Maryland House of Delegates District 30B

A: I have watched far too many funding fights in Annapolis pit one disenfranchised group against another. We must look at reducing costs across all programs by a similar percentage so that no single program faces drastic cuts or elimination and no one group of Marylanders is left out in the cold by their government. We must also reduce costs by modernizing our state workforce and processes in an age where computers increasingly can do tasks in mere minutes that once took hours. At the same time, we must not look at the budget deficit as an opportunity to “race to the bottom” by cutting critical programs or government functions. The ramifications of such a race to cut, cut, cut will have severe consequences for our children’s future and the future economy of Maryland. Instead, we must look to shrink the funding gap by modernizing our tax code so that the vast majority of Maryland workers keep more of their income in their pockets while we demand that the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share.

A: To restore trust in our government and deliver solutions for the most pressing issues, including lowering the cost of living, protecting our farms, forests and the Chesapeake Bay, and educating our next generation, we must get big money out of our politics.

Elected officials should not be receiving donations from utility companies when they are grappling with ways to regulate those companies and lower our utility costs. They shouldn’t have campaign war chests funded by the businesses that build and operate data centers when they are reviewing the very land use laws that make those centers possible. And they shouldn’t be funded by developers when they are reviewing proposals to reduce housing costs and keep our classrooms, roads and other public infrastructure from bursting as a result of urban sprawl. That’s why I’m advocating for serious campaign finance reform that will: ban campaign contributions from public utilities and developers who have applications pending in any county or city across the state; lower the cap on campaign contributions from individuals from $6,000 to $1,000; cap how much a campaign can spend; and provide grass-roots campaigns for all state senators and delegates the opportunity to tap into a small public funding match.

A: We must lower utility bills for Maryland residents by capping the percent these bills can increase over a 12-month period, demanding the Public Service Commission relitigate all recent approvals of rate increases, and pass a new utility impact fee to be paid by data centers whose massive use of electricity is driving up costs for all Marylanders. The revenues from this fee would go directly to a utility cost rebate for taxpayers.

We must also deliver affordable housing solutions for all communities in Maryland by requiring 25 percent of all new housing units built to be offered at no more than 30 percent of median monthly household income, and reforming land-use laws so that smaller, accessory units can be built by landowners where our public utilities and schools can accommodate them. What we must not do is tear up our environmental regulations and throw out our smart growth policies in favor of a new round of urban sprawl that will tear down our forests and pave over our farms. We must balance our housing needs with the needs of our existing communities and our environment. That requires building the right projects in the right places for the right reasons.

A: Maryland’s future depends on how we educate our children today. That’s why I will always make funding our schools, our teachers, and our children a top priority. Of course, we face tough fiscal challenges in Maryland that require the General Assembly to work with educators to look across all aspects of the Blueprint and determine the essential needs that should be funded immediately, and those that should be funded when and if revenue is available in the future. We must close our education funding gap, not by increasing new taxes and fees on Maryland workers, but by demanding that the ultra-wealthy, who have benefited the most from Maryland taxpayers, pay their fair share.

A: When I’m elected to office, constituents should hold me accountable to the priorities I’ve set out and ask me to show them the bills that I’ve written - and hopefully passed - that will kick big money out of our politics, lower the cost of living, fund our children’s future, and deliver new housing options while protecting our farms, forests, and rural communities from sprawl.