HOUSE SPEAKER WEIGHS IN ON SPECIAL SESSION

The below was provided by House Speake Mike Busch...

November 30, 2007
Dear Constituent:

In the past few weeks, I have received letters and emails from hundreds of constituents inquiring about the special session that ended last week. Some asked me to oppose taxes, while others asked me to cut government waste. Still others asked me to stand up for education and transportation funding, state employees' salaries and pensions, Chesapeake Bay clean up efforts, and other services that affect our community.As one of three delegates representing 120,000 residents of Annapolis, the Broadneck Peninsula, and parts of South County, my challenge is to balance the competing and sometimes contradictory views of my individual constituents.
As Speaker of the House, my challenge is to work with the Governor and lawmakers from across the state to craft a comprehensive solution that is fiscally responsible, defends our investments in education, health, transportation and the environment in a way that protects our competitive advantages with surrounding states and is fair to the people I represent. From the outset, I believed containing the growth of state government was an essential ingredient to resolving our budget deficit. That's why I voted for $550 million in cuts to the budget and the elimination of 500 vacant state jobs to ensure current and future budgets are sustainable.
In total, I have voted for over $775 million in cuts to the budget this year, and I supported the Governor when he made $237 million in additional cuts this summer. I supported two bills designed to protect our investments in education and generate funds for transportation, higher education, Chesapeake Bay cleanup, and healthcare. We passed a measure to restore our Transportation Trust Fund, which was raided to balance the budget over the last five years. These raids created a $500 million hole in our transportation budget at a time when our infrastructure is strained to the breaking point.
We have an estimated $40 billion in transportation needs, and business leaders came to Annapolis to tell us to invest in our transportation system now to protect our economic competitiveness, especially as we prepare for new residents and jobs coming to Anne Arundel County with BRAC. House Bill 5 raises the sales tax and vehicle titling tax by a penny, and dedicates over $400 million in new annual revenue to transportation projects. Based on Anne Arundel County government's stated needs, this will help the County with long-term projects to reduce congestion on Route 50, reconstruct the Aris T. Allen Boulevard and Riva Road interchange, accommodate increased traffic along Solomons Island Road and re-develop Ritchie Highway, among others.
HB 5 also provides funds to replace our State Police helicopters. These aircraft provide a life-saving link between the critically injured and Maryland's Shock Trauma Center, and have helped save countless lives. Our current fleet is 20 years old and in desperate need of replacement. Between 2009 and 2012, the State Police will be able to spend $100 million on 12 new helicopters, which will ensure our trauma system can respond effectively to emergency situations.As a result of a tax cut passed in 1997, all Marylanders pay a flat 4.75% rate on income over $3,000.
The second bill we passed makes our income tax more progressive, while reducing the burden on most taxpayers. Senate Bill 2 raises the income tax to 5.0% on net taxable income over $150,000 for a single filer and $200,000 for a joint filer, 5.25% over $300,000 single and $350,000 joint, and 5.5% over $500,000. To put these numbers in perspective, there were 241,892 tax returns filed in Anne Arundel County in 2005. Of those returns, 1,638 (0.6%), were over $500,000, 2,282 (0.9%) were between $300,000 and $499,999, and 12,374 (5%) were between $150,000 and $299,999. In other words, this change will affect a small minority (6.5%) of the residents of our county, while providing the resources to continue the progress we are making in our public schools.SB 2 reduces the income tax burden for most taxpayers.
Our personal income tax exemption is currently $2,400. We increased it by one-third, to $3,200 for single filers with an income of up to $100,000 and joint filers with an income of up to $150,000. In other words, a family of four making less than $100,000 a year will receive an additional $3,200 in deductions.Taken with HB 5, the increase in the personal income tax exemption in SB 2 offsets the increased cost most consumers will incur as a result of the sales tax increase. According to the non-partisan Department of Legislative Services, the average family of four making less than $100,000 a year will see a $7.00 decrease in their state tax burden.SB 2 also closes corporate tax loopholes, raises the corporate income tax rate, and dedicates half of the new revenue to the Higher Education Investment Fund. Business leaders around the state have told me a well-educated workforce is critical to our economic competitiveness, and this fund is the first dedicated funding source for higher education in state history. It will help keep our state competitive by keeping tuition affordable and investing in world class facilities on our university and community college campuses to help drive innovation.
In addition to passing a comprehensive solution to our budget shortfall, we debated slot machine gambling. The Governor introduced two bills - one to put the issue on the November 2008 ballot and another to define the regulatory structure necessary to control gaming if the voters choose to allow it in Maryland. I have never been an advocate of slot machine gambling, but I have supported the idea of a referendum since 2004. It offers the purest form of democracy, and voters will have ample time to make an informed decision on something that will have a dramatic impact on our state.
Finally, we prioritized initiatives to promote the environment and healthcare. The Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund will support programs that have been proven successful in restoring the Bay. We passed Medicaid reform that will help uninsured adults access our healthcare system. Both provisions are contingent on adequate revenue in future years, and will not take effect if they are fiscally unsustainable.It is an honor and a privilege to serve our community, and I am proud to stand up to protect our investments in education, health, transportation and the environment. I believe we crafted a comprehensive solution to our structural deficit that protects our competitive advantages with surrounding states, and is fair to Maryland families.

Sincerely, Michael E. Busch

CP IS PLEASED TO SPONSOR THE WARD TWO CANDIDATE'S FORUM

Annapolis Capital Punishment (CP), the leading political blog in Annapolis (http://www.annapoliscapitalpunishment.blogspot.com/) is sponsoring a forum for the three Annapolis Ward 2 Aldermanic candidates on Monday, December 3rd from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Taylor Avenue Fire Station, 620 Taylor Ave. in West Annapolis.

Democratic Candidate Debbie Rosen McKerrow, Republican Fred Paone and Green Karen Jennings will address the audience and answer questions. CP Publisher Paul Foer, a former Aldermanic candidate in Ward Eight, will serve as moderator. This will not be a debate nor will it be about about any one candidate or party. Most of the evening will be devoted to questions and answers between the audience and the candidates.

The Fire Station is easily accessible by walkers, bikers, bus riders and motorists.
There is a parking lot at the upper level, accessed from Route 450 near the corner of Taylor Avenue and Annapolis St. The forum will be held in the second floor meeting room. The local civic associations (Admiral Heights, Wardour and Germantown-Homewood) will hold a similar forum on Monday, December 10 at West Annapolis Elementary from 7 to 9 pm. Come to one or the other, or come to both, but PLEASE VOTE ON DECEMBER 19th.

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CARS VERSUS PEOPLE..Envisioning Annapolis....Yikes!

Long a supporter and participant in the ongoing Envisioning Annapolis series, CP is hard pressed to reflect on the recent lecture by author Jane Holtz Kay. This is not an easy post. Okay, hundreds attended--a great turnout--this issue is high on everyone's list of concerns, but, well, we were disappointed, and for a variety of reasons. CP does not wish to dwell on the past in this case. However, while local transportation activists looked forward to this event as a way to spark further interest in effecting real local transportation solutions, we are not sure where to put our energies.

CP has been heavily involved in working, talking, planning and encouraging more and better transportation options for years, the time has come to reassess where we wish to go and how to get there. Yes--it is the transportation meta-problem. How do we move ourselves in order to move ourselves???? While last night's lecture sort of devolved into a grand hand wringing session of what's wrong, CP, who had no intention of going to the mike, stood up at the end to speak, and admonished whiners for finding every reason why they cannot walk, ride a bike or take an Annapolis Transit bus, to quit complaining and start voting with their feet. We have a right to walk, to ride bikes and to expect better bus service. Oh, I could go on...and on, but suffice it to say, CP and other locals will continue to talk, learn and debate how to improve and expand our local transportation options. But for now, the best thing for everyone to do is to understand they can drive less, and walk and bike and use transit more often. Let's all understand what resources we have and make use of them and then we can fully understand what we have and what we need. Get out of your car--and get walking, and riding.....it will be good for all of us!!!

2035 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION VISION (more like nightmare)

CP has been told, but has not verified that Annapolis abstained from voting on the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board's (BRTB) final plan that was adopted yesterday. Widespread citizen outcry prompted the plan to be revised and resulted in decreasing some of the massive road widening and adding some more money for transit. However, look to more roads and more roads for years to come. From the pages of The Baltimore Examiner, this piece about the adoption of the region's transportation plan:
http://www.blogger.com/

DELEGATE CLAGETT'S TAKE ON THE RECENT SPECIAL SESSION

While CP tried and failed to make sense of the special session, we are all resigned to the fact that yes...the inevitable will happen, and taxes will rise. District 30 Councilwoman Virginia Clagett (D-West River) sent a letter to constituents summing up her view of the session. Herewith, in its entirety:

Dear Constituent:

Thank you for letting me know your thoughts throughout the recent Special Legislative Session. I originally questioned the wisdom of such a session, but when it was called, the Delegates and Senators applied themselves to the task with focus and energy.

Our job was to deal effectively with the structural budget deficit, that is, when the cost of maintaining state programs in the future grows faster than the state’s projected revenue. Our deficit has been 10 years in the making. A $600 million income tax cut in 1997 combined with $1.5 billion in increased education funding (mandated by a court order and the Thornton Commission) resulted in a $1.2 billion deficit as early as 2002.

I want to make one thing very clear. Despite what we keep hearing, there never was a true surplus at the end of Governor Erhlich’s term. The deficit was always masked by tuition hikes, fee increases, raids on the Transportation Trust fund and Program Open Space not to mention programs that were already seriously under funded or not implemented at all because of lack of funding. In 2006 the real estate boom caused an unexpected one time surge in state revenue. This extra cash helped the state get through another fiscal year, but nothing was done to address the future gap in years to come.

The Legislative package that the Governor presented and that we debated included 1) significant cuts in spending; 2) a one cent increase in the sales tax and vehicle titling tax; 3) a more progressive and fair personal income tax; 4) a higher corporate income tax and the closing of corporate tax loopholes; and 5) a proposal for a referendum on slot machine gambling and another bill to define and control gaming if voters should choose to allow it in Maryland.

Judging from our many letters, cutting spending where prudent was a priority for all. $550 million was cut from the present budget and will be reflected in next year’s budget as well.

At the same time most of you asked us to protect and enhance funding to save the Bay and our water resources and to protect our investments in education and health care. We passed the Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust fund and Medicaid reform which will only take effect if there is adequate revenue.

For those who continue to ask for road improvements in our county, the funding of the Transportation Trust fund should be a welcome plus. Instead of an increase in the gas tax which the business community advocated, we decided instead to use a portion of the sales tax increase.

As to the subject of slot machine gambling, I personally have opposed the re-introduction of slots for years. I voted against any bill that came before us in the Legislature. The bills proposing a referendum in the past never reached the full house so I never had a say. The slots debate has polarized the General Assembly for over 5 years now. It has led to the defeat or overshadowing of other important issues such as the environment and health care. It is time to let all have a say. The companion bill defines the regulatory and fiscal structure in controlling the gambling if the voters decide to allow slots. I certainly supported an amendment that gave the counties’ planning and zoning statutes control of slots gambling. By November 2008 we should all be educated on the issue and ready to make our voices heard.

The changes to our state’s tax system made this session still keep Maryland in a competitive position with our neighboring states. The new sales tax rate (6%) remains lower than New Jersey (7%), identical to Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and competitive with the District of Columbia (5.75%) and Virginia (5%). Both West Virginia and Virginia apply a sales tax to groceries, which Maryland does not. The new corporate tax rate (8.25%) remains lower than Pennsylvania (9.99%), the District of Columbia (9.975%), New Jersey (9.0%), West Virginia (8.75%), and Delaware (8.7%).

Our funding of education initiatives has made Maryland home to the most educated work force in the nation and is critical to our economic vitality. Our focus on the environment makes our state the wonderful place we all love.

Sincerely,

Virginia P. Clagett

CAN'T WE JUST TALK ABOUT IT????

CP is again pleased to refer readers to The Capital's Eric Hartley, whose resonating voice always seems to have a new angle on an issue of local import. This time he uses the ironic situating of a Mideast peace conference here to ask why our own local leaders can't seem to communicate--an issue which CP has been going on about for months! See Hartley's most recent column "Conference offers lessons for Annapolis" at
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/11_28-40/COL

CARS VERSUS PEOPLE....a reminder...Tuesday night

CP wishes to remind all local folks about the Envisioning Annapolis lecture Tuesday, November 27 at The Boys and Girls Club at 7 pm. NOT AT MARYLAND HALL. The Boys and Girls Club is at the Bates Heritage Center (Old Bates HS) 121 South Villa Ave, off West Street.

JANE HOLTZ KAY will speak on "Cars vs. People: Is There Transportation in Annapolis' Future?". Well of course there will be transportation, but what kind? For the half century, cities have focused on getting more cars with more people to more places in our urban environment. The results have been traffic congestion, longer commute times, ever expanding roadway infrastructure, and a deterioration of the urban environment. Jane Holtz Kay, architectural critic for The Nation and renowned author of Asphalt Nation, will discuss the economic, emotional, and physical gridlock caused by cars in American cities and propose ways to get where we need to go without destroying where we live.

I read her book Asphalt Nation and was nodding my noggin in agreement the entire time. Check out the cover with the red and green Saab getting dumped. Red and green--perfect colors for this season of over-consumption. CP urges you to attend. Please walk, ride a bike, carpool or take Annapolis Transit.......

TRAFFIC....the enduring local crisis

CP is quoted in an article in Sunday's The Capital about our transportation and traffic crisis. See here http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/11_25-39/TOP

MIDEAST PEACE....A GLIMMER OF HOPE

As one who has closely followed and tried to understand the ongoing Arab-Israeli War, CP has long contended that all prospects for peace in that region depend upon the seething forces of the Arab world accepting Israel as a fact. I attended an interfaith rally for peace today where a Rabbi, an Imam a Minister and others spoke on behalf of peace. They did not provide specifics. They did not go into detail about who did what or how to undo what has been done. Instead, they spoke plainly of peace and of supporting the political leaders in reaching that elusive goal. The Imam said, "peace cannot be bought, but it can only come from the heart."

There was a handful of other speakers, including a Lebanese woman who pleaded for rights and equality for women in the Middle East , but no speaker was as eloquent, as impassioned or spoke with such strength and moral clarity as a diminutive Egyptian woman who grew up in Gaza. Nonie Darwish was a little girl when her father, an Egyptian military intelligence officer was killed in the 1950's. Now Darwish devotes her life to spreading a message of peace and reconciliation between Arabs and Israelis.

Author of a book entitled, "Now They Call Me Infidel, Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror" Darwish told the crowd that rallied at the World War Two Memorial overlooking the Severn River and The US Naval Academy near Annapolis, MD that Arabs must stop preaching and teaching hate to children. Arabs should accept and partner with Israel rather than continuing to try and destroy the Jewish State.

"This conflict is not about land", Darwish said, but is about the "poison" of hate. How could Israel, such a "tiny country that it can barely be seen on the map" be the cause of all this war, she asked?

She repeated this to me personally when I spoke with her at the end of the rally and told her how much I respected her message of "peace for peace" rather than a message of "land for peace."

A friend asked her if she fears for her life because of her message.

"Absolutely yes. All the time. Anybody could stab me in the back at any moment," said Darwish.


From her website, "Arabs for Israel:

To Muslims and Arabs across the globe:
Reject hate, embrace love. Bring out the best in Islam by showing your compassion, gratitude and forgiveness. Make the holy land truly holy by giving Israel and the Jewish people the respect they deserve in their tiny little country. This is not a crisis over land. It is a crisis of the soul; a crisis in our faith, judgement and self confidence. Israel should not be regarded as an enemy, but as a blessing to our neighborhood. We need not fear peace, but embrace it.

Now that's a message that is hard to argue with. Simple. Concrete. Clear. Learn more at:
http://www.arabsforisrael.com/home.html

PEACE....OR HATRED AND TERROR...

Of course, for a totally different take than that of Darwish, read what some Arabs have to say in this piece taken from http://www.counterterrorismblog.org/

Al-Fajr Media Center: "We’ll Do It Again: Annapolis Shall Not Rescue Their Metropolis."
By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a copy of a new communique from the Al-Fajr Media Center--Al-Qaida's official online logistical network--titled, "We'll Do It Again: Annapolis Shall Not Rescue Their Metropolis, Written by a Soldier in the Army Aiming to Destroy Their Metropolis." The statement condemned the upcoming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Annapolis, Maryland, as a bid to "declare war against the Muslims and to cleanse the desire for jihad from each and every believer." It further boasted of Al-Qaida's role in "the collapse of Manhattan’s metropolis": "The decision to target the World Trade Center during the [9/11] raids was a wise one because it made other weaker regimes tremble, run, and hide... Allah has paid back all the Muslims who prepared and executed that attack and has chosen them to lead his battle against evil... The owners of that collapsed metropolis (the Jews) could not handle the fact that it was totally and completely a Muslim operation. Therefore, they have been busy using their media outlets around the entire world (including Al-Jazeera) to spread lies about various 9/11 conspiracy theories... The infidels are in denial about the well-known fate of the World Trade Center… We thank Allah for enabling Muslims to destroy it. ” The statement also included a veiled threat to the Arabian Gulf emirate of Dubai, labeling it "merely another state in the United States, a base for information and intelligence-gathering, a technological and media center, and a center of corruption. The Jews can be found there in the same way they can be found in Tel-Aviv… We hope they will learn a lesson and change before ‘Burj al-Arab’ becomes [the next World Trade Center].”
An English translation of the statement from the Al-Fajr Media Center can be downloaded from the NEFA Foundation website, c/o NEFA's TerrorWatch news service.
November 25, 2007 01:51 PM

CP says: Wow. Let's see if I can get this straight. Arab Muslim terrorists who among other things they hate, really hate Jews. They attack New York. Other wackos who also hate Jews, blame Jews for the attack as part of some kind of conspiracy theory, in part, perhaps presumably, because they can point the finger at Arab Muslims. Now come forward Arab Muslims who say, "The owners of that collapsed metropolis (the Jews) could not handle the fact that it was totally and completely a Muslim operation. Therefore, they have been busy using their media outlets around the entire world (including Al-Jazeera) to spread lies about various 9/11 conspiracy theories... The infidels are in denial about the well-known fate of the World Trade Center… " Wow again! They say that "the Jews" are behind the 9/11 conspiracy theories!!! The same theories that would not take blame away from Arabs (who have taken credit for the attacks) and that blame Jews? So Jews are creating and spreading lies that Jews did it??? It boggles the mind.