Marc Elrich, Headed Back to the County Council, Wants to ‘Get Our Tax Base Right’

Marc Elrich, Montgomery County’s outgoing County Executive, won one of the four at-large seats on the County Council with 22.91% of the at-large vote, according to unofficial results. Voters could choose up to four candidates. Moderately MOCO talked with Elrich on election night about why he’s going back to the Council and what he wants to fix first.

The interview is also on Facebook and Instagram. Interview by Jason Makstein for Moderately MOCO.

Why go back to the Council

Elrich served on the Council at-large from 2006 to 2018 and was elected County Executive in 2018 and re-elected in 2022, according to his county biography and Moderately MOCO’s County Executive results story. A 2024 charter change cut the County Executive’s limit to two consecutive terms.

Asked how it feels to be going back to the Council, Elrich said, “I know the job.”

Elrich said eight years as executive, “having to actually run something as opposed to pass a piece of legislation and not actually know how it’s going to work or be implemented,” changed his view. “It educates you about what’s possible and how to approach problems,” he said.

“I will certainly be more conscious about when you propose things making sure that they’re actually going to work,” Elrich said.

The tax base

“The big issues for me though are trying to get our tax base right and to start taking some of the load off residents,” Elrich said. He said Virginia and D.C. tax developers “far higher than Montgomery County.”

Elrich said Montgomery County’s property taxes for residents are the lowest in the D.C. area except for D.C., and that its property taxes on commercial property are also the lowest, with Virginia’s higher and D.C.’s higher still. Moderately MOCO has not independently checked those comparisons.

The county’s draft list of 2027 requests to state lawmakers, which the Council packet calls Elrich’s recommended priorities, asks for the power to levy a local sales tax and to set different property tax rates for commercial, industrial and residential property, Moderately MOCO reported.

Infrastructure

Elrich said he has wondered why people go to Virginia and D.C., where taxes are higher, and concluded that “it turns out it’s because they build infrastructure which we’ve not been able to build.”

“If you can’t build any transportation then Virginia and D.C. can run circles around you,” he said. He said he hopes the Council will look at how those places got there “and not just simply say we should be cheaper because cheaper lost.”

Diversity as a selling point

Elrich said that when Montgomery County is pitched overseas, in places such as China, Taiwan, Korea and India, its diversity “means something to people.” “Montgomery County is a very friendly place to everybody,” he said. “That’s the selling point.”

Elrich’s term as County Executive ends when Will Jawando takes office at noon Monday, Dec. 7, the day the current Council’s term ends, according to the Council’s website and Section 202 of the county charter. Jawando’s plans are in our County Executive results story.

The results

Elrich, a Democrat, had 226,461 votes (22.91%), fourth among the four winners and 155,607 votes ahead of fifth-place Republican Sherwin Wells, according to the State Board of Elections’ Montgomery County results page, last refreshed at 10:35 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 5.

Laurie-Anne Sayles had 229,435 votes, Scott Evan Goldberg 228,991 and Karla Silvestre 226,732. Moderately MOCO called the race on election night; our at-large County Council results story has the details. Results are unofficial until every ballot is counted and the county certifies them.

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