Weekly Letter #187 - AI, Revenue, Cruel Cuts, Crap, and Raising the Roof
This week started with welcoming remarks at a day-long Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) symposium on AI in local government.
ALT Promotional banner for County Executive Pittman's Weekly Letter (#187) titled "AI, Revenue, Cruel Cuts, Crap, and Raising the Roof," summarizing welcoming remarks at a Maryland Association of Counties symposium on AI and directing readers to AACounty.org/WeeklyLetter
Sep 18, 2026 · 10:00 PM UTC
3
157
The audience was mostly people in IT whose job it is to ensure that counties have good tools and know how to use them.
1
14
But it also included policy makers, the people who are tasked with creating the guardrails and transparency policies, and who make the decisions about when new tools go live.
1
9
For instance, in our county, we’ve been experimenting with AI responses to constituent inquiries, and we determined that the tool was useful as an aid, but not as a replacement for real people. Constituents are human, and they need to be treated that way.
1
4
We’ve also had to be careful that the use of AI doesn’t create leaks in our systems through which our residents’ personal information might flow.
1
13
Those are the kinds of challenges and experiences that need to be shared between counties, and I’m glad that MACo is doing the convening.
1
4
Next, I testified on the topic of local government revenue options before the Task Force to Modernize County and Municipal Revenue Structures, led by Comptroller Brooke Lierman.
1
7
It was created by the Maryland General Assembly early in the year and is tasked with reporting back to that body and the Governor about options in time for the 2027 session.
1
5
It’s a timely process, because the Trump administration’s signature legislation, HR 1, transfers obligations to state and local governments with no revenue to pay for them, starting right after the November elections.
1
4
Maryland law limits how local governments can generate revenue, so unless the state wants to pick up the tab, they need to create more flexibility.
1
2
My testimony focused on the fact that since 1980 federal tax rates have steadily declined and loopholes have grown for the very rich, and that’s why we can’t afford infrastructure and basic services.
1
2
Allowing locals to tax wealth at a higher rate is the only rational response to the feds doing the opposite. We’ll see how the politics plays out on that, given the role that big money plays in our elections.
1
1
32
To read the full Weekly Letter, visit aacounty.org/county-executiv….
38
