Politics & Government

Who 'Owns Poverty' On the Montgomery County Council?

The Washington Post: Fallout over a tax credit for the poor exposes council in-fighting.

By Whitney Teal

Is any one Montgomery County Council member more dedicated to poor residents than another? Fallout from a proposed increase in the county match to a tax credit for the poorest residents incited suspicion and finger-pointing from some community members, The Washington Post reported.

According to The Post, tensions ran high last week as council members discussed a tax credit called Working Families Income Supplement, which dollar-for-dollar matches up to 85 percent of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. Councilman Hans Riemer proposed raising the match to the pre-recession level of 100 percent, to the protests of council members Valerie Ervin, Nancy Navarro and Craig Rice (D-Dist 2) of Germantown.

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A county government workers union official criticized the lack of support for Riemer’s proposal, The Post reported. Municipal & County Government Employees Organization Executive Director Bob Stewart cited the heavily publicized food stamp “challenge” council members participated in and the council’s support for alleged union-busting Wal-Mart in May.

All of which led to a letter to Riemer (D-At large) of Silver Spring in which Council President Navarro (D-Dist 4) of Silver Spring wrote:

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“I hope you agree that these remarks were disrespectful to our colleagues and to the Council as an institution. The Council’s record serving the poor speaks for itself.”

Ervin (D-Dist 5) of Silver Spring said in a Post interview:

“I’d like to smack Hans Riemer. All of a sudden he cares about poor people?” Ervin said, emphasizing later that the “smack” was rhetorical only.

MCGEO President Gino Renne, in a letter to Navarro, wrote:

“It appears to a growing number of people close to the Council and to even those outside of the Council, that your opposition to the EITC bill comes not from policy discussion on the merits of the bill, but on petty rivalries regarding who gets to ‘own’ the poverty issue.”

Click here to read the full story in The Post.

What do you think? Are efforts to address poverty in Montgomery County getting lost in council in-fighting? Tell us in the comments.


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