Amendment to limit Montgomery County spending won’t appear on November ballot

A proposal to cap Montgomery County’s annual spending increases at the rate of inflation won’t appear on November’s ballot after failing to secure enough signatures.

The Committee to Control MoCo Spending needed to submit at least 10,000 valid signatures to the Montgomery County Board of Elections to place the charter amendment on the ballot. But only 9,698 of the 14,074 signatures submitted by the committee were validated by the elections board.

“We are deeply disappointed that the number of signatures validated by the Board of Elections fell short of the legal requirement,” the committee wrote in a news release Monday. “Regardless of the final count, thousands of Montgomery County residents signed the petition because they believe the County must become more affordable and its elected leaders must exercise greater discipline when spending taxpayer dollars.”

The committee utilized volunteers and paid petition circulators to collect signatures. One paid circulator collected a substantial number of signatures the committee believed were fraudulent, according to the release, which left the committee in a bind.

The proposed amendment would have required the County Council to vote unanimously in order to increase the operating budget above the rate of inflation. County officials, including County Executive Marc Elrich, have opposed it.

“Their proposal ignores the basic economic reality,” Elrich told reporters in July. “The cost of building and maintaining comprehensive public services and infrastructure has nothing to do with general inflation.”

The committee said it’s not giving up on the charter amendment. Early next year, it plans to start gathering signatures to put the proposal on the ballot in 2028.

Ginny Bixby contributed to this article.