A bright future for EVERY student

When young people organize for change, anything is possible. I know this having served as Barack Obama's National Youth Vote Director as well as political director of Rock the Vote.

So when the MCPS students of the Minority Scholars Program invited me to join them for the March to Close the Achievement Gap, I attended -- and I was inspired by their advocacy.

Our students are right. While MCPS is a superb school system by many measures, we know that there are disparities in educational outcomes according to race and income. A review of dropout rates, AP exams, SAT scores and other measures provides ample evidence that we are not achieving our goal of helping every child succeed.

A new County Council research report on high schools shows a large and growing achievement gap between schools in areas with significant poverty and schools in low-poverty areas.

We can do better. Montgomery County is blessed with experienced school leadership, great teachers, significant resources and a diverse population that values education. The county also invests hundreds of millions of dollars in health and human service initiatives that help children and families outside the classroom. When all of us get together - elected officials, parents, MCPS leadership and stakeholders throughout our county – we can figure out how to make this work.

What steps do we need to take? Here are some of my recommendations:

1. Fund new initiatives in MCPS that are intended to close the achievement gap, including more ESOL programs, incentives for teachers to stay in more challenged schools, smaller class sizes for challenged high schools, and more. These programs are in the MCPS budget that is pending before the County Council now and I support them.

2. Reduce concentrations of poverty in our county by promoting economic development for all of our communities. Families need jobs to thrive and the lack of high paying jobs in the East County has real consequences in the classroom. Concentrated poverty in our neighborhoods is the greatest threat to academic achievement in our schools.

3. Strengthen early childhood programs, in partnership with MCPS, to prevent the achievement gap from starting. Parents need affordable child care and children need to start kindergarten ready to learn. Our county has a long way to go on these issues.

As a parent of two young kids, the older of whom just started MCPS kindergarten, my passion for meeting these challenges is only growing. I want to hear from you and work with you to make sure that our county continues to become a better place to live for everyone.


The March to Close the Achievement Gap. Photo Credit: Dan Reed

Let's build more classrooms

The County Council is now reviewing the capital budget for construction projects. Transit and roads, libraries, parks and much more are on the table.

My number one priority in our capital budget is school construction. Here's why.

As both an MCPS Parent and a Montgomery County Councilmember, I see that enrollment growth and aging facilities in MCPS are causing us to fall behind. But we can fix this.

Between 2003 and 2013, MCPS enrollment grew by 12,000 students. According to the Board of Education, that's the equivalent of 16 new elementary schools filled to capacity!

Our explosive growth is unique. We have added more new students than Anne Arundel, Charles, Frederick, and Howard counties combined. In fact, the rest of the state's enrollment did not increase at all from 2003 to 2013.

By 2020, we expect to add another 11,000 students, on top of the 150,000 that we have today. Again, that will be the largest enrollment increase of any school district in Maryland.

The Montgomery County Government has responded by dramatically increasing construction funding for MCPS. The state, however, has not.

From Fiscal Year 2000 to 2014, Montgomery County's local spending on school construction grew from $63 million to $210 million -- while state spending fell from $50 million to $35 million.

The chart below shows just how small a share of our school construction money now comes from the state. And even though we have 17% of the state's students, we only get about 11% of the state's construction funds.



We are all working hard to turn this around. For local dollars, the County Executive has recommended an increase of $129 million over the next six years for school construction, which I support. That will result in a record amount of local financing of school construction.

For state dollars, our Montgomery County state Senators and Delegates along with MCPS leadership, the PTAs, the County Executive, and the County Council are asking the state to support a special school construction financing package that will help us meet the surge in enrollment.

Bottom line: we need your voice to get this done.

So here's what you can do. Send an email to the top state leaders and tell them WHY we need to build more classrooms in Montgomery County.

Governor Martin O'Malley - governor.mail@maryland.gov Lt. Governor Anthony Brown - lt.governor.mail@maryland.gov Senate President Mike Miller - Thomas.v.miller@senate.state.md.us House of Delegates Speaker Michael Busch - Michael.busch@house.state.md.us

Thank you for reading and taking action. Let's make this happen

On the Governor’s Budget and Teacher Pensions

The Governor has released his budget for Fiscal Year 2013. There is no question that the state is in a tough spot and the Governor had to make some tough choices. He and the General Assembly have to figure out how to close a billion-dollar deficit in a $15 billion general fund budget. The Governor is proposing to close the gap through a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts, none of which will be popular. Many state and local governments have had to make similar adjustments over the last few years, including Montgomery County.

Nevertheless, one proposal of the Governor’s warrants concern: he would like to shift part of the responsibility of paying teacher pensions from the state to the counties. This would cause great harm to Montgomery County.

For several decades, the state has assumed the responsibility of providing for teacher pensions as a way to help the counties afford competitive salaries for teachers. This system has worked well for many years, and it is partly responsible for Maryland’s public schools being named first in the nation four years in a row.

However, a few things have changed over the last decade. In 2002, the state began underpaying its contributions to its pension fund by $100-200 million a year. As a result, the percentage of future pension liabilities the state could afford to pay dropped from 101% in Fiscal Year 2000 to 79% in 2008. Then, the stock market crash drove the state’s funding ratio down even further, to 64% in 2010. The state’s overpayments to mediocre investment advisors did not help. Much of the damage to the pension fund was self-inflicted.

Nevertheless, this past year the state continued its pattern, this time raising contributions from teachers to pay for benefits while simultaneously cutting its required contributions to the fund by $120 million.

Now the state wants the counties to fix the problems it caused by passing the buck for its mistakes. They want the counties to pick up a large part of the bill.

That’s wrong, plain and simple.

Under the Governor’s plan, the counties would have to pay half of the state’s teacher pension costs: a new mandate totaling $239 million. Montgomery County’s share of that liability will start at $41 million next year and will rise steeply thereafter. The county simply cannot afford this new permanent liability. If we have to pay it, other programs – including the schools – may have to take cuts If the state forces us to raise taxes to pay it, the county’s economy will suffer. Either way, Montgomery County residents will be unfairly punished for the state’s inability to deal with its problems.

The County Executive and the County Council are unified in opposing this plan. We are working with our state legislators to stop it. If you can add your voice to ours and weigh in with our state legislators, we have a chance to win.

I’ll be in touch as we learn more.

Hans Riemer

Council Member At-Large

Daily Journal (Capital Budget or CIP)

Today we received the county executive's proposed capital budget (called the CIP). This is a six year, $4 billion budget used for investments in new school buildings, county buildings, transit projects, roads, technology, and so forth---expenses that are not operating expenses (like compensation) but rather assets that we build.

The County Council will review the exec's proposal intensively for the next two months or so and then final passage will be at the same time as the operating budget, in May.

Needless to say, my office, as well as activists and organizations around the county, are pouring through the details and assessing how various projects have fared. I'll be commenting on these issues a lot in the coming weeks as we work through the details. This is also my first CIP, as the budget is on a two-year cycle.

One of the undercurrents of debate on this issue is the amount that the county borrows in order to fund the capital budget. I have been on the record saying that while I believe over the long term our borrowing will need to come down as our debt service costs are very high, this is not the year to start cutting back on construction spending. For example, MCPS has stated that school construction prices have dropped from more than $280 per square foot to $217. We should be taking advantage of that opportunity.

What the country and our county needs is for government at every level, Federal, state and local, to work together to boost economic activity. These projects create jobs right here in Montgomery County and of course they also create first-rate classrooms, greater mobility through enhanced transportation, stronger communities, and a better place to live.

Governor O'Malley has called for more capital spending at the state level, arguing that these projects will create jobs as well as improve the state's economic position.

The county needs to pull its weight as well.

Daily Journal, 01-04-12 (MCPS School Construction)

Back from some holiday down time! After breakfast with new Rockville City Councilmember Tom Moore and former Council Member John Britton, I headed down to Garrett Park Elementary School for the opening of a newly modernized school there. The students were actually on their first day in the new building, and we joined a few classrooms to watch the students working with their teachers in the new environment. It was gratifying to see so many happy kids... the county's funds well spent... and our community values artfully articulated there in brick and mortar, advanced classroom technology, and even geothermal energy.

School construction is certainly on my mind as we prepare for the "CIP" budget, which is our six-year capital improvements budget. Last fall the County Executive proposed to cut about $150 million over six years from that budget, and is preparing a plan based on the lower spending amount now. The Council approved that amount although I voted against the cut. MCPS, meanwhile, has requested a near 10% increase in construction spending for the new capital budget. The council will have a tough time balancing it all together and I look forward to hearing from the community about the most pressing priorities as we receive the Exec's new budget on January 17.

Photo by Patch

Daily journal, 10-17-11

Today's Transportation Committee hearing focused on several issues
that I want to see us move quickly to address. First was pedestrian
safety. As a county we must move to promote walkability so that there
are meaningful alternatives to driving everywhere and clogging the
roads. The County Executive has implemented an effective pedestrian
safety initiative that appears to have had a strong positive effect by
reducing pedestrian crashes.

A big portion of that discussion focused on walkability and school
safety. I was interested to learn that the county reviews data and
makes improvements for a quarter mile "walk shed" for our schools, but
the actual walk shed for that school could be a half mile, three
quarters of a mile, and so on. I plan to discuss this issue more with
our transportation officials and see if there are any changes that we
need to make.

Finally, an invigorating discussion on bikesharing. The county has
pursued federal grants for several years to build a bikesharing
system, as DC and NoVa have done with great success. The revelation
in the meeting for me was viewing the bikesharing operation as an
additional transit system that we can put in place. Already since its
founding just over a year ago, the capital bikesharing program has
generated more than one million trips.

Committee Chair Berliner pushed very hard, noting that our relative
lack of a bikeshare transit system is embarrassing to the county and
needs to be resolved. I asked the County DOT for us to be the first
jurisdiction in the state to apply for a new bikesharing program that
the state government is going to fund on an 80-20 split. As our DOT
pointed out, we will need to figure out where the resources come from
on our end, as these are very tight budget times.

Walk To School Day

This is the spectacular view from my seat at the county's Walk To
School Day, where I joined superintendent Starr, County Executive
Leggett, and Councilmember Craig Rice. Craig fired up the crowd of
students at James Daly Elementary and I tell you, the sound of
hundreds of kids screaming is something to behold (in a very good
way).

Asked to speak I told the students how when I was a kid I walked 1.2
miles each way almost every day (I biked some too). It was always an
adventure. Eating plums, splashing puddles, making friends,
bickering with them, and trying desperately to get home before I peed
my pants. I think that formative experience of walking hours each day
helps explain why I've always preferred to walk to my job (can't any
more tho) and why to this day I put such an emphasis on walkability in
our community planning.

Good times.

Daily journal, 09-26-11

Today was jam-packed with tough policy issues. First, a conversation
with the Fire Chief as a follow up to our committee meeting last week
on vehicle policy issues. Then a Gov Ops committee meeting where we
debated the level of borrowing we can afford to finance construction
of capital projects like schools, libraries, etc. I recommended, as
did Council president Valerie Ervin, that we should not reduce our
spending in this area because it will shrink our local economy. The
Count Executive is recommending $50 million in cuts to these projects
over the next 2 years.

Then a meeting with community advocates in the BCC cluster who are
opposed to the site that has been chosen for the middle school. I have
to give a shout out here to Cathy Fink, a local musician whose album
Pillow Full of Wishes is absolutely one of our family favorites. It's
tough getting lobbied by the lady who sings your kids to sleep!

Then to T/E committee to discuss the issue of artificial turf fields.
There have been a lot of concerns raised about them. My conclusion is
that the science certainly raises enough concern to implement testing
but not enough to warrant a moratorium. I am pleased that the parks
department is implementing a rigorous test on runoff and environmental
impacts. That will tell us a lot. I requested lead tests for all our
existing fields and that we explore alternatives to tire crumb for
filler for these fields.

Now I'm prepping for a vigorous discussion tomorrow on the CR family
of zones. We are working to bring new plans to life for communities in
Wheaton, Kensington and Takoma/Langley but we need to get the zones
right or the investment will not come.

I love this job!

Montgomery County's New Budget

Dear Supporters,

This morning, the County Council unanimously passed a new budget for the next fiscal year. As I cast my vote, I believe the Council has met its responsibility of balancing our residents’ priorities and keeping the government on a sustainable path.

Here is information that I think you might find useful.

Responsible Spending

The $4.4 billion total budget increased 2.2% from last year, but is still below the level of two years ago (FY 10). With workforce reductions now totaling nearly 10%, the county is becoming more efficient in order to protect priorities that really matter.

$31 Million Increase to MCPS

Tax-supported funding for our public schools will increase by $31 million, from $1.92 billion to $1.951 billion. As a result of this funding increase, class size will not increase even though enrollment is growing. As in past years, MCPS will receive more than half (56%) of all tax-supported spending for government agencies.

Council Service Restorations

The County Council made many program restorations to the Executive’s recommended budget. These were some of my priorities:

1. Libraries: The council restored $2.3 million in the public libraries’ budget. That includes $1 million for materials and a variety of staffing restorations to prevent significant cuts at theSilver Spring, Long Branch, Twinbrook andChevy Chase libraries. Friends of the Librarydeserves great credit for their advocacy.

2. Planning: The county needs a robust Planning Department in order to channel future growth towards transit, thereby enhancing our economy while protecting our quality of life and environment. The council restored $1.58 million to Planning’s budget, enabling them to fill 8 vacancies and proceed with analysis of a new county-wide rapid transit system. We also restored cuts to our parks.

3. Montgomery College: The council restored $4.6 million in proposed cuts toMontgomeryCollege’s budget to protect academic programs, student services, and more.

4. Public transportation - Kids Ride Free: This program allows students to use Metrobus and RideOn for free on weekdays between 2 PM and 7 PM. Kids Ride Free was suspended last year, but the council has now restored it, which will greatly help young people who want to participate in extra-curricular activities, earn income, and provide care to family members.

5. Health care: Working with non-profit clinics, Montgomery County provides a low cost health service for patients who are uninsured and cannot get Medicaid. We restored cuts that would have required us to turn patients away for the first time.

Restructuring Employee Benefits

The county is proud to provide its employees with health and pension benefits that exceed those provided by many other employers. These benefits are a major reason for the county’s outstanding retention rate and its excellent service provision. But over the next five years, their cost has been projected to rise by 48% while the county’s revenues are projected to rise just 2% annually. In order to preserve these benefits, we had to begin to restructure them. This was a tough decision, but it was superior to recurring layoffs, service cuts and tax hikes.

Fiscal Responsibility

Montgomery County’s general obligation bonds are rated AAA, which enables the county to borrow at some of the lowest interest rates in the nation, freeing up tax dollars for education, libraries, and so forth. But that privilege comes with the responsibility of demonstrating that the county is committed to prudent financial management. The council did just that by increasing its reserve contributions, saving money for future retiree health costs, creating a dedicated fund for snow removal and controlling its benefit costs. Nationwide, governments have failed to face up to their fiscal reality. California, Illinois, Michigan and many other states are paying the price for years of mismanagement. Nassau County, New York has been taken over by its state government. Even the federal government’s bond rating is apparently threatened. None of this is going to happen in Montgomery County.

There is no question that this was a difficult budget year. Reasonable people can disagree on some of the council’s budget actions. But I believe that our residents should feel confident that they have a responsive and effective county government. Unlike some governments, we can tackle our big challenges.

This council has met its responsibility by protecting residents’ priorities, controlling costs and carefully managing the county’s money. And we are doing that while protecting progressive priorities like education, public safety, the environment, the safety-net and a world-class quality of life.

Please continue communicating with me and if you find this helpful, consider sharing it with other residents.

Yours Sincerely,

Hans Riemer

Council Member At-Large

P.S. I want to thank the hundreds of readers who responded to my last email about our budget challenge with their personal stories, insights and priorities. I took what you said to heart as I worked through the budget process. Thank you.

Montgomery County's Budget and a Pepco Update

Dear Supporters,

With County Executive Leggett’s budget in hand, the Council now has until the end of May to pass a final plan for spending and taxes. My commitment to you is to do the best that I can for all of our County priorities -- schools, libraries, public safety, safety net services, parks, public transportation and more.

I will let my sense of fairness guide me and work hard not to burden any particular group with doing more than their share to get through this economic crisis. I will look for solutions that uphold our progressive values while putting the county on a stable long term financial path.

Now is the time for you to speak out. As a Councilmember, my job is to make the best decisions I can based on getting all of the information available. That’s why I read every email that comes to me. I strongly encourage you to email me and the entire County Council with your thoughts on what you want from your county government at this difficult time. What principles, values, and priorities do you think should guide the Council’s decisions?

Reply to me directly at councilmember.riemer@montgomerycountymd.gov with your thoughts and if you want all nine Council offices to receive your email, cc: county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov.

As you follow the story in the news and your neighborhood email lists, I want to provide some background that I have found useful.

The County Executive is proposing an increase to the county's budget from $4.271 billion to $4.347 billion, a net hike of 1.8%. Last year, the county's budget fell by 4.5.%. These two years have seen the lowest rate of budget growth since at least the early 1990s.

Many important services are facing their second straight year of tight budgets. The Executive’s recommendation for the public schools is higher than last year’s amount but is lower than what the schools received two years ago, despite higher enrollment. The fire and rescue service, libraries, transit and health and human services are facing their second straight year of cuts. Library staffing, for example, is down over 30% in the last two years. These reductions will cause real-world problems for county residents.

County employees, who make less than private sector workers with the same education, have gone two years without a salary increase, and did not ask for one this year. In his budget, the Executive recommended that employees bear a much larger share of their health and pension benefits. If the council approves a measure resembling the Executive’s recommendation, that could add up to thousands of dollars less in take-home pay for workers making as little as $50,000 per year.

The county’s fiscal solvency is improving, but we are not yet where we need to be. Last year, the county almost lost its AAA bond rating, which enables it to issue bonds carrying the lowest possible interest rates on our billions of dollars in debt for constructing schools, roads, parks and more. The county was able to preserve its rating by establishing a plan to steadily increase its reserves and meet its future obligations, especially for pensions and retiree health care.

Today, we have to make tough choices. I have not made up my mind on many of the key policy issues as I carefully consider the implications. But policy is not our only challenge.

This debate is also a test of progressive leadership. Can we get through our budget crisis without needlessly pitting residents against one another, without making victory for one concern a defeat for another, without dividing and conquering? As your Councilmember, that is what I am working to do.

When I ran for Council I said that we have to listen to everyone because our collective wisdom is our greatest asset. That’s why I’m asking for your input.

I also said that we should not turn every argument into a zero sum game, because we all have to live with the outcome of every decision, together.

Even in tough times, I believe that it can be done.

While I work through this crisis, I am keeping my eyes on the long term. Our budget is in dire straits because our tax revenue is dependent on two sources of income that have both suffered severe market “corrections”: property taxes and income taxes. Each of these revenue sources are down to a lower, corrected base. They are not going to rebound to their bubble highs.

That is why I strongly believe that we must expand our commercial tax base in this county in order to build a more resilient revenue stream. Fairfax has 200,000 more jobs than Montgomery. If we can add a strong commercial tax revenue stream to our property and income tax revenues, the county will be in a much stronger position to make the investments we need for our quality of life. County County

I consider these times a true test of our progressive values and our ability to put them in practice. Through it all, I keep reminding myself, as others have said to me -- if we can’t figure it out here in Montgomery County, then where?

The stakes are high.

PEPCO UPDATE

Pepco’s power reliability is an issue of continuing concern for its customers. As of this writing, 1,093 people have signed our petition calling on regulators to establish performance standards and not approve a rate hike until the company’s service improves. Thank you to all the petition signatories and we hope even more residents will sign. Soon, we will be sending the petition to both Pepco and the Maryland Public Service Commission.

At the moment, the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate have passed two different bills aimed at establishing reliability standards for Pepco. The Senate’s bill is far better. The Senate would begin levying penalties in 2012 whereas the House would levy them starting in 2014. The Senate would impose penalties totaling up to 2.5% of Pepco’s transmission and distribution revenues whereas the House would only allow a penalty of $10,000 per day per violation. The Senate and House must now agree on a compromise. If you would like the legislature to pass a bill more closely resembling the Senate’s version, you should email your state legislators as soon as you can.

Finally, Pepco continues to shower their executives with endless compensation and perks even as the company fails its customers. Pepco’s latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that the company gave its top five executives a combined 20% increase in compensation in 2010. Its Chief Executive received a 14% increase and has an employment agreement that prohibits the company from cutting his salary or revoking any of his salary increases. Company executives also receive a long list of perks including car allowances, parking, tax preparation fees, financial planning fees, executive physical fees, club dues and spousal travel.

Clearly, Pepco has a long way to go before it makes itself truly accountable to its customers.

Reply to me directly at councilmember.riemer@montgomerycountymd.gov with your thoughts and if you want all nine Council offices to receive your email, cc: county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov.

Sincerely,

Hans Riemer