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KLMNO POSTLOCAL Talk to us. Talk to newsmakers. Talk to each other. Join the conversation at postlocal.com Sticking together for the cause MIKE DEBONIS


county. Now, after years of arguing over it, Montgomery County residents are faced with paying a fee for their emergency transport, and that has prompted plenty of questions about what exactly should come standard with your income tax and property tax payments. “Any emergency is a basic function of


carte’ in Montgomery A


ride to the hospital in a state-of-the-art ambulance has long been gratis for residents ofMaryland’s second-richest


government. It’s guaranteed for everybody, with no bars,” says Eric N. Bernard, executive director of theMontgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association, a group that has led opposition to the fees since they first were proposed by former county executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) seven years ago. It’s a principled, high-minded argument,


one that is likely to appeal to voters — who, thanks to an eleventh-hour decision by Maryland’s highest court, will get to vote on the fee Nov. 2. The reason county lawmakers have finally


succumbed after years of resisting the fee is less principled but just as compelling: They sure need themoney. Montgomery peacemakers, once accustomed


to yearly 10 percent hikes in spending, now have had to shrink the government for two years. Earlier this year, amajor bond rater threatened to downgrade the county’s long- held AAA rating if it didn’t get its fiscal house in order. When the economy tanks, there’s nothing


MARK GAIL/THE WASHINGTON POST


MaidaMehranian, left, gets a bit of help from Jemma Simonian to remove a particularly sticky sweet bread off its baking paper at SoorpKhatch Armenian Apostolic Church in Bethesda, which is getting ready for its annual four-day bazaar. The event starts Oct. 14 and will feature a variety of baked goods as well as other traditional foods prepared by the church’s ladies guild in addition to a merchants’ mall, a raffle and musical performances.


for local governments to do except scratch, claw and tick people off to cut expected services or findmoremoney. In the universe of fees, ambulance fees hold


a special appeal, because proponents consider themessentially foundmoney. The idea is simple: Soak the insurance companies. For residents, the fee would be charged to


Back talk


Arecent column by Robert McCartney praised the reform efforts of Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso, who he said “has achieved substantial educational progress through ambitious reform efforts similar to Rhee’s—but without alienating teachers and parents.” The column prompted an e-mail from reader Gillis Green of Towson. Their exchange is excerpted below.


Debating school reform efforts


GREENWROTE: I cannot help feeling infuriated. WhileMr.Alonso hasmade great strideswith


the Baltimore City schools, and, as a Baltimore resident I amthrilled that he is doing so, do you honestly think that this latest contract negotiationwith the Baltimore Teachers’Union would have been even remotely possiblewithout (i) thework thatMs.Rhee has done inD.C., (ii) the attention and buzz created by “Waiting for Superman”, and (iii) the Timemagazine cover story? You dance around complimentingMs.Rhee


and giving her credit, but you just can’t quite bring yourself to do it. [American Federation of Teachers head]RandiWeingarten and teachers’ unions have been beaten up badly lately— deservedly so—and they need some positive press, so nowthey are beginning tomake some concessions, after decades prioritizing union interests over students interests. Do you think that just becauseMr.Alonso is a


nice guy, all of a sudden the teachers’ union is agreeing to compromise?Really?


MCCARTNEYRESPONDED: I totally understand your point, and I think I


evenmade itmyselfwhen I praisedRhee for focusing attention “on the unions’ role in creating obstacles to change.” I don’t knowif you’ve seen previous columns


that I’vewritten onRhee. I’ma critical supporter of her—I strongly applaud some things she’s done but amcritical ofmany of the


Tell a story


“I guess we became friends.Wedid become friends,” said lawyer Robert Tigner after learning of the death of downtown burrito vendor Carlos Guardado. Is there a Carlos Guardado in your life?


Links between us Yesterday’s story aboutGuardado,whodied


recently of aheart attack, struck anervewith readerswho knewhim—andreaderswhodidn’t. “Iwas a loyal-if-occasional customer for years


andahuge fanofCarlos,”wrotemtoth14on PostLocal.com. “Imisshimhugely, andhis family is inour thoughts.” “Inever knewthiswonderfulperson,”wrote


goldengrl614. “But the story so touchedme that I hadto e-mail it tomy friends. . . . Itwas sad, but wonderful, to seehowstrangers came together and became friends.”


THE DAILY QUIZ


On what page of the Weekend section can you start reading about Artisphere, Arlington County’s new arts and cultural center?


EARN 5 POINTS: Find the answer, then go to washingtonpost.com/postpoints and click on “Quizzes” to enter the correct response.


Sometimespeople likeGuardado—people you


see everyday but only ina limitedcontext— becomepart of our lives inwayswedon’t realize until they’re gone. Some connect others inunexpectedways.


Others become acquaintances, friends ormore. Have there beenpeople like that inyour life, living ordead?We’dlike tohear about them.


6


TELLUSE-mail us about these people at storylab@washpost.com, or visit


washingtonpost.com/storylab. POINTS EVENTS


Ready for New Hair? PostPoints members, you can elect to receive free weekly e-mails from Post writers, on topics that interest YOU. A recent tip from the Post’s Fashion & Beauty Section compared do-it-yourself hair dyes to professional coloring. To select topics for your weekly tips, including electronics, gardening, parenting and more, just log on to washingtonpost.com/postpoints and click on My Account Profile.


ways she’s done it. I urgedD.C.’s presumptive new mayor, VincentGray, to try to keep her, because for all her flaws it’s important to preserve stability at the top of the systemand to finish some of the work she’s begun. Still, she’s often needlessly antagonistic and, frankly, clumsy about howshe goes about some things. Your point seems to be that the BTUwouldn’t


havemade the concessions itmade except for whatRhee’s done inWashington. There’s a bit of truth in that, but it’s not thewhole story. The education reformmovementwas growing and getting attention and putting pressure on the unions before anybody had ever heard ofRhee. In short, I agree thatWeingarten and the BTU


would not have cooperated in Baltimore except for the nationalmovement putting pressure on them.Rhee is nowthe posterwoman for that movement. Butmy point is thatRhee isn’t the whole of themovement, and,more importantly, Rhee’s tactics inmanyways undermine the goals of themovement andmake it harder for it to succeed. My goal in the columnwas to call attention to


Alonso as anothermodel—also effective, certainly less polarizing, possiblymore successful thanRhee in the long run. In the general public, practically everybody’s heard ofRhee. Practically nobody’s heard ofAlonso. Iwanted to try to rectify that.


6


MOREMCCARTNEYReadmore of his columns and send himcomments at


washingtonpost.com/mccartney. Money talk


Readers responded to an article reporting that the number ofwomen with six-figure incomes is rising at a much faster pace than it is formen— and that the number of higher-income womenhas grown faster in the Washington region than nationally.


Readers on rising female incomes


ambulance riders’ insurance; those without insurance would not have to pay. Under the proposal, only nonresidents without insurance would have to pay — and even then, the indigent would be able to apply for a waiver. “If there’s a choice between insurance


companies hanging on to premiums you’ve already paid or your county fire and rescue getting those premiums back to save lives in the community, that’s a no-brainer,” said Patrick Lacefield, spokesman for County Executive Isiah Leggett (D). “Inmost places, this is not controversial,” he added. And “most places” includes prettymuch every jurisdiction surroundingMontgomery. Each has its own breaking point when it


comes to fees. In the District in 2008,Mayor AdrianM. Fenty (D) proposed a “streetlight user fee” that would appear on the bills of all electrical customers in the city. The $51 yearly fee was intended to “cover the costs associated with the operation andmaintenance of streetlights in the District.” Calling it a “user fee” struckmore than a few


as disingenuous — it’s not as if the streetlight user has the option to switch themoff rather than pay the fee. Legislators nixed the idea. Why did Fenty, who had taken a no-tax-


increase pledge, opt to tax the streetlights? For one, he’d tried the prior year to jack up ambulance fees, from$268 to $530 for a basic ride, plus amileage fee. That, too, didn’t pass D.C. Councilmuster. All fees, of course, carry political hazards.


MC15: “I still can’t afford a house in a good neighborhood!Honestly, what does it take these days?”


monicawhite: “I have a son. I am going to raise him the same way I’ve raisedmy daughters: to believe he can be whatever he wants to be and that he should stand up for himself when he’s being treated unfairly.”


Lizardo: “They may bear fruit but will they bear children?”


svreader2: “If you can find a rich girl who is willing to support you while you sit around the house all day, in return for basically cleaning up after yourself,MARRY HER!!!House-Husbandry rocks!”


ExpressReader: “Changes take time. But they are coming. Be patient, sisters.Now I start to worry aboutmy boys. What’s wrong with their education?”


conchfc: “The glass ceiling and pay inequity still exist. I’mglad there are legions of smart, talented women coming up to smash it and I will hire them and help them at every opportunity.”


teo1: “We live in an age where there is equal opportunity. That’s why women are seeing greater salary increases than men.”


paliceag: “I need to start dating some of these women.”


6


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Earlier this year, Fenty proposed wholesale hike in business taxes, traffic fines and parking fees and caught hell on the campaign trail — “nickeled and dimed” is how the eventual victor, Vincent C. Gray, liked to put it. But ambulance fees in particular are suited


to populist appeals. “I don’t think anyone out there wouldn’t define fire, police, rescue as being basic, essential,” said Bernard. “That’s why we have government to protect us, keep us safe.” Bernard prefers a favorite formulation of


tax-cutting conservatives, that lawmakers should “starve the beast” of spending rather than squeezemore revenue fromtaxpayers. With a no-feemeasure now on the ballot


and expected to pass, the usually amiable Leggett delivered a brushback pitch this week, proposing $12.9million in cuts,much of it fromFire and Rescue Service, to fill the gap. “This shows the pain,” Lacefield said Thursday. Fee opponents now have a cable-news-ready


example of another kind of pain. Last week, outside the northwest Tennessee


burg of South Fulton, a brush fire spread to the home of Gene Cranick and his family, burning it to the ground. The local volunteer fire department responded — to extinguish the brush fire. That landowner had paid a $75 yearly fire service fee; Cranick had not. Is this a peek at an every-man-for-himself


dystopia where police and parks and trash pickup are only for those who pay — “a la carte government,” pundits as diverse as Keith Olbermann and Chris Core have called it? Maybe — but, here as elsewhere, themenu isn’t what it used to be.


debonism@washpost.com


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Government ‘a la


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010


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