Delegate Trent Kittleman - District 9A |
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Week 2
February 28 - March 4, 2022
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Contents
- Tax Relief?
- Status of Gas Tax Indexing Repeal
- Make Marijuana Legal?
- FOCUS ON EDUCATION: More evidence of CRT
- And here's some good news
- You are invited . . .
- Legislative Scholarship Application
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House Bill 288 would exempt the sale of baby bottles, baby bottle nipples, and infant car seats from the sales tax. Sounds great, doesn't it? Yup. Clearly, the sponsors of this bill are concerned about parent's abilities to pay for these absolutely necessary supplies.
Republican Delegate Nic Kipke has three small children.
Here is what he said: "I did the math for my family. If this bill had been in place before our three kids were born it would have only saved our family $6.96 per child, with a total savings of $20.88 per child, in total.
Now, I certainly believe that lowering taxes on young families is a positive step -- and I voted for the bill.
I am highlighting this bill, however, to be sure you understand what happens in an election year. Suddenly, Democrats come out of the woodwork in a rush to be seen as supporting "tax relief" for voters. This bill is only one of a number of "tax relief" bills that you will see -- and hear about from your elected officials running for reelection.
In one way, this is good. At least we get some tax relief, and if there are enough of these bills, it might actually amount to something. But what these bills also do is give "cover" to Democrats who don't want to vote for real tax relief.
If you would like to see Delegate Kipke's short, but enjoyable presentation, click here.
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Maryland is consistently ranked among the highest taxed states especially for middle class citizens. All tax cuts are welcome but this one strikes me as great for election year politics but awfully hollow in providing real tax relief for Marylanders.
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On the other side, Governor Hogan and Republican Delegates have offered at minimum, two significant and important tax relief bills.
Retiree Tax Relief. Every year, Maryland loses more and more of our taxpaying citizens to Florida, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and other states that recognize the changed circumstances of retiree living, and limit or eliminate taxes on this cohort of taxpayers. Every year, Republicans offer bills to follow these other states and limit or eliminate the taxes on retirees. Every year, the Supermajority defeats these bills.
Hogan's 3 tax relief bills: (1) , eventually eliminate all state income taxes on retirees (2) making last year’s expansion of the state-level Earned Income Tax Credit, which refunds tax money to lower-income wage earners, permanent (3) extending a state tax break through 2027 for manufacturers that relocate or expand operations within Maryland.
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Status of Gas Tax Index Repeal |
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Hearing: 1/19 Ways & Means |
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The only way the bills will have a chance of passing is if the Committee Chair decides to bring it up to a vote. Click here for contact information for Ways & Means. |
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Hearing: 2/08 Budget Committee |
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The only way the bills will have a chance of passing is if the Committee Chair decides to bring it up to a vote. Click here for contact information for the Senate Budget Committee
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This proposed constitutional amendment, if approved by the voters at the next general election to be held in November 2022, authorizes an individual at least age 21 to use and possess cannabis in the State beginning July 1, 2023, subject to the requirement that the General Assembly pass legislation regarding the use, distribution, possession, regulation, and taxation of cannabis.
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The most glaring problem with this bill, if it becomes law, is that you are being asked to vote to legalize Cannabis without any idea of what the restrictions, regulations or rules governing the use of this drug will be. You are giving the legislature carte blanche to decide on those regulations, after the fact. In other words, you are being asked to buy a pig in a poke.
There is also a bill being shepherded through the House and Senate that requires specified agencies and entities to complete studies, collect and report data, and develop specified standards regarding the use of cannabis, the medical cannabis industry, and the adult-use cannabis industry. Does it make any sense to be conducting these studies after we vote to make it legal?
This bill also (1) prejudges what criminal and civil penalties ought to be before any crimes are determined, (2) authorizes specified resentencing and release of individuals convicted of use or possession of cannabis; (3) alters expungement provisions; and (4) establishes the Cannabis Business Assistance Fund, the Cannabis Public Health Advisory Council, and the Cannabis Public Health Fund.
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The Ultimate Issue. States have been ignoring the federal government's law categorizing marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, for years. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), a Schedule 1 Drug has the following characteristics:
- The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
- The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical treatment use in the U.S.
- It has a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.
As long as the federal government continues to ban marijuana from common usage, such use shall continue to be a crime -- regardless of what laws the state may pass.
A statement by the Congressional Research Service, updated 11/11/2020, offers a summary of where the various parts of the federal government are on the issue of marijuana.
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Heroin (diacetylmorphine)
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LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide)
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Marijuana (cannabis, THC)
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Mescaline (Peyote)
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MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine or “ecstasy”)
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GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) - except formulations in an FDA-approved drug product sodium oxybate (Xyrem) are Schedule III
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Ecstasy (MDMA or 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine)
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Psilocybin ("magic mushrooms")
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Synthetic marijuana and analogs (Spice, K2)
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Methaqualone (Quaalude)
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Khat (Cathinone, Cathine)
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Bath Salts (3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone or MDPV)
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More evidence of CRT & Black Lives Matter at School |
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After reading the story below, you may want to reach for something to help you feel empowered. Last week highlighted an excellent resource titled A Parent's Guide to critical Race Theory, that you can purchase online.
This week highlights another good resource -- and this one is free. This short 20-page book catalogs the various claims made by those who would like to convince you that CRT isn't taught in K-12, and if it is taught, it's just asking that American history include stories about people of all colors.
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The Statement below came from the "Black Lives Matter at School" website |
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by Christopher Rodgers
"As PK-12 schools and universities across the nation are entering the school year, Black Lives Matter at School has taken the origins of our movement from a Day of Action, to a Week of Action, to a Year of Purpose — this, all behind the backdrop of youth-led global uprisings in the name of the Movement for Black Lives.
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"We stand in our purpose. We believe wholeheartedly in our mission. As Assata Shakur teaches us, we know we have nothing to lose but our chains.
"We are witnessing language, organizing practices, and organizational principles that abolitionists and anti-racist organizers have relied upon for several decades entering the mainstream discourse for today’s movements, catalyzing a bold new generation of activism. This heightened awareness of the work has attracted the likes of the President and other white-supremacist mouthpieces to rehash strategies that criminalize the teaching of histories and perspectives that enliven the struggle for a beloved community and a just world order. . . .
"Conceptual frameworks like critical race theory (CRT), curated syllabi/resource guides like the BLM@School Curriculum Resource Guide, and critical historical analysis like the 1619 Project are indispensable to providing foundations for principled struggle, abolitionist visions, and radical imagination.
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"To close this letter on recommitting to our mission and in the spirit of providing a platform for teaching, we turn to our ancestor Toni Morrison to support our analysis."
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Racism and Fascism
by Toni Morrison, Department of Creative Writing, Princeton University
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... Let us be reminded that before there is a final solution, there must be a first solution, a second one, even a third. The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another. Something, perhaps, like this:
- Construct an internal enemy, as both focus and diversion.
- Isolate and demonize that enemy by unleashing and protecting the utterance of overt and coded name-calling and verbal abuse. Employ ad hominem attacks as legitimate charges against that enemy.
- Enlist and create sources and distributors of information who are willing to reinforce the demonizing process because it is profitable, because it grants power and because it works
- Palisade all art forms; monitor, discredit or expel those that challenge or destabilize processes of demonization and deification
- Subvert and malign all representatives of and sympathizers with this constructed enemy.
- Solicit, from among the enemy, collaborators who agree with and can sanitize the dispossession process.
- Pathologize the enemy in scholarly and popular mediums; recycle, for example, scientific racism and the myths of racial superiority in order to naturalize the pathology.
- Criminalize the enemy. Then prepare, budget for and rationalize the building of holding arenas for the enemy-especially its males and absolutely its children.
- Reward mindlessness and apathy with monumentalized entertainments and with little pleasures, tiny seductions, a few minutes on television, a few lines in the press, a little pseudo-success, the illusion of power and influence, a little fun, a little style, a little consequence.
- Maintain, at all costs, silence.
This is an excerpt from a speech delivered at the Charter Day celebration, Howard University, March 3, 1995. Ms. Morrison, a former Howard faculty member, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 for her novel, Beloved.
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And here's some GOOD news |
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Mention Fox News to most of our majority legislative colleagues and they will dismiss you with a wave of the hand before you've said more. But clearly, common sense is winning out among more and more Democrats. What is interesting is that Tucker Carlson speaks more bluntly than most other Fox News hosts. Who'd have thought it . . .? |
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More (potential) good news. At least two courts in two different Maryland counties have rejected the councilmanic redistricting maps recently approved by their county councils.
This doesn't mean the Maryland Court of Appeals will do the same, but at least it bolsters the proposition that certain actions do, indeed, deserve to be repudiated.
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The ruling by the Prince George's court is most interesting. It "ordered the county council to throw out the widely criticized redistricting map it approved this fall and instead implement one proposed by a nonpartisan committee.
"More than 150 residents had testified against the map in November, with many calling it an obvious example of political gerrymandering.
Although the appeal and decision were based on a technical error, Judge Snoddy permanently barred the council from “acting upon, implementing or otherwise presenting the redistricting plan in CR-123-2021 to any entity.”
"Instead, he ruled, a second map approved by a nonpartisan redistricting commission, which made only small tweaks to district boundaries to account for population changes, should be considered law and must be submitted to any entities responsible for redistricting."
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The Baltimore County redistricting map was rejected for a well-established flaw. The Court ruled that the map violated the Voting Rights Act by failing to adequately provide for fair representation among black voters. Instead of creating two majority black districts, the council created one district that is 74% black. In this case, the Judge sent the map back with instructions to the council to draw a new map in accordance with his ruling. |
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Now that COVID, along with its restrictions, is (almost) gone, please consider coming to Annapolis to visit us. No masks are required in the House or Senate Office buildings, and the Senate is back to a normal schedule, with hearings now being held in person.
Below are several sites that will help acclimate you to how to find things and how to get around when you come to the Capital. If you are interested or have any questions, please call my Chief of Staff, Chelsea Murphy at 410-841-3556.
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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 Delegate Trent Kittleman, Rm. 202, 6 Bladen Street, Annapolis, MD 21401. For questions regarding the application process, call my Annapolis office and speak with Chelsea Leigh Murphy, my Chief of Statt, at 410-841-3556.
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Authorized, Friends of Trent Kittleman, William Oliver, Treasurer |
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