Taxpayers Deserve Answers Without a $51,000 Price Tag.

Who receives our tax dollars? Montgomery County taxpayers should be able to get a clear answer to that basic question.

The County publishes an online spending portal where residents can explore and download its disbursement register. I encourage every voter to examine the County check register: https://spending.data.montgomerycountymd.gov/#!/year/2024/explore/1/service  and see where our money goes.

When I reviewed those records, I found more than 50,000 disbursements to recipients identified by numbers instead of names, effectively anonymous to the taxpayers examining the register. My finding of tens of thousands of unidentified payments has also been reported publicly.

A number may help the County process a payment internally. But it does little to help a resident understand who received the money or evaluate how public funds were spent.

So, I filed a public-records request seeking the names behind those numbered entries. I was told that the County’s research would cost more than $51,000.

That is an extraordinary price tag for taxpayers seeking to understand how their own money was spent. Publishing a checkbook is a useful first step. Meaningful transparency requires records that people can actually understand and a reasonable way to obtain answers when information is questionable.

Every public dollar comes from somewhere: a homeowner paying a property-tax bill, an employee earning a paycheck, or a business working to keep its doors open. County officials have a responsibility to explain how they use that money.

There may be legitimate privacy protections for certain payments, including assistance to vulnerable individuals. Those protections deserve respect. But the County should explain which categories require confidentiality, why names are withheld, and what spending information can still be disclosed. A numbered entry by itself does not prove wrongdoing. It does leave taxpayers with unanswered questions.

The County should publish recipient names wherever disclosure is permitted, clearly explain necessary redactions, and make payment purposes understandable. It should also explain the work behind a $51,000 estimate and identify less costly ways to provide useful information.

These are practical expectations for accountable government.

Residents should be able to examine public spending without needing a specialist to interpret the records or tens of thousands of dollars to obtain basic answers. Accessible information allows voters to judge spending priorities, identify problems, and recognize programs that deliver value.

I urge residents to download the register, review it, and ask questions. Elected officials should welcome that scrutiny.

** We, the taxpayers, deserve to know where our money goes. A $51,000 barrier to answers falls far short of the transparency Montgomery County should provide. **