09/07/2026
An Open Letter to Scott Goldberg
Dear Scott Goldberg,
Thank you for focusing the discussion on local fiscal issues. The last County budget cycle makes the structural problems Democrats have given us impossible to ignore.
The County Council approved a $7.9 billion FY2027 operating budget, eliminated the $692 Income Tax Offset Credit for owner-occupied homes, and left the next budget cycle facing an estimated $293 million structural deficit.
For the homeowners who received the ITOC, the credit was reduced to $0 beginning July 1, 2026. That means a tax bill up to $692 higher.
County officials may say they rejected a proposed property-tax rate increase. But a tax increase does not become less real because it is described as eliminating a credit rather than raising a rate.
At the same time, Montgomery County Public Schools faces an estimated $3 billion deferred-maintenance backlog due to 20 years of Democrat mismanagement and priorities. This is not a small maintenance problem. It is a growing bill involving aging roofs, HVAC systems, restrooms, and other essential school infrastructure. Even after addressing the existing backlog, MCPS estimates it would need about $560 million per year simply to keep up with routine capital replacements.
Yet County government continues to advance a wide range of bicycle-infrastructure projects. There are more than 20 bicycle projects underway or in design, and another 20 projects in the planning pipeline that are expected to add nearly 18 miles of bike-friendly routes. Some transportation improvements are worthwhile, and safer streets matter. But taxpayers have every right to question the order of priorities when County government claims it cannot fully meet fundamental needs.
Before adding more projects, expanding programs, or asking residents to pay more, County leaders should first answer a basic question: Are we taking care of the essentials?
Are school buildings safe, functional, and properly maintained? Are public dollars being spent on the County’s most urgent responsibilities? Are taxpayers receiving better service, faster permitting, dependable infrastructure, and genuine accountability for the money already collected?
The County’s fiscal choices have consequences. A $293 million structural deficit means the next County Executive and County Council will begin the next budget process short of the revenue needed just to sustain the same level of spending. That is not prudent budgeting. It is pushing the bill forward.
Montgomery County has exceptional residents, businesses, institutions, and a powerful tax base. It should not be accepting high costs, deferred maintenance, growing structural gaps, and a government culture that confuses spending more with governing better.
There is no Republican County Executive setting these priorities. There is no Republican County Council majority approving these budgets, eliminating homeowner credits, or deciding what gets funded. Your Democrat governing majority has had the authority, and the budget.
It also owns the outcomes.
Stop conflating national politics for the problems, misplaced priorities, and wasteful spending that your party has given Montgomery County for the past 20 years.
County priorities should do right by the citizens who pay for them: protect taxpayers, repair the schools, fund core public responsibilities first, and make every dollar accountable.
Respectfully,
Montgomery County Republican Central Committee
