The McDermott notes: week 4
Here’s the weekly summary of local Delegate Mike McDermott’s ‘Field Notes‘ with my insight for good measure.
We are closing in on the 1/3 point of the annual “90 Days of Terror” which we conservatives call the Maryland General Assembly session. As of Friday, Senate bills introduced afterward have to go through the Rules Committee, with the similar deadline for House bills this coming Friday. Currently there are over 1,250 bills under some sort of consideration whether it’s first reading, committee votes, or select floor votes.
Much of what Mike writes about this week regards committee hearings and other bills being considered by his Judiciary Committee. Testimony was heard on everything from flash mobs to background checks to bison.
The McDermott notes: week 3
As I stated last night, this report is slightly behind schedule – from here on out, the intention is to put this up Sunday evening if possible. In case you missed them, here are the week 1 and week 2 reports.
Things must be getting a little more hectic in the General Assembly as Mike abandoned his day-by-day descriptions in favor of a general overview of the week’s proceedings.
The first topic was a quick look at judicial electronic filing, updating the progress and determining how to pay for it. I’m guessing the trial attorneys and others involved in the legal system are going to balk at additional user fees just as those of us in rural areas have no desire to pay a higher “flush tax.” But in their case, I think the benefits would be more tangible.
Second in line is probably the most important thing the General Assembly is entrusted with each year – the passage of the Governor’s budget. It’s the only item the legislature can pass and enact into law without the Governor’s formal approval.
And Mike is definitely a critic of this year’s spending bill, noting the “significant proposals that would affect every family in Maryland if they are adopted”: changes to income tax deduction, a variety of fee increases, a rise in college tuition, and the expansion of sales tax to a multitude of services, including the internet. We call that the “app tax.”
Mike also noted on Wednesday the fifteen House Republican freshmen, a group of which he’s a member, held a press conference to reveal that a majority of Maryland residents were convinced (to turn a phrase) the taxes are too damn high. In fact, 96% believe they are Taxed Enough Already – so I guess 96% belong to the TEA Party. Now if they only voted that way we wouldn’t have these problems.
Another update McDermott added to the notes was the fact both Wicomico County State’s Attorney Matt Maciarello and his Somerset County counterpart Dan Powell came to Annapolis to share their thoughts on the subject of a bill Mike is sponsoring (HB112), which would eliminate the requirement for a public defender at certain court hearings.
Something which really should be carefully read in McDermott’s original notes are his accounts of the Eastern Shore Delegation meetings. Obviously we have a mixed group, with three moderate-to-liberal Democrats interspersed among the 12 members of the General Assembly who hail from this part of the state (Districts 36, 37, and 38.) Most of the others are conservative Republicans, although some tend to stray from the party line from time to time.
My sense – and in looking at the monoblogue Accountability Project I can bear this out – is that McDermott is the most conservative of the group. In fact, the four freshmen Delegates we have from the Shore (all Republicans) rank among the five highest (most conservative) out of the 12-member Eastern Shore Delegation, at least by my measure. Senator E.J. Pipkin breaks that group up; otherwise the freshmen are the ones who most agree with how I would vote.
But McDermott also states that there may be a couple Department of Natural Resources projects in the pipeline; an upgrade to the bathhouses on Assateague Island and a proposed boat ramp on 64th Street in Ocean City. Perhaps that would be money well spent, although I’d be curious to know if any property acquisition is needed for the 64th Street project.
Finally, Mike promises an update in next week’s field notes on the bills he’s sponsored (there are now four where he is lead sponsor, while he’s a co-sponsor of 38 others) and restates his promise not to introduce any bond bills this session. So far, the local Republicans in the House have made good on not introducing any bond bills; however, both Shore Republicans in the Senate seem to want to go their own way on this. (Needless to say, Democrats will introduce these debt creators with impunity, since it’s only our children’s money they’re spending.)
This was a somewhat shorter summary than we had the first two weeks, probably because the routine is now setting in and there’s a lot of ground to cover – so far there are nearly 700 bills in the hopper.
But there is one omission, a bill I haven’t seen yet in the House. Last year Delegate McDermott promised to move our bill on an elected school board early in the session, but to date there is no House version. In the Senate, though, Senators Mathias and Colburn introduced SB99, which is a clean up-or-down vote, on January 17. A hearing slated for January 25 was cancelled, which may mean trouble for our cause. (Remember, a similar bill passed the Senate last year only to be bogged down by Delegate Norm Conway in the House.) Perhaps the Delegate can inquire as to why this cancellation occurred and get this bill moving in the House.
Bait and switch
That Governor of ours, he is a slick one.
After hearing from Martin O’Malley for several months before the General Assembly session that we should have a increase in the gasoline tax, the flush tax, or a host of other tax and fee increases, Governor O’Malley instead chimed in his support for the second sales tax increase of his tenure. Certainly we’re no stranger to sales tax increases as the tax on alcohol went up 50 percent last summer, from 6 cents per dollar to 9 cents. It’s almost like he floated the other ideas as trial balloons in order to make the “added flexibility” of a sales tax more palatable.
“I think we should remember that no one in our state lost their house, lost their job, or lost a business because of an additional penny on the sales tax,” O’Malley whined in speaking with reporters. Maybe he should come to Salisbury and ask local business owners about the effects of the sales tax when compared to tax-free Delaware. His assertion may be technically correct, but certainly we’ve seen many lost opportunities with the differential between what we can charge and what can be charged in Delaware.
Lower Shore gerrymandering in Friday night document dump
Late this evening, the Maryland Department of Planning released their versions (House of Delegates and Senate) of the redistricting map for the General Assembly. For the purpose of this post, though, I’m going to concentrate on Districts 37 and 38.
The new District 37 is a lot like the old one, as they maintained a majority-minority district in 37A which snakes along the U.S. 50 corridor between Salisbury and Cambridge, with a arm of the district heading up toward Hurlock in Dorchester County. But District 37B now makes nearly an entire crescent around the single-member district and swallows up much of the Wicomico County territory formerly in District 38A. Geographically it’s a huge district that takes in all of Talbot County, the southern end of Caroline County, most of Dorchester County and the southern and western ends of Wicomico County, plus a small area near Sharptown. In essence, it moved a little bit southward and eastward.
As for District 38, well, I got part of my wish as it will now be comprised of three single-Delegate seats. The 38A portion, though, now takes in all of Somerset County and the southern half of Worcester County, with a spike running along the U.S. 113 corridor into the Berlin area. I predicted this would happen because it would force two incumbent Republicans (Charles Otto and Mike McDermott) into the same district. Looks like we have our 2014 District 38 Senate candidate now.
District 38B maintains only a sliver of the Wicomico County portion of the existing district, and looks tailor-made for another run by Norm Conway. To me it looks like the western boundary hardly changed so it’s now primarily a Salisbury/Delmar/Fruitland district, as it did move a little bit southward to take in that former 38A territory. The eastern side of Wicomico County and the northern half of Worcester County (except Berlin) now become part of the new District 38C.
So who does this benefit? Obviously the new District 37 will probably keep the incumbents in office, or at least decrease the chance for a non-minority to win the 37A seat. Rich Colburn picked up a decently Republican chunk of Wicomico County but lost quite a bit of Caroline County to District 36. So that is probably a wash. But District 38 was built simply to eliminate one Republican from the area, and the extension of District 38A into Berlin may have been on the behalf of Berlin mayor Gee Williams, who tried for the seat before. Perhaps it’s a more lopsidedly Republican seat, but now it gets only one Delegate.
And I’m stuck with Norm Conway, since I’ll be in the new and smaller District 38B. Unless Mike McDermott moves closer to me, he won’t be my Delegate anymore in a practical sense. But that’s okay – it just means I can give old Five Dollar more flak if he decides to run again, which I hope he doesn’t. Given the fact the district maintained its irregular shape at the western end, my guess is that he will and they eliminated the rural parts of his district to help his cause.
Finally, I’m disappointed with the MDP’s map since it wouldn’t allow me to figure out the new districts close-up – that is unless my laptop isn’t up to the task. So forgive me my wild guesses as to where the districts lie, but before that site failed me I did verify my home is in 38B. Not by a whole lot, though.
Update: This example may illustrate how cut up our area is. Along the first two miles of Mount Hermon Road you can have houses in four different districts. At the far west end of the road and up to Civic Avenue it’s the border between the extreme eastern fringe of District 37A on the north side and 38B on the south side. Then about a mile or so it’s in entirely in 38B, until the road passes under U.S. 13. Then it’s solely in District 38C for a short distance until it crosses a creek just west of Hobbs Road, when the highway becomes the border between 38C on one side and District 37B on the other. Finally, just past Walston Switch Road, the road becomes part of 38C. To use east side landmarks, the airport is in 37B, Perdue Stadium is in 38C, WinterPlace Park is in 38B, and the established part of the Aydelotte neighborhood is on the edge of 37A.
Odds and ends number 36
Let’s begin with an item that only gets a couple paragraphs because of the circumstances. While I’m not at liberty to share the names of those who applied, I think I can safely say that we have no shortage of applicants to send four qualified prospects up to County Council in order to fill the District 4 seat made vacant by Bob Caldwell’s passing. Offoceseekers are both male and female, represent a broad spectrum of ages, and should be very interesting to screen. So that seat will be in good hands.
Now I could have had a great scoop in releasing the names but I respect the wishes of my Chair and the process too much to let any undue influence sway the decision, a circumstance which would certainly occur if the names were made public. Remember, this is not a typical political campaign because we as a Central Committee only make recommendations. The time for voting will be later and it will be done by County Council, not our committee.
All right, now for something a lot different.
Much ado about little
Our Special Session ended yesterday, and all of the bluster was, well, just talk.
In sum, there were three bills passed. Of course, the new Congressional gerrymandering was just one of the three, with the other two being changes to board of education districts in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
And as I predicted without knowing the results until today, the local Democrats don’t mind gerrymandering as long as it’s not applied to them. The trio of Rudy Cane, Norm “Five Dollar” Conway, and Jim Mathias all dutifully supported the governor’s plan. On the other hand, while the Republicans were united against the bill I salute Delegate McDermott (and 11 others) for even voting against the suspension of the rules to allow two readings in one day – heel dragging as necessary.
So we had three days of peace and love or however the old song goes, but no huge jobs bill or tax increases yet. We had quite the buildup on this session, didn’t we? But in the end there wasn’t much to it.
What this also means is that I can complete my monoblogue Accountability Project for 2011 and simply add the redistricting vote into the mix. In theory I could add some of the floor amendments but those votes were by and large reasonably the same. Look for that in the coming weeks.
And since an opportunity has presented itself for a couple days off, I’m going to take advantage. It’s not often that I spend time away from my site, but this weekend will be one such time. I may moderate comments but don’t count on it.
Come Monday it will be back into the fray. Now that the Special Session has reached sine die, we can expect a few political moves from would-be Congressional candidates I’m sure. As predicted, Rob Garagiola wasted no time getting into the Sixth District race now that he has a friendlier voter composition. Don’t you love ambition?
Stuck, unless a judge bails us out
I’ll let Maryland Republican Party Chair Alex Mooney get the first word in:
Earlier today, the House of Delegates passed Governor O’Malley’s gerrymandered Congressional District Plan.
After only a short debate, the House voted to pass it 91-46. It needed 85 votes for passage. We were 7 votes away from stalling the Governor’s plan. 7 votes. And last night, we were only 3 votes away from stopping it in the Senate. (Emphasis in original.)
Well, you already know how I feel about the situation, but I have two other observations to add before I call it a night.
First of all, there probably is or will shortly be a party at State Senator Rob Garagiola’s house because the governor did his level best to put him in Congress – never mind he has nothing at all in common with the residents of the “traditional” Sixth District.
Second, my hunch is pretty strong that we have one more Republican Senate entrant, and his name will not be Eric Wargotz. I think Pat McDonough sees the writing on the Congressional wall and will go for a statewide race. Of course, there is one caveat – he would have to do a lot of campaigning during the regular General Assembly session. But we know he’s running for something and it’s more likely now that a statewide race will be his preference.
But it’s those seven damn votes in the House of Delegates and three in the Senate which may haunt us for the next ten years. Even more so is the thought we were thisclose to keeping two Senate seats, and if we were only one vote short perhaps one other Democrat besides Senator Muse would have turned. (Knowing that, we also know that Jim Mathias voted for the plan. I also looked up the committee vote, and sure enough Delegate Norm “Five Dollar” Conway voted it out of committee. Why am I not shocked?)
So we fight on. In 2014 it’s time to remember this because they can’t get rid of all the conservatives. If we turn out 100 percent we still win.
Quoted in print
I bring this up because I find the venue interesting.
It so happens I was quoted in yesterday’s Coastal Dispatch out of Ocean City in an article by Shawn J. Soper regarding the prospect of an elected school board in Wicomico County. And while the quote wasn’t perfect (or perhaps I didn’t read my statement accurately) Soper conveyed the point I was trying to make, so kudos to him.
One has to ask, though, why an Ocean City paper is picking up something the Daily Times chose to ignore as they covered the budget hearing at Parkside instead. I’ll grant that the school board fight is somewhat old news but so are budget troubles. It’s just that the sob story at Parkside was almost guaranteed to attract a big crowd.
Yet one story actually goes well with the other. If we had an elected school board there would be more accountability for the budgetary process, and perhaps fiscally conservative board members would make the budget work under the constraints of the numbers given to them by the County Executive without a lot of wailing or gnashing of teeth. As it is, we have the emotional outpouring of parents and students who see the first fallback option given by the board is cutting sports and other extracurricular activities. Tell me that’s not a scare tactic.
It seems to me that over $11,000 per pupil is a bit much when parochial schools can charge less. (Yes, I understand that public schools have to take the special education students and troublemakers, but their numbers shouldn’t add that much to the budget.) After all, what is their goal – would a public school student get a better education if only we spent $15,000 per pupil? What about $25,000 – is that enough for their needs?
The sad truth is that no one knows exactly what a quality education costs because it has little to do with money. If money were the sole determiner, homeschooled children would be blithering idiots; instead, they generally turn out to be among the best and brightest. On the other hand, inner-city districts would be cranking out the next generation of doers like the late Steve Jobs because they spent a ton of money, but we know that’s not the case.
And the tactic of scheduling the budget meeting at a time when it’s well known County Council meets is very questionable on the part of the Board of Education. Surely the Parkside auditorium was open any other night this week, but they chose Tuesday and someone needs to ask the rationale behind that. It seems like this isn’t the way to promote a cooperative effort.
One thing is certain, though – this problem isn’t going away soon. As for the elected school board, all we need is to have the General Assembly do their job without obfuscating the question and we’ll be well on our way. Hear that, Delegate Norm ‘Five Dollar’ Conway?
A time for overwhelming the opposition
For the second time in as many meetings, Wicomico County Council is devoting time to the question of eventually adopting an elected school board. The last meeting, a daytime affair, only drew five participants which split evenly on the question because one was apparently neutral. This will not do.
You may recall that earlier this year the County Council passed a similar resolution and dutifully carried it to our legislators in Annapolis, who introduced both a Senate and House version. As it turned out, the Senate version remained “clean” through the Senate, but both the House and Senate bills were amended by the House Ways and Means Committee (with a little prodding from Delegate Norm “Five Dollar” Conway) to include a second question on whether voters are against the appointed system. Because the two versions were markedly different, SB981 did not become law despite passing both the House and Senate with just one negative vote. (For the record, the “no” vote was cast by Delegate Nathaniel Oaks of Baltimore City.)
The idea of a “hybrid” school board is floated by a very small minority which appears dead set on maintaining the governor’s role in selecting our school board, presumably because a Democrat will most likely be elected governor in this state. The key players in this opposition are Mary Ashanti of the Wicomico County NAACP, County Council member Sheree Sample-Hughes, who has been the lone County Council member opposed to the idea, County Executive Rick Pollitt, and Delegate Conway. They fret that the elected school board may not have a minority member despite the fact that most proposals being floated about an elected school board’s composition would break down the membership similarly to County Council’s, with the same districts used and perhaps two additional at-large members.
But the question becomes one of how much say should we give the state in how to run our board of education? It’s bad enough that the flexibility and autonomy once deferred to local districts has gone by the wayside as both state and federal agencies compete over who can usurp more local control – some skeptics say that having an elected school board would make as much difference as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
There’s still the question of accountability, though. Over a five-year term, those currently serving are essentially locked into place. To be selected or reappointed for a second five-year term they only have to impress a small body of perhaps four to five Central Committee members (depending on party, as Democrats elect seven Central Committee members while Republicans elect nine) in order to send their names on to the governor’s Secretary of Appointments. (The current Secretary was O’Malley’s deputy mayor in Baltimore, so there’s little chance of independent thought there. Worthy of note is that she also chaired the Redistricting Committee, but that’s a story for another time.)
It’s quite likely the small but vocal opposition will be out in force trying to be the squeaky wheel, so on Tuesday it’s important to get the drop on them and overwhelm them with sheer numbers. If they send up one person to state the case for the unsatisfactory status quo, we need to send three to four up to rebut their statements. We should flood the e-mail accounts of County Council demanding they stand firm to their vote and their resolution to demand action on an elected school board for a vote in 2012. Action delayed is accountability denied.
Update: This just came from County Council President Gail Bartkovich – seems the Wicomico County Board of Education has slated a “Community Budget Awareness Meeting” in the same time slot as the County Council meeting but over at Parkside High School. Coincidence?
I like the part about “how YOU can support Wicomico Schools in the effort to secure funding for an outstanding education for the children of Wicomico County.” (Emphasis in original.) In other words, we want you to support the tax increases we desire.
WCRC meeting – September 2011
Have you ever felt like something was deja vu all over again? Well, that was the sense I got in hearing State Senator Rich Colburn speak at last night’s Wicomico County Republican Club meeting.
Once we got through the usual business of the Lord’s Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, introduction of guests, reading of the minutes, and treasurer’s report, we got to hear Senator Colburn deliver the bad news: everything old is new again with both the Special Session and what’s likely on tap for 2012.
A softened blow, but it will still hurt
Eastern Shore drivers will get a one-month reprieve from Bay Bridge toll hikes – but it’s still likely the prices will rise steeply.
As originally envisioned, Bay Bridge tolls would jump to $5 come October and skyrocket to $8 in 2013. Instead, the MTA is expected to vote next Thursday on a proposal to increase Bay Bridge tolls to $4 on November 1 and $6 in July 2013. So we’ll “only” have a 240% increase instead of a 320% increase.
Still, this will take a larger bite out of our pockets and as a percentage (with some exceptions for Baltimore-area commuters, who now pay less than $1 to cross at various Baltimore-area points) those using the Bay Bridge will see the largest increase in tolls across the system.
While we all figured a toll increase was a fait accompli, I think the grudging preference among those who testified at our hearing (aside from Norm “Five Dollar” Conway) was that increases be phased in slowly and not with such a steep incline as to increase over threefold in the span of two years. We got a little bit of modification, but it’s clear the MTA is going to rely on Eastern Shore drivers to be the cash cow for years to come – although Baltimore-area commuters have a point in saying they’ll be unfairly targeted too.
On the other hand, the newest toll highway in the MTA portfolio will still be exempt from increases as the Intercounty Connector doesn’t see a hike. That highway is a little bit different in that there is no cash toll and drivers are charged on a sliding scale of anywhere between 15 cents and $3.94 per mile depending on time of day and number of axles. Yet they won’t have to bear any additional burden, at least for the time being.
So while we can thank the MTA for apparently listening to our concerns, it’s interesting to note that a comment in response to the story by David Hill in yesterday’s Washington Times on the toll hike concluded the increase to $6 was the plan all along and the $8 figure was just in place to make us feel like we won something at the end. And it is indeed tempting to think that the O’Malley administration would have been thrilled if no one showed up to complain about $8 at the Bay Bridge – remember, the Eastern Shore hearing wasn’t originally planned but added due to popular demand.
Yet they will still get additional millions out of the deal – maybe not the $77 million projected annually by the original proposal, but perhaps a number in the range of $50-60 million on top of what they already make. They won’t be hurting for money, but Eastern Shore drivers might be.
Is redistricting a done deal?
Well, perhaps, and that’s how my sentiments lean when it comes to the question of redistricting in Maryland.
But Saturday around 30 interested observers sat in the brand-new Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University to listen to eight observers testify before the three members of the Redistricting Advisory Committee who could be present – while Chair Jeannie Hitchcock, President of the Maryland Senate Mike Miller, and board member Richard Stewart were there, board members James King and Speaker of the House of Delegates Michael Busch were unable to attend. The size of the room made the crowd look smaller, too. While Hitchcock said the group was “here to listen, primarily” I noticed some of the members seemed a bit disinterested at times.
Out of eight speakers, five of them represented Democratic interests while the other three (including myself) were Republicans. However, there was one piece of common ground expressed by both sides, that being the issue of resident Delegates. As you’ll read, though, the ideas on how to achieve this were somewhat different.
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