I’m not aware of an economic model that says we can provide more for residents if we grow. DPZ has a model but I’ve never seen the data. Contrary to what you are saying, simply adding more people doesn’t really solve the budget problems in Howard County, unless you are discounting infrastructure demands. It also matters where in the County growth occurs and what type of growth is best for the county (ie home ownership over rental)
You’re framing people as growth-skeptical. I think many people just want adequate services and things like schools, police, fire, and EMS service being a priority in Howard County. Pro-growth people tend to ignore the problems growth has created when it is not adequately paced with infrastructure. For example, the APFO school wait replacement, UPP, intentionally overcrowds schools by allowing unlimited growth in a pay to play deal that doesn’t actually pay for the additional infrastructure demands. Again, I aways see a lot of people talking about money but they never go into details because it’s so little.
All candidates should take a No Developer/No Dark Money Pledge and then there would be less reason of accusing somebody of being in a developer’s pocket. Getting the money out of politics is just good sense anyway.
Jeremy frames the upcoming local elections as a choice between more growth or less growth.
I frame it as a choice between providing the same level of county services and amenities to all parts of Howard County or continuing to favor Columbia with more investment and better services than the rest of us receive, while using our tax dollars to pay for it.
The choice is between a mindset that favors a glamour library on the Columbia Lakefront while there are 200 portable classrooms in Howard County. The choice is between spending $182 million dollars to expand one of the 6 high schools in Columbia to make room for more students bused in from Elkridge, while Elkridge has no high school.
I’m not aware of an economic model that says we can provide more for residents if we grow. DPZ has a model but I’ve never seen the data. Contrary to what you are saying, simply adding more people doesn’t really solve the budget problems in Howard County, unless you are discounting infrastructure demands. It also matters where in the County growth occurs and what type of growth is best for the county (ie home ownership over rental)
You’re framing people as growth-skeptical. I think many people just want adequate services and things like schools, police, fire, and EMS service being a priority in Howard County. Pro-growth people tend to ignore the problems growth has created when it is not adequately paced with infrastructure. For example, the APFO school wait replacement, UPP, intentionally overcrowds schools by allowing unlimited growth in a pay to play deal that doesn’t actually pay for the additional infrastructure demands. Again, I aways see a lot of people talking about money but they never go into details because it’s so little.
All candidates should take a No Developer/No Dark Money Pledge and then there would be less reason of accusing somebody of being in a developer’s pocket. Getting the money out of politics is just good sense anyway.
Jeremy frames the upcoming local elections as a choice between more growth or less growth.
I frame it as a choice between providing the same level of county services and amenities to all parts of Howard County or continuing to favor Columbia with more investment and better services than the rest of us receive, while using our tax dollars to pay for it.
The choice is between a mindset that favors a glamour library on the Columbia Lakefront while there are 200 portable classrooms in Howard County. The choice is between spending $182 million dollars to expand one of the 6 high schools in Columbia to make room for more students bused in from Elkridge, while Elkridge has no high school.