Montgomery County GOP chair Reardon Sullivan said this week he has filed a ballot initiative committee with the state board of elections with the goal of reining in local government spending.
The Committee to Control Montgomery County Spending (Control MoCo Spending) has a goal of capping spending increases approved by the county executive and County Council, Reardon said Wednesday in an email to Bethesda Today. The ballot initiative would seek for future spending increases to be based strictly on the prior year’s Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Montgomery Perspective first reported on Sullivan’s new committee. According to the committee website, it has at least one other member, treasurer Victoria Birkett.
Sullivan was the driving force behind the term-limit referendum passed by county voters in November. That referendum amended the county charter to restrict the county executive to serving two terms. Because of the referendum, County Executive Marc Elrich (D), who is serving his second term after defeating Sullivan in 2022, cannot run for a third term.
“It is disappointing that the County Executive and County Council have a long history of excessive spending with little return on investment,” Sullivan said in his email about his new proposed initiative. “The County spending on top of the pending state tax increases, without looking at cutting spending will make Montgomery County unbearable. These policies will force people and businesses to leave the County and further erode our tax base.”
The filing comes as the council deliberates Elrich’s recommended $7.6 billion county operating budget for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1. Elrich is calling for a 3.4% property tax rate increase to help fund the county school board’s recommended $3.65 billion spending plan for Montgomery County Public Schools.
Elrich’s proposed tax rate increase is enabled by a state statute that allows jurisdictions to raise property tax rates to supplement public school funding. If approved by the council, homeowners’ property tax rate would be $1.0605 per each $100 of assessed value of their property, an increase of 3.5 cents from the current rate of $1.0255.
In his email, Sullivan said he was concerned that proposed county tax increases to pay for public schools spending, such as Elrich’s proposal, could be used for spending that is unrelated to education.
“Financial discipline must be imposed on the County Executive and County Council,” Sullivan said. “At some point hard choices must be made and spending trimmed to provide the best return on our tax investment.”
Who can file a ballot petition?
A ballot petition can be filed by any person or group to attempt to void an act or parts of an act passed by the General Assembly, according to the State Board of Elections. When the petition obtains the required number of signatures from voters on a referendum petition, the individual or group can submit it to the secretary of state.
If all legal requirements are met and signatures are properly validated, the question of whether the referred act will take effect will appear on the general election ballot, per the state elections board.
Before signatures can be collected on the petition, a ballot issue committee must be established with the state elections board.
For Sullivan’s initiative to appear on the November 2026 ballot, he would need to collect the valid signatures of 10,000 registered county voters by August 2026. Sullivan was able to collect more than 15,000 signatures for the term-limit referendum petition.
Sullivan said the ballot initiative committee is considering pushing forward other ballot petitions to “bring common sense and fiscal sanity back to Montgomery County.”
