News Corner

By Amy Waychoff

The Maryland House and Senate are busy finalizing the budget (with an April 1 deadline), and the bottom line for Maryland consumers is that taxes, fees, and tolls will dramatically increase. Under the proposed budget (SB 360 and SB 362), revenues of $576 million will be generated in FY 2025 by, among other means,

• raising vehicle registration fees
• increasing the vehicle excise tax
• assessing fees for Uber and Lyft
• collecting an annual registration surcharge from owners of zero-emission and hybrid vehicles

After passing both houses, but with amendments, the budget bills are back in the Senate, so please email your Maryland state senators in opposition to the budget. (If you would like to email all the senators, please email Amy Waychoff, [email protected], for a complete list.)

Fitzgerald Mofor of Montgomery County is running for a seat on the Montgomery County Board of Education. Born and raised in MoCo, he is the product of Sherwood High School, graduating in 2013. After graduating, Mr. Mofor continued with his education, earning a double major in General Studies and Sociology, and also received a Masters from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He now returns home with a clear goal: education reform.

This afternoon, scrolling through Twitter/X while waiting for my takeout order to be ready, I stumbled across a post from Mr. Mofor talking about MCPS. The post was a fiery declaration that the MCPS that MoCo residents used to be so proud of is no more. Indeed, Mofor says, “[o]ur school system has become a perpetual embarrassment, and it’s you, the taxpayer, who will foot the bill for the incompetence.”^[1]