Published on: Thursday, July 15, 2010

By Brian J. Karem

You show respect.

My father told me that. But relax; I think Tony Soprano said the same thing. The point is that people liked to be treated with respect, even if they show you none and the toughest challenge as an adult is to show respect to some serious dweeb who deserves, in Tony's vernacular "a fresh one," rather than any respect.

This applies not only to people, but to governments and most especially the county government. I've turned the other cheek so often with these guys I am beginning to feel like a bobble head.

First they okay the ICC, the infamous road to nowhere that will have some of the most expensive tolls of any road on the east coast - and that's no easy feat. It has destroyed park land, natural habitats for some of the area's woodland creatures - particularly my favorite "rats with antlers," and in some places is already creating worse traffic problems than existed prior to the construction - and which the new road was supposed to clean up.

Next, the County government passed a wonderful new tax for drivers in the metropolitan area - under the cloak and dagger of speed cams and red light traffic cams. We've been told this extortion is actually a safety move, but it's all about money. Sure, the cameras were supposed to be near schools, etc. but that isn't always the case. The worse part of them is that the County, and some of the cities in the county don't even get a huge chunk of change from these cameras. The money goes to, at least in one case, a company owned by another company owned by another company with offices in London.

Next the county passed an ambulance fee for insurance companies that, unless you're blind, mentally incapacitated or dead, you realize will be passed on to the consumer in higher insurance costs.

And now we have this wonderful energy tax which is going to cost me an extra $200-$250 a year during a recession because our County Executive says we need to "tighten our belts."

Really? Well, I like Ike Leggett. He's a nice guy - but how about the county tighten its belt first? You are taxing the middle class out of Montgomery County.

It's that simple. We simply cannot afford any more taxes. It's not just a matter now of cutting back on surplus spending in order to live here, many families cannot afford to pay their monthly bills.

Am I overstating this? No. The exodus has begun. I know roofers, electricians and other middle class service providers that have fled the county in the last two years because they cannot afford to live here. Many more will follow.

There’s a reason why all of those subdivisions are being built in Frederick County and it has nothing to do with a booming birthrate.

Meanwhile, if you live in Montgomery County and you’re wealthy, the extra taxes mean nothing to you. If you're exceedingly poor, it doesn't matter because you don't pay it and can't anyway.

But the middle class - our backs are broken.

Yet, the pressure continues. It’s relentless as the county government struggles to pay its overwhelming self-created debt.

Adding insult to injury I will go back to the wonderful speed cam tax for a second. My son is 21-years old. He's going to college full time, works part-time and has to live at home (don't get me started) in order to pay his bills. He had to make a choice the other day of paying his car payment or paying his speed camera fine. I told him to pay his car payment because it affects his credit rating.

But guess what? The county has turned him over, in another blatant move of extortion, to the credit bureau because he couldn't pay his speed cam ticket on time.

The County government is going further hamper his ability to pay debts by trying to hurt his credit rating. Lovely logic.

The County is on your back Montgomery County and standing with its foot crushing your throat.

I have news for you. I have two speed cam tickets and I'm not paying. I refuse and I don't care what the county does.

I certainly hope that whoever is running for county offices feels the heat from the government’s inability to balance its own budget without robbing me of more of my hard-earned money.

The time of extortion is over. If this is how my county treats me after paying property and other taxes here for the last 15 years, you can take the advice of Johnny Paycheck. I won't tell you where to shove it…Maybe you can figure that out.