Ag Reserve - You May Already Be Here!

I get a lot of email - most of it junk, to be honest. I love it when the good folks at Montgomery Countryside Alliance send me their updates. It helps remind me why I like living here, and how we have to keep fighting the good fight to keep developers out of our precious Agriculture Reserve.

This month's edition contained the following:

"Have you ever driven north into rural Montgomery and wondered when you are entering the Agricultural Reserve? Have you ever taken a friend into the upcounty who didn’t know that the working farms and beautiful landscape was a unique part of Montgomery County? In January, the County Council unanimously approved a resolution reaffirming its support for the Agricultural Reserve and requesting that signs be erected on major roads entering the Ag Reserve to let travelers know when they are entering the area. Artist Tina Thieme Brown is working with the county on a design for the signs. Montgomery Countryside Alliance thanks the Council and county staff for supporting these signs as a way to raise awareness about the Reserve!"

Swill Business

I have just one question (and I already know the answer - hint: $$$$): what the hell is Montgomery County STILL doing in the liquor business?

Read this and see if you can fathom why we're the ONLY county in the entire U.S. who actively (micro)manages the entire liquor trade. Ike Leggett at least lets it slip that booze means bucks - BIG bucks - for the county. They offer up some other feeble reasons like keeping the number of liquor stores at a minimum (this is a good thing?) and restricting sales to minors, but my sense is that the county is simply addicted to booze, in an economic sense.

So, rather than allowing market forces to decide the county's alcohol distribution, we force some citizens to become law breakers when they travel to other jurisdictions to find the beer, wine and other liquor that the MoCo doesn't or won't sell. Call me perplexed.

You are now free to discuss amongst yourselves.

Ike Leggett may want to consider moving. I suspect he's going to get Jerry Weast's knickers in a twist with the budget Leggett's submitting to the County Council and I suspect that means things could get ugly - fast. So Mr. Weast might not get everything he's asked (re. demanded) for in this latest round of ever-escalating budgets, and Ike's promised to up spending "more than 6 percent without raising taxes in his $4 billion budget plan." Now THAT would be a nifty trick of accounting; spend more without taking in more, and without going into debt. Us homeowners should be so clever! But I digress.
My favorite line from the WaPo article is "Leggett also has signaled that he is willing to take what could be a politically risky course by rebuffing the school system's request for a nearly $137 million increase in its budget." Politically risky, in this case, is roughly the same as challenging Jerry Weast to an old fashioned duel with live ammunition. This could get interesting. I mean, for years Mr. Weast was handed pretty much anything he asked for under the regime of Developer Doug Duncan. Now, here comes the upstart Ike Leggett, saying 'wait a minute' to Jerry and the School Board. Like I said, this could get good!

By the way, for a glimpse into the alternate universe according to Jerry Weast, I highly recommend this website for some added perspective on our esteemed Superintendent.