I am a strong supporter of our public schools and take immense pride in Maryland’s Public Schools being ranked #1 in the country. Public school funding must be the top priority of our state if we are to maintain a highly educated citizenry, our greatest economic resource. I was happy to work with my colleagues in the General Assembly to make education a priority even while dealing with painful cuts to our budget. Even though we cut spending by $525 million this past year and have brought our spending as a state to below 2007 levels, we still managed to increase K-12 education funding and funding for statewide school construction.
Our schools in Montgomery County are leading the way in nationwide rankings and I have been working and will continue to work to make sure to continue that tradition of success. This means preserving and expanding the funding for primary, secondary, and higher education, preserving retirement benefits for teachers and other employees, and continuing to build state-of-the-art learning facilities.
Transportation
Our region is in desperate need for new and innovative transportation and transit solutions. Traffic is our number one detractor for improving our quality of life, as well as being a drain on the economy and a hazard to the environment. We need to get more people out of their cars even as our population continues to grow and industry continues to expand.
Building the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT) and the Purple Line will be a huge step in helping to achieve this aim. In addition, we need to find and put into place a dedicated source of funding to leverage Federal dollars and provide for the maintenance upkeep, and continued growth of Metro, so that riders can regain their confidence in the system and utilize it more often.
Finally, I plan to lead the way to developing a comprehensive, long-term statewide plan for mass transit, so that we can get out ahead of our transportation difficulties rather than constantly playing catch up, and truly make Maryland a model for the rest of the U.S. to follow.
Health Care
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.” As a member of the Health and Government Operations Committee, I believe that every Marylander deserves quality, affordable healthcare and will continue to make that my mission in Annapolis.
I have worked hard with my colleagues to expand access to healthcare for all Marylanders. I take pride in the fact that through our tireless efforts in my committee we have succeeded in providing access to healthcare for 200,000 Marylanders who did not have access just 4 years ago and subsidized the Medicare Part D coverage gap which closed the “Donut Hole” in prescription drug coverage in Maryland.
But with over 600,000 more Marylanders without health care coverage and important parts of the Federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act up to four years away from implementation, we continue to have to bear the costs of having uninsured Marylanders through the State-sponsored uncompensated hospital fund, lost productivity in business and education, and the overall pressures put on our quality of life.
I will continue to work hard to expand health care coverage to the uninsured, work to provide quality health care to our most vulnerable, and make sure that Maryland is ready to take full advantage of Federal health care reform.
Jobs and Small Business Growth
In these tough economic times, job growth should be one of our number one priorities. By getting people back to work and helping small business get back on their feet is the only we will be able to turn the economy around and put money back into people’s pockets and State coffers.
I am proud of the many pieces of legislation I helped pass in the last few years that helped to get Marylanders back to work, such as the Job Creation and Recovery Tax Credit, providing a tax credit up to $5,000 to employers who hire unemployed Maryland resident receiving or have exhausted their unemployment benefits and legislation to reform Maryland’s unemployment trust fund improving the system and allowing us access to $126.8 million in federal stimulus funds.
These and many other efforts have been working. Maryland is adding more jobs and adding them faster than any other State in the nation, and Montgomery County is leading the way with another drop in the unemployment rate. We have made serious commitments to helping to grow the Tech and Bio-Tech sectors, and have made unprecedented commitments to higher education to provide for a trained workforce.
Much more needs to be done, and I look forward to working with business and labor to make sure that we continue this growth.
Environmental Protection
It is our responsibility to be good stewards of our environment. My priorities in preserving our environmental are the protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay is not only an ecological treasure, but is depended on by the majority of our State for food, jobs, and much, much more. I will continue to vote to increase funding and support policies to restore the Chesapeake Bay and do what is necessary to limit run-off and waste that goes into it.
I will also help our State to invest in alternative energy infrastructure. Maryland has an opportunity to lead the nation in revolutionizing our energy structure to one that is cleaner and less dependant on foreign oil.
I have helped pass legislation to regulate greenhouse gases, increase energy efficiency of buildings, require the use of environmentally friendly construction material standards for new buildings to help prevent pollutants from entering our environment and the Bay, and devote more resources to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. I stood up on behalf of the University of Maryland’s Law School to make sure that they were not punished for their pursuit of a lawsuit against the polluting chicken farmer industry.
When re-elected I will continue to fight for our environment.
Public Safety
I am proud of my record in protecting the safety of our children and our community.
To deal with the growing problem of gangs in Maryland, I helped to pass Safe Schools Act of 2010 making our schools safer from gangs and their activities, and passed the Maryland Gang Prosecution Act of 2010, strengthening our gang laws by, among other things, making organizing, supervising, financing or managing a gang a felony.
To protect our children from sex offenders, I helped pass legislation that increased the mandatory minimum sentence for committing a sexual offense against a victim of 13 years or younger and eliminated diminution credits for sex offenders.
I have also protected children specifically and the public at large from looping public health and safety concerns. I worked to eliminate harmful chemicals such as BPA from children’s products, helped to eliminate lead from products and buildings, and made it illegal to sell corded window blinds that have strangled children.
I will continue in my efforts to reduce crime, punish offenders such as gang members and sexual predators, and will work to make sure that the products we use in our home and give to our children are safe.
