Kittleman and Ulman differ over polls, spending in Howard exec campaign

Candidates hit the home stretch with less than three weeks to go

"We're positioning this county so that whoever is county executive 10, 20, 30, or 40 years from now, the county will have the same quality of life," he said to more than 150 business people at a Columbia hotel. Faced with the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, he's made cuts, he argued, and the county is "not only surviving, but is thriving" while forging ahead on issues like the environment and health care.

Kittleman has a different vision.

"I love this county," she said. "We have a phenomenal quality of life." But Kittleman warned that if the county government doesn't change spending policies when better economic times return, Howard could follow Montgomery County into a severe fiscal crisis that could damage that elite status.

"We need to stop spending money on growing government and put money toward commitments we've already made." By that she means using any excess revenue to pay down the huge, growing liability for health care benefits due future retirees that started at $477 million several years ago and has become larger as the county has held back contributions during the recession."This issue is really the core of why I'm running," she said about the budget pressures.

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