On May 12, Montgomery County Council Members agreed in a straw poll that they would not pass the proposed 10% tax increase to fund teacher salaries. 

The tax increase now sits at 4.7% and was passed on May 24 along with the county’s 6.7 billion dollar operating budget. With the tax increase cut in half, MCPS will have to dive into its 25 million dollar cash emergency fund to pay teachers’ salaries for the next two years.

 “I wasn’t surprised we did not get the 10% tax increase. I figured it would be closer to 8% as we [MCEA] were told, but when I heard them say 4.7, I was shocked,” said B-CC teacher Dan Janis, adding, “Yet for the next two years, we found a solution and will be paid, but after that, we have a real problem as we are using that emergency fund money to pay our teachers.” 

“I hate to see my taxes rise, but I would rather it be for the funding of my kid’s education than for other arbitrary county services,” said Elizabeth Loughlin, a B-CC parent, when asked about the increase in property taxes.