Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett will leave office at the end of the year, having announced in 2016 that he would not seek another term (he is term-limited anyway). Leggett, a Democrat, spoke this week with Bethesda Beat about his 12 years in office.
As you prepare to leave office, what are you most proud of during your time as county executive and where do you see the county going?
Well, I’m proud of the county’s financial management. I think that we provided a good foundation for transitioning the county through the great recession. We went through some very tough times when I first arrived. Not only Montgomery County, but the entire country suffered. We were faced with some very difficult choices. But we got through it, maintained our Triple A bond rating, we continued to expand our tax base, we got over 21,000 classroom seats constructed. We maintained or constructed 77,000 affordable housing units. We significantly increased our financial reserves from a low of $79 million at one point to $500 million today. And we were able to do that and at the same time build a record number of projects.
Were you prepared for this when you entered office?
There were some signs on the horizon, but the magnitude of the challenge I’m not sure many people had predicted. When I first came in, in the preceding four years the county’s budget had increased over 10 percent … that’s unsustainable. When you look at it, you say, “We have a problem.” This was before the recession. And then the recession hit.
What was your takeaway from the Montgomery County Economic Development Corp.’s recent report about nearly 900 new jobs created in the county in 2018 well as highlights like the new Marriott headquarters being built in downtown Bethesda and being a finalist for Amazon’s second headquarters?
All of the things you just described are very important, and I think the corporation delivered on those. What we need to do now is follow the plan, make sure that we have stability and I think it’s going to be very productive long term. But perception sometimes takes a little bit longer. I still have people calling me, saying ‘What’s your economic development department going to do about X,Y and Z?’ I say, “We no longer have that.”
Why would Amazon want to move here?
We have an excellent workforce here. If you look at the companies that are on the cutting edge, they want talent. They want to see an excellent educational system that helps to feed that. They want to make sure local and state government values what they do. You put all of those things together with the quality of life here, very few communities can offer all of those things here. We are right in a major metropolitan area with an excellent school system and great colleges and universities. We have a strong tax base. You see talent from all over the world here, and if you look at these companies, they want to recruit and maintain a local, national and international presence. There are few jurisdictions that hit as many of those factors as Montgomery County.
The county still faces a number of challenges between the costs to do business, overcrowded schools, etc. … . What are the biggest challenges that remain?
Well, let’s look at them in comparison to where we were. We still have schools that are growing, but those things are workable. You’d much rather people be moving to the county. We continue to thrive in many ways. And I don’t think the schools in terms of overcrowding is significant, because there’s a lot of construction projects we’ve already done. But there are still some challenges related to maintaining existing schools and providing for newer schools: Having a temporary or short time period where you have some overcrowding, then building to the maximum level and then being able to sustain the growth. So you want to build in such a way that captures that as much as possible, but not to do it so that you end up wasting taxpayers’ money.
The real challenges that I see are related to transportation. It’s a leadership challenge on a multifaceted level—the federal government’s investment in providing support nationally across the board for transportation. Without the state, there’s no way for Montgomery County to properly construct all the transportation . Metro payment requires a great deal of support from the federal government. We have done a great deal from our local perspective, but if you look at what has happened from the recession to the current administration, [federal government] actually pulled back support for local transportation initiatives. You add that to the challenges with Metro, it’s a challenge.
With those challenges comes the challenge of deciding to raise taxes. Two years ago you and the council raised property taxes more than 8 percent. Was that difficult?
There’s a misnomer there. I recommended a lower tax increase. There was a dispute between myself and the County Council. I had a lower increase in spending than they had. So yes, I had recommended it. But if you look at the tax increases across the board for the 12 years I’ve been here, it has been less than the rate of inflation for the entire period. What distorts the reality of what happened is that there’s one year where there was a significant spike. I reduced expenditures in the county budget by $3.7 billion. We significantly reduced our workforce by 1,254 positions and made substantial cuts over that period of time. In fact, there were two years where we had negative expenditures.
Voters also approved term limits that year. Were you surprised?
No, especially given the reaction to the taxes. I said if you increase the taxes at that one level for one year, it would be tantamount to sticker shock, and at some point the residents stop listening and it will be a prime target for which people may react. And I warned that we shouldn’t increase the taxes that high, and that’s what happened.
What would Ike Leggett in 2018 tell Ike Leggett in 1986, when you were first elected to the County Council?
The time commitment is enormous, because for me, I only have one speed, and that’s forward. My wife [Catherine] and I are fully engaged and involved. And so I think, I would have slowed that pace down somewhat. Recognizing more of the connection and the importance of the state and the working relationship to help get things done is an enormous task. Once I began as county executive I pushed more for statewide connections and became president of the Maryland Association of Counties. Those relationships are important. In the past, Montgomery County has been isolated from the rest of the state. The things that I think will continue to be a real challenge is financial sustainability. It’s a slippery slope, and therefore, decisions that you make only become cumulative in terms of their potentially negative impact.
What will be the cumulative effect of the light-rail Purple Line?
I think, positively. Reluctantly, I voted against it as a council member because I was looking at the costs, the disruption to the community and the potential environmental impact. Then I ended up being more supportive of it. The governor and I sat down on Day One and talked about how to get it done, and he credits me a great deal for it because he was not initially in favor of it. The fact that I had been reluctant about it helped, because he didn’t look at it like “This guy’s trying to sell me.” I didn’t make the project out to be the best thing since sliced bread. I looked at it in a dispassionate way.
What’s it been like working with Republican Gov. Hogan?
You represent Democrats, Republicans and Independents, so you have to work with everyone. He’s worked well with me personally, and he’s worked well with me on a number of issues. Once you’re elected to do something, it should be about what’s best for the county and the state of Maryland.
Marc Elrich, who you endorsed for county executive has been very critical of Hogan. If Elrich is elected and Hogan is re-elected, do you worry they won’t get along?
The executive office of the governor in the state of Maryland is one of the most influential of any governorship in the country. The General Assembly can’t increase the budget unless the governor agrees to do so. And so, the last time I checked, Larry Hogan was the governor. And whoever’s the governor going forward, and he [Hogan] has an excellent chance of repeating as the governor according to what most people say in the polls, you have to work with the governor. Executives, mayors have to go through the governmental process. Otherwise you’re going to make it difficult to get projects done. You might be able to explain that, in the heat of campaign, you may say something or do something that [is] -kilter, and those things should be respected. But in terms of the long term, you have to respect that relationship.
So it might just be campaign rhetoric from Elrich?
I hope that’s what it is.
You haven’t endorsed Ben Jealous, your party’s nominee in the governor’s race. Any plans to do so?
I’m evaluating that and will hopefully make some announcements in the near future. He and I have had a chance to sit down and talk. Nothing I would ever do would be against Larry Hogan as a person and a governor, but I’m a Democrat and I’m not going to be knocking on doors for someone else. And so Ben and I are trying to work through some of our differences, and I’m hopeful.
You have said you plan to stay out of politics when you leave office. What will you do instead?
My wife knows how hard I’ve worked for a long period of time. So to her, putting brakes on what you’re doing is something that seems hard to do, and that I could get bored with that approach. My approach is, let me see what boredom’s like. I’m going to travel, do some research, disengage and spend time with the family.
Do you have any parting words for the next county executive?
First of all, you have some very smart people in this county, from all over the world. You need to listen to all of them. The second thing would be that budgets and finances are important, and you have to fight tenaciously to protect the county’s budget. And thirdly, don’t become so rigid that you lose the flexibility of responding instinctively. People will tell you, ‘This doesn’t feel right or sound right.’ Don’t reject that. That’s what leadership is about. If you’re just looking at the numbers, the figures and the static recommendations, you can feed that into a computer. You don’t need the county executive. You need someone who can balance all of those things and also have a human touch about what you think is right.
Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@moco360.media
