] top-to-bottom overhaul of four public high schools -- Paint Branch, Gaithersburg, Seneca Valley and Wootton -- would be delayed by a year. Construction at Wheaton High School would be put off for two years. Renovations to gyms at North Chevy Chase, Westbrook and Cold Spring elementary schools would be deferred for two years.
Several high-profile transportation projects probably would be hit hardest by the proposed changes. Construction would be delayed for two years on a Falls Road hiker-biker path and a four-lane Montrose Parkway East between Parklawn Drive and Veirs Mill Road. The plan takes out construction funding for a bus maintenance facility in Clarksburg and removes an alternative way to buy Ride On buses.
When it comes to the budget, the Council certainly seems to have got the message from Mark Fennel who swears that he would never vote to exceed the Charter amendment limiting each year's top rate of property tax increases.
The other Republicans take the position that it would take extremely dire circumstances to do that. I myself would do it only to fulfill contracts. Let's hope that the County Council deeply understands that signing contracts that force them to break the tax-increase rate provisions of the Charter (as amended) will make them look very bad indeed to the voters.
Regardless of who wins the Special Election, everyone is up for election in 2010. It's time to make changes now. There's going to be no more "business as usual" where the County Council takes the taxpayers for a ride in a very nice Cadillac. We the taxpayers just cannot afford that Cadillac and we certainly cannot afford to have it racing up and down the road burning fuel like a NASCAR racer. No, we need a used Oldsmobile, the payments are a lot less even if it has a lot less frills. That metaphoric old Olds will get people where they need to go and it won't break the budget.
But it's not enough just to save money! We need to provide better services.
Marimow writes about how changes need to be made to "right-size" public transportation:
Council member Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring), who rides the bus from her Silver Spring home to the council office in Rockville, said the county must expand the bus fleet quickly to meet rising demands.
"I've stood on the corner and watched five full buses go by," she said of the 90-minute commute. "We have a lot of work to do."
Right-sizing would mean that you run a string of buses in close spacing, not far from the idea of the so-called "bus train", during peak hours. I myself propose that in off-peak hours, much smaller buses should be run, to conserve fleet fuel expenses.
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