Coming less than 48 hours following adjournment of this year’s Maryland General Assembly, a gathering hosted last week by County Executive Isiah (Ike) Leggett had the feel of a pep rally.
“The Montgomery County delegation, the county executive and the County Council were a model of political cohesion,” declared state Sen. Jamie Raskin of the 2013 session. Agreed County Council President Nancy Navarro: “This is a great moment… I’m very proud of our delegation.”
The immediate cause for celebration: passage of a $4.4 billion transportation funding package, with some estimates suggesting about a quarter of that will flow into Montgomery County projects over the next six years.
But behind the upbeat rhetoric lies a difficult, sometimes dyspeptic relationship between the state legislative delegation and county-level officials — particularly the County Council – that’s unlikely to dissipate soon.
Among the no-shows from the gathering in Leggett’s office was Councilman Philip Andrews, an announced candidate for Leggett’s job. A scheduling conflict, not a snub, was behind his absence, Andrews said later.
But he made clear that his past criticism of the county’s legislative delegation – including a January Washington Post op-ed entitled “When Will Montgomery Stand Up To Annapolis?” – hasn’t been tempered by the just-completed session.
“The underlying problem is that the measures that passed in the 2012 session that so harmed Montgomery County remain,” said Andrews, referring to the controversial “maintenance of effort” and pension cost shifting statutes adopted last year. These laws will require a $100 million increase in local spending for county schools over the next four years, according to County Council estimates.
Of the county’s legislative delegation, Andrews charged: “The bottom line on the [maintenance of effort] law is that when the teachers’ union called, they jumped. When the county called, they didn’t.” It’s a gripe echoed privately by some other council members.
Such animosity predates the 2012 session; County Council members have eschewed regular meetings with the General Assembly delegation since a 2009 get-together degenerated into finger-pointing.
Behind this ill will is a perception by County Council members that the fiscal issues with which they grapple – particularly in recessionary times — are often overlooked by state legislators running in contests where the focus is on higher profile, hot-button topics.
The retort from some state legislators: Council members fail to grasp the dynamics of a larger, more diverse legislative body where many of the shots are called by three people – the governor, the state Senate president and the House speaker, none of whom currently call Montgomery County home.
“My reaction always has been that this is a group of people who stink at checkers, but who trash us for the way we play chess,” gibed one legislator in taking aim at the County Council.
With both Andrews and former County Executive Douglas Duncan taking potshots at how well the 32-member Montgomery County delegation – the largest of any Maryland county — has exercised its clout, the Annapolis/Rockville relationship is likely to find its way into the coming county executive’s race.
“We are getting killed in Annapolis: We need people to stand up for our rights,” Duncan said in a recent interview.
So look for Leggett – if, as expected, he seeks a third term – to respond by trumpeting his labors on behalf of the newly passed transportation funding package, as he did last week.
“Six years ago, I virtually stood alone in advocating for an increase in the state’s gasoline tax, which hadn’t been increased since 1992 when George Bush Sr. was president,” he declared. “Since then, I have testified at every hearing on this issue and have been relentless in its support.”
