WASHINGTON 鈥� He鈥檚 not a salesman, but Prince George鈥檚 County Executive Rushern Baker has been working on his pitches lately. They range from trying to sell聽Gov. Larry Hogan on the Purple Line to getting his own county council to back a 15 percent increase on the county鈥檚 property tax.
Thursday, Baker spent the morning in Annapolis at the State House, where he and his Montgomery County counterpart, County Executive Ike Leggett, made the case for the Purple Line in a meeting with Hogan. He left that meeting feeling that the 16-mile, $2.4 billion project might have a chance 鈥� despite the fact that as late as last week, Hogan called the price tag for the project 鈥渦nacceptable.鈥� The Purple Line would link Bethesda to New Carrollton.
That鈥檚 not the only bit of convincing Baker鈥檚 had to do: He鈥檚 working to get the council to support his proposed property tax increase of 15 percent. The double-digit increase hasn鈥檛 gone over well in some of the public meetings he鈥檚 had, but Baker insists the move is needed to get the county鈥檚 school performance out of the basement. Baker says a smaller tax increase won鈥檛 help the schools get to where they need to go.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 make any sense to raise people鈥檚 taxes and stay 23 out of 24,” he says, referring to the county鈥檚 ranking among the state鈥檚 school jurisdictions.
Baker says since Hogan decided not to release $20 million in aid to the county, the need for the tax increase has become urgent.
Baker says he often gets complaints from constituents that their property values are lower than those in Montgomery, Howard and Anne Arundel counties.
To that he responds, 鈥淭hey鈥檙e correct. The reason they鈥檙e lower is because in those areas they have top-flight school systems.鈥�
The Prince George鈥檚 County Council is scheduled to vote on the budget 鈥� and Baker鈥檚 proposal 鈥� next Thursday.
海角精品黑料’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.聽
