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Montgomery County Council votes to reject county executive’s proposed 6.3¢ property tax increase in straw vote
Summary
The Montgomery County Council on May 4 unanimously (10–0, with one abstention) supported a committee recommendation to reject the county executive’s proposed 6.3¢ property tax rate increase for FY27, saying the timing is wrong amid affordability pressures and that deeper budget reductions will be required instead.
The Montgomery County Council took a straw vote on May 4 to reject the county executive’s proposed 6.3¢ property tax increase for the FY27 budget, voting 10–0 with one abstention on the government operations committee’s recommendation.
The vote came after hours of committee reports and department briefings that left the council facing a reported $152.1 million gap if committee resource changes and reductions are adopted. Council President Fannie Gonzalez framed the choice as “a wake up call” and said the council must find serious reductions while protecting housing, public safety and transit services.
“We cannot continue to spend money the way it has been for a while,” Gonzalez said, urging members to put concrete reduction proposals on the table rather than defaulting to reserves or tax increases.
Members across the council cited affordability concerns and recent economic pressures as reasons to reject the proposed increase. Council Member Fridzen said the tax proposal “effectively would be a 12% increase on residents’ property tax bills” and called it unaffordable given current household budgets. Council Member Will Giordano said many federal jobs losses and rising costs make the rate hike the “wrong ask at the wrong time of the wrong people.”
Council Member Kristin Mink said she would abstain from the straw vote because she was not yet comfortable offering even a tentative position in light of outstanding variables and potential service impacts.
The council’s rejection at this stage is a procedural straw vote tied to committee recommendations; it does not by itself enact a final tax rate. Council members acknowledged that rejecting the property tax increase will require additional operational and program cuts in the coming days and that the council will continue budget deliberations this week and next. The president also announced plans for a fall roundtable on cross‑sector budgeting, including labor and education leaders, to consider longer‑term structural changes.
Next steps: the council will continue line‑by‑line budget deliberations, take straw votes and then move to formal resolutions next week as part of the FY27 appropriation process.
