The former was needed to fund teacher raises, new county government deputy positions and transportation projects, commissioners said. The latter was used to fund parks and farm preservation projects. 

Part of the increase in recordation tax revenue was used to fund multiple park projects the following year, including $1.5 million at Old National Pike District Park east of New Market.

The money was used to speed up grading at athletic fields and parking lots, along with building acceleration and deceleration lanes at the park's Md. 144 entrance, said Paul Dial, then the head of the county's Parks Department.

David Gray, then-president of the Board of Commissioners, lauded Dial's efforts and added it's a sign that county tax dollars are going toward a worthy cause, "instead of thinking it all goes into the great black hole of the general fund."

Commissioners also voted in 2000 to raise income taxes by 16 percent, and the impact fee—charged on new home construction to help fund school and library projects—increased 64 percent.

Months after the commissioners voted on all these increases, The Frederick News-Post received multiple letters from residents opposing the tax increases.

That included Kirby Delauter, who has served as both a county commissioner and County Councilman before an unsuccessful bid for County Executive in 2018.

"I see we are all going to be better off now that the commissioners have raised impact fees by 64 percent. As Commissioner Terre Rhoderick stated, there are taxes already in place to fund services in the county. Relax Commissioner Rhoderick, it will never be enough. I'd bet within two years there will be another impact fee or "tax" to fund yet more government growth ... I mean waste," Delauter wrote.

But, as the population increased by more than 45,000 between 1990 and 2000, the tax increases were needed to expand services in a growing county, commissioners said.