By Woody Brosnan
When I hear about the latest zoning plan or other scheme to spur economic development in economic development to Montgomery County I think back to my days as a reporter in the South.
Politicians were always promoting some scheme to attract industries. One governor promised to build a four-lane highway in every county. By the time he was finished county officials were lobbying for airports because everyone knows that you can’t attract a factory to your town unless the boss can land his corporate jet.
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States did lure a few auto plants and other manufacturers by promising low taxes, low wages and anti-union rules. The jobs came but those states remain at the bottom of economic rankings.
I have a friend, Kenneth Thomas, a professor of political science at the University of Missouri-St.Louis, who has written a book on the subject, “Investment Incentives and the Global Competition for Capital.”Thomas told me, “Research shows that tax incentives have little effectiveness in promoting true development in an area. The money spent by state and local governments each year, almost $50 billion, is much better directed towards safe streets, good infrastructure, and good schools."
That’s what Montgomery County has done over the years with effective results. Residents are willing to put up with long commutes and high taxes -- about 85 percent of county revenues come from property and income taxes -- because for the most part we have strong neighborhoods and good schools.
Leaders of neighborhood civic associations are often criticized as NIMBYites when they question actions that they fear will lead to school overcrowding or increased traffic congestion in their neighborhoods. But they are not just projecting their own backyards; they are protecting the county’s fundamental assets for growth and taxes.
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I’m all for supporting commercial areas but do we really need to rezone most of the county’s shopping centers to allow residential development, in one fell swoop as the zoning rewrite proposes, without any consideration of the impact on traffic or schools or input from the nearby neighborhoods?.
I’m all for changing some of our antiquated liquor laws but I’m skeptical that allowing a restaurant to sell a higher proportion of booze to food or staying an open an hour or two later will lure “Millennials” from Adams Morgan to Silver Spring.
I’m all for trying to attract jobs to the East County but will the Planning Board allow developers to convert their proposed office buildings to more condos, as has been the case at White Flint?
I’m all for mass transit but do we really need to build a bus rapid transit system that competes with Metro instead of complementing Metro? And how can we afford all this and still pay for needed school construction, parks, police, affordable housing and other services?
All of these ideas may turn out to be good but they need to be measured against the possible loss to our fundamentals – good neighborhoods and good schools.
The purpose of this blog is to inform Silver Spring residents about important events and issues affecting them. Any views expressed represent those of the author and not necessarily all representatives of the Presidents’ Council of Silver Spring Civic Associations.
Silver Spring Neighborhoods” welcomes articles of interest from all members of the Silver Spring community.
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