Weekend plan – legislative checkups
This evening I’ve been looking through the Maryland General Assembly website and checking out which of our erstwhile state representatives have been sponsoring bills that affect our lives and well-being. It’s been taking longer than I thought it would, but I know people check my site daily and I hate to let a day pass without a post.
Just to let you know how active this process is, between the six local members of our House of Delegates they sponsor or co-sponsor a total of 508 bills. The two local State Senators have a total of 127 bills they’ve signed onto as co-sponsors. Obviously most of those bills have multiple local sponsors and many deal with issues of local import. My emphasis beginning tomorrow will be on more major legislation, although I might take another pass through everything afterward just on earmarks and items intended for the bond bill that comes out toward the end of the session. Hey, the election is over and I’ll need something to write about, right?
This does give me the opportunity to point out a recent Gazette article on a man who happens to be my Delegate (although not by my personal choice), Norm Conway. Not saying Norm’s a bad guy, I just disagree with him about 80% of the time. But writer Sean Sedam looks at several of the issues that have irked his constituents, particularly the sales tax increase that puts us even further behind the 8-ball when compared to Delaware. In the article, Conway looks at the issue as one of fairness:
The tax was particularly unpopular on the Lower Eastern Shore, where retailers face competition from Delaware, which is just miles away and has no sales tax.
Instead of playing it safe, however, Conway gave an emotional speech in support of the tax bill on the floor of the House.
He knew, Busch recalled, that the tax revenue meant money for shock trauma, for fiber-optic expansion, for Salisbury University and Wor-Wic Community College and for much-needed road projects.
‘‘I’m going to be coming up here asking my colleagues to help me out with these projects,” Conway recalled last week. ‘‘I think I have to say to them, ‘I’m not just asking you for a handout. I’m asking you to help me and I’m willing to pay my fair share.’”
‘‘He believed if the Eastern Shore was going to get its share of money, someone had to stand up and take their share of responsibility,” Busch said.
Fortunately for Norm, voters here tend to have short memories and will likely continue to support him should he choose to continue his legislative duties in 2010 (he’ll be 68 by then.) But tomorrow I’ll take a pass at some of the issues that have been predominantly co-sponsored by local Democrats (a total of 30 bills I found interesting) while Sunday will be reserved for the Republican responses. Neither list will be exclusive, but in general there’s not a lot of crossover.
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