Nicole Raz

WASHINGTON (WMAL) — Montgomery County Council members are mulling over the County Executive’s proposal for the highest property tax rate increase in eight years–an 8.6 percent residential property tax increase. But nobody likes a tax hike, and the proposal comes just when many council members, like George Leventhal, are considering running for County Executive in 2018.

But Leventhal and Berliner say they and many of their colleagues are still sympathetic to a rate hike.

“I have some sympathy for a small tax increase and for spending above the maintenance of effort level for the school sytem as long as those resources are directly used for classroom size reduction,” Leventhal told WMAL, saying he’d like to see a lower percentage.

“We do have pressing needs in our county, and I know that my colleagues and I will be going through this budget very carefully and figuring out how much do we need in order to address the critical needs that our county faces,” Berliner said.

But local activist Robin Ficker says passing a rate hike will be political suicide for any councilmember. He’s pushing to limit terms of council members and the county executive to 12 consecutive years in office.

“We need to have people who are truly interested in making our county better,” Ficker said. “We’re stagnating, they have a tax-increase-specialist-mentality.”

The county should focus on bringing new jobs and expanding the tax base rather raising tax rates, he said.

“If they [pass an 8.6 percent residential property tax increase], I think they’re ensuring passage of term limits, because there are going to be a lot of people who are going to want to kick them right out of office,” he said.

Leventhal and Berliner told WMAL a possible term limit would have no bearing on their decision to support a rate hike.

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