Week 2: They did WHAT??

News From Annapolis

Delegate Trent Kittleman - District 9A

Week 2

January 24-30, 2022

Contents

Redistricting: They did WHAT?"
A GOOD Bill
and a Bad Bill
Focus on Education
City Couple Files Lawsuit Against BCPS
How much will the Blueprint Cost Counties?

Legislative Scholarship Application

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Last week, the legislature met in person two days in a row to deal with legislative redistricting map that realigns all of the 47 senatorial and 141 delegate districts.

Unfortunately, the General Assembly chose to ignore the map that was drawn by the Governor-appointed Citizens Redistricting Commission and submitted by the governor as he is required to do by law. Instead, the House of Delegates, discussed, debated, and then passed – along party lines – the "LRAC" map. This is the map drawn by legislators of and for legislators.

During that process, a number of fair points were made by delegates on opposite sides of the aisle debating which map was more compact, which one retained communities, etc. In other words, debating on the merits.

But there was one speech that got a bit off-track. I thought you might be as flabbergasted as I was when I heard it. I recommend you watch the 38-second video and then scroll through the chart directly below. (Here is a link to the entire 1-minute 40-second speech)

BACKGROUND

REDISTRICTING PROCESS

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

REVISIONS TO THE MAP BASED ON PUBLIC INPUT

FINAL REPORT

A Good bill

HB 196: Public Schools and County Boards of Education - Publication of School Library Catalogs

Sponsor: Delegate Brenda Thiam, District 2B

This bill will provide parents with access to the entire catalogs of books housed in the libraries of all of the public schools. Although the Department of Education says that schools already provide a catalog of all of the books in that school's library on their website, parents testified that these catalogs are very hard to find.

What this bill will do is (1) guarantee that each school posts its library catalog online and, (2) require "each public school to send the parents or guardians of students who attend the school a link to where certain information on the school's library catalog can be found on or before September 15 each year."

HOW YOU CAN HELP

LET YOUR DELEGATE KNOW YOU SUPPORT THIS BILL! Here's how:

The bill has already had its hearing, but there is still plenty of time to make a difference. The first line of defense is the subcommittee that heard the bill.
HB 196 was heard by the nine-member Education Subcommittee of the Ways & Means Committee; they have not yet voted on the bill. The screenshot below shows the page on the Maryland General Assembly ("MGA") website you will see by clicking on the screen below.
To get the email for a delegate, click on that member's photo.
If you aren't sure who your delegates are, click here, and if any of these nine delegates represent you, your opinion is very important: all Delegates pay close attention to what their own constituents say!
It's also worthwhile to email them even if they aren't your delegates.

ONCE IT GETS TO THE FLOOR, WE START A NEW CAMPAIGN!

and a Bad Bill

HB0171 Climate Crisis and Environmental Justice Act

As yet, this bill has no Fiscal Note or hearing date, leading me to suspect that the bill is not on the leadership's list of 'bills that we'll pass this session." (And yes, they really do have such a list.) So here are just a few notes about what the bill provides for:

Establishes a tax on fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases (GHGs) to be imposed on companies or utilities that bring the fuel into Maryland
Creates a Climate Crisis Council housed in the Department of the Environment, to oversee greenhouse gas fees on fossil fuels entering the state of Maryland.
The Climate Crisis Council will be appointed by the legislative leaders; the governor has no role in this program
The uses of the tax funds collected by the state are split between legitimate use and a unique use that hides a new income redistribution plan in a bill to benefit the environment.
Half of the fees collected will go into a non-lapsing fund to support activities for greenhouse gas reduction and sequestration, etc. -- the kind of things that taxpayers expect to be done with money from a tax on energy.
The other half of the taxes will be used to "mitigate inequities"—not environmental inequities, mind you, but general inequities that have barred certain people from achieving success in the world. This half of the fees will go to people in the lower 60% of income, half of which will go to people in the lowest 20% income level. The second part will go to businesses “to protect energy-intensive trade-exposed employers in the state” – whatever that means.

So, in summary, the bill creates a new tax on fossil fuels but warns the utility companies NOT to pass this tax along to consumers, an always-effective tool; it creates a new Climate Crisis Council within the Department of the Environment, takes over the administration of that department, and turns the Secretary of the Environment into a social welfare worker, all in the name of creating a new and “unique” poverty program that bears no relationship to the mitigation of fossil fuel greenhouse gases.

Focus on Education:

Baltimore Couple Files Lawsuit against Baltimore City Public School System

For the last six years, I, along with the Maryland Public Policy Institute, Fox 45’s “Project Baltimore,” the Baltimore Sun, on occasion, and the Washington Post, among others have written passionately about the unconscionable failure of the Baltimore City Public School (BCPS) system to provide so many students with even a minimal education

My constituents, indeed, all Maryland taxpayers, are funding not only their own county school systems, but a large share of City Schools. Many of us would be perfectly happy helping to fund education for lower-income families; unfortunately, most of our tax dollars have done nothing to educate generations of children for over 40 years.

Taxpayers can get used to paying for a lot of bad laws and mismanaged bureaucracy – we do it all the time. But the true casualties of this injustice are the children of Baltimore City

Just last year, the news media reported extensively on the unbelievable case of the Augusta Fells elementary school where one student was graduated after passing just one class and accumulating a .13 GPA – that put him in the top third of the graduating class! And that was the tip of the iceberg. The school was also claiming far more students than actually attended in order to qualify for a higher budget – the so-called ghost students.

Over the past two years, however, more and more Baltimore City parents have become aware of the situation and have become motivated to take action. One such husband and wife team filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) seeking a declaratory judgment on behalf of all taxpayers similarly situated to put an end to “the waste of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds through the illegal and ultra vires actions of the School Board and the Mayor & City Council of Baltimore.”

Notice that the plaintiffs are seeking no damages for themselves; just an end to the failure of the City Schools failure to educate their kids.

The complaint, itself, runs 32 pages; with Exhibits, the document is 649 pages long. This link takes you to the Complaint plus a summary of each of the 29 Exhibits.

Even if the lawsuit fails in the courts, let's hope it is a clarion call for every stakeholder to get up , get out, and MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

How much will the Kirwan Blueprint cost counties?

The Howard County Delegation recently met with our School Superintendent for the first detailed look at what the requirements of the Blueprint for Maryland (results of the Kirwan Commission) will cost our County. The answer is, a lot!

This first table shows six new or expanded categories of funding required by the Blueprint. (Note that the “per-pupil cost” in this model uses different criteria from the 'per-pupil costs' used when comparing jurisdictions.

The increases in the Education budget are staggering.

One of the most significant funding increases is created by the Blueprint requirement that teacher salaries must grow by 10% every year between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2021. In addition, the minimum teacher salary must be at least $60,000 by July 1, 2026. The table below shows the budget increases that will be required for teacher salary increases during the next few years.

This third screen shows the total; Howard County education operating budget projections. It shows that coming into FY 23, the budget has a negative balance of just under $30 million -- WITHOUT any of the newly mandated Blueprint costs.

Kittleman Legislative Scholarship

District 9-A residents

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.

Please MAIL your applications to Trent.Kittleman@House.State.MD.US

For questions regarding the application process, call my Annapolis office and speak with Chelsea Leigh Murphy, my Chief of Statt, at 410-841-3556.

Download Application

Authorized, Friends of Trent Kittleman, William Oliver, Treasurer