Income Needed to Buy a Median Home Now vs. $131K Area Median Income
+$309/mo
Added to Your Rent Since 2020 — He Voted NO on Rent Protection
$1B+
Est. Lost to Developer Tax Giveaways Over 20 Yrs
$5M+
Developer & PAC Money Backing One Candidate
Developers got tax breaks. You got the bill.
He gave developers 20-year property tax exemptions. He cut the impact taxes they pay for schools and roads. Your assessments kept climbing. Your rent kept climbing. And now data centers could push your electric bill even higher.
+12-21%
Your Property Assessment
Assessments rose 12-21% in recent cycles. A 9.4% rate increase is proposed for FY2027. Meanwhile 16 developer properties pay zero property tax for 20 years under his Bill 2-25.
$69.6M
Budget Shortfall
The county's own CIP budget assumed $197.3M in impact taxes and came up $69.6M short. That gap gets filled by you — through higher property taxes and deferred road/school maintenance.
$1 Billion+
Estimated Lost Revenue Over 20 Years from Developer Tax Giveaways
Bill 2-25 alone — 20-year, 100% property tax exemption for 16 developer properties — costs an estimated $132–415 million in foregone revenue. Add the impact tax cuts (Bill 38-20, est. $12.5–20M/year), deferred payments, and the countywide fast-track he wants to expand — the 20-year cumulative loss exceeds $1 billion.
County Executive Elrich called Bill 2-25 "a blank check" and "a corporate giveaway." Friedson overrode his veto.
That's $1 billion that could have gone to schools, roads, transit, public safety, and services. Instead it goes to developers — the same developers who gave $5 million to back his campaign.
Sources: MoCo Council fiscal analysis (Bill 2-25); Montgomery Perspective (impact tax data); MoCo Council press releases (Elrich veto statements).
47%
Renters Cost-Burdened
Nearly half of MoCo renters spend 30%+ of income on housing. 23% spend over 50%. He voted NO on rent stabilization — the one protection for 65,700 rental units.
That's not affordable. That's a transfer of wealth from residents to developers. Every safeguard was removed. Not a single piece of his legislation creates a new infrastructure requirement, proffer system, or developer-funded improvement. Nothing was added.
Sources: MoCo Dept of Finance (tax rates); EnergySage (electricity); MoCo Council records (Bill 2-25, Bill 38-20); OLO RESJ; Montgomery Perspective (impact tax data).
5 Data Centers. Your Water. Your Power Bill.
Maryland is 73% under drought. Nearly a quarter of the state is in extreme drought. And Atmosphere Data Centers wants to build a 5-building campus at Dickerson — pulling 500,000 gallons per day from the Potomac to cool servers.
Every other CE candidate supports a moratorium to study the impacts first. He's the only one who doesn't. A data center-connected developer gave him $8,588. The state senator whose district covers Dickerson gave him $6,000.
Once built, data centers cannot be undone. No community in America has ever removed one.
+50-69%
Your Electricity Rate Since 2020
~13c → ~22c/kWh. MoCo avg bill now ~$289/mo.
$1.6B
Added MD Electric Bills
Projected over the next decade from data center grid demand.
+$70/mo
Per Household by 2028
Before Dickerson even comes online.
73%
Of Maryland Under Drought
21.9% in extreme drought. And he won't pause.
Sources: Bethesda Mag; US Drought Monitor (Jun 9, 2026); SBE filings; Common Dreams; CNN; Union of Concerned Scientists; EnergySage.
Your kids are in portable classrooms. Your roads are crumbling. His donors aren't paying.
Property taxes are the biggest local source for teacher salaries, school operations, road maintenance, public safety, transit, libraries, and county services. His 20-year tax exemptions mean new development sends kids to school, adds cars to your roads, and uses county services — but pays nothing into the budget that funds them. You make up the difference.
$1.5B
School Construction Backlog
MCPS faces a $1.5 billion shortfall in school construction funding. 500+ portable classrooms across 211 schools.
$12.5-20M
Lost Per Year
Bill 38-20 cut impact taxes developers pay for schools AND roads. Elrich warned of the cost. Friedson overrode his veto.
20 yrs
No Property Tax from New Dev
His PILOT bills exempt qualifying development from property tax for up to 20 years — the tax that pays for teacher salaries, road repaving, fire stations, and bus routes.
-7,000
Students Leaving
MCPS enrollment declining, projected to fall to ~149,706 by 2031. OLO cites housing costs as a driver — families can't afford to stay.
Sources: MCPS budget documents; Montgomery Perspective (Jan 2025 & 2026); OLO Report 2024-15; MoCo Council records (Bill 38-20).
Development is fine. But who pays when every safeguard is removed?
His own words — on camera — April 27, 2026
"We need to streamline our regulatory process and fix our permitting system to grow our economy. So, I will build on the Accelerate MoCo initiative which reduced the regulatory framework by 75% in particular areas and expand that out to all areas."
Chevy Chase Communities Forum • Jane E. Lawton Community Center • Timestamp: 9:12-9:28
Streamlining permits isn't the problem. The problem is doing it without requiring developers to fund the infrastructure their projects demand — and handing the keys to the same people who gave $5 million to get him elected.
What "expand to all areas" means for your street:
Currently
Fast-track development limited to specific commercial/industrial zones.
If He Wins...
Every neighborhood in MoCo — including yours. Residential, suburban, rural.
Currently
Standard permit review: 600 days. Time to learn about a project, attend hearings, organize.
If He Wins...
160 days everywhere. 75% less time for regulators AND residents to review what's going up next door.
Currently
County Executive Elrich vetoes the worst developer giveaways. (Overridden 3x, but still a check.)
If He Wins...
No more vetoes. The one check on his developer giveaways disappears. The damage he did from a committee chair gets the full power of the executive branch behind it. The $5M in developer money gets the keys.
A 40-foot apartment building could go up next door with 160 days to do anything about it. No school capacity study. No traffic study. No sewer analysis. The developer pays zero property tax for 20 years while your assessment climbs. And the person who signs off on all of it was put there by $5M from the people building it.
2,429
Parcels Rezoned
ZTA 25-02 "More Housing N.O.W." allows 40-foot apartments on single-family lots. Developers keep 85% as market-rate luxury. Only 15% has any affordability requirement — and even that is "affordable" only up to 120% of area median income. Friedson was lead sponsor.
85%
Goes to Developers at Market Rate
Out of every building, developers keep 85% as market-rate luxury units they price however they want. The remaining 15% is "affordable" only for households earning up to $157K/year. Regular renters and working families? Not even close.
0
Infrastructure Studies Done First
No traffic, stormwater, sewer, school, or emergency services studies before rezoning 2,429 properties. The Civic Federation objected. Residents packed hearings in opposition 1,927 to 321. He pushed it through anyway.
32,295
Unbuilt Units in the Pipeline
294 projects. 80% of major projects approved after he eliminated the building moratorium. District 1 (his district) alone has ~16,000+ units — over half the county total. Concentrated in White Flint, Bethesda, and Silver Spring.
160 days
New Permit Review (Was 600)
"Accelerate MoCo" slashed review time by 75%. Less time for regulators to catch problems. Less time for residents to object. And he wants this countywide on day one.
The county's own Office of Legislative Oversight assessed his housing bill (Bill 2-25) as having a negative impact on racial equity — finding it "could benefit landlords more than residents" and "could widen housing disparities by race and ethnicity."
Why does one candidate need $5 million to win a county executive race?
"Voters need to understand that these groups are not investing in this race out of charity. They are spending because they believe the beneficiary of their spending...will be a dependable vote in support of their special interests."— U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (Baltimore Banner, June 4, 2026)
8 PACs. $2.7M in outside money. The county GOP's 2nd Vice Chair funds the Super PAC attacking his Democratic opponents — $133K to Republican entities, zero to any Democrat ever. The police union that endorsed two Republicans in a row now endorses him.
As a Council member, Friedson already used his committee chair to push through every major developer tax break and rezoning of the last six years. The County Executive is the most powerful position in county government — and the damage he's done from a Council seat would get far worse with the executive branch behind him. The developers spending $5 million know exactly what they're buying.
Follow the money. It always leads to the same place.
The same developers who max out to his campaign also write six-figure checks to the "independent" Super PAC attacking his opponents. 48% of the PAC's donors gave to both.
Donor
To PAC
To Friedson
Combined
B.F. Saul Co.~$2.8B. EEOC $210K settlement.
$150,000
$3,533
$153,533
Polinger family
$100,000
$16,033
$116,033
Bernstein clusterCorp + 6 family, same address
$80,000
$33,404
$113,404
FlanaganMcLean, VA — doesn't live here
$100,000
$7,500
$107,500
McMahon Trust
$100,000
$6,000
$106,000
Gingery LLCs5 LLCs, PO Box. McGOP 2nd Vice Chair. $133K to GOP. Zero to any Democrat.
$75,000
$0
$75,000
451 Hungerford LLCs9 entities, same address, same day
$50,500
$8,285
$58,785
28 dual donors total
~$1M
~$188K
$1.13M+
58 PAC donors averaged $26,159 each. 57% of Friedson's 2,159 donors gave under $500 — but provided only 9% of his money.