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LATEST NEWS

An Annapolis Agenda for 2017

1/11/2017

 
The 437th Session of the Maryland General Assembly convenes today.  Although the legislature only meets for 90 days, as your Delegate I work year-round to represent each of you and our district.  But the next 90 days will be a sprint of legislative productivity in Annapolis.

​I will be called upon to consider and vote on numerous legislative issues during the session, many of which you may have read about in the news.  Below are some of the major issues on my own Annapolis agenda for the year.  Many of these issues will be the subject of future emails
Ongoing Work

Since being elected Delegate, I have explained my view that only a part of the job is passing my own bills.  Much of the work involves oversight efforts and assisting others with their legislative efforts.  In particular, as a member of the Appropriations Committee much of my annual work involves participating in oversight hearings on individual state agencies.  Three ongoing efforts, however, are of particular importance to me this session.
  1. School Construction: Montgomery County has a fast growing student population, adding approximately a high school worth of students a year.  We really feel this in District 16 where over half the schools in the Whitman Cluster, all but two schools in the Walter Johnson and Bethesda-Chevy Chase Clusters, and two of the schools in the Churchill cluster have more students than they have space for.  We have had partial success the past few years obtaining additional funding for Montgomery County that recognized school districts with high rates of growth.  We need to continue to build on that success.
  2. Metro: The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ("WMATA") is the product of a compact between Maryland, Virginia, DC, and the federal government.  Maryland has an important role to play as a major funder of the system in providing adequate oversight.  In 2015, I founded the WMATA-Metro Work Group with other colleagues interested in improving WMATA. The Work Group will meet throughout the session and a tentative schedule is discussed further below.
  3. Bail Reform: I am proud to be a part of a coalition of legislators working with Attorney General Brian Frosh to reform our pre-trial money bail system.  Under current practice, a murderous drug kingpin can pay their way out of jail before trial while a poor low level offender who is not a flight or safety risk will be left in jail, unable to maintain employment or support their families.  A true reform effort would require judges to levy money bail when the accused is found to be a flight risk, not allow release at all when they are a safety risk, and release others so that the government is not left to pay for caring for them.

Legislation

As of now, I am planning to introduce eight pieces of legislation this session:
  • Board of Elections Transparency Act: The state Board of Elections is based in Annapolis but each County board must closely follow the state Board's work and directives.  This legislation would require state board meetings be web streamed (similar to state Board of Public Works meetings).  I am working on this legislation with Senator Cheryl Kagan.
  • Smoke-Free Multifamily Housing Promotion Act: Second-hand smoke is a significant health risk.  This legislation would incentivize apartment and condo buildings to voluntarily go smoke free, hopefully creating a market for such housing.
  • Nursing Facility and Assisted Living Transparency Act: Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are required to file certain disclosures with the state and provide them to potential residents who request them.  This bill would also require these facilities to have these regulatorily required documents on their websites to make it easier for those researching these facilities to learn about potential living options.  This is important for many parts of our community that have an aging population.
  • Washington Metrorail Safety Commission Membership Act: The federal government is requiring Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC to establish a Metrorail Safety Commission.  This companion legislation will make the Maryland Commission members subject to Senate confirmation and require that at least one come from Montgomery or Prince George's Counties, the Maryland jurisdictions that contain Metrorail stations.
  • Energy Storage Legislation: I will once again be introducing legislation to promote the use of energy storage devices in Maryland.  Energy storage devices, such as batteries, can be paired with renewable generation such as wind and solar to make them more efficient and useful.
  • Specialized Intervention Services Reporting Legislation: These are services that should be provided to K-3 students who need them and are additional academic or behavioral support, but fall short of special education (many of these students may eventually transition to special education).  Amazingly, even though we know anecdotally that thousands of students receive such services and our school systems pay millions of dollars for them, this information is not tracked or reported, meaning we have no idea if we are adequately meeting the needs of our students. 
  • Maryland Manual Modernization Act: The Maryland Manual is a great online resource for understanding state government.  The statutory provisions governing it were written in a pre-Internet age and my bill will update this section of the law for the 21st Century.
Again, these issues and bills are just a small sampling of how my time will be spent over the next 90 days.  I will be sure to keep you posted bu please contact me anytime.  The office phone number is 301-858-3649 and my email address is Delegate.M.Korman@house.state.md.us (or just reply to this email to reach me).  If you are in Annapolis, you can visit me in Room 210 of the House Office Building.  I share an office suite with my District 16 colleague, Delegate Ariana Kelly.

You can always keep up with what I am doing by following me at @mkorman on Twitter or clicking "Like" on Delegate Marc Korman on Facebook.

Legislative News

The Maryland Department of Legislative Services prepares "issue papers" each year to preview matters that may be before the General Assembly in the upcoming legislative session. The 2017 batch has been released. These are organized by subject matter in case there are particular issues you care about.
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Earlier this year the Maryland General Assembly passed the College Affordability Act. Included in the bill was an amendment I drafted requiring Maryland 529--the agency that runs the savings plan program--to draft and implement a marketing plan. The use of college savings plan accounts is high in Montgomery County but lags in most of the rest of the state and is dramatically lower than their use in Virginia (even controlled for population, Virginia has almost 2.5 million account holders compared to less than 300,000 in Maryland).
The marketing plan was recently submitted and I am pleased the agency is already moving forward with simple web advertising, outreach at events, and partnering with relevant groups. I look forward to discussing this further when Maryland 529's budget hearing occurs.  You can read the plan online.  

Administration News

Delegate Platt and I sent a letter to the State Board of Elections (SBE) regarding their post election audit plans. SBE conducted a post-election audit as required by the legislature not because of the results of the election--because that was not an issue in Maryland--but to improve future election administration.  Delegate Platt and I expressed our concern with SBE's decision to not review and audit any actual ballots.
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A few weeks ago, Senator Manno, Delegate Kramer, and I asked the Maryland Attorney General if the state was following federal law in its treatment of HAWK signals, which can be useful in making roads work for both pedestrians and drivers. We did not receive back the answer we had hoped for, but it was still worth trying. Senator Manno is working on legislation which will resolve the issue if passed.
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The 2016 report of the Governor's Regulatory Reform Commission has been released. Rather than the general comments in the 2015 report, the 2016 report lists numerous regulations that the Commission believes can be amended or repealed. I do not have the subject matter expertise to know whether each individual recommendation makes sense, but generally I applaud this type of effort to review old regulations and make sure they match modern needs. In fact, there is an existing process to do this by which each agency must review their regulations on a continuing cycle to determine if they are still effective or should be modified or repealed. Unfortunately, many agencies have not kept up with the required schedule. The agency approach is slightly preferable to me because it ensures a more comprehensive look at all of an agency's regulations and does not pre-screen which regulations may be modified or amended through a group of commission members who are business heavy (the Commission has no public health or environment advocates, for example, and no government administration experts).
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One of the issues I hear the most about from constituents are concerns about the State Highway Administration (SHA). Many major roads in District 16 are controlled by SHA including Wisconsin, Old Georgetown, Bradley, River, and Massachusetts. Many neighborhoods and advocates believe that SHA is not as responsive, open, or communicative as they would hope for an agency dealing with our local roads.

Delegate Aruna Miller and I worked to include language in last year's budget requiring SHA to study its organization and staffing. SHA recently submitted its report which is linked here. A major focus of the report is the need to reduce employee turnover--which is challenging because SHA salaries are not competitive. District 3--which includes Montgomery and Prince George's County--has 266 employees in its district office, the most of any of the seven districts around the state.

The local Montgomery County Delegation Committee I serve on held an oversight hearing last year on SHA's ability to issue access permits. I hope we will continue that oversight function this year and discuss how SHA interacts with local neighborhoods.

Metro

One of my goals in Annapolis has been to increase the attention paid to Metro and provide more oversight. Once again, the WMATA-Metro Work Group will hold a series of meetings on particular Metro-related issues. Unlike many hearings, these are not being held in response to a particular incident or bad headline. They are part of the ongoing and necessary oversight of any large agency.

Community News
  • Condolences to District 16's Sam Boxerman on the passing of his mother.
  • Condolences to Sandy Schwarzbart on the passing of her husband, Bob.  Bob was a Village of Friendship Heights Councilman and we served together on the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board.
  • Condolences to Madeleine Sigel on the passing of her husband Stan. 
  • Congratulations to Jordan Cooper on being elected chair of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission Customer Advisory Board.
  • Many District 16 residents have recently been named to County Boards and Commissions:
    • Samir Paul, Board of the Bethesda Urban Partnership.
    • Vernon Ricks, Alcoholic Beverages Advisory Board
    • Manuel Ochoa, Friendship Heights Transportation Management District Advisory Committee
    • Lee Boyle, Board of Registration of Building Contractors
  • Congratulations to Mary Jo Veverka, whose 11 year quest to visit all 59 U.S. National Parks was recently covered by Bethesda Magazine.
If you know of a District 16 resident who merits recognition or condolences, please email marc@marckorman.com.

​Community Events
  • The District 16 Democratic Club will be hosting a send-off for our entire District 16 team on Sunday, January 15th at 3:00pm.  The event--which is free of charge--will be held at the home of Lucy Freeman (4708 Dorset Avenue, Chevy Chase in the Town of Somerset).
  • On Tuesday, January 17, the Planning Board will hold a public meeting on the Grosvenor -Strathmore Metro Area Minor Master Plan.  The meeting will begin at 7pm at the Music Center at Strathmore.
  • On Sunday, January 29, the annual Women's Legislative Briefing will be held beginning at 11am at The Universities at Shady Grove, Building II, 9630 Gudelsky Dr, Rockville, MD, US, 20850.
  • On Monday, February 6 Councilman George Leventhal will be speaking to the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Democratic Breakfast Club. The meeting starts at7:30am at the Original Pancake House in Bethesda.
If you know of an upcoming community event, please email marc@marckorman.com.

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