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Voters carried their gurgling discontent over Montgomery County taxes and spending to the polls last week.

Question "B," a measure that will make it more difficult for the County Council to approve higher property tax rate increases, appears to have passed by a whisker. Thousands of uncounted absentee ballots are not expected to change the results when the canvass is completed.

Broader messages catapulted to the council are the need to control and reduce spending in these uncertain economic times and that homeowners and businesses have little tolerance for tax increases that exceed existing limits.

Opposition to new taxes flared elsewhere on a day that broke records for voter turnout. Left-leaning Montgomery narrowly supported slot machine gambling in Maryland, which carries an untested promise to channel millions of dollars to public schools and provide new revenues to a cash-strapped state. Prince George's County voters soundly rejected a plan for higher telephone taxes — a relatively modest $17 million — to help fund education.

In Montgomery any impact of a tax-cap change to the county charter, championed almost single-handedly by tax-cut fanatic Robin Ficker, probably won't be known for several years. The county executive has said he's not in favor of property tax increases in the next two years after this year's double-digit boost.

And the initial fears that Ficker's amendment would immobilize the council's budget-making decisions, requiring all nine members to vote for big tax increases, are diminished.

The county executive and council are left with precious few choices as they set about the everyday business of running the government and formulating a budget that reflects protracted leaner times.

Reductions in programs, services and employees become inevitable and County Executive Isiah Leggett has been talking with the county's powerful employee unions about the need for concessions on pay and benefits to avoid drastic cuts. The Montgomery County school system, a major employer, is acknowledging that employee contracts will have to be reworked or else popular programs in schools could face trims and hundreds of positions could be eliminated.

County budget problems might well be compounded by cuts by the state, which is expected to decide to shift a greater burden to counties for teacher pensions, and defer even more funds for badly needed transportation projects.

The voters were not obstructionists on Nov. 4, rather they signaled their exhaustion with elected leaders who dance around the edges of a looming financial problem. They delivered yet another wake-up call to the council and the message can't be trivialized: Without tighter budget management, including sacrifices on pay and benefits, painful cuts in government services are on the horizon.