The Maryland General Assembly is Now in Session - 2024

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Find out What Local Laws our State Legislators have Introduced.

Episode Transcript

Tamara Davis Brown (00:05):
Hey, welcome back to another edition of All
Politics is Local with me, yourhost, Tamara Davis Brown.
This is the Maryland edition,and this is our second episode
of 2024 regarding upcominglegislation in the Maryland
General Assembly that of thebills that primarily affect

(00:29):
Prince George's Countyresidents.
So, as many of you know, ifyou're following me on my email
chain, I always do a synopsis ofthe local bills that have been
filed prior to our publichearing that the Prince George's
County delegation has, usuallyat Prince George's County

(00:52):
Community College.
And uh the public hearing wasin December of last year on a
few bills.
And I'm just gonna go overthose for those who are
listening in and don't receivemy email.
However, I wanted to let youknow that you can find all of

(01:12):
the local bills for PrinceGeorge's County at Prince
George's house delegation.com.
Again, that's Prince George'sHouse Delegation, all spelled
out all together.com.
And you can go to thelegislation tab and click on

(01:32):
2024 to find out the legislationthat your local state delegates
as well as state senators aresponsoring for this year.
The legislation legislativesession has started.
They're a couple of days innow.
Um session began on Wednesday,January 10th, 2024, and it's

(01:56):
going to be full steam ahead.
For those of you who don'tknow, the legislative session is
only 90 days.
So a lot of bills areintroduced, hearings are held,
it's a full sprint for 90 daysto try to get as much
legislation passed.
So the first bill that I'mgoing to talk about is a bill

(02:18):
that I've already talked abouton this podcast because it has
been introduced at least twoother legislative sessions the
last two years, but ultimatelydid not get passed.
It was not finalized and votedon by the full General Assembly,
so it didn't make it to thegovernor's desk.
And that bill is the PrinceGeorge's County Speed Monitoring

(02:43):
System on Maryland 210.
It's a bill sponsored by mydelegate, delegate Chris
Valderama in the 26thlegislative district.
And so this is the bill thatwould increase the fines for
persons who are drivingrecklessly, meaning they're
driving not only over the speedlimit, but excessively over the

(03:08):
speed limit.
Currently, the fine uh fordriving over the speed limit,
and if you're caught by thespeed cameras, the fines
actually start after 11 milesper hour over the 55 mile per
hour speed limit.
So you're already getting agrace of basically 66, 67 miles

(03:32):
per hour.
So if you're driving 67 milesper hour, you won't get a
ticket.
But after that, you start toget a ticket, and the fine is
only $40.
And so there are persons in thecommunity, and I'm included in
that when I say persons that aremembers of what's called the

(03:52):
Maryland 210 Traffic SafetyCommittee.
And our whole goal is to try toeliminate crashes and
fatalities on Maryland 210 sothat it is a safer road to
travel.
If you've traveled on thatroad, you know it's very
congested.
A lot of people travel to andfrom DC to uh southern parts of

(04:16):
Maryland to get to work or towherever their destination is
beyond Prince George's County.
They could be going toVirginia, they could be going to
DC and what have you.
But any event, the legislationthat's been introduced once
again, I don't think thatthere's been any additional
changes or amendment.
It remains the same.

(04:38):
And that is if you drive 12 to21 miles per hour over the speed
limit, your fine is still $40.
So that really hasn't changed.
It's still a nominal fee.
However, if you drive 22 to 31miles per hour over the 55 speed

(05:01):
limit, then your fine wouldjump to $90.
If you're caught speeding bythe speed cameras of going 32 to
41 miles per hour over thespeed limit, the fine increases
to $160.
If you're driving 42 to 51miles per hour over the speed
limit, meaning you're now inexcess of 100 miles per hour,

(05:25):
basically, your fine increasesto $290.
And finally, if you're caughtdriving $22 miles per hour over
the speed limit, and I believein 2023, we did have someone
that was clocked at about 170miles per hour.
I don't know what kind of carthey were driving, but they they

(05:48):
were clocked going in excess of160, 170 miles per hour.
The fine would be $530.
So that's the same from lastyear's proposed bill, and that
has not changed.
Second, the other penalty goesto repeat offenders.

(06:11):
So, you know, the $40 is not somuch that not only people
don't, it's not hitting themhard enough in their pocketbook
to slow down with the $40 fine,but we have people that
consistently are being clockedon the speed cameras for fines.

(06:32):
Um, I mean for speeding, anddoesn't seem to deter them that
they get two, three, fourtickets that are all forty
dollars.
So within a two-year period, ifyou are caught speeding a
second violation within the atwo-year period, in addition to

(06:54):
the whatever fine that they'regonna charge you, whether it's
in excess of 52 miles per hourat 530, they'll tack on an
additional $50 for that secondviolation.
If there's a third violationwithin the two-year period,
that's an additional $150 fine.
Or violation within thetwo-year period, a $250 fine.

(07:20):
Fifth violation goes up to anadditional $330 fine, and then
the sixth or subsequentviolation within a two-year
period, you would get anadditional $350 fine.
So again, the goal is to savelives, to deter people, to slow
down, to incentivize themfinancially, hit them in the

(07:43):
pocketbook to change their uhbehavior in driving down
Maryland 210.
As I said, I'm part of theMaryland 210 Traffic Safety
Committee, so I wholeheartedlysupport this bill and encourage
you to write your statedelegates to support the bill as
well, especially if you live inPrince George's County.

(08:03):
But also, especially if youlive in Charles County.
And I understand that there aresome Charles County residents
that are starting to gear up tosupport this bill as well.
Unfortunately, last session itwas the Charles County
delegation that basically put astop to this bill by literally

(08:25):
getting up and walking out ofthe Maryland House floor when
the vote when the bill wasbrought up for a vote.
And unfortunately, our Speakerof the House, Speaker Adrian
Jones, did not bring the bill upbecause of their walkout
protests.
They seem to think it's sometype of tax on their residents,

(08:51):
not realizing that speedingaffects everyone.
Certainly, persons who aregetting the most tickets right
now for speeding are PrinceGeorgians, but everyone's
affected.
In 2023, we only had twofatalities.
Unfortunately, neither of thepersons were Prince George's

(09:15):
County residents.
One was a Charles Countyresident living in Wardolf, who
was actually a pedestrian tryingto cross 210 and got hit by a
vehicle and unfortunately losthis life.
And I believe the second personwas from Chesapeake, Maryland

(09:37):
in Calvert County.
So as you can see, there arepersons who travel this road
that aren't necessarily PrinceGeorge's County residents, but
they are certainly affected bythe speeding that occurs on that
road.
And so we are hopeful this yearin 2024 that the Prince, excuse

(09:58):
me, the Charles Countydelegation and and those south
would see the benefit, thesafety, life safety benefit of
this bill, and it will getpassed.
So again, I encourage you tosupport the bill.
The bill number uh this year isuh Prince George's 306-24.

(10:22):
So PG 306-24 is the bill numberthis year.
Next, we're gonna move to somezoning matters, fairness and
zoning and land use.
There are two bills, PrinceGeorge's slash MC, because
zoning is done by MarylandNational Capital Park and

(10:43):
Planning Commission, and it's abi-county commission, meaning
that the commission exists forboth Prince George's County as
well as Montgomery County.
So the first bill is 106.24,and the second one is 115.24.
They're both being introducedby delegate Tiffany Alston, and

(11:07):
they have to do with, well,actually, I'm going to do three
bills of hers.
They have to deal with, theydeal with fairness and zoning.
The first two that I justmentioned, 106 and 115, actually
deal with particular zoning atairports.
And the reason that that'simportant for many of us, like

(11:27):
my community of Winnebrook,where we live, right down the
street from our former airport,Hyde Field, there are only two
airports, I guess.
Well, none are reallyoperational, but uh with the
except I take that back, FortWashington.
There's an airport in FortWashington that still exists and
it's operational, but there areat least three others that are

(11:50):
are dormant.
And two are slated fordevelopment.
Um, one is in Bowie, which iscalled Freeway Airport.
Um, got that name just becauseyou can drive down the freeway
and you can actually see theairport right there on the right
if you're going towardsAnnapolis.
And the other one is in theheart of Clinton, right across

(12:11):
from Miller's Farm.
It's used to be the former HydeField.
It was operational until 9-11occurred, and the flight
patterns and restrictions thatwere placed around the nation's
capital basically put it intoflight operations at Hydefield.

(12:32):
So the bill um, the billactually helps to the first one,
10624, helps citizens to regaintheir right to appeal zoning
decisions, which was taken away,I believe that was in 2018.
Um we no longer had the rightum as a citizen's right to have

(12:57):
an agreement.
You actually now have to beeither an abutting property
owner or within one square mileor something to that effect to
actually appeal zoningdecisions.
So the bill now um uh 106 wouldallow us to regain the right to

(13:22):
have um an agreement um as anordinary citizen and and not
necessarily have to live and bean abutting property owner.
So we support that bill.
She also threw in there, andthat's why I mentioned Hyde
Field, she threw in anotherprovision um talking about not

(13:44):
being able to um build on formerairports.
And I think she, even thoughHyde Field is not in her
district, uh and I also believethat uh Freeway Airport is also
not in her district, but I thinkshe's heard the cry of a lot of
residents, both in the southernand northern parts of the

(14:06):
county, um, about the proposeddevelopment that's going on in
um Clinton and Bowie.
So the second bill, 115,specifically deals um with the
the airport, and basicallyagain, it just it's it simply
says it's it's a prohibitionthat would prevent the district

(14:29):
council, which is the PrinceGeorge's County Council sitting
on as um on zoning matters fromamending the zoning to allow um
uh single family attachedtownhouses, or in the case of um
Hyde Field, they're alsoproposing to build apartments

(14:53):
there, multifamily houses on theproperty that's previously that
is or previously was used as anairport or located in an area
zone residential agricultural.
So this would apply directly tous.
Um we're obviously supportingthe bill because um it's really

(15:17):
been uh you know, people havecome to me and asked about
what's going on at High Field,and when I tell them what's
being proposed, I have notgotten one single person that
has not only not there's a flatout objection to to apartments,
period.
Multifamilies, just like that'sjust totally out of the

(15:39):
question.
But I also haven't gottensupport even for the townhouses,
and the primary reason is isbecause of the congestion on the
two-lane road.
As you know, um Hyde Field, theairport is located on
Piscataway Road, which is astate road, Maryland 223, and

(16:00):
it's one lane going and one lanecoming.
And even though the developeris planning to do some road
improvements there, the factthat they're gonna build over
1,200 units, and if you justeven if you just have one car
per per household, that's 1,200more cars out on um Maryland 223

(16:25):
Piscataway Road and Steed Road.
So any event, um, many of theresidents are supporting that.
We in December um severalpersons um asked me to on behalf
of what we call the GreaterPiscataway Alliance to testify
in support of those bills, andthat's exactly what I did.

(16:48):
So moving right along, delegateAustin also Austin also
introduced PGMC 10724, which isa bill that would allow um
community benefits agreementsand give it's called the

(17:09):
Community Empowerment Act.
And basically what it would dois require the developer to
provide concessions and enterenter into a community benefits
agreement with the communitythat's within two mile, a
two-mile radius of the proposeddevelopment, and that's if 25%
of the surrounding communityopposes the development.

(17:31):
And so it also um would makethe community benefits agreement
become a condition of pro ofapproval and is enforceable.
I um once again supported thisbill, but also asked the
delegate to potentially add anamendment to that the developer

(17:56):
should actually place a bond forthese um benefits that are
agreed to.
And the reason is is that oncethey build everything out and if
there's something that wassupposed to have been done that
wasn't done, if the bond isposted, at least the community
could go to the county to say,hey, um, this bond was posted,

(18:18):
they were supposed to build acommunity center, they were
supposed to do, you know, builda park, they were supposed to do
XYZ.
Um, and so we could ask thecounty to have county agencies
to take on whatever it was thatwas promised, because generally,
like I said, once thedevelopment is built and they

(18:40):
turn the community over to theHOA, you can rarely find them.
They create these LLCs, and theLLCs exist just for that
development, and then theyusually just go away.
So you never know who who isactually, you know, behind uh
creating it, the development.

(19:02):
So again, I support PGMC 10724.
Again, it's called theCommunity Benefits Agreement,
the Community Empowerment Act.
So the first three are thesecond, third, and fourth bills
that I'm mentioning are all umauthored by delegate uh Tiffany

(19:24):
Alston, A-L-S-T-O-N.
Then the next bill that I'mgoing to discuss has to do with
um retail service stationdealers and fuel service.

(19:47):
And then I'm gonna turn to somelate file bills.
Late vial bills mean they werefiled after the public hearing
in December.
You most of them were filedeither on January 3rd or later,
right after the um New Year'sholiday.
But um Prince George's County410-24 is a bill that was

(20:11):
introduced by Senator RonWatson, and I didn't pay much
attention to that bill until Iwent to the hearing, and I
thought it was um worthsupporting and mentioning.
So it has to do with retailservice station dealers and fuel
service, and basically it is toprovide fuel service, meaning

(20:33):
someone comes and pumps your gasin your car like we used to do
in the old days.
There was no self-service atrequest from 6 a.m.
to midnight.
And the senator mentioned thathis primary goal uh was to help,
particularly seniors who arefeeling threatened.

(20:57):
You know, there's so muchcarjacking going on, there's so
much to car theft and theft ofitems out of cars when people
exit their vehicles, walk aroundto the pump to pump their gas,
and then try to get back intothe build, get back into their
vehicles.

(21:17):
Um, so this bill wasintroduced, um, and they used
Pennsylvania as a model becauseI believe Pennsylvania still
requires, um, it does not allowcar owners to pump their gas.
Um, the last time I drovethrough um Pennsylvania on my
way to New York, I believe Ineeded to stop for gas and I got

(21:39):
out to pump and totally forgotone, what state I was in, but
two, that they that this wastheir state law.
And so, you know, he talkedabout that and said that, you
know, it would also promotejobs.
It could be a minimum wage job,but you know, at least it it'll
promote jobs, but moreimportantly, keep particularly

(22:02):
our seniors or any, you know,young woman who it may be late,
you know, 11 o'clock at night.
Um, she doesn't want to uh, youknow, for fear and safety,
wants to stay in our car, butshe needs gas to get to our next
destination.
So um I I did like the the ideabehind this.

(22:24):
Um not sure what the retailservice stations are gonna say.
Surely they're gonna, you know,it adds to their bottom line,
but hopefully um something canbe done.
Um and this would be a goodmeasure uh to prevent some of
the carjackings and the car umtheft from autos that occur at

(22:46):
our service stations in PrinceGeorge's County.
So kudos to Senator Juan Watsonfor introducing that bill.
Um my email that I sent out onthis way back on December 11th
talked about some other bills ofinterest.
I'm just gonna mention thembecause I don't want to spend um

(23:09):
a lot of time discussing thebills.
I gave you the website and I'llrepeat that once again if you
just go to um all one word,Prince George's house
delegation.com, and then youclick on legislation, and then
you can go to the 2024 uh taband you'll see all of the bills

(23:30):
that have been introduced.
Because I do want to spend sometime on some of these late bow
bills that have been filedbecause they have piqued my
interest.
Um, but some of the other billsthat were timely filed, and we
had the public hearing at PrinceGeorge's Community College last

(23:51):
month included another trafficcontrol device monitoring
system, um, a little bit similarto uh delegate Baldorama's, but
doesn't go into the fines.
But um it's also a trafficcontrol device bill that I think
is worth supporting, and that'sPG 301-24, and that was

(24:14):
introduced by Delegate Healy onthe business side um for the
sale of commercial property.
Um Senator Nick uh Charles, ournewest senator from Prince
George's County, he took uhformer Senator Melanie Griffiths

(24:35):
uh place when she left to takea job with the Maryland Hospital
Association.
And so he introduced a bill,Prince George's PG 403-24 that
deals with the businessimprovement district.
And basically that bill givesthe right of a business
improvement district topurchase, have a right of first

(24:58):
refusal, if you will, topurchase the sale of property
within that um within thatbusiness improvement district.
And I thought that was a uh agood bill to to sponsor.
Um Senator Alonzo Washingtonalso introduced a bill, and that

(25:20):
is an education bill.
There's a couple educationbills that I'm gonna mention.
Um, the first one is SenatorWashington's bill, which is PG
503-24, and it would give umpublic school employees a
property tax credit.
Again, this is trying toincentivize more persons who

(25:46):
work in our public school systemto also live in the county, and
because of that, they can get aum PGCPS employee tax credit.
So not just our teachers, butother um administrators as well.
So the the goal is to encourageum our employees for the school

(26:07):
system to live in the countyand to get a property tax credit
if they do so.
Um, Senator Watson alsointroduced a bill, another bill
that's um Prince George's um inparticular uh it's PG 302-24.

(26:28):
It's the metal detector bill.
So he wants to have uh all ofthe high schools to have metal
detectors and have a program forthat.
So you can find that bill onthe delegation's website.
The next education bill isanother one also from Senator

(26:49):
Alonzo Washington, and it has todo with the feasibility study
of relocating the PGCPSheadquarters, which is now in
what we call the SASER building,which is a um a former school
building um in the town of UpperMarlboro, and have that um the
headquarters relocated.

(27:10):
And so he wants to have a studydone on that, and that's uh the
name the number of that bill isPG 501-24.
Um, as many of you may know, alot of uh Prince George's County
government is now located inLargo, Maryland.
And the primary purpose, andI've heard at least one resident

(27:33):
always complain about howdifficult it was to get to Upper
Marlboro because there was nopublic transportation and
especially for public hearingsin the evening, because the bus,
which is our county bus system,did not run late in the
evening.
So the Largo Metro is withinwalking distance of our county

(27:55):
administration building, and nowMaryland National Capital Park
and Planning has also moved toLargo.
And so um I'm assuming that theheadquarters for Prince
George's County school systemmay also want to move as well.
Um, but again, this bill isjust to establish a feasibility

(28:18):
study of what you know what thefinancial numbers would look
like for taxpayers to have thatheadquarters moved.
So um that concludes theeducation portion.
The other two bills that Imentioned in my December 11th uh
email were deal with liquorlicenses.

(28:40):
And these two bills are bothsponsored by, once again,
Senator Ron Watson.
One deals with um creating acigar lounge, liquor license.
There um are quite a few cigarlounges in that are popping up
in in Prince George's County.
They're becoming you know quitepopular.

(29:02):
Um none of them that I am awareof have any liquor sales
associated with it.
I think the only the closestplace is actually in Charles
County, um, the tender box is uma cigar lounge and they do sell
liquor.
So I think um Senator RonWatson, um, and he actually said

(29:25):
this during the hearing that heknows of some proprietors of
existing cigar lounges that thatwant to add this component as a
you know for for cocktails andwhat have you.
And so um he's introduced thislegislation to create a special
liquor license for cigarlounges.

(29:47):
And then his last um liquorlicense bill has to do with um
providing nonprofitorganizations with a license, a
liquor license as well.
And that's primarily um thefraternal and um so fraternities
and sororities.

(30:07):
Many of the um fraternities andsororities can't uh in and of
themselves do anything that'sassociated with alcohol,
alcoholic beverages, because alot of them, as you know, start
as um for undergraduates, uhmany of whom are not 21 and not

(30:29):
not uh legally able to drink.
But um many of the graduatechapters, uh particularly those
in Prince George's County, dohave their own nonprofit
foundations.
And the foundations usually arethe what we call our
fundraising arm to do some ofthe community service work that

(30:52):
we do in the community.
And so he introduced a bill topermit um fraternities and
sororities or or if you will,the foundations of fraternities
and sororities to also have aliquor license.
That bill is PG 304-24.
So you can take a look atthose.

(31:12):
So just as a quick synopsis, umdelegate Baldorama's um speed
monitoring bill is now, it usedto be, but it's corrected on the
website.
It's Prince George's County306-24.
The other bill that deals withspeed monitoring is Delegate

(31:38):
Healy's bill, Prince George'sCounty 301-24 as well.
And then the three companionbills that deal with zoning, um,
particularly fairness, thefairness and zoning bill, um,
the zoning prohibition bill, andthe community um empowerment
act bill, all by delegateTiffany Austin, are bills 106,

(32:04):
107, and 115.
And again, you can go to thewebsite, Prince George's House
Delegation.com, to see all ofthose.
Now, um, since the new year andafter the hearing, there were
some late bow bills that Iwanted to bring to your

(32:25):
attention.
Um, some I support, some I havea few questions about.
Unfortunately, a few of themdon't have the actual text to
the bills, so there's nohyperlink to actually see the
text.
So I don't know if I can opinewithout without being

(32:45):
disadvantaged of not seeing theactual language.
Um, but the first one that Iwant to mention, which I think
is very helpful, is uh PGMC101-24.
Um, and actually, and Iapologize, this bill was not a
lay file bill.
It was filed timely back onNovember 20th, but I somehow um

(33:07):
didn't focus on this one, but Ilike the bill because it's a
WSSC bill that deals with theconnection pipe emergency
replacement loan program.
And if you are a homeowner inPrince George's County, you are
getting, and I think we just gotone in the mail recently,
you're getting offers to havesome type of insurance that uh

(33:30):
protects if you have a pipe toburst near your house, um,
that's closer to the house thanwhere the front foot benefit is
of this the water and sewerfacilities, because if it breaks
be um breaks closer to thehouse and in your yard, you're

(33:50):
actually as a homeowner, you'reactually responsible for
covering that.
So, but WSSC actually has aloan program um to cover uh pipe
emergency replacement.
The pipe originally the loanprogram only covered water, but
now it also covers sewer.

(34:11):
So the connection pipeemergency replacement loan
program under this bill wouldcover both water and sewer.
And it allows not only for thefinance of the replacement of
the malfunctioning pipe, itallows for a loan to do the
diagnostic work.

(34:31):
So if you suspect that there'sa leak and you get this
ridiculously high water bill andyou know, everything in your
house is is fine, but the leakmay be underground somewhere.
So to do the diagnosis is alsovery expensive.
So you can get a low-interestWSSC loan to help do the

(34:52):
diagnosis as well as finance thereplacement of any
malfunctioning pipes, and thatis if you didn't get this
insurance that's being offered.
I think one is associated withWSSC, and I've maybe we've
gotten two other offersrecently, and they're just
independent um type insurancecompany.
Um the loan um is currentlyit's only for $5,000, but now um

(35:18):
the new bill would allow it tonot exceed a $10,000 loan.
Um, because my understanding isum those pipe replacements, you
know, in your yard can be quiteexpensive.
And with everything going up,tax and and cost is you know,

(35:39):
everything is much moreexpensive.
So they've doubled the loanamount that can be uh provided
by this um pipe emergencyreplacement loan program.
So I think I support that bill.
I like that.
The next two bills that I'mgonna mention are lay file bills
that come from the countyexecutive, Angela also Brooks'

(36:01):
office.
Unfortunately, these two billsdid not have text to them, so I
couldn't really see, but I thinkI understand why they were
introduced and what they aregetting to.
I could be totally wrong andmissed the mark on this, but
they are sequential PG 406 andPG 407-24.

(36:22):
The first one deals with thePrince George's County
telecommunications tax, and thesecond one deals with the Prince
George's County County EnergySales Tax.
So when you get your phone billor your PEPCO bill or SMECO,
whatever service you have, bill,you notice that there's always

(36:44):
a local tax.
One is usually universalservice, and that is the what we
pay to help low-income peopleto um get some subsidy to be
able to have a phone service andto have energy utilities,
right?
Um, but the second is alsousually a local tax that um the

(37:09):
county um taxes on.
And usually on thetelecommunications side, again,
those funds can be used inrelation to telecommunications
type um uh funding, whether it'stowards universal service or
something else.
On the energy side, um, there'susually a program, a local

(37:30):
program as well to help with um,you know, energy bills for for
persons who not only just lowincome, but you know, may have
run into hard times for somereason.
So you usually have those uhfunds.
Um but because we couldn't seethe full text of it, what we
could see in the brief synopsison the delegation's website is

(37:55):
that each of uh the bill, thepurpose of the bill is to have
the funds used for educationfunding, um, for um for uh
secondary um education,elementary and secondary
education.
And what I suspect that thecounty executive is doing is

(38:16):
instead of using those fundstowards telecommunications or
energy to divert them to to usemaybe not all of them, but maybe
a portion of the funding to useit towards education.
Because what has happened, anda lot of people don't realize
this, is that all the countiesin the state of Maryland now

(38:38):
have a education mandate that'scalled the Blue Plant for
Education.
And it's to help get us to abetter level in public education
in terms of funding disparitiesin education.
And part of the money comesfrom the state, but a big chunk

(38:59):
of it actually has to come fromthe county.
And what I suspect is isbecause we're out of this slush
fund money, we no longer havethe um um the funding for um
COVID from the federalgovernment, the county executive
is saying, where can I divertsome funds, some taxes and and

(39:24):
and what have you that could beused for education so that I can
meet this mandate under the uhblueprint for education.
And she's picked atelecommunications tax and the
energy tax to do so.
Now, what I don't know is ifshe's trying to raise those
taxes, which means our cellphone and home phone and PEPCO

(39:46):
and other bill, utility bills,may increase adult because I
can't see the tax.
I I'm I'm hoping that she's nottrying to increase the tax, but
merely trying to divert not allof the funding, but maybe some
of the funding to go towardseducation to help fund this
mandate from the blueprint forMaryland education.

(40:08):
Because if you're paying anyattention to what's going on in
Maryland and Maryland politics,is that we no longer have a
surplus in our budgets, both atthe county level as well as the
state.
And that's because we have anew governor.
He came in with a lot of greatideas, but those great ideas
have to be funded somehow.

(40:30):
And because we've uh used up alot of that um CARES Act money
that came from COVID to helpfund some of those programs,
that was just year one.
These programs have to besustainable financially.
So um I this is what I suspectis, but again, I could be

(40:50):
totally wrong, but because wecan't see the text and it was
late filed, um we don't know uhwhat the actual text is and
what's being introduced, butthat's just my speculation.
I'm probably about, I feel likeI'm about 80% right on that.
Um, but basically using thefunds to help fund Blueprint for

(41:14):
Education.
Again, what I don't know is ifshe wants to raise those taxes,
which means we would have highercell phone and other bills as a
result.
But I'm gonna move from thatand go to PG 411-24.
This is a bill introduced byDelegate Long, who represents um

(41:37):
a small portion of southernPrince George's County and
Charles County.
He is introduced a bill calledIncome Tax Credit for Parents
and Guardian Volunteers inelementary and secondary
schools.
Now, I kind of laugh at this,but it's actually pretty sad

(41:57):
that the only incentive to getparents more involved and
volunteer in their children'sschools is to give them a tax
credit.
Um, but this is what he'sproposing uh to have the
comptroller to work with um thepublic school system to see if

(42:18):
there's any incentive to uh giveparents tax parents and
guardians who volunteer at theelementary and secondary schools
to give them a tax credit forum for volunteering.
Um again, it's it's it's funnyand sad at the same time uh

(42:40):
because parents, if you havechildren in schools, you really
should be involved in andvolunteer at your children's
school without any without anyincentives because you you care
about your children's educationand you want the best for your
students and you want the bestfor your child.
And so you're gonna volunteerto make sure that that happens.

(43:04):
But I digress.
But um again the the bill seemsto um allow the controller's
office and school system to kindof work out all the the
details.
That's gonna be um a real pushto kind of verify and all that

(43:25):
other stuff to see, you know,you know, how many hours and
results and what percentage of atax credit and all of that.
Um details that have to beworked out in that, but uh I I
applaud the effort and just umkind of shaking my head that

(43:46):
we've come to this in order tohave parents and guardians to
actually volunteer in theirchildren's school.
Um the next bill.
I understand the bill.
I don't know if I actuallyagree with it or support it.
It's from delegate um Lehman.

(44:07):
It's also a late vowed bill, PG30724.
It's one of these liquorlicense bills.
It's like every year we havefour or five bills dealing with
liquor license.
But this one is um for PrinceGeorge's County alcoholic
beverage issuance of liquorlicenses near places of worship

(44:30):
or a school.
So you may or may not know thatum there are some parameters of
where um liquor stores can beum be located in Prince George's
County and they're not supposedto be within 500 feet of a

(44:51):
place of worship and notsupposed to be within a thousand
feet of a school.
Um Delegate Lehman wants to putan exception on that, um,
basically saying if the licenseof the same class had been
issued and was in effect beforethe church or the school was
built, then they should beexempted from be exempt, excuse

(45:14):
me, from um this bar on wherelicenses can be held.
Um and so I under I understandwhat she's saying.
It's like, okay, we werealready here, and now you built
built a church or you built aschool, and now we um no longer
meet the 500 or 1,000 feetrequirement.

(45:37):
And so you're telling me I'vegot to close my place of
business because of that.
And I kind of understand it.
Um, but because we just have somany liquor stores in Prince
George's County, I wouldn't mindseeing a few of them close.
So I don't particularly supportthis bill.
Um, I understand what delegateLehman's trying to do here, but

(45:59):
um, you know, I think we needless liquor licenses than more.
So um if you want to write yourstate senator and state
delegate um about PG 307-24, Iencourage you to do so.

(46:20):
And then the last bill that I'mgonna mention is LateVout bill
that I actually like andsupport.
And I thought we had some ofthese already in Prince George's
County, at least at FriendlyHigh School.
Um, this is introduced byDelegate Taveras.
It's PG 504-24.
It deals with early childhoodeducation programs and having

(46:43):
child care centers in at leasttwo high schools.
And basically, um it would belike a specialty program that
trains high school students inum early childhood development
and childhood education.
Obviously, I guess the goalwould be to get more people not
only into um having and owningdaycare centers, but also

(47:07):
getting into the the teachingprofession.
And so um, but it would um havechild care centers at the local
high schools.
And I can recall at one point,and you can actually still see
at Friendly High School in FortWashington off Valentine Road,
you could actually still see alittle small tot lot right on

(47:29):
off the road.
Uh um there used to be a childcare center associated with the
school, and I don't think it wasjust for the use of um allowing
faculty um and staff to havetheir children there, but I
thought it also was a trainingground for high school students
who wanted to be in earlychildhood development, had you

(47:52):
know, open up a daycare, go intoearly um early elementary
education.
So um I know that at some pointalong the way I stopped seeing
children playing at that onthose little playgrounds during
the day, probably decades agonow.

(48:12):
And so maybe this is to tobring that program back.
So that's gonna end the umepisode for today.
I know I spoke at length.
There is a lot here tounpackage.
I encourage you once again togo to Prince George's County
House Delegation.com to look onthe look at the bills, click

(48:35):
click on the blue hyperlinks,you can actually see the full
language, but more importantly,to call, to write, to email, and
even to show up in Annapolisfor the hearings on these
various bills.
Um, I will try to do that um atleast particularly by email.

(48:55):
I'm not sure I'm gonna be ableto do it by podcast because
sometimes um we don't know theexact dates of when the bills
are gonna be heard.
But what I will say in PrinceGeorge's County, because all of
these are local Prince George'sCounty bills, the delegation
meets every Friday at 9 a.m.
in Annapolis.

(49:15):
And so I encourage you to go tothe Prince George's County
delegation room in Annapolis tohear these bills being vetted
out of the delegation first, andthen they go to their
respective committees beforegoing to the floor of the House
and the Senate.
So I definitely encourage youto try to get to Annapolis,

(49:38):
especially if you, you know,work from home and you have
Fridays off, or Friday is alighter day.
Try to make it up to Annapolisto uh to hear these bills.
But at a minimum, if you can'tmake it to Annapolis, please,
please, please let your voicesbe known by calling, by writing,
by emailing your state senatorsand your state delegates about

(50:03):
your support or lack thereof forany of the bills that I've
mentioned and any of the billsthat I have not mentioned.
Um the thing is, is um I justmentioned um Prince George's
County um bills that affect uslocally.
Um, but all the bills that'llbe introduced that are have
nationwide impact, like the onesthat I mentioned in my last uh

(50:27):
episode on the 2024 bills thattook effect January 1st, those
affect all Marylanders.
So I encourage you to take alook and follow it, what's going
on.
Um, Maryland Public Televisionairs what's called State Circle.

(50:47):
Um, and I forget what nights,but um usually after the regular
programming, they'll re-airlike uh what's going on on the
Senate floor and the housefloor.
But more importantly, therethey also have YouTube sites for
both the House and the Senate,and you can see what's going on
not only on the floor, but um insome of the committee hearings.

(51:11):
So that's gonna do it for now.
I know I've talked a lot and itwas a lot to take in.
Um, but please go to PrinceGeorge's County House
Delegation.com to take a look atall of these bills and make
your voice be heard.
Thank you for listening.
Please do like, subscribe, andshare this podcast with your

(51:37):
neighbors and those who areinterested in what's going on at
the local level as well as thestate level.
I'm Tamara Davis Brown, yourhost for All Politics is local.
Um hope that you will continueto check back with us from time
to time as new episodes aregoing to be uploaded shortly.

(52:00):
Have a great day.
Thank you.
Thanks for joining me today onthis episode of All Politics is
Local, the Maryland edition,where we hope to inspire and
activate a new generation ofinformed voters to move beyond
the ballot box and take action.
Remember, all politics islocal.