How Politics Affect Real Estate in Maryland - State Delegate Mike Griffith (Full Podcast) - The Everyday Millionaire Show

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Everyday Millionaire Show with
Ryan Greenberg and Nick Kalkas.
Hi guys, welcome back toanother episode of the Everyday
Millionaire Show.
We are here with Mike Griffithright.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Did I say that right?
That's right, Griffith,Griffith.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Griffith.
Mike is a state delegate.
That's right, and I purposelytoday.
We were talking at the gym thismorning and then when Nick got
here, none of us know what astate delegate is.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh well, that's a great question.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
First question of the day what is a state delegate?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
State representative.
So, just like you talk about DC, you have Congress, the House
and the Senate.
Well, the House of Delegates isthe House for Maryland, right?
So I'm like, uh, a congressman,but at the state level, right?
So okay, so you have the house,delegates and then the senate,
so it's the exact same form ofgovernment as you have in dc.
So I'm a state representative,basically, right?

(00:53):
So some states are collegerepresentatives.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
In maryland we're called delegates how many state
delegates are there?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
so there are 141 of us representing the entire state
.
Uh, and then there's 47senators and then house senate
and the um executive branch wasthe governor.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
So so there's 141 state delegates.
How are they picked?
We're elected by the county, byby people in the county by
people in our constituency,right, so it's not by county.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
It's carved up by same way, like with Congress,
right, it's carved up based uponpopulation.
My district's based onpopulation.
I have about 85,000 people Irepresent and every four years I
have to run for reelection andthen hopefully my constituents
decide to send me back and ifthey do, then I get to go back
and duke it out in Annapolis foranother four years.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
How many times can you run, is it?
There's no term limits on the?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
legislature typically only on executive branch, like
county executive mayor of likebaltimore city, for example, um
governor things of that natureis this.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
Is this something that people do for like
lifetimes, like some do?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
I mean there's one member.
It's been there for 43 years.
I don't intend to spend alifetime in the legislature.
Right, it takes a bit of a toll, but for as long as I feel like
I can be effective and not burnout on it, I'm going to
continue to try to, to, to to.
How many years have you been in?
Six years, six years.
This is my six, six legislativesession and it's four, four

(02:18):
year terms, four year terms.
I'm running for reelection in26.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Okay, yep.
So what are some of the thingsthat, like a state delegate,
would do?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
I mean.
So we're lawmakers just likeyou'd be in Washington DC, right
, a little bit less political inAnnapolis, because the closer
you are to the people, the lesspolitical it is right.
When you're, you know, in DCyou can be very, very political.
You don't really, you know,interact with your constituents
as much, but on my level I couldinteract with every day.
So passing laws, fighting laws,trying to stop laws or we call
kill bad bills, and then also alot of it's helping, uh, the

(02:53):
people I represent navigatestate government, everything
from the easy pass fiasco makingsure my folks could fix easy
pass issues during covid, it wasa lot of you with people
getting easy pass stories.
I got some easy pass stories.
The Hayden Bridge is in mydistrict, up in Tuscarora River.
I heard a bunch of peoplesaying they're having issues

(03:16):
with their easy pass and beingbilled.
I just post on Facebook.
Hey, if you have any issueswith easy pass, reach to my
office, I'll try to help you out.
Thinking it's going to be likemy constituents.
3,000 emails in a day that Igot from sharing that thing.
That post got shared 1,000times.
355,000 interactions on thatFacebook post.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
Do you think there was a problem?

Speaker 2 (03:41):
It's one of those things like, hey, let me do a
little nice thing for myconstituents, like let me see if
I can help them out throughthis, and then it just went nuts
.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
So yeah, yeah, easy pass.
They're a bunch of scammers.
I feel like I I got some of thebills I've gotten from them are
like crazy, crazy bills andthen you can't?
It takes you three hours tofight with them on the phone and
there have been some issues,but it's beyond that.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's everything from just navigating state government
in any form and we don't alwaysthink about how often we
interact with state government.
Right, it could be MVA, itcould be taxes, it could be I
mean, you name it.
So if my constituents have anissue navigating state
government, that's where I canstep in and intervene and get
those problems right to thefront of the line.
That's where I can step in andintervene and get those problems

(04:26):
right to the front of the line.
So that's also probably themost useful thing we do is help
people.
What's?

Speaker 1 (04:31):
your background prior to politics?
Sure.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
So I'm a former Marine or Marine, however you
want to say it two tours in theMarine Corps as a military
policeman.
I've been in businessdevelopment for 20 years,
currently helped run a titlecompany, but in a variety of
different industries.
I serve on the board of theMaryland Builder Association.
Right now I'm also serving theboard of the ARC, which is a

(04:58):
special needs non-profit thatsupports special needs adults.
I'm on the board of that um anduh also work.
It's a law firm and a titlecompany I work for as well.
So, um, so, business development, uh, supporting the real estate
industry and my investor myself.
But I support the real estateindustry in a variety of ways
and then kind of fell intopolitics.

(05:18):
It kind of you know there'speople that plan their entire
life to run for office.
Those, the ones who don't get,get there.
It's the people.
It kind of you know there'speople that plan their entire
life to run for office.
Those are the ones who don'tget there.
It's the people that kind offalls into it.
And it was never an aspirationor a dream, it just kind of
happened.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
So yeah, so can you explain a little bit of how it
happened and, like, what madeyou become a state delegate?

Speaker 2 (05:38):
So I helped, I worked on kind of the helped Larry
Hogan quite a bit and early on,in a very grassroots, low, low,
low level.
Nobody knows or cares who I amkind of way right, but that's
where it starts right.
Like you know, in politicsthere's a lot of people who say
they're going to do the peoplethat don't talk and actually do.
People want workers, just likein our industry or whatever.

(06:00):
You know, people want people.
They're going to show up andwork and showing up to half half
the battle.
And then I was working for a guywho ran for state delegate seat
and I helped run the campaignand did a lot of legwork and a
lot of people kind of tooknotice of that.
So then I ran for a state party.
The state party is theorganization for the entire
state, but each county has one.
So I ran for the RepublicanCentral Committee in Harvard

(06:21):
County, got elected to that in2018, and then became the chair
of the committee in short order.
And then right after that, mypredecessor resigned and then
Larry Hogan Governor Hoganappointed me to replace him.
So I was originally appointedand then ran for re-election in
22.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
And then here I am so appointed for somebody that's
an idiot like me means thatsomebody just put you in that
position.
Nobody voted you in yetInitially right.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, because it was an open seat and we don't have
special elections, for you knowlike when somebody vacates it
right so I was appointedoriginally and then got
re-elected in 22, but but thegovernor is the one who appoints
you and the governor appointedme, so okay yeah, so you said
there's 141 state delegates, andare they um?

Speaker 3 (07:04):
what do you refer to the?
You said the 85,000 people.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
My constituents.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Okay, so is that a specific area where they're?

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yes, it's all based upon geography.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Got it.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
So I have a large portion of Hartford County and a
little bit of Cecil County andit's all population-based.
And it's about when they drawthe lines.
They really start from theedges, they start from out edges
, they start from, you know, youknow out western maryland and
then southeastern maryland, andthen they kind of work inward.
And when drawing the line, sobecause you have some like when
you're drawing the lines forpopulation, eastern shore, you

(07:34):
don't, you can't cut across thebay bridge, you have to work up
and around so and that's kind ofthe couple starting points and
they work and eventually kind ofdescend upon, uh, prince
george's montgomery county,things of that nature.
So they kind of end up PrinceGeorge's Montgomery County,
things of that nature.
So they kind of end up at theend of the drawing of the line.
So it's all population based.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
So then, those specific areas that each state
delegate is in, are they?
Do they have some sort ofcontrol of the rules and
regulations that happen in thatspecific area, or is it more of
a state basis where all ofeveryone gets together and votes
on whatever law is going topass?

Speaker 2 (08:04):
What do you mean?

Speaker 3 (08:05):
I'm sorry, so, so you're, you're in charge of,
you're a state delegate of thatarea that you described.
Do you have, like um, a way tocreate like a law or like a bill
in that specific area, or is itbased on, well, yes, the whole
county?

Speaker 2 (08:20):
what everything that we do is has to be ultimately
approved at the state level.
For example, I introduced abill a couple years ago to
reform Harford County's Board ofEducation.
Now I needed the delegation, soall the members who go to
Annapolis, so the delegation isall the members of the General
Assembly that represent HarfordCounty.

(08:41):
They had to first sign off onthe bill and then it went for
the full body of the GeneralAssembly.
Use this thing we call in eplis, called local control.
So if my delegation supports ameasure, the general assembly is
typically going to sign off onit.
So, yes, I do have the abilityto write laws and pass measures
and things that nature forharvard and season county
specifically, and that is apiece of it, um, but it still

(09:03):
needs a blessing of the fullgeneral assembly.
So, but we do affect localissues quite a bit, especially
around like liquor laws.
Um, we do a lot of a lot.
All alcohol matters are localissues that still have to be
bubbled up to the generalassembly as an example.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
So so the republican and democrat thing.
How does that fit into thestate, are they?
Do you have one of each or doyou just vote for whoever they
want?

Speaker 2 (09:32):
whatever, whoever they want, right.
So you have, we have ourprimaries, right, so I have to
become the, the nominee of myparty, and then I go to the
general election and have to winthe general election versus a
democrat from there.
So for me as a republican andfor Democrats it's vice versa.
And then the general assemblymakeup right now in the House of
Delegates is 102 Democrats, 39Republicans.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
So if you're on my side, we're outnumbered.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
But we punch above our pay grade and it's so
important to be able to keepyour voice right, like in
Annapolis.
I don't approach it like bombthrow, where you're trying to
attack people or attack theirmotives right, but I fight on
the issues.
If you stay on the issues andyou keep your voice, you can
move the needle and get somestuff done.
And we've had a lot of successin annapolis in spite of uh,
some of the numbers there.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
So yeah, so we live in a very obviously a blue state
, um, and we are in kind of ared industry, I'll say, in the
real estate development space.
Sure, so how does what you'redoing affect kind of what we do
on the real estate side?

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Well, that's a big thing to consider.
It affects everything we do,affects the industry, right?
For example, if you payattention, I'll talk about the
budget crisis.
We're facing a three billiondollar shortfall that could very
easily escalate to six billiondollars this year.
Right?
Where's that money come from?
Comes from everybody, and allthese things eventually trickle

(10:54):
down to, you know, the industry.
Um, perfect example.
So these energy policies we'vepassed over the last 10 years
that are about to jack rates up,in some cases as high as I've
heard, 800 right, because 40 ofour power in maryland is
imported from other states andsome other states have some
energy issues, right?
So, with that being said, uh,with that being said, other

(11:19):
states can kind of control whatthey're charging us and that
could hurt us.
And these are energy policies,they that they back to the 2000s
, where we selected to eliminateour coal fire plants in western
maryland, that decide toeliminate the brandon shores
plant.
The fact that we decided to gowith with solar and wind farms

(11:40):
off these off ocean city versusinvest in things like nuclear
and other clean energy likenatural gas.
So we've invested in thingsthat don't give us a return,
we've eliminated what works andnow we're buying power from out
of state, right?
Those energy costs trickle downto you, to the folks, to your

(12:07):
renters and the people that yousupport, you know.
It affects us in every singleway, right.
And that's just energy policy,right.
And talk about gas tax, youknow, and how that's impacted
the industry.
So these are just little things, right.
And then you talk about the bigthings like education costs.
Well then, education costs,then the impact fees right.

(12:30):
And then impact fees obviouslyaffect things like housing.
And then when you have a $3billion shortfall, they're going
to look everywhere to getrevenue, right.
So there's a bill before usright now.
So I sit on the Ways and MeansCommittee and we deal with
education, we deal with gamingand we also deal with all tax
law.
There's a bill right now thatwould authorize counties to

(12:54):
significantly increase propertytaxes.
Well, that hits you.
Part of the one of themechanisms to help pay for the
education bill is a bill toeliminate the inheritance tax.
Now you'd be like, oh,eliminate the inheritance tax,
that's great.
No, because what the inheritancetax is?
It only taxes.
Distant family, but directdescendants right?

(13:16):
If you're passing something onto your kid, you don't pay an
inheritance tax, right?
So if you're looking to buy aproperty for an investment
property, right, and you'rebuying it from this individual
and it's being passed down fromtheir mom or dad, right, there's
no tax on it and that factorsinto your cost of buying the
property to invest in theproperty and obviously the

(13:37):
bottom line and financing andall those other things.
But by eliminating theinheritance tax, then the whole
thing moves over to the estatetax.
Now, right now, the thresholdfor estate tax is five million
dollars.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
All right what does that mean?
Like you have a net worth offive million dollars, or that's
what you're passing is theestate is five million, right.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
But in conjunction with eliminating the inheritance
tax, which is reallyeliminating the direct
descendant exemption, they'regoing to lower the estate tax to
$2 million.
Now think about that a $2million estate.
So life insurance?
We can't tax life insurance.
It's considered part of theestate.

(14:17):
So if you have a $1 million lifeinsurance policy, you're
halfway there on the jump right.
And if you have a propertyworth three hundred thousand
dollars and a couple investments, you're very easily at that two
million dollar threshold.
So think so.
And it's a 16 tax.
So say, you're looking to buythis property, right, that this
individual just received fromtheir parents who may have

(14:39):
passed away, and now they'relooking to sell it to an
investor.
Right now, you got to figure a16% tax on that property.
In addition to all the othermath you've done, that's going
to price certain properties outof the pool for investors
completely, and that's part ofthe legislation we're
considering right now.
But this is a ripple effectbecause of all the policies that

(14:59):
we've put in place over thelast 10, 12, 14 years on
spending policies, and nowthey're coming to get the money.
But why?

Speaker 1 (15:08):
would they tick down, like you think, with inflation
and like people are worth more?
Now, if you look at it, becauseof inflation and everything
else, why would they move thenumber down rather than?

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Because they're trying to get more revenue.
Right, If they lowered thethreshold for a state tax to a
million, that means more peopleare paying that 16% of state tax
and because they've spent usout of control.
our budget, you know, 10 yearsago was 37 billion.
This year it's 67 billion.
Think about that In a state of6 million people, our budget's

(15:40):
67 billion.
So what that means is now wehave $3 million.
They got to find this year,right, because we're required to
have a balanced budget.
We can't borrow money.
We have to have a balancedbudget according to our
constitution and they're goingto come get it.
So these policies that you know,that the, that you know the
investor industry, have not beenpaying attention to.
At the end of every single billthat has any spending attached

(16:03):
to at the end of that is a tax,every single time, and those
taxes ultimately bubble up tothe industry, right, and the
industry is going to feel theeffects of this.
And we're not even intolandlord-tenant issues yet,
which we're going to get intosome, right.
And the laws that aredemonizing landlords?
Right, are there bad landlordsout there?

(16:23):
Sure, right, right, but mostpeople in this industry cannot
be successful if they're a badlandlord, right, like that
doesn't work that way.
Um, but landlords are bad andwe've passed legislation that's
actually have funded theopposition against you, right,
let's.
I'll switch gears just briefly.
We'll go back to the otherthing.

(16:44):
But while I'm on a roll, so afew years ago, while still of
the bill, this money goes into afund to pay for legal defense
for evictees.
Wow, so when you're going tocourt to evict somebody and

(17:15):
you're going to go walk up tothe front, you'll see a
paralegal jump out of the backof the room out of nowhere like
a ghost Poof, walk up, standnext to the person and say, hey,
I'm going to represent you andyou're funding the legal defense
against yourself againstsomebody you're trying to
legally evict and that we'vecreated that fund.
So you're actually, when youfile an eviction fee, you're

(17:35):
paying for the defense againstyou and that's why evictions
have gone from 30 days, 90 days,now nine months, to a year and
a half to evict somebody legally, because they have legal
defense and legal counsel paidfor by you.
That's telling them exactly howto game the system.
Like, for example, baltimoreCity right now.
You can have somebody for threemonths and you go to make the

(17:59):
eviction move and they pay onemonth.
That buys them another threemonths, do it again and they can
do it up to three times.
So after nine months you'vereceived three months' rent.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
We're going to have to cut this out of the episode
so that the tenants can't hearthat.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
I don't think many tenants are listening.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
A lot of tenants probably listen to this, but
these are things that, frankly,the investor networks should be
coming down to Annapolis andtestifying on, and the only
people that testified on it wasthe big major developers, but

(18:37):
that's not the majority ofpeople.
They control the majority ofunits, but the volume is the
guys that have two, three, four,five, ten, twenty individual
units, right, and the peoplethat you know.
Your margins are very small.
It doesn't take a lot for aproperty or your entire business
to become upside down right,and a major shift in the market

(18:58):
could hurt you, or a majorpolicy shift at the state or
county level could certainlyhurt you as well, and you know
your voices have not been heardin this process.
Right, right, and it meanscoming down, being educated,
knowing who your local and stateelected officials are, being
there, right, because you'rejust, you know, you know you're,

(19:19):
you're faceless people that arelandlords.
Therefore you're bad, right,and you're predatory by nature.
According to some people inannapolis, and we know that's
not true.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
There are those people right, so does that mean
that we have the opportunity, aslandlords, to come down there?
And voice our opinion 100before the bills pass and to
kind of give them in the billhearing right.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
So it happens two ways right.
So, certainly, when we have abill hearing, you can sign up to
testify before the committee.
And also, if you know who yourlocal electeds are, they'll meet
with you, they'll sit down,they'll talk to you right, and
hear your concerns and startaffecting it.
Right.
So you have multipleopportunities to impact these
policy decisions.
But again, it's more than justthe ones that directly affect

(20:07):
you, it's the ones thatindirectly affect you as well.
Right, and energy policy,education policy, with big, what
we call a physical note.
So a physical note is theexplanation of the financial
impact of a piece of legislation, right?
Anything with the fiscal note,anything that costs money, is

(20:27):
ultimately going to come back toyou because it's, you know,
land, energy, property taxes,assessments, all these things
Like.
Here's a big one.
There's a bill.
It's going to be a tax bill.
It's going to be put in, rolledinto another bill that's going
to tax an LLC at the full amount, at the gross, right?

(20:48):
So think about, think aboutthat for a second how it impacts
you.
Not the net, you're going to betaxed at the gross for your LLC
, your S course.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Wait, is that that's crazy?
So you make a million dollarsand you're going to be, and if
that's your gross and you onlynet a hundred thousand, you're
going to be taxed at a million.
But then how is that possible?

Speaker 2 (21:06):
that's the bill that is a bill that's insane.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
That's something they're looking to actively pass
and when that comes down howwould you even afford that right
?

Speaker 2 (21:15):
right and because that's that.
But that's 100 part of the planright now for this legislative
session.
So so when that bill comes down, everyone in your network, all
your people listening to watch,need to be down testifying on
that bill, saying how this willdestroy you.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
So how do we?

Speaker 3 (21:32):
get access to-.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
De-incentivize us to reinvest or do anything besides,
save money to pay taxesessentially.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
We wouldn't hire more people.
We couldn't hire more people,couldn't do that Right right.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
So how do you find out about these bills that are
getting ready to be passed orthat are in the works to go down
there?

Speaker 2 (21:51):
you go to the general assembly website you can look
up legislation.
There's a mechanism to searchfor legislation by topic, so you
can search real estate tax,whatever the case may be, and
then you can look up the billsthat are being introduced.
Right, or you can contact me,you know, you know, uh, my email
is mikegriffith athousestatemdus.
Feel free to contact me.

(22:12):
I'm happy to help walk youthrough the process on.
It's a hell of an email in twoweeks.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
It is a mouthful.
In two weeks I it's gonna beimpossible for you to open those
10 000 emails that you're gonnaget.
Let's go, I mean let's go.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
I'm happy, you know, only contact me if you actually
want to come testify, but, youknow, because I don't want 100
people saying oh my god, oh mygod, oh my god.
But, like you know, if you wantto come testify, I will help.
I will, I can help walk, uh,your viewers and your listeners
through the process of where tosign up, how to sign up, and
then that's not just for yourconstituents, that's anybody in

(22:45):
the state.
Anybody in the state who'saffected by this legislation.

Speaker 4 (22:48):
And what does that do Like if we just got 10,000
people to come testify, likewhat would that do?
Would that change?

Speaker 2 (22:56):
some stuff?
Yes, it would, but is that?

Speaker 3 (22:58):
just from the volume of the people that would come
down there.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Like how would that change what they already had
already planned to?
Because when there's massopposition to something, it gets
people's attention.
Because if you have a thousandpeople down there, how many of
those are this person'sconstituents, that person's
constituents?

Speaker 3 (23:17):
right, okay, I mean, that really matters.
So who's who's it come down tothe passing the bill?

Speaker 2 (23:23):
I mean the general assembly.
If you have the majority of theGeneral Assembly the bill's
going to pass, but it starts inthe committee.
So the first line of defense isme in my committee that handles
the taxes, and if it passesfrom there then it goes to the
General Assembly and then it hasto go to the Senate and then to
the governor.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
How many people are in the General Assembly?
I mean it's 141 delegates andthen 47 senators oh, so that's
part of the General Assembly?

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, the General Assembly is the two houses, the
House and Senate.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yep.
So who's introducing a billlike that?
Is it somebody like you on theother side?
Basically?

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Well, yes, or even on my side, somebody could.
So I'm introducing a dozenbills this year on a variety of
topics, none of them real estaterelated.
But yeah, other membersintroduce the legislation, then
you try to get co-sponsors andthen you have the bill hearing
where you're presented beforethe committee, and then you've
got to work the bill and try toget to the committee and try to

(24:17):
get support from variousorganizations and there are
people opposed.
But a perfect example is in2020.
It was a bill introduced whichwas reintroduced last year which
we were able to kill again Aservices tax, which this bill
would absolutely crush theinvestor industry.
So it put a tax on every singleservice.
To define a service right Titleinsurance, title companies

(24:40):
service, lawyers service, anyhome inspectors service right,
plumbers service, electriciansservice.
You go down the line Everybodythat you guys hire that touches
your properties to rehab,renovate, maintain, make sure
they're good to go.
Realtors would be taxed on thisright.

(25:02):
Mortgage services taxed right.
We estimate for a new home itwould increase the cost of a new
home by $14,000 alone, just intaxes.
Right, much less in investmentproperty.
And when you're talking aboutthese small margins, you know
and you're looking for the rightproperty, right price, with
enough meat on the bone to beable to make the investment.
Right, all these things starteating those margins, these

(25:25):
taxes, estate taxes, energycosts that are going to affect.
Right, because as energy costsgo up, right, you start losing
people that you can rent to.
Right, because that's anotherpiece of the pie.
Can they even afford the energycosts to live in that home
anymore?

Speaker 4 (25:41):
Right, yeah, I was just getting hounded the other
day by some solar guys and theywere talking about that.
That's basically their pitch.
They have the clean energy billthat's coming out and you know
you got to go solar.
It's a race to solar.
So I mean, what is this cleanenergy thing, and can you kind
of touch on that?

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Sure, so the state wants to be carbon net zero by
2035, which will not happen.
That's forced electrificationof a lot of buildings of a
certain I think it's 30,000square foot or higher, have to
be fully electric.
Of a lot of buildings of acertain I think it's 30,000
square foot or higher, have tobe fully electric.
Obviously, the EV mandateelectric vehicles mandating that
be 100% by 2034, and athreshold of being at 43% by

(26:20):
2026, which is impossiblebecause the mandate it's not
vehicles sold in Maryland.
Each individual car maker hasto have 43 of their cars sold in
maryland 43, right?
Which is impossible and we'relike at one percent right now.
Like, so that's not happening,right?
Um, and then they're going toraise more taxes because one of

(26:41):
our big revenue streams is thegas tax to pay for highways and
roads and stuff.
So the more electric vehiclesyou have, less people you have
driving gas uh, gas powervehicles, which means less
people you have driving gas uh,gas powered vehicles, which
means less revenue.
So they got to find otherrevenue streams, other places,
right?
So everything is a house ofcards, right?
It really is so, and these arethe things that you, you and

(27:02):
your listeners should be payingattention to, because all this
is going to have a direct impacton the industry so when are
mayors able to make their ownbill, and if so, does it still
have to go through the GeneralAssembly?
So you have three levels ofgovernment Municipalities, which
is like towns, towns and cities.
Then you have the counties andyou have the state.

(27:23):
The state has the ultimateauthority.
So we can pass a bill thatforces the hand of the county or
the municipality, but the townsmake their own laws.
But if they need something doneat the state level, then
they'll come to us and we'llintroduce a bill on behalf of
the city of Habit, of Grace orHartford County government,
things of that nature, if itneeds state approval.
But each, like Baltimore City,passes their own laws.

(27:45):
Cities like Aberdeen pass theirown laws.
Counties pass their own laws.
Counties pass their own laws,but ultimately, but also, the
state has the ability to preemptlocal laws.
So if I, if the state passes abill that says the entire state
does this, then the counties andthe towns have to get in line.
Now they're going to fight likehell to stop those bills

(28:05):
because nobody wants theirauthority taken away and I
respect that.
But that's you know so do thethe city have have delegates or
they just, yeah, they I mean,they have their city government,
they have the mayor and thecity council, but they have
delegates and senators.
Every, every member, everyperson in state of maryland has
a delegate or a senator, nomatter where you live okay, so

(28:29):
to go on to this energy thingreal quick.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
The energy that we're getting, where is it coming
from?

Speaker 2 (28:35):
so 60 right now is produced in maryland, like honda
wingo dam, uh uh.
Covered cliffs, the nuclearplant there.
Uh, brandon shores, the coalfire plant that they're trying
to shut down.
But they're delaying because ifthey shut down brandon shores
right now, as was the originalplan, we would have rolling
brownouts throughout the state.
I had a briefing about thisthis morning.

(28:56):
So right now 40% of our powerwe're importing from other
states because we have hadterrible policies on producing
our own.
We've avoided nuclear, which isthe cleanest form of energy.
Out there is nuclear, right,there's a stigma to it.
The cleanest form of energy outthere is nuclear, right,
there's a stigma to it.
But cleanest form Clean coal,natural gas is a clean form of

(29:18):
energy because it has gas onthere.
You know some people think it's, you know, dangerous.
And then we've poured a bunch ofmoney into trying to get
offshore wind, which is nowprobably dead with the Trump
administration coming in.
We have a bunch of money insolar, but even with solar right
, you can't even fully realizewhat solar can produce because

(29:39):
you have to have enoughopportunity on the grid.
So right now there are farmersin the eastern shore fighting to
get more solar farms.
But that part of the grid isfull, so it doesn't make any
sense, right?
And because we are buying a lotof our energy from pennsylvania
, for example.
And the dirty secret is we shutdown a lot of our power
production in maryland for, forum, the sake of the environment,

(30:01):
um, because we didn't want coalfire plants here in maryland.
But we're buying energy fromthe coal, we're buying coal fire
plant energy from pennsylvania,so we're doing the exact same
thing, just we're not doing inmaryland.
So it makes everybody feelbetter, but it's not.
It's a net zero, uh, a netneutral carbon impact, because
we're still buying the sametypes of energy other places so
it's someone like bg.

(30:21):
Need bottom of gas and electric,just a service that yes, gets
that energy from one place tothe other place, that's right I
mean bg is getting beat up forsome of their rate hikes and
some of the things they're doing.
Right now.
There's a lot of people beingblamed for the policies of the
General Assembly.
Bg is just the person, theindividual providing the power

(30:42):
and figuring the whole thing out, but these are policy decisions
we've made at the GeneralAssembly.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
So does BG&E buy the power from these other locations
that you mentioned, like otherstates, and then sell it to us?

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Well, they produce power, but they're the ones kind
of negotiating, bringing thispower in from out of state.
And there's different andthat's just Baltimore, right,
there's.
You know you have other powercompanies on the eastern shore,
and you know you have.
Pepco exactly.
They'll marvel at power.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
Is BG&E just?
Are they paying more for energynow or are they just trying to
like increase the rate becauseit's been pretty reckless lately
?

Speaker 2 (31:19):
They're doing a $24, $20 rate hike because they have
to do some improvements tied tosome of these energy policies
and getting more power from thestate.
But when we're buying powerfrom Pennsylvania, they're
marketing it up to sell to us.
Because when they sell power tous, that's less power for them,

(31:40):
right?
And because we're notself-sufficient with our energy
production, that cost gets puton to us, which gets put on to
you and your tenants and all the, everything that you do from
day to day, from running yourbusiness to, uh, um, the, even
the, the, the, the power saw toto do improvements in in your

(32:03):
properties, right?
All those costs so slowlystarted to trickle up and God
forbid.
Now if we pass a services tax,right, if you hire somebody to
do it.
Now, you're paying 6% on top ofeverything else on every single
service you hire.
That's appraisals, that'severything.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
So this services tax because that's something as a
general contractor and propertymanager I imagine would really
affect.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
It'll have a crushing effect.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
So let's just say how are they taxing that?
Like, is it on my gross revenuethat I bring in?
Yeah, they're gonna say well,it depends, right.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
I mean.
So all these bills inconjunction, if it's an llc and
they also, they pass service taxand then they also pass uh, the
uh, the llc adjustment that youget taxed on the gross, then
you'll be taxed on the grossright.
And oh, here's another thingthey want to eliminate itemized
deductions too.
That's also a bill.
Wow.

(33:00):
So we, as I'm saying, like youguys and your listeners, should
be paying attention to whatwe're doing in annapolis,
because when you start stacking,any one of these is bad.
But when you add our energypolicies and what we're trying
to do to raise property taxes,and then eliminating the
inheritance tax right andlowering the threshold for state
taxes, so more of theproperties you're trying to buy

(33:22):
are gonna be taxed at 16% on topof whatever else you're doing.
And then the services tax isgonna tax all the services right
, and then changing the LLCs,that going to tax all the
services right, and then thechanging the locs that you get
taxed to the grow.
When you start stacking allthese things up and up and up
and eliminate idaia's deductions, I mean, yeah, it almost makes
no sense to run the business andthen do they not?

(33:44):
I don't laugh because it's funny, it's like, oh my god, what are
you gonna do?
And but that's, that's me, meand my and the Ways and Means
Committee are the folks.
We're the wall fighting thisthing back.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
And I guess, in a general sense, do they not think
about how it's going to affectlandlords and their opportunity
to help people who need a placeto rent.
Well, that's where I come in.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Me and my colleagues on my side of the aisle.
We come in and we talk aboutthis is going to have these net
effects.
Right, and there is some juicethis year and the last couple of
years because Governor Moore,one of his big initiatives is to
create more housing and thingsof that nature.
Right, Because we have a hugehousing crisis.
I mean, I've heard estimatesanywhere from 90,000 to 150,000
units upside down in Maryland.
Right, Lack of units and thathas a ripple effect.

(34:33):
Right, and so even somecitizens who want to buy their
first home.
Well, one of the reasons housingprices have skyrocketed is
because of lack of inventory.
Right, and an example we talkedabout today is like somebody
looking to go from the $300,000home to a $500,000 home.
Right, Like that's a good thing, because if, if I go to my

(34:53):
second home, that's $500,000,that creates a brand new first
time home buyer home at 300grand.
Right, so it helps create moreinventory.
Um, and what?
And what you guys do is youcreate new inventory?
Because you take propertiesthat in some cases, are
completely unlivable and,without developing any new land,

(35:14):
without buying a farm andturning into a whole bunch of
houses, you're taking a propertythat is considered useless and
making it someone's home right.
You're creating new inventoryand that takes pressure off of
overall housing prices.
It takes pressure off the lackof housing.
It gives people to live.
What's the three most importantthings that people need?

(35:34):
They need shelter, they needfood and they need security.
I mean, go back to cavemen Clubsecurity, food, hunter-gatherer
, shelter, cave those are ourthree most basic needs and you
guys provide one of those threeright so why would somebody want

(35:55):
to, like governor moore, wantto de-incentivize people like us
to do what we're doing?
well, and that's theconversation, and that's where
folks like me come into play isto to carry that banner and have
that conversation, explain hey,the housing's supposed to be
very important to you, but thesethings have this net negative
effect on what you're trying toaccomplish and they're competing

(36:16):
with each other.
And so that's where the billhearings, that's where you guys
coming down to NAPLAS andtestify to tell your story, to
explain how these things wouldhurt other initiatives right,
like more housing.
That's where me and you alltelling your story, that's where

(36:37):
the rubber hits the road.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
So are all these crazy policies coming out
because we had a shift ingovernor?

Speaker 2 (36:45):
No, I mean these policies have been going on for
a long, long time, and some ofthese policies go back to the
O'Malley administration, right,so there's nothing new under the
sun.
It gets more and more momentum.
Sometimes it's and some ofthese things are not bad
intentioned right, somebody hasa constituent, somebody sees a
problem, somebody hits half thestory, right, but they don't

(37:09):
hear the other side of the story.
Sometimes they want to help theconstituent.
That's where.
That's where testimony whattestimony really is.
When someone comes to testify,you're not opposing a bill,
you're trying to educate thelegislators on your side of the
story and the bigger picture,it's an education piece.
Right now, if everybody comesdown and tells the and says the

(37:30):
exact same thing, it gets boring.
But if people come down thereand have their own stories and
talk about what's happening, ithas a ripple effect, right, and
it's just.
And if your industry is notrepresented down there, then
you're on the sideline.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
So for people that are like people like you,
listening to their constituentswith, with problems that they
have, is it really heavily like?
So?
You have areas, obviously, thatare more lower on the
socioeconomic status and somethat are higher.
Do I guess somebody do theyrepresent, you know, if they

(38:07):
represent more people on the lowend of that spectrum?

Speaker 2 (38:10):
They're probably going to be more on the side of
um renters rights and things ofthat nature right now if we came
down there, would that evenmake them swaying in a different
direction?

Speaker 3 (38:19):
well, I mean not pests.
What depends?

Speaker 2 (38:20):
are you guys doing the right thing and do you guys
take care of you know yourtenants and you guys provide
good, clean housing?
And are you guys doing theright thing?
Yeah yeah, but then, and ifthat's the case, then your
story's gonna matter, but how?

Speaker 1 (38:34):
does that?
How do we even like prove that?
Because I I do feel sometimeslike people demonize and even
just I don't even get involved.
But sometimes you see onfacebook and some of these like
neighborhood groups, uh, thatI'm in in the city, especially
where they're literally callingus rich, white, whatever name
they want to put behind that.

(38:55):
They're really coming afterpeople Anybody with money, it
seems like, or anybody that hasany kind of.
But here's the thing there's alot of investors that aren't
well-off.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
There's a lot of investors that they're clawing
and scratching and trying tomake a way.
That's why a lot of investorsthat they're clawing and
scratching and trying to make away.
That's why a lot of veteransget into investing, because a
lot of veterans come out of themilitary without a lot of skills
.
But here's a path where I canand there's a lot of veterans
who have a hard time working forsomebody.
You get out of the Marine Corps, Like for me.

(39:26):
You get out of the Marine Corps.
It took me a while to learn howto work for somebody in the
civilian world, for a variety ofreasons.
Maybe PTSD who knows?
Definitely PTSD and you canthink we rattle off 10 names
right now of people you knowthat are veterans that are
investors now Chase.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Alex.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Van Brooklyn, tyler Banks, we can go on and on and
on.
So and that's part of tellingthe story, you know what I mean
and they get skewed because, totheir credit, the people that do
have the big apartmentbuildings and the big, you know
that have a large volume ofunits, they're the ones who

(40:11):
typically testify.
But the little guys 1, 2, 3, 4,5, 10, 20 units, individual
units that you've rehabbed andturned into something that's
sitting there dead, intosomething that's viable, help in
the community, right?
That's a story that you allneed to tell I see how this is
pretty important then yeahsomething that we had no idea

(40:35):
about before.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
So, okay, so we have.
Uh, we talked about the energy.
I did have a couple otherthings that I wanted to get to,
sure, um, one was the landlord,tenant stuff, oh yeah what's
going on?
Oh yeah can we touch on some ofthat stuff that you mentioned?

Speaker 2 (40:52):
yeah, I gotta bust out my notes because there's a
lot going on and so so, so, andI'm just gonna give a 50,000
foot view.
I mean, some of these get verytechnical and very in the weeds,
but one of them is a good causefor not renewing someone's
lease, right?
So it's going to requirelandlords to have a to prove,
and it gets very delineated andgets very technical and very in
the weeds.

(41:12):
But you won't be able to likeI'm not going to renew your
lease.
You're going to have to be ableto justify, if this bill passes
, why you're not really renewingthe lease and having to buy.
And this is the bill.
I mean, you know it's, there'sa lot to it, right, it's a big
bill.
Um, there's all kinds of thingsthat you have to meet,
requirements you have to meetand prove to not renew

(41:33):
somebody's lease, like one ofthem is if you don't renew
somebody's lease, you have toprove that that property will
not be on the market for atleast a year.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
But what if the reason that you're not renewing
the lease is because you need tosell the property?

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Well, I would assume that would qualify under you're
not putting it back on themarket for a year?
Oh, market as renting?
Yes, okay, but again, that'spart of the conversation that
needs to happen, right, becauseyou guys need to come down and
talk about that.
Well, what if I sell theproperty?
Testify on that and then we getto ask questions of the

(42:07):
witnesses and help augment thosestories.
So that's the first question Ithought of.
What if someone's selling theproperty?
Is selling the property a goodcause?
Because sometimes you need tosell the property to extract the
right, the equity.
To go to the next thing goodcause is very subjective.

Speaker 4 (42:25):
Who determines what good cause is?

Speaker 2 (42:27):
the maryland general assembly, though, yeah, and if
you don't have a voice in thematter, they'll do it without
you.
Yeah, so what?

Speaker 3 (42:34):
what date?
Like what date is that?
So?
When a bill is getting ready tobe passed, the first question
is when a bill is getting readyto be thought about, how long
question is when a bill isgetting ready to be thought
about, how long does it takefrom that thought to being
passed?

Speaker 2 (42:43):
I mean, it takes sometimes years, sometimes
months, sometimes weeks,sometimes days.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
And then this bill in particular here that you're
discussing.
Is that coming up towards theend of it?

Speaker 2 (42:52):
I don't have the bill hearing dates for each of these
.
You can certainly reach out tomy office and I can get
information, or you can look itup on the General Assembly
website.
So that bill is House Bill 709.
So if you go to the MarylandGeneral Assembly website, look
up HB 709, it will have all thedetails, the final point of the
bill bill hearing date,committee things of that nature.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Sounds like a lot of work just for somebody like us
to keep up with all the billsyeah.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Listen, I have two full-time jobs.
I have my my day job in the, inthis industry, and then my job
doing this, and it's hard for meto keep up.
So and I'm, you know, I'mbasically living down there for
three months, so yeah, yeah, andI get just to sidetrack a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
You mentioned on a text that we were texting back
and forth that you were inseason Session Session.
So what does that?

Speaker 2 (43:41):
mean.
So we only meet in Annapolis tomake laws for three months a
year, from the second Tuesday inJanuary to the first Monday at
midnight in April.
So we write all the laws inthat 90-day period.
So when I'm there I have to.
Basically most of the time I'mspending 20% of the time doing

(44:01):
legislative duties and 80% doingmy regular job.
This time of year I'm doing 80%legislative duties in Annapolis
and 20% my day job, Becausethis is supposed to be a citizen
legislature.
So we only make so much moneybeing legislators so we have to
have regular jobs that feed ourfamilies.

(44:22):
So I'm both all the time.
Now I'm not a martyr about it.
Like I was clear-eyed, I knewwhat I was getting into.
So I'm not feeling so hard formyself or no, nor is anybody
else, but it is so, if you don'tmind me asking how much does
somebody like you make doingpolitics?
well, it's it.
No, it's, it's public record.
Um we're.
They passed a bill a coupleyears ago I voted against it but
to increase the pay from 50grand a year to 56 000 a year

(44:46):
over four years.
So by 26, this job would pay uh56 000 a year.
But and I can say that becauseit's public record, like
anything public official, it'sall disclosed and all that, so
damn, that's not a not a lot ofmoney, not for uh more than 40
hour week job in addition to theregular job.
But listen, if you're doingthis for the money, it's the
wrong reason.
I'm just telling you like thisis.

(45:07):
This is not.
This is a labor of love, uh, oror self-loathing it almost
seems worse than teaching beinga teacher.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Yeah, I know that that does.
It sounds like uh brutal.
So, um, do you have ambitionsto go into the next level of
politics at all?

Speaker 2 (45:25):
I mean it's what they say luck is.
Luck is where preparation meetsopportunity.
I mean that's kind of.
Well, you know, if things breaka certain way, sure.
If they don't, so be it.
You know, I mean, like I have agreat career, you know, I have
a great career, I have a greatsituation, but you don't get in
these positions without a littlebit of ambition.

(45:45):
So we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
So somebody like Larry Hogan for example who is a
Republican in a very Democraticstate.
How does something like thatshake out?
How does he get in so?

Speaker 2 (46:00):
part of it's the environment, right.
2014 was a year where peoplewere really frustrated with
Democrat policies Halfway to thesecond term of Obama.
People were tired of taxes.
People were just tired of a lotof things, right.
So there was a mood.
There was also, because of that, a lack of enthusiasm on the
Democrat side, which means theyweren't going to turn out.

(46:25):
Drill down to Maryland.
You're coming off the O'Malleyadministration where you just
had 42 straight tax hikes right,including the rain tax and a
couple of things that reallystuck with people.
So Democrats generally were notshowing up.
There were a lot of blue dogDems, moderate Democrats, who
were tired of some of the policypositions made.

(46:47):
And Larry Hogan didn't have avoting record.
We're like I would never runfor governor, right, because I
voted on some things that Ibelieve in that would be very
unpopular for me to runstatewide, which would be used
against me.
Larry Hogan was never in office.
He was running and is, as abusiness person, right, so they

(47:08):
couldn't stick him on all theseother issues they can nail him
on because he voted this way orthat way.
He was voting.
He ran against the policiesthat hurt the entire state
financially and the conditionswere right.
Now, to his credit, hecapitalized on it and partly

(47:29):
that to a second term whichnobody thought was possible
either time.
And he won that handily becauseof how he handled his first
term.
But some of it's environmentalcircumstances, the mood of the
people.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
So then, I guess we switch gears to Wes Moore, which
is like he's on the totalopposite end of the spectrum.
Is that because people weren'thappy with how Larry Hogan
finished up his thing, or?

Speaker 2 (48:00):
no, it was um uh.
There was high enthusiasm onthe democrat side, not only
against trump but against therepublican nominee, dan cox.
So there was high enthusiasm bythe democrats nationally in
maryland and against Stan Cox,and I mean that was a big part

(48:22):
of it.
Right Again, environmentalfactors affecting local
elections.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
So you think that part of that issue was like the
political climate, I guess froma national level, with Trump?

Speaker 2 (48:41):
That does have an effect, right, um, which is
fascinating, like right now,because you know, you look at,
you know trump's popularity skyhigh, you know.
I mean his popularity this timein his second term is higher
than it was at this time hisfirst term.
So there's a real mood shifteven happening, and I'm not
trying to be partisan, because Iknow you have plenty of

(49:01):
listeners that are Democrats andindependents, so I'm not trying
to be partisan.
I'm just talking about from mypoint of view, right, and what
my experience is.
But you look at voterregistration in different states
, like in Pennsylvania,democrats had there was a
million more Democrats inPennsylvania than Republicans in
2012.
Now the number's cut down to100,000, right, that's

(49:23):
Pennsylvania.
And that doesn't include peoplethat may be Democrats, that are
voting Republican and justhaven't got around to switching
to registration.
That's hard registrations,right.
So Pennsylvania went from arelatively blue state to now a
solid swing 100,000 voterregistration.
In a state like Pennsylvania,that's a swing state now, right,
and that wasn't in play forever.

(49:43):
Florida is now a safe red stateand they had a million-plus
advantage in Democrats and amillion-plus advantage in
Florida, and now that's a safered state.
It's completely reversed.
You know Maryland stayed aboutflat.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
That's for a variety of reasons, um do you think,
because we're the proximity toDC?
Definitely?

Speaker 2 (50:05):
proximity to DC, the size of the state.
I mean, we're a very smallstate that houses two major
cities, um, and people in citiesare typically more Democrat for
a variety of reasons.
Um, so that's had a majorimpact on us that's interesting,
so okay, so we had.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
We talked about the energy stuff.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
I gotta, I gotta you gotta touch on the, the landlord
tenant laws, just a little,yeah.
Well, yeah, I'll get back.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
Let's dive back into that.
So I talked about good calls,right, and I did talk about the
policy we passed a couple yearsago that raised the eviction
filing fee, and now you'refunding uh, you're the legal
defense against yourself.
Yeah, yeah, it's like literallypaying a lawyer to sue you rent
control is on my list.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
Rent control is that a thing that's coming down the
well, rent control, uh, that'ssomething I know.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
I think montgomery county has a bill talking about
rent control.
There's actually a bill, thatkind of deal, and I'm going to
get to that.
Deals with um, late fee capsand things of that nature as
well, but rent control issomething that's very popular
right now from some of theparticularly very far left and
you see some of the countiestrying to move in that direction
.
Uh, so that's where you knowthat.
You know if your listeners thatthat that live in like howard

(51:19):
county and or Montgomery County,need to contact their
legislators, need to contacttheir county council folks and
have those conversations.
Like this is going to make itbecause, like you have a market
right, you charge what themarket allows you to charge,
right until external factorsforce you to raise rents.

(51:41):
Right, because you work off amargin.
Right, this has to make sense.
This is not charity for you.
You wish it was, but it's notcharity.
You have to.
There's got to be some, yeah,some meat on the bone, right for
this to make sense for your,for your labor, right, uh, and
your time.
And when these environmentalfactors come in, like increased
private tax assessments,increased energy, energy costs,
increased taxes, all thesefactors.

(52:03):
Now you're forced to raiserents, and if rent controls
don't accommodate thoseenvironmental factors, then
you're upside down and you'reout.

Speaker 4 (52:13):
Aren't a lot of those rent control bills, though,
like you have to own five housesor more?

Speaker 2 (52:18):
Typically it's six, Six.

Speaker 4 (52:23):
But how many people?
Right, you know, I mean youwould, you'd be screwed.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
Yeah, six is I'm just saying but like right that many
, there's somebody that's afull-time investor, isn't that
money?

Speaker 2 (52:32):
yeah, and then, and, and somebody who's a full-time
investor with six propertiesyou're not wealthy, right?
Right, I mean how much you'remaking on.
I mean you get some of theseproblems.
You're making 15, 20 grand ayear, right, and if you know six
properties, you know, if you'reyou know netting 100 grand a
year.
I mean you're making a.
It's a good wage, right, butyou're working your tail off and

(52:52):
you're one bad policy decisionfrom that 100 becoming 40, right
so there's a law that happened.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
That was in dc I don't know if it's still there,
but requiring landlords to offerto sell the property to the
tenants before they could sellit on the market.
I heard yep, some somewherethey're trying to sneak that
into maryland as well oh yeah,they've had that bill's been
before us before.

Speaker 4 (53:18):
Yeah, that's already that's a, that's a baltimore
city thing for sure, yeah, yeahso so can we talk about that a
little bit?

Speaker 1 (53:25):
sure um I think it's county, yeah, county by county,
yeah.
So yeah, like does I mean?
Is that something that ishappening right now, or is it?

Speaker 2 (53:36):
something, I mean something fighting.
It's something you should befighting, you know.
I mean, if you want to rightand thing is juice versus
squeeze is a bad thing for youto give your tenant first right.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Refusal by the home no, and I don't mind that part
of it, but what happened?
And and I could be wrong, butthere was a lot of issues when
they did it in dc, where therewas like opportunistic lawyers
that were basically likestrongholding landlords into not
selling the property or theywere getting like the buy rights
.
They were buying the buy rightsfrom the tenants to and I have

(54:08):
to dig more into this, maybewe'll talk about this?

Speaker 2 (54:10):
No, I understand what you're saying.
They were basically going tothe tenant, like you know.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
Here's a way that we can make some money, yeah.
And I think that was formultifamily.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
Like I don, here's a way that we make some money,
yeah, and I think that was formulti-family.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
Like I don't think a multi-family maybe applies in
one one area or another, but Icouldn't imagine.
I think dc.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
That's what I think I read something that it was.
You know it was.
If it was a multi family, itwas multi-family, which makes it
crazier, and that's when.
That's when the lawyers came in.
Like these opportunisticlawyers came into the to the
tenants and were buying theirrights to buy the property and
so that's where you can affectlegislation and get amendment on
the bill preventing thatpractice, right?

Speaker 2 (54:46):
I mean, again, we're lawmakers like you're like, how
do we change this?
Well, we introduce a bill andwe change the law.
We put an amendment on a billand change, like, literally,
we're the ones who literallymake the laws.
How you change, you change it,pass a bill.
Who do you know?
You know me and you're going toknow others, and the more you
guys get activated and engageyour legislators, you're going
to know the people that actuallycan do this.

(55:08):
Right, yeah, it's, it's, it'sreally that close.
People think it's as far off,magical, mystical.
No, I mean, like, yourlegislator lives in your
community.
They have to live in thedistrict where they represent.
You know who's the person herein the Severn Park?
I'd have to look it up.
I'm not sure offhand.
I mean, probably know him orher very well.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
Yeah, yeah, I guess it's just not something that's
talked about a lot, like wherewould I even find that
information?

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Or like is it public?

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah, obviously it's public.
That was a bad joke.
Obviously it's public.
Everything you do is public,but it's not on TV, right, it's
not?

Speaker 2 (55:48):
on commercials.
No, it's a Maryland GeneralAssembly website.
Just search Maryland GeneralAssembly and I forget the name.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
So you have to physically really be looking.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
You have to dive into this.
It's not this ton of work,right?
It's not this again?

Speaker 3 (56:02):
well, you have to know somebody that's going to
tell you the website because,like otherwise, how would we
know where to look?

Speaker 2 (56:06):
that's what we're going to do right now let me
look at the website uh, dummy,this is this is.
This is why you invited me on,so we can have this conversation
.
Listen, they don't teach civicsin schools the way they used to
right like I.
You know people don't.
The questions you ask are very,very, very typical questions
like, um, and that's why it's somuch fun to be on here, because

(56:29):
I can actually, you know, wecan have this real conversation.
So the website is, uh, hold ona sec like you think, are you
guys allowed to advertise?

Speaker 1 (56:43):
Can you get a TV commercial or something?
Yeah, I campaign.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
I have a campaign account.
I run for re-election, I buyads and billboards and mailers
and the whole thing.
That's how we get re-elected.
And people can donate to that.
We're not allowed.
So just so you know, this isduring legislative session.
We have a blackout period, soI'm not even allowed to talk
about fundraising during thistime.
So I can't even bring it up.
So the website ismgalegmarylandgov and that's the

(57:14):
Maryland General Assemblywebsite.
And to find your legislatorthere's actually a link that
says find my legislator.
There's actually a link it saysfind my legislator, and then
you put your your address in andit'll tell you who represents
you you say that's m g a l l e gdot maryland dot gov okay
that's interesting so, okay,that's where you can look up all
the bills.

(57:34):
you can find all the informationabout the bills that we're
introducing and passing or notpassing this year.
That's where you sign up totestify on bills.
That's where you can look upthe legislation, details and
legislation, and that's alsowhere you can find out who your
legislator is and their contactinformation, and then you can
contact them and tell them howyou feel.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
Okay, so would you suggest, like if we see for
somebody like us that in realestate investing full-time, we
contact our person, whoever ourlegislator is, and say, hey,
this is the bill that we're justmade aware of.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Yeah, and we're opposed to this bill and this is
how it's going to hurt me.
This is how it's going to hurtyour constituents, who are my
tenants.

Speaker 1 (58:18):
Yeah, I feel like we should probably pay more
attention to this yeah there's alot that we could write in
about.

Speaker 4 (58:23):
I mean, the first one being right.
Like we have some rentallistings that go up on the the
ether whether that's zillow, mlsor whatever and there's
professional tenants.
Just like you said, that'll sit, you know, they'll rent from
you for three months and they'llmake a payment.
And they'll rent from you forthree months and they'll make a
payment, and then they'll rentfrom you again.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
A lot of people that are just coming in squat because
they know that.
Yeah, that's what I was gettingto.

Speaker 4 (58:44):
The biggest thing is like people will see these
listings that are vacant onZillow and they know they're
rentals and they'll go breakinto them and then they squat.
And then it's like, as alandlord, you're like, now I
have to who has absolutely noright to be here.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
So they commit a crime by breaking in, but then
all of a sudden, if they breakin with no one seeing them,
they're scot-free, which doesn'tmake any sense.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
Agreed and they could just create a fake lease and
the cops can't do it.
I don't want to say won't, butthey can't do anything about it.
That sounds like a bill,because the police just say
every time that spoken to thepolice, they're like they, they

(59:26):
want to, they don't want totouch that with a 10-foot pole.
It sounds like a bill and hey,you know a guy who writes laws,
so just saying, yeah, yeah, the,the squatting, the squatting
laws are absolutely insane.
Yeah, they are so.
So we have a house in floridaand I was tough.
I learned some of the uh lawsdown there.
Like you could, if somebodysquats in your house, you could
just go in there with a shotgunand remove them.
Like it's, it's like that.
It's so far the other way.
But here, if somebody breaksinto your home, has a fake lease

(59:47):
, they have all of the.
They automatically have all ofthese rights, yep.

Speaker 3 (59:51):
How do we find out the history of those type of
laws Like, for example?
I would love to learn aboutwhen and how squatters laws have
become a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
I mean for practical purposes.
You know, and this is gonnasound dismissive, I don't mean
to sound, but for practicalpurposes the history doesn't
matter.
All that matters is what's infront of us and how we fix it.
You know I mean because all ofour biggest commodity is time,
and you know I need to investall my time making.

Speaker 4 (01:00:19):
So, like introducing a bill like that, where we get
rid of squatter rights, likethat sounds like like a big feat
.
I mean, how does, how does onego about introducing a bill
where there's you have you'regoing up against what is it?

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
132 democrats, that's what I get paid for, right, but
but it's also, you know, canyou pass it who knows right?
But you have the conversation.
And if you can't pass the billthe way you want, maybe you can.
You know, can you pass it whoknows right?
But you have the conversation.
And if you can't pass the billthe way you want, maybe you can,
you know, change things some tomake it more fair, right but a
bit like that, like how is that?

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
even like there's morally right, there's morally
wrong, like if anyone sees orhears that how could they side
with somebody agreeing with thatbill?

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
But again it's all about.
The General Assembly is 188people, but in the House
Delegates it's 141 people.
Everybody has a differentconstituency, a different life
experience and different pointsof view, and the General
Assembly really is aboutexpanding the members of the
General Assembly's point of viewright, giving different

(01:01:20):
perspectives they don't have.
And that's where testimonycomes into play, because they
may only have this oneexperience and what they're
doing, they're doing it for whatthey feel is the right reason
and it may be completelyactually the right reason, but
all of us, me included,sometimes don't understand the
other side or the ripple effectsor what I talk about, the
unintended consequences, right,and if people don't show up to

(01:01:41):
talk about how this could hurtthem, even if it's helping this
other person, then they neverhear that perspective and shame
on the people for not showing upyeah, that's.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
That's some wild stuff.
So if you're listening to thisand you are a landlord, that's
been affected by squatters whichI think most people I feel like
, if you've done to this and youare a landlord that's been
affected by squatters which Ithink most people I feel like if
you've done this enough and youhave enough houses, you've had
squatters, or even really.

Speaker 4 (01:02:06):
I mean I had one of my listings get broken into
because they know it was, andthen I had to go explain to my
seller that hey, your listingjust got broken into, now we
have to evict them and my sellerobviously was not too happy and
it's like I mean, who's toblame here?
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
The law that allows for it.
Yeah, just saying yeah.
If people are allowed to dothings they shouldn't be able to
do.
That's the law's fault and itfalls on us for those laws,
because we can affect those laws.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
I have one about so short-term rentals, something
that, oh yeah about.
So short-term rentals somethingoh yeah, there's a lot of bills
around that, yeah, somethingthat we don't do too much of.
But, um, I know in baltimorecity, where most of our
properties are, you can't doairbnb or short-term rentals
right.
Um, my, you know less than 90days or 60 days, whatever it is.

(01:02:57):
Um, who is the one fighting islike I heard that's like the
hotel lobbyists that arefighting for those I mean
everybody has different.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
I mean the hotel lobby has been, uh, um, fighting
to affect the short-term rentaluh industry.
So that's, that's a thing, yeah, so are you pro or against
short-term rentals?
I mean, I'm into propertyrights, right?
So somebody wants to run around.
If somebody wants to rent theirproperty out, um, you know, for

(01:03:27):
short term rental and take on aliability, that's, that's on
them.
I, I really don't care, right,okay?

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
like I'm a little bit like that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Take on, I'm a little bit libertarian on these things
, right right yeah, I mean, Ipersonally it would take away
from hotels like you mentioned.
I'm not against it and I'm notlike Because I don't have any.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
But it's like a fair market right.
That's what the free marketallows for.
Similar to.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
Uber and Lyft how they're taking away business
from taxis, which I don't mindthat at all.
I think it's mainly the nextdoor neighbor homeowner who,
most of Baltimore City is, a lotof townhouse row houses and
it's the fact of, you know,having new neighbors, you know,
every so often.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
And some of the conversations that are starting
to get.
Some attractions around theparty houses, like there's
people that have party housesfor rental and short term rental
sites right, that people knowthey can go and party and lose
their minds and affect some ofthe neighbors and all that right
.
So there is someself-regulation that needs to
happen in that space for some ofthose reasons, right.

(01:04:27):
And anytime you have a bigparty house, people lose their
minds in a quiet little suburbanneighborhood.
That gives the industry a badname, right.
And then the folks who want tostop short-term rentals will
wave that flag and wave thatbanner because it gets a lot of
publicity, you know.
So the bad actor is always oneither side of any issue, or the

(01:04:49):
ones always get the mostattention when trying to move
the needle in any direction yep,okay, I have one more on my
list here.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
So in florida we're seeing a big issue with this,
and obviously now in californiaas well property insurance,
homeowners insurance and here ithas gone up a lot like I used
to be paying 350 dollarsflorida's wind florida's wind
damage right wind and flood.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
Yeah, I mean that's you know california's fire
obviously right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
So, um, which is causing, especially in Florida
and California I know Floridamore because I'm in that market
but people, especially olderpeople on fixed incomes, are
losing their homes because theycan't afford to pay the
insurance or they're goingwithout insurance and then the
next storm comes and wipes themout and remember the insurance
is also driven by costs torepair, which is driven by

(01:05:38):
policy decisions, right, allthese taxes, all these things
we've done to affect the cost ofgoods and services, right,
makes it less likely to getinsured because the cost to
replace rises because oflegislative policy decisions.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
So all these little things we do have ripple effects
all the way down the line.
So I'm sorry.
I got off my soapbox.
Continue your question.

Speaker 1 (01:05:59):
Yeah, so basically I've seen my homeowner's
insurance on an average go fromabout $350 to $500 to $1,200 or
more in the last couple years.
Have you noticed the same?
So are there bills or thingsthat we could pass that limit or
affect the price of theinsurance?

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
Well, so do you support price controls or no?
Do you support rent controls?
Slippery, slope, right?
You can't support it here andnot support it over here.
Yeah, that's the conversation,right?
Because if I stand on mysoapbox here and say we cannot
have rent controls on landlordswith one or two little

(01:06:44):
properties, but here we need tohave controls over here, right,
that would be used against me.
So you got to always thinkabout the domino effect of every
single position we take ondifferent policy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
So I guess, and like I'm'm for, like I'm pro stating
like you can't like price fixright like I, I think that's a
good rule for contractors, orfor somebody, the market, the
market will, will suss it outright, right, but these big
insurance companies that areobviously just pounding people

(01:07:22):
over the head with these rates,even if, like the price of,
let's just say the the price ofrepair for something has not
tripled, like the price of theinsurance policy, over the last
let's just call it four years.
So I guess that that's, thatgoes back to the same thing.
I'm not for controlling theprice.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
I mean, I see your point of view.
If they're increasing it threetimes and the construction costs
haven't gone up three times,then maybe it doesn't make sense
.

Speaker 4 (01:07:53):
But that's like somebody telling Ryan he can't
increase his contracting pricesbecause the price to build a
house hasn't increased.

Speaker 2 (01:07:59):
I also feel like they all work together though the
insurance companies Well and see, I'm a classic Republican,
conservative, free marketcapitalist.
You know what I mean, like, doI like some of the things?
No, do some of these thingsneed to be reined in in some
capacity?
Yes, you know, if there'scollusion where these insurance
companies are working togetherto slowly raise their prices, in

(01:08:21):
conjunction, they should befighting to lower them, to be
more competitive, right, um, butalso I, but it's tough
situation in florida, right,like, because you have a lot of.
Some of this is affected by thecost of things, right, the cost
to replace, and some of that'spolicy decisions.
Some of that's inflation, youknow, like, so the fact that,

(01:08:44):
for example, we have no, we havea huge shortage in housing
stock in Maryland, which forceshousing pricing up, and if
housing pricing goes up, thecost to replace it goes up,
which means insurance goes uporganically, and how it relates
to that, right, and some ofthese are policy decisions,
right, you know, and you guys,what you guys do.
You take pressure off the wholeecosystem and these are the

(01:09:08):
things you guys got to thinkabout sometimes.
I'm not trying to preach to you, this is your industry, right,
but what you guys do takingvacant properties that are
unlivable and making themlivable takes one more family
off the housing market into ahome, which takes pressure off
the entire ecosystem, right.
So you guys are doing a goodservice and you guys really
should start being proud of whatyou guys do, because you guys

(01:09:30):
do help everyone.
Every unit you guys rehab, righttakes pressure off that $5,000
home, $500,000 home, and if youdo enough of them, it turns into
490, right, which pressure offthat $5,000 home, $500,000 home,
and if you do enough of them,it turns into $490,000, right,
which now makes it a little bitless expensive to replace, and
then insurance comes down alittle bit.

(01:09:50):
So it all works in conjunctionup and down the line.
So you guys should have alittle more pride.
Not that you don't, but whensomebody says that you're an
evil monster for rehabbing homesand renting them, you're like
well, you're doing a service.
You're providing shelter.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
Yeah, that's true.
I'm out of my list of questionshere, Nick Chase, do you guys
have anything?

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
Well, let me run through these bills real fast,
yeah, yeah, yeah, we're runningshort on time.
I will just give you the headsup on them.
Uh, one bill is uh, um, uh s sb, which stands for senate bill,
or hb for house bill, senatebill 514.
This would uh prevent umcriminal history record checks
for your tenants.

(01:10:32):
So good luck with that.
Uh, I don't want to go too muchdetail, but uh, there's another
bill.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
You said end record.
Would that include priorevictions and prior failure of
pays?

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
Well, that gets into House Bill 242 that will let you
check credit history, that'sthe other bill.

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
There's no point in even screening anyone, so look
up these bills for yourself.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
I know you don't have time for me to go into detail,
but you should look at thesebills and understand what you're
allowed not allowed to do ifthese bills have to pass.
But these are bills y'allshould be showing up and
testifying on right, I mean,what do they want us to do?

Speaker 4 (01:11:10):
just ask them their name and that's it.
What's your name?

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
uh, here's one um house bill 273 um3, that this
bill prohibits a landlord fromcharging a penalty for a late
payment of rent that exceeds 5%of the amount of unpaid rent due
.

Speaker 3 (01:11:30):
Yeah, I think it's always been 5% as long as I've
known.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
Well, this puts a cap on, so it's 5% of yeah, so it
puts more of a cap on it.
Here's an of yeah, so it puts amore of a cap on.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
Here's an interesting one that's the cap and this one
you may understand it'srecurring five percent okay, oh,
gotcha here's one that you mayunderstand more than me, and I
just saw this one today.
I thought it was interesting.
I think I understand itconceptually.
Uh, senate bill 609 that thisthis bill would prohibit a

(01:12:01):
landlord from using analgorithmic device that uses
non-public competitive data toset the amount of rent charged
for the lease of a property orcharge in rent.
So this will prevent you fromusing AI.
From this is how I read it.
I may be wrong from allowingyou to use data of off-market

(01:12:23):
properties to calculate whatyou're going to charge for rent.
I may be wrong, maybe you'rewrong, but that's how I
interpret it Because it saysnon-public, which most of us you
know what that means, becausemost rentals aren't taken to
public like the MLS is.

Speaker 3 (01:12:37):
So when you get an appraisal done, let's say for a
front of property, theyobviously praise the value, the
full value of the house.
And then the market rent.
They pull the market rent fromthe mls where I would.
I would guess and this is justa guess maybe 15 of actual data
is on the mls.

Speaker 2 (01:12:51):
The rest is literally off off the off the market and
I would say I would use ai oralgorithms as the best tool to
assess what an appropriate rentwould be.
That's market value.
This bill prevents that.

Speaker 4 (01:13:05):
So that's interesting because that's kind of like
what you guys do down in Floridawith your Airbnb.
I was talking to Christian.
They have an algorithm thatbasically with Airbnb, adjusts
the rate by day or week orwhatever the other competitive
houses are.
So it would make your housemore competitive and probably
less cheap in some cases.

Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
So for some reason there's a bill in to prevent
that.
So that's again senate bill 609.
I would look that up.
Um, here's short-term rentalsand home amenity rentals, health
and safety requirements.
This bill would establish allkinds of health and safety and
it may be a good thing, right.
Like I'm not as familiar withthe short-term rental market

(01:13:45):
that's not really, you know mybailiwick but it establishes you
can't have cameras in there andsurveillance inside the home,
and I think that's really fair.

Speaker 1 (01:13:59):
I actually super agree with that.

Speaker 4 (01:14:01):
I agree with that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
I don't want somebody putting a camera in my hotel
room.
I don't want somebody putting acamera in my area.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
I'm surprised that's not already a law, not that
cameras outside like a ringcamera which I think is okay,
but inside that's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
Yeah, that's invading privacy a little bit and this
requires a short-term rentalowners to submit an annual
report.
The comptroller includesshort-term rental units and
platforms in the definition ofhotel for local hotel rental tax
purposes, so it would apply thehotel tax depending on your
jurisdiction, you know do youguys have control over like
state licenses too, and like thecontractor license, like in

(01:14:39):
florida?

Speaker 4 (01:14:39):
that falls in our system yeah, florida, it's
really hard to get your contractlicense.

Speaker 2 (01:14:42):
Me and ron were talking about that the other day
, so uh I, I put a bill in twoyears ago specifically around,
uh, veterans.
Um, it turned into a study thatwe're still waiting for the
results back.
Because west virginia if youhave a trade in the military and
you go to West Virginia and youtake a test basically a
competency test you get to passeverything by and go right to
work.

(01:15:02):
So I'm trying to do that herein Maryland for for the trades,
our laws are so wonky and soconvoluted that it went into a
study.
So they're studying what ourlaws are and how to do this and
once I get the results back, I'mgoing to put a series of bills
in that allows veterans to go,if they've done that type of
work in the military, to be ableto take a test and go right to

(01:15:23):
work here in Maryland.

Speaker 4 (01:15:24):
So that would affect that.
That's one piece of it.
But yeah, I have anotherquestion, just because you're
talking about veterans, whatelse are you pushing along for
veterans?
Because I mean, in this areathere's a ton right Like half
the people I meet one in fiveare veterans.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
So I'm really blessed .
So I'm vice chair of the HouseVeterans Caucus.
I was the Maryland MilitaryCoalition, which is the
organization that all the othermilitary organizations that
makes up the VFW and AmericanLegion and all the officer
association all make up theMaryland Military Coalition.
I was their legislator the yearlast year for my work on
veterans.
I'm really, really proud ofthat.

(01:15:58):
Um, I've passed a variety ofbills.
I passed a bill last year thatreduces the threshold for the
veterans disability tag to 50%.
So if you're 50% disabled as ofright now because of my bill,
you can now get a disabledveterans tag.

Speaker 4 (01:16:12):
I'm missing that right now.

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
Yeah, can now get a disabled veterans tag.
I'm missing that right now.
Yeah, you know, right now um I,uh, I'm.
I passed a bill last year thatgives free um hunting and
fishing licenses to uhunemployed veterans rated
unemployable, which is differentthan 100 disabled um.
I would build this year thesame thing for free vehicle
registrations for unemployableveterans that I think is going
to pass as well.

(01:16:34):
The bill is looking at andassessing how we can get
veterans in the trades right towork here in Maryland.
It fills a lot of needs and alot of holes there.

Speaker 4 (01:16:46):
Where can veterans find the stuff that you're
passing On?

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
the website I just gave.
The General Assembly website,the General Assembly website,
and you can contact me as well.
I've introduced another billthis year to remove the age
restriction on the exemption onmilitary retirement tax from 55
to no minimums Because you canretire at 38.
Right, you know what I mean.

(01:17:09):
If I stay now, I'll retire at38.
So I probably have severalother bills.
I have a bill right now thatwill counter uh military
retirement your, your militaryyears in military uh bill I just
introduced today.
Um, your military years willcount towards your state pension
if you're a state, state orcounty employee that's a good

(01:17:29):
one.

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
Yes, that's one of my bills this year.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
So I mean it's a host , I mean a couple dozen
federally bills that I'veintroduced've introduced and
I've passed some.
So, no, I fight my tail off.
For others.

Speaker 4 (01:17:40):
Yeah, definitely, Definitely going to be reaching
out to you.
I mean, there's a lot of stuffon the Internet that I looked up
and I always thought it was100% to get your disability tax.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
It was.

Speaker 3 (01:17:55):
Now it's 50% of october 1 of last year because
of my bill.
That's awesome.
I got a question a little offthe topic of, uh, what we have
been discussing, but do you knowthe rules or laws around
opening a dispensary?

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
uh, that's not my uh um strong suit cup of tea,
because, because generalassembly is a bit of, uh, divide
and conquer, right, likethere's a lot of, we're gonna
have 3 500 bills, probably ingeneral, some of this year, 3
500 last year and so on, right,so that's not something that I'm
super involved in, so I can'treally gotcha the reason he's

(01:18:27):
asking?

Speaker 1 (01:18:27):
because one of our buddies said that in order to
get one here, you have to beconnected to like some sort of
politician.

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
Essentially, I can't help you with that.
I don't I know the answer tothat, so gotcha, I can tell you
I can't help you with that allright, this is my last question.

Speaker 4 (01:18:44):
How many bills get passed each year?

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
uh, some usually between eight, nine hundred
question.

Speaker 4 (01:18:49):
Think about that to nine hundred jesus, I don't know
, I can't read that much isthere a limit that doesn't
include?

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
no, there's no limit and that doesn't include the
budget, which is a huge, huge,67 billion dollar piece of
legislation.
Right, yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:19:07):
to go back to the budget real quick you just said.
You said before um, we as astate have to have a balanced
budget, as as required by thestate constitution.
So, but the federal governmentdoesn't, no, because we just
keep borrowing, correct.
So when they say like states,like New York, right, new York,

(01:19:28):
I feel like they have a problemwith affordability.
I'm from New York originally.
Most people that worked as ablue collar middle income type
of person does not retire in newyork, right?
so somebody in maryland right innew york, I think, is even a
more of the case, because it'sjust so crazy, crazy expensive.

(01:19:50):
Yeah, but somebody like, uh, myparents who retired to del,
delaware to pay less taxes orpeople that go to Florida now.
My dad worked for the state, forthe railroad.
He collected, you know, andstill is collecting pension from
New York, sure, but spending itin Delaware where people are

(01:20:11):
spending it in Florida, thosestates cannot be net positive or
even net zero.
Like.
How are they like?
New York is famously like spent.
I feel like spending more thanthey.

Speaker 2 (01:20:28):
Well, I mean, that's why they tax more, right,
because states like Marylandthink we can tax our way out of
our financial problems.
Right, so we give moreentitlements, we give more
services, right, so we taxpeople's retirements.
We tax people at a higher rate.
They leave, but instead ofmaking cuts, they just tax the
people that remain at a higherrate.
And that's what happens overand over and over again.

(01:20:49):
And there's a bit of adependency on federal employees
that are kind of stuck here tosome extent.
But we had, I think what was thenumber?
It was either 20 or 40,000,20,000 Marylanders moved to
Virginia last year.
Right, those are federalemployees, those are people that
live in a DC area.
That are people that should beliving in Maryland, paying taxes

(01:21:10):
in Maryland, spending, you know, going to our restaurants,
using our hospitality, right?
They're going to Virginiabecause it's a lot cheaper to
live there, right?
So Virginia is cleaning ourclock right now, and that's just
for people actively workingRetirees.
We have no hope to keep thesefolks, right?
I mean, we taxed militaryretirement in Maryland, right?
Think about that.

(01:21:31):
So, oh, and here's another bill.
This is a good one.
So right now, the residencyrequirement is six months, right
?
So if you live in another statefor six months and a day, you
pay their taxes.
There's a bill in front of uswe heard and had the bill here
the other day That'll increasein Maryland to nine months.
So you have to live in anotherstate for nine months not to pay

(01:21:52):
Maryland taxes.
So buckle up for that.
I assume you might be one ofthose people that might spend
half the year in Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:22:03):
No, not half.
I'm here.
Shame on you.
I'm the winter.
Shame on you.
I winter away.

Speaker 2 (01:22:09):
Listen, if I could afford it, I'd have a place in
Florida.
Now I have to be a Marylandresidentland resident, obviously
too, so I couldn't do that.
But when I'm done, this, youknow, you know political stuff.
I mean, like I love maryland, Igrew up here, I think
maryland's the best state in thecountry, but we've made it so I
can't afford to retire here.
You know, I mean, and I want tosay and one of the reasons

(01:22:30):
general something's I'm fighting.
I've said I'm fighting to giveme the opportunity to retire
here.

Speaker 1 (01:22:36):
Yeah, that's interesting.
That's a good fight too.

Speaker 3 (01:22:38):
You know, like you grew up here, you want to stay
here, but the state's going topush you out when we get to that
age and it's not affordableanymore that's right, that's
what's happening?

Speaker 1 (01:22:48):
yeah, I guess I've always been in the camp of just
like make more, but there's somany people that are not in that
camp to be able to just stay,because I feel like if you want
to stay, you you figure it outkind of thing, but it does make
sense, like places like new yorkand places especially when you
retire.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
right now my incomes are fixed, generally speaking,
right, I have my pension andthis and the other right, and I
can stay in maryland where it'sgetting taxed to death, where I
can go to Florida where it's nottaxed.
I mean it's a and I'm gettingthe same pension because the
amount's not changing.
It's just what the government'staking is different and it has
to hurt the state when peopleleave.
Which is why they raise moretaxes on all of us.

(01:23:29):
Those that are left behind haveto pay more taxes.

Speaker 1 (01:23:34):
So it basically all kind of falls down to the people
that are owning the businessesmaking the most money.

Speaker 2 (01:23:46):
And, frankly, the people that can't leave.
It hurts the people the mostthat don't have the economic
mobility to be able to relocate,which is typically middle to
lower income.
Folks, who are the ones whocarry at the end of the day
carry most of the burden because, even though they have a bunch
of tax breaks, they're stillpaying sales tax, they're still
paying gas tax, they're stillpaying higher electricity costs,
etc.
Etc.
Higher insurance costs, youknow, higher vehicle

(01:24:09):
registration fees.
So even though the lower incomefolks get taxed a lower rate,
they're still paying all themain taxes that everybody else
pays, but they just can't affordto leave.
Yeah, did you see?
And doubly so, because theywill never be able to get over
the hump to be able to everafford leave because they're so
burdened with all the differenttaxes we have here did you see
that uh trump introduced a bill,I guess, to put to put a stop

(01:24:31):
to federal income tax.
I got to be honest, like whenI'm in the middle of a slave
session.
It is such chaos with whatwe're facing here, I've not even
had really the bandwidth.
Look what's going on generallyfederally.

Speaker 1 (01:24:47):
So state income tax is that something that you guys
talk about?

Speaker 2 (01:24:53):
I mean I would love to.
I love state income tax.
Are you kidding me?
I mean that's not going talkabout.
I mean I would love to.
I love the state income tax.
Are you kidding me?
I mean that's not going tohappen, right?
I mean this conversation.
Because our neighbor right,delaware, doesn't have a state
income tax Right and that's notgoing to happen because we've
put forth so much mandatoryspending legislation that
there's no way so it's not worthus writing an email to.

(01:25:17):
And we've got to find $3 billionmore by the end of.

Speaker 4 (01:25:21):
March, like as a state?
Yeah, what happens if we don't?

Speaker 2 (01:25:24):
We will.
We have to by law.
We're going to find that $3billion, whether it's from cuts,
but most likely out ofMarylanders' pockets.
Cuts meaning spending cuts yes,cuts, but we're most likely out
of marylanders pockets.

Speaker 1 (01:25:44):
cuts meaning spending cuts like yes, but we, but
we're not I the there's sometalk that they're spending cuts,
but the budget's actuallyhigher.
What happened?
All the gambling money?
Oh, spent.
Yeah, wasn't it supposed to bespent on the school?

Speaker 2 (01:25:51):
and they're trying to raise the tax.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, yeah, uh,that's a whole different
conversation.
So, yeah, uh, racing gaming'smy committee education's.
Wasn't it supposed to be spenton the schools?
And they're trying to raise thetax?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that'sa whole different conversation.
So, yeah, racing gaming is mycommittee Education is my
committee Taxes is my committee,so I deal with all these issues
.

Speaker 4 (01:26:03):
You said racing.

Speaker 2 (01:26:04):
Racing gaming is my committee Horse racing.
Horse racing.

Speaker 1 (01:26:07):
Horse racing.
Okay, so because they starteddoing sports betting here.
Yep, nick knows all about that.

Speaker 2 (01:26:14):
Now they're trying to do iGaming, which is, you know,
table games online.
That's another thing they'retrying to push right now.

Speaker 1 (01:26:20):
So isn't that a crazy way to just like make a bunch
of money?

Speaker 2 (01:26:25):
I mean, you got people spending a bunch of money
on gambling, but the thing is,a lot of times the money is
spent before the bill's evenpassed.
You know what I mean, which isone of the fascinating things.
Like the cannabis money wasspent and already dedicated to
something else before the billeven became law.
They already said we're goingto spend it on x, y and z right.
So like.
One of the proposals in frontof us is to raise taxes on the

(01:26:47):
casinos.
There's a casino in marylandthat 50 of their gross revenue
goes to the state not the fed,the state Not the Fed, the state
.

Speaker 3 (01:26:55):
Which one?

Speaker 2 (01:26:56):
I don't remember offhand, there's only six
casinos, but I remember lookingat the report as we're getting
the briefing on this, becausethey're trying to raise taxes on
casinos once again, because itcould keep going back to the
well Damn.

Speaker 1 (01:27:10):
There's so much to know, it's a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:27:12):
And, frankly, we are scratching the surface.
But I really appreciate theopportunity to talk about this
and how all these things theripple effects, every policy
decision.
Again to go back to thebeginning anytime we spend money
ultimately ends up in the lapsof citizens and landlords and
investors.

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
Yeah, yeah, I've definitely opened my eyes to.
Uh, it's funny.
I mean, I guess somebody linkedus together to get you on the
show, or whatever and I was justlike what the hell is a state
delegate?
That's.

Speaker 4 (01:27:45):
That was my first like thing, and now I'm like,
wow, I need to know way moreabout what I feel, like that's
affecting our lives way morethan is there like one day a
month that we could just gettogether and just come down to.
Annapolis.

Speaker 2 (01:27:58):
I'd love to have you guys down, you know, and then,
if you want to do a, we gettogether after sessions over and
do a post-session recap, adamage assessment.

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
We can do that too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah After action.
We haven't ever talked aboutpolitics on the show or like
really pushed it at all, butthis isn't politics, right?

Speaker 2 (01:28:16):
We're not talking about politics.
Just to be clear for everybodywho's watching.
We're talking policy andthere's a difference.
Politics is bomb-throwing andyelling at each other and
shaming everybody, right?
This is policy conversations,right Right and lawmaking, and

(01:28:37):
this is really not nearly aspartisan as politics is.
This is trying to do the rightthing, trying to make good
decisions, trying to make peoplesuccessful and thrive, and and
when you tax them to death, itdoesn't have that net effect.

Speaker 1 (01:28:46):
Yeah, it's a good point all right, so we'll have a
second session after yoursession.

Speaker 4 (01:28:51):
Let's go, we'll have a second yeah, I think we should
have some investors cometogether and meet up with we
have a summit, a panel.
That would be sick.

Speaker 1 (01:29:00):
Yeah, that would be kind of cool.
All right, Well, keep your eyeout for that, Mike.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show today.
We really appreciate all thisstuff.
Thank you Again.
Could you give us Contact youremail once more?

Speaker 2 (01:29:12):
yeah, mikegriffith at housestatemdus.
Yeah, that's a mouthful, I know, okay, and that's anybody uh in
your constituency or outsideany of you can reach out to me.
I'm happy to help, uh, and ifit's a matter where I need to

(01:29:32):
refer somebody to theirlegislator, I I'm happy to do
that, and are people.

Speaker 1 (01:29:36):
are all the states set up the same way?

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
Generally, yeah, I mean yeah, it's just like the
federal government, stategovernment.
You have the House Senate andthe executive branch in DC,
that's the president.
Here, it's the governor HouseSenate and then, of course, the
judicial branch, which is theSupreme Court of Maryland Senate
and then, of course, thejudicial branch, which is the
Supreme court of Maryland, youknow, okay, great, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:29:56):
Well, thank you, mike .
Um, you guys have anything elseto?

Speaker 3 (01:29:59):
I appreciate you coming on.
It was great information.

Speaker 1 (01:30:02):
I learned a lot.
I know it's a busy time for you, right?

Speaker 2 (01:30:04):
now no, but I this.
This is a real treat for me.
This is kind.

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How Politics Affect Real Estate in Maryland - State Delegate Mike Griffith (Full Podcast)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}How Politics Affect Real Estate in Maryland - State Delegate Mike Griffith (Full Podcast)