DELIVER WORLD CLASS SERVICES

Montgomery County taxpayers are paying more, and getting less. Robert will provide competent, back-to-basics leadership that can collect the trash, pave the roads, update our County's outdated 911 emergency system and technology, and provide the parks and amenities you expect for the taxes you pay. How about new parks and green space, instead of a $72 million tax cut for developers? Imagine that. Stop imagining, and vote for Robert Dyer!

TRANSPORTATION

Budgets will be tighter than ever, forcing us to prioritize the transportation projects that move the most people for the least money. Robert is the only candidate who not only has a detailed plan to reduce traffic congestion, but most importantly, answers the question of, "How do we pay for it?"

Widen I-270

Robert strongly supports Gov. Larry Hogan's Express Lanes plan for I-270 and the Capital Beltway, which will cost taxpayers virtually nothing, while providing a game-changing highway capacity increase.

New Potomac River Crossing

Robert will prioritize the infrastructure we need to attract major employers, like the long-delayed new Potomac River crossing, to provide direct access to Dulles Airport. As a privately-built toll facility, again, virtually no tax dollars would be spent, and the resulting economic development will generate massive revenue.

Build M-83. Now.

His top County/State-funded transportation priorities are the M-83 Mid-County Highway Extended, Montrose Parkway East, and the Georgia Avenue-Norbeck Road interchange.

No to BRT, Yes to transit that works again

Robert will oppose the $10 billion Bus Rapid Transit boondoggle that will require demolition of more than 1000 homes and businesses along Georgia Avenue between Olney and Wheaton Metro, Route 355, Veirs Mill Road and Route 29. Instead - for a fraction of the cost - he will update our aging Ride On fleet, and add additional drivers and buses to reduce headways on major routes to 10 minutes. Robert will restore weekend service to Route 90 in Damascus, increase capacity at the now-strained Shady Grove Metro station, and supports adding additional MARC rail capacity.

TAX CUTS AND BUDGET REFORM

No wonder we have the lowest economic growth rate in the region - Montgomery County's tax bills increase every single year. No one in our region pays more in taxes than a MoCo resident. To give relief to residents, and increase the investment power of our business community, we must reduce taxes.

Property taxes must no longer be a second mortage

Robert will vote to incrementally repeal the 2016 property tax increase and 2010 energy tax hike over the next four years. It's unlikely we can repeal them in a single budget, because our current County Council has overspent and run up so much debt. The Council has reduced revenues by driving wealthy residents out to lower-tax jurisdictions around us. They have also neglected to attract large employers and the revenue they could provide, instead promoting only residential development, which costs more in expenditures like schools and services than it generates in revenue.

Change how we budget, to control spending

Robert will advocate for Zero Based Budgeting for the Operational Budget, to end the cycle of out-of-control spending the Council has presided over. Unlike the current budget process, where last year's bloated budget comes back with even more spending tacked on, Zero-Based Budgets require that every dollar spent be justified and provide bang for the taxpayer's buck. Period.

JOBS/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Restore MoCo as a player in the region

Even incumbent councilmember Hans Riemer's former chief-of-staff, Adam Pagnucco, admits Montgomery County's private sector economy is "stagnant." A new study showed that, over this decade, Fairfax and the District each enjoyed a net gain of 3000 new business enterprises. Over the same period, Montgomery County only gained six. Robert will turn our moribund County economy around by focusing on attracting high-wage jobs in aerospace, defense and technology. We must begin to compete and win the headquarters, and research and manufacturing facilities, of these major employers.

Don't fight the future - embrace it!

Our current Council has chosen to "fight the future," penalizing innovators like Uber, and effectively banning airbnb as a business opportunity for middle-class residents. The Council stifles opportunity and innovation. Robert will do the opposite, ensuring our residents enjoy the benefits of innovation, while encouraging the companies who are developing those innovations to relocate here.

Record numbers of businesses are closing

Montgomery County has lost over 2000 retail jobs, according to the Maryland Retailers Association. MoCo has suffered a net loss of jobs over the last decade, even as the jurisidictions around us enjoyed a net gain. "Going out of business" and "Everything must go!" signs are now ubiquitous around the County.

Declare Montgomery County is open for business

Robert will provide the direct access to Dulles Airport that international business executives have said they need in order to locate in Montgomery County. He will make our taxation and permitting policies competitive with our rivals in the region. And he will propose a requirement that two regulations be struck from the books for each new regulation passed on business. 

PROTECT NEIGHBORHOODS

The County Council currently ignores your concerns about the impact of development on your neighborhood, your commute, and the quality of your child's education. Residents participate in sector plan meetings, testify before the Council and Planning Board, and yet their input is completely ignored by both bodies.

Get rid of the current Planning Board!

Many people ask, "How do we get rid of the people on the Planning Board?" The answer is to vote for Robert Dyer. The County Council appoints the Planning Board. Robert will not vote to reappoint any of the current planning commissioners. He will support citizen activists who represent the interests of the People of Montgomery County as nominees to the Board.

Lawyer-up

Robert will work to restore the Office of the People's Counsel, an attorney who represents your interests in land use and zoning. This position existed from 1990 to 2010, when the Council defunded it, before moving to permanently eliminate it in 2016.

End corruption

Robert will propose legislation at the County and State levels to prevent Planning Department employees from working for development interests after immediately retiring from the department. This will end the revolving door that encourages planning staff to side with developers over residents. Land-use scandals will finally be thoroughly reviewed by truly-independent private, state and federal investigators, unlike the Farm Road scandal.

Put residents in control, not developers

Robert will also propose returning to the previous sector plan practice of establishing committees that include residents, rather than the current and arbitrary "charrettes" that are only for show, while the big decisions have already been made behind the scenes.

END THE LIQUOR MONOPOLY

Robert supports getting the government out of the liquor business. Ending our archaic government liquor monopoly will allow you to finally buy beer and wine at grocery, drug and convenience stores, and our restaurants and bars to thrive and compete in the crowded D.C. regional market.

Robert demonstrating how easy it is to purchase beer and wine at convenience stores in Virginia, where this Sheetz has a refrigerated "Beer Cave." Why not in Montgomery County?

EDUCATION

When they falsely claimed they were hiking your taxes to record levels "for education," the County Council trumpeted new influence it supposedly had in the decisions made by the Board of Education. With those claims, the Council opened the door, and Robert Dyer will walk right through it, by using that supposed power to reform our declining schools.

We must continue to provide as much money as possible for school construction. But in terms of student performance, we are spending more than ever, and getting worse results. MCPS has been in a steady decline since 2010. We cannot simply keep throwing money at the problems. We must radically change course to address the ever-widening achievement gap, and provide good, safe schools in every neighborhood across the County.

Superintendent Smith must go

Robert will ask the BOE to request MCPS Superintendent Jack Smith's immediate resignation. He has failed in every respect academically, and has proven unable to ensure the safety and security of the students he is responsible for. 

We then must hire a new superintendent, whose compensation will be directly tied to student performance and outcomes.

NO BUSSING, NO REDISTRICTING OVERHAUL

Montgomery County Councilman Hans Riemer and his allies on the Montgomery County Board of Education are planning a return to forced bussing of students based on race, and a major redistricting of all schools - but only after they are safely reelected in November. The BOE quietly passed a resolution this fall to initiate the bussing and redistricting plan. It states that racial diversity is now the heaviest-weighted factor that will determine new school boundaries. Supporters of bussing and redistricting on the County Council and BOE openly stated that residents who bought homes in clusters like Walt Whitman and Walter Johnson - in their opinion - do not have the right to assume their children will attend those schools.

In this case, your vote will literally impact the value of your home if you live in one of the coveted school districts. Without assured access to those top schools, the sale price of your home will plummet. Elect Robert Dyer, and he will use the Council's control of MCPS funding to stop the bussing and redistricting plan, which is just a sham to avoid the hard work of fixing the many failing schools in other parts of the county, while dragging down our few top-performing high schools. It's a radical plan that must be stopped, and only you have the power with your vote on Election Day to stop it.

Classroom space & good schools in every neighborhood

While we must increase the impact tax on developers and spend more on school construction, we cannot continue to simply throw money at the school system and get no results. MCPS has the dubious distinction of being one of the top 10 school systems in America to spend excessive amounts on administration compared to actual classroom learning - this must end. It's clear that declining academic performance and the achievement gap are not money problems, but curriculum problems. We're spending more money than ever on MCPS, and getting worse results. We need a new curriculum, and to ensure that the money spent is going to the classroom, not to administrators.

Robert will demand improvement at all schools across MCPS. but also press for a change that will trigger the issuance of a Private School Voucher for the students of individual schools that fail to meet performance targets. We won't give up one bit on those failing schools - but we won't allow the future opportunities of those children currently-enrolled to be destroyed by the failures of our County officials in the short term. Every student deserves a world-class education, regardless of race or neighborhood. It is unacceptable to have good schools in only the southwest part of the County. 

Robert will also promote new policies and tax credits that support homeschooling. 

Student safety

A 2016 state audit showed that MCPS not only lacked financial and fraud controls, but that students and their personal information are not safe. Parents urged the County Council to consider the audit when approving the MCPS budget that year.

The Council chose to ignore the audit entirely.

In contrast, Robert Dyer studied the full report, and wrote his own analysis of it. If elected, Robert will take immediate action on the recommendations of the audit.

After years of sexual abuse scandals in MCPS, the culture, background check process, and response policies must drastically change. Violence against students also must end at schools which have become notorious for unrestrained fights and discipline problems. The fact that these are all real problems at MCPS schools is completely unacceptable.

CRIME

Murders are up 31% in Montgomery County. Gang violence is out-of-control, and Montgomery County has been making headlines around the country for all the wrong reasons. Our soft-on-crime County Council has failed to protect the public, and policies that make our County attractive to gangs must change. We've been told the current approach is the right approach; the crime statistics prove otherwise. After the Council flushed another $900,000 down the toilet with its "anti-gang" initiative in 2017, violent gang-related crimes surged 72% in 2018. Our State's Attorney admits that MS-13 is even extorting protection money from Wheaton businesses.

New anti-gang unit

Robert will propose purchasing a helicopter for the Montgomery County police department, as part of a new special unit to target gang operations in the County, and to assist in police pursuits. On January 6, 2016 a County police officer was almost killed during a pursuit in Germantown, when the suspect aimed his vehicle at him as he tried to deploy stop sticks. Officers had been pleading with the dispatcher throughout the chase to summon the Maryland State Police helicopter, which never joined the chase.

Montgomery's finest need the tools, strategies and policies to end gang violence in our community. Residents in Gaithersburg, Germantown, Montgomery Village, and Wheaton deserve safe communities. The Council claims to care about immigrants, but the reality is, our immigrant community is arguably the one hurt the most by gang violence.

ASPEN HILL SECTOR PLAN

Robert will only vote for an Aspen Hill sector plan that retains the suburban character of Aspen Hill, preserves and enhances its critical function as a commercial and services hub with thousands of jobs, protects the adjacent residential neighborhoods, and provides the infrastructure needed to support the level of growth the plan allows. He also supports building a new Aspen Hill library.

MOSES AFRICAN CEMETERY

As the activist who in 2011 discovered Montgomery County had erased the history of the African-American community on River Road, and warned officials to locate the cemetery before redeveloping the Westbard area, Robert is committed to its preservation and righting the wrongs of its desecration in the late 1960s. He will lead an investigation into the cemetery scandal and cover-up, and fully supports the creation of a museum and cultural center at or near the cemetery site.

WESTBARD SECTOR PLAN

The fight is not over in Westbard. A full half of the sector plan area along River Road may be rezoned at any time in the future, directly impacting the Springfield and Kenwood neigborhoods, among others. There is a back-room plan to extend the Purple Line to Westbard and Sumner, which would destroy the physical environment of the Little Falls Stream Valley Park and Kenwood.

Robert supports retaining the industrial zoning of the industrial area along River Road. That will hold down the price of properties there, while preserving vital jobs and neighborhood services like auto and home repairs. As business owners retire, the County can purchase their sites, and create a large Willett Branch Park - not just the narrow planned greenway.

WORLD CLASS PARKS - IN URBAN, SUBURBAN AND RURAL AREAS

Robert believes there should be a park within a quarter mile of every home in Montgomery County, and that suburban and urban parks should not be limited to the tiny "green postage stamps" currently proposed for downtown Bethesda and Westbard. To have a world-class county, we must do better. Parks should inspire, surprise and provide a getaway from - not a hardscaped, exhaust-filled reminder of - urban life. With better management of County finances, and increased revenue from jumpstarting our economy, we can have the kind of parks other major cities enjoy.