Reader Comments: Restaurant Wars, Budget Woes
Patch readers weighed in on the placement of restaurants, the ramifications of shifting state teacher pension responsibilities to the counties and Howard Community College sports, among other topics.
Readers continue to respond, debate and complain on Patch sites acorss Howard County.
This past week, readers questioned the decision to place three Mexican restaurants at one intersection and the wisdom and long-term effects of shifting some of the financial responsibility of the state teacher pension system to local jurisdictions while one reader learned of the existence of Howard Community College athletics.
The HCC men's basketball team finished the regular season with a 12-12 record and earned a berth on the NJCAA Region XX tournament.
Assistant Coach Jay Nowaskey has partnered with Columbia Patch to provide game coverage and photos, which led to one resident commenting about the general lack of coverage of HCC sports.
That partnership led to at least one reader becoming more informed about the HCC sports program.
Keep the comments coming — maybe yours will appear here next week!
With Strong Finish, HCC Headed to Post-Season Play
"Where has the reporting been about HCC sports? How long has HCC fielded competitive sports teams? What other sports do they compete in? Call me clueless, but in my 10 years in HoCo, I have never heard anything about sports at HCC and wondered why they needed the athletic fields off of Hickory Ridge Road. Thanks for the revelation." — Harry Schwarz
Coming to Ellicott City: Chipotle Mexican Grill
"What is the point of having THREE Mexican places at the same intersection? Who comes up with this stuff? Someone's business is sure to suffer; I just hope Mi Casa can survive. Our favorite by far!!" — Denise Bretholz Harris
County Execs Blast O'Malley Plan for 'Potential, Dangerous Squeeze' on Budgets
"As a taxpayer, this costs me the same either way- State or local. I guess Ken found out that O'Malley is not endorsing him for governor!" — Ohai
If the "County" has to absorb this expense, it really means that the "County's residents" are going to have to pick up the increased tab. Whatever money the county has comes mostly from its residents and businesses. The county will raise property taxes and fees to cover the shortfall and the state will raise taxes (sales tax, gas tax, etc.) to cover its shortfall. We are still going to have to pay whether the pension money comes from the state or the county." — Michael B. Cron
About this column: A collection of insightful, funny, even occasionally outrageous comments from Patch readers.
Nicholas Aleshin
10:34 am on Sunday, February 19, 2012
County Execs Blast O'Malley Plan for 'Potential, Dangerous Squeeze' on Budgets
Isn't this the pot calling the kettle black? Even after a nearly $1Billion deficit was exposed before the last election in Howard County, our County Executive, Ulman, hasn't slowed down spending very much. Just like Obama and O'Malley, he seems to be in a race to see which of the three can run out of taxpayer money first.
- Howard County recently opened a stat-of-the-art library with 99 brand new computer terminals for customer use, to say nothing of the staff computer system. It also has beautiful blue lights in the floor (what for?), and is constructed, partially, of expensive stone and glass. The library was built at the cost of millions upon millions of dollars. Where does Ulman think the money comes from?
- Construction for Fire Station 6 in Savage continues. Why? Shouldn't we cut back on our county spending during these rough economic times? We have to cut back our spending at home, don't we?
I'm sure there are other Howard County projects, not needed at this moment, that are costing us millions. Why? Why haven't our politicians stopped these excesses?
If I'm not mistaken, Howard County's population is not very large, around 300,000. This is going to hurt us all, a bunch.