Delegate Trent Kittleman - District 9A |
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Week 3
January 31 - February 4, 2022
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Contents
- Retiree Income Tax Relief
- Yet another bill on gun control
- COVID and the death of freedom
- A Good Idea for the Environment
- Legislative Scholarship Application
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Retiree Income Tax Relief Act of 2022 |
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he number one question from my constituents is when are we going to get some relief from the heavy taxes on retirees. Many of my constituents are moving out of Maryland because of these high taxes.
This MAYBE this is the year that something gets done--maybe!
Sponsored by Delegate Susan Krebs and co-sponsored by 28 more delegates, including myself, HB 787 would provide the following relief for taxpaying retirees:
An amount is subtracted from federal adjusted gross income equal to the sum of the following amounts that you included in federal adjusted gross income:
- Payments received under Title II of the Social Security
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Payments received as Benefits Under the Railroad Retirement Act; and
- Income from a Qualified Retirement Plan
up to a maximum of $55,000.
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What you can do to help get the bill passed! |
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Make your voices heard! You can testify in writing or you can testify via Zoom -- no need to travel to Annapolis.
This bill will have a hearing in theWays & Means Committee on February 23. The hearing will start at 1:00 pm.
Hearings
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All hearings will be done online for the 2022 legislative session.
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More information can be found on the MGA website.
- The hearing on HB 787 is scheduled for Wednesday, February 23.
- The committee chair will decide how long the hearing will last, and will let up to 50 people testify.
- The order in which the bills will be heard will appear in the hearing schedule that will be posted in before the hearing (see below).
Witness sign-up
- Witness sign-up will be opened on the MGA website 48 hours before the bill hearing.
- Witnesses can sign up from 10am until 3pm.
- If you’ve signed up, you will receive a Zoom link to the hearing, the day before (on Tuesday, February 22)
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Below is a listing of all of the Ways and Means Committee Members as well as the staff of the committee. Please feel free to contact any or all of them. Names with an asterisk * are members of the Education Subcommittee. These Members are important because they review the bill and make recommendations to the whole committee.
The most effective contact is to your own delegate.
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Sara H. Hartman, Assistant to Chair
Staff:
George H. Butler;
Alistair Johnston;
Stanford D. Ward
(410) 841-3469, (301) 858-3469
House Office Building,
Room 131
6 Bladen St.,
Annapolis, MD 21401
(410) 841-3469, (301) 858-3469
fax: (410) 841-3777, (301) 858-3777
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Yet another bill on Gun Control |
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HB 425 is another in a series of "Gun Control" laws drafted pursuant to a belief that strictly regulating guns will reduce gun crime. Sounds reasonable, doesn't It? If you don't want Gun Violence, limit access to guns!
This most recent bill goes after what are called "ghost guns." These are guns, the parts for which can be purchased on the Internet and then assembled by the buyer.
As a result, they have no serial numbers or any way for the government to account for -- or control -- them.
No doubt it will pass. No doubt, it will do nothing to reduce gun violence.
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Why?
Why do Maryland Democrats continue to pass more and more restrictive gun control measures without any data to show that it works? A reasonable case can be made that the more gun control laws we pass the more gun violence we see.
What do Republicans want to do to decrease gun violence? Republicans want to pass the Governor's anti-crime bill that would focus on the worst gun crimes and criminals who are repeat violent offenders.
We go through this partisan split every year, and frankly, we're getting tired of it. Democrats, how the heck many more restrictions do you think we need before they start making a dent in violent crime? Wouldn't you at least like to give Governor Hogan's crime bill a try? Just once, let's see how it works to reduce gun violence.
I harbor little hope that we can bridge this deep divide, but there actually is a well-researched middle ground.
One of the most well-respected sources of data and analysis on violent gun crimes is compiled and studied by the Crime Solutions branch of the federal National Institute of Justice. |
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If you REALLY want to reduce gun violence. . . |
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The National Institute of Justice has supported evidence-based studies on how to reduce gun violence for a quarter-century.
The studies they review lean heavily to programs that involve early intervention and efforts to counter some of the social conditions that tend to lead to gun crime. While there doesn't seem to be a "winner takes all" program, an interesting phenomenon is that not one study mentions "gun control laws" as a solution to gun violence.
Below is an explanation of how they rate these studies.
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On CrimeSolutions, programs and practices fall into one of four categories, listed below in order of effectiveness from the continuum:
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Rated as Effective: Programs and practices have strong evidence to indicate they achieve criminal justice, juvenile justice, and victim services outcomes when implemented with fidelity.
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Rated as Promising: Programs and practices have some evidence to indicate they achieve criminal justice, juvenile justice, and victim services outcomes. Included within the promising category are new, or emerging, programs for which there is some evidence of effectiveness.
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Inconclusive Evidence: Programs and practices that made it past the initial review but, during the full review process, were determined to have inconclusive evidence for a rating to be assigned. See Reasons for Rejecting Evaluation Studies. Interventions are not categorized as inconclusive because of identified or specific weaknesses in the interventions themselves. Instead, our reviewers have determined that the available evidence was inconclusive for a rating to be assigned. Download Programs reviewed but not assigned a rating or Practices reviewed but not assigned a rating.
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Rated as No Effects: Programs have strong evidence indicating that they had no effects or had harmful effects when implemented with fidelity
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An Interesting NIJ survey |
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Author(s) James D. Wright, Peter H. Rossi
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What better way to find out how to stop gun crime than by finding out what motivates -- and what inhibits -- the criminals who use guns. In this survey, 1,874 felons in 11 State prisons in 10 States completed self-administered questionnaires focusing on their acquisition and use of guns before their imprisonment.
The authors of the survey concluded the "Findings called into question some commonly advocated policies about firearms purchasing regulations and indicated that these policies may prove to have negative and unwanted side effects." Here are some of the findings:
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From 40 to 70 percent of weapons used in committing crimes were stolen or borrowed from others. Only about one-fifth of the most recent weapons were purchased from legitimate retail sources.
- 75% of the sample surveyed said that "One reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime."
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21% strongly agreed and 36% agreed that they "are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police."
This survey is a bit different in that it does not study a specific program to reduce gun crime. Instead, it has gathered vital information about the very people who commit the crime we're trying to stem. And what does the data suggest?
- "Controlling, or even confiscating, guns is of little use since most guns used by criminals are "stolen or borrowed."
- The more citizens are known for having or carrying a gun, the more "worried about meeting an armed victim" are the criminals, thus decreasing the likelihood of encountering gun violence we are.
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COVID and the death of freedom |
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I have slowly come to the appalling conclusion that governments are more harmful and dangerous than COVID. Not everyone will agree with me, but I want to share with you what brought me this state of mind. It has been learning ‘the other side’ of the ‘facts’ our government told us.
The ruling class, powerful elite organizations such as the FDA, the WHO, the American Medical Association, and the New England Journal of Medicine engaged in an almost frantic campaign to disparage the drug Ivermectin. But not until I saw the video did I begin to understand the true cost of their actions . . .
I must warn you that nothing I have seen or heard in my numerous years of life has so profoundly disturbed me.
I leave it to you.
NOTE: Below is the 59-second clip I excerpted from the 24-minute video. The clip is of one doctor's testimony before a Senate subcommittee. It is graphic; it is thorough; and it is believable. Nonetheless, you may have questions. If so, I urge you to watch even a few minutes of the whole video. Click here.
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ABOUT THE 24-MINUTE VIDEO. You will note that OAN News, that published this video, could not determine the author of the video. Considering the media harassment suffered by doctors and others who made any positive claim about Ivermection, it is likely that the author of the video remained anonymous out of reasonable concern. |
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A good idea for the Environment |
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In an opinion piece for Maryland Matters, environmental activist, Bill Temmink has written a sound article on the only source of energy that actually could halt greenhouse gas emissions in this century. |
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"Maryland, it seems, is largely unwilling to consider this. This needs to change. If Maryland did not have to pay to import most of its power, we would be a much richer state. If we made enough clean energy to export, even better. If we could export the clean nuclear energy technology, we could, essentially, halt greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time further strengthening our economy." Read More
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Kittleman Legislative Scholarship |
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High school seniors, current undergraduate students at a 4-year college, a community college, or a private career school are eligible to apply for a Legislative Scholarship.
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Please MAIL your applications to our Annapolis office at the address below. For questions regarding the application process, call the office and speak with Chelsea Leigh Murphy, my Chief of Staff, at 410-841-3556.
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Authorized, Friends of Trent Kittleman, William Oliver, Treasurer |
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