State Senator Ariana Kelly announced her plans to vacate her Senate seat after the legislative session for an exciting new opportunity at the Maryland Commission for Women. Ariana has been my colleague for ten years and has always been a passionate advocate for the causes she believes in. I congratulate her on this new opportunity but she will be missed.
Under our state constitution, vacancies are filled by the local party committee of the vacating legislator submitting a name or names to the Governor for appointment. I support my colleague, Delegate Sara Love, in her efforts to be appointed. There is a lot I can say about Delegate Love but having spent this legislative session serving on the same committee as her, I have really seen up close how she navigates bills to passage and brings together different stakeholders. I think she will be a great senator in the model of many past District 16 legislators.
If you are interested in the process going forward, keep an eye on www.mcdcc.org where further details will be announced.

​P.S. As this email was in process, the tragedy at the Francis Scott Key Bridge occurred. My thoughts are with the individuals directly impacted on the bridge and I also want to thank the incredible first responders who were immediately on the scene. We are in the immediate aftermath of this event but there will be a lot more to say about the impact to the port, effect on surrounding neighborhoods, and reconstruction in the future.

​LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
This week I have one hearing in the State Senate on the Open-Source Phonics Matching Grant Funding Act, which will help parents, teachers, and others access free reading education materials. Many other bills I sponsored that had versions pass both chambers do not require additional hearings.
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As chair of the Environment and Transportation Committee, I have spent a significant amount of time on issues related to climate change and housing this year.
As I have shared before, we have aggressive climate goals in the state of Maryland as we aim to be a net zero emitter of greenhouse gases by 2045. I view part of my job as supporting policies to help us get there. I will admit, we were not able to advance every bill I would like in this regard this session (I guess that's why the people give us four year terms) but the Committee has advanced bills in three important buckets related to climate change that I wanted to share.
First, we worked to make it easier to deploy clean energy equipment and charging equipment with bills such as Delegate Charkoudian's bill on condos having clean energy devices and my Electric Vehicle Recharging Act which makes it easier to have vehicle charging equipment in condos, HOA communities, and co-ops.
Second, we advanced greener transportation with bills such as the Transportation and Climate Alignment Act to alter how our state makes transportation investment decisions and Delegate Fraser Hidalgo's bill to convert our zero emission vehicle tax credit into a point of sale rebate (immediate dollars off of the purchase price).
Third and finally, we modernized the regulatory framework for greenhouse gas regulation and our clean energy transition with bills such as Delegate Stein's proposal to place manufacturers under our greenhouse gas emissions regulatory regime for the first time.
These bills still need to get through the State Senate but are all helpful to meeting our climate goals.
As for housing, which is in my committee's jurisdiction as well, we have been advancing the Governor's bills on housing financing, renter protections, and housing production. This past week, my committee spent a good deal of time on that last proposal, the Housing Expansion and Affordability Act. We heavily amended the bill and, if you are interested in the topic, I would recommend watching the subcommittee chair's description of the changes. The bill will be on the House floor next week.
 
BUDGET UPDATE
 
As previewed in last week's email, the House has now passed its budget including an accompanying bill called the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act (BRFA). We had significant discussion and debate on the budget over two days which you can watch here and here if you are interested. The budget now goes to a conference committee between the two chambers to resolve differences. The most significant difference is the action the House took to try and address long term challenges to our public schools' budget and immediate and medium term shortfalls in transportation funding.

COMMUNITY NEWS
 
The Bethesda Chevy Chase Democratic Breakfast Club's next meeting is with District 18 state legislators on April 10th at 7:30am. The following meeting will be with candidates for Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge on April 25th. To obtain the link for the meeting, please email [email protected].
Last week, the passing of former state legislator Laurence Levitan was announced. Larry was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1970 and the State Senate in 1974. When he first took office, his district (District 15) comprised most of what is District 16 today. Senator Levitan's first Senate campaign was also the first time Maryland had House and Senate districts that were based on population, representing a shift from the prior system of one Senator per county and some subsequent changes resulting from Supreme Court litigation.

BOOK CORNER 
Speaking of the passing of significant Marylanders, Baltimore's Peter Angelos recently passed away. Angelos is best known for owning the Baltimore Orioles for the past 30 years and was also a renowned trial attorney with success in asbestos claims. He also had a political career, serving a term on the Baltimore City Council and running unsuccessful campaigns for Baltimore City Council President and Mayor. He was a contemporary of Wiliam Donald Schaeffer and C. Fraser Smith's biography of Schaeffer contains an amusing story of Angelos being deployed by then-Governor Schaeffer to meet with Washington football team own Jack Kent Cooke about moving the team from RFK Stadium in DC to the Maryland suburbs. It eventually worked out.

​As I explained last week, this past Monday was  the "crossover" date, the date by which a bill is supposed to pass one chamber in order to be guaranteed a hearing in the other. That meant a long week, a Saturday in session, and a full day of House floor sessions on Monday.  A lot got done and most of the next few weeks will be taken up with discussion of the budget and sorting out differences on various bills with the State Senate.

Some scenes from our Saturday session, including all of the notebooks containing bill reports for the Environment and Transportation Committee I chair.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
With crossover behind us, here is an update on the seven pieces of legislation I am sponsoring. As I always like to point out, the bills I sponsor represent just a small part of my work in the House of Delegates and that has never been more true than this year, when I am chairing a committee.  That said, here is where each bill I sponsored now stands.
Legislation renaming the Port of Baltimore has passed both the House and the Senate version has passed that chamber.
The Electric Vehicle Recharging Equipment Act of 2024 passed the House several weeks ago. The Senate version--sponsored by our State Senator Ariana Kelly--has also passed the Senate. The bill makes it easier to access vehicle charging in Homeowners Association, Condo, and Co-op buildings and communities.
The Maryland Metro Funding Act of 2024 passed the House several weeks ago and the Senate version has passed that chamber. The bill eases the operating subsidy cap for our regional Metro system, in coordination with Washington, D.C. and Virginia, so that we can provide the system necessary funding.
The Open Source Phonics Matching Grant Program Act I sponsored has passed out of the House of Delegates. The bill makes it easier for families, teachers, and others to access reading materials.
The Washington Suburban Transit Commission Reform Act is a local bill I sponsored to make a few tweaks to the entity that oversees the Metro in Maryland. It has passed the House of Delegates.
The Maryland Toll Rate Reform Act helps to fund our transportation network and is part of a broader package of policies designed to address our transportation funding shortfall. It has passed the House and I discuss it further below.
The Transportation Funding Act has had part of it adopted into a component of the state budget to help address our transportation funding shortfall. The piece moving forward is a statewide $0.75 fee on Transportation Network Company (ride-hail vehicles like Uber or Lyft) trips. Again, see below for some further discussion.

 BUDGET UPDATE
 The budget for the state of Maryland has been on the House floor this week. For the first time since I was elected to the House of Delegates, I am not serving on the Appropriations Committee that primarily handles the budget. But like every year, the budget is balanced. It fully funds our pre-K through 12 public education. It maintains a healthy Rainy Day Fund while making the actuarially required contribution to our state pension. It restores some of the funds proposed for cuts to our community colleges. And much more.
But beyond addressing the budget for the next fiscal year (fiscal year 2025), the House is proposing to tackle both the transportation budget shortfall--which we are already feeling with proposed cuts today--and future shortfalls in our fund that contributes to public education.

Here are the components of the House budget plan.
Transportation:
-Toll Rate Reform: As discussed above, the House has passed legislation to leverage our state toll facilities to contribute $75 million a year to our broader transportation needs.
-Electric Vehicle Surcharge: We proposed a $125/year annual surcharge for electric vehicles. We want to incentivize going electric--and $125/year is still approximately half of what an average Maryland driver pays in gas taxes--and many pro zero emission vehicle states have such fees.
-Weight-based Vehicle Registration: We proposed to increase vehicle registration based on weight--which is appropriate given that heavier vehicles put more wear and tear on roads. The increases are $10 to $90 a year depending on the type and weight of the vehicle.
-Rideshare Fee: As noted above, we proposed a statewide $0.75 fee on rideshare or ride-hail trips.
-Excise Tax: We proposed an increase of the vehicle excise tax from 6% to 6.5%.
-Trade-in Exemption: We proposed eliminating the vehicle trade-in exemption except for zero emission purchases.
-Work Zone Safety: We proposed allocating some fines for automated enforcement at work zones to roadway system preservation projects.
These are not easy actions, but I view them as necessary to pay for the infrastructure Marylanders want and need.  You can see a portion of my remarks at a leadership press conference on these issues.
Education:
For public education, we proposed to adopt a method of corporate taxation called combined reporting used in 28 states ranging from Nebraska and Texas to California and Massachusetts.
We also proposed putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot to let Marylanders decide if they want to adopt i-gaming, which would legalize online casino games in Maryland. My predecessors first put gaming on the ballot to fund public education approximately 17 years ago and Marylanders have continuously supported expanding the types of permissible gaming.
Trauma:
In addition to transportation and public education, the House budget plan also addresses a shortfall in our state's trauma system, primarily via a registration surcharge and a tax on guns and ammo.
 
COMMUNITY NEWS
 Montgomery County Parks will hold a virtual meeting to discuss proposed renovations at Merrimac Neighborhood Park. The meeting is TONIGHT (Wednesday), March 20, 2024, from 7 – 8:30 p.m. Register to attend here.
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The Bethesda Chevy Chase Democratic Breakfast Club's next meeting is with District 18 state legislators on April 10th at 7:30am. The following meeting with be with candidates for Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge on April 25th. To obtain the link for the meeting, please email [email protected].

BOOK CORNER 
March is Women's History Month and a great time to mention Rachel Carson, one of the central figures in Douglas Brinkley's Silent Spring Revolution, part of his multi-volume history on the modern conservation and environmental movements. Carson was a marine biologist who wrote a popular trilogy on the ocean and followed it up with Silent Spring, a book about the dangers caused by pesticides. Carson herself died of cancer (in Silver Spring).

​Monday will mark the "crossover" date for the 2024 legislative session. This is the date by which a bill is supposed to pass one chamber in order to be guaranteed a hearing in the other. Bills that move later still have a chance to make it to the Governor's desk, but the best position for a bill to be in on Monday is through one chamber.

That means the next few days will be extremely busy in the House of Delegates, including our typical Saturday before crossover session. Some of the significant action we might see over the next few days include:
-Movement on the budget, which the Senate is taking up first this year and is on the Senate floor this week. As a reminder, unlike our federal partners down the street we are required to have a balanced budget every year.
-Progress on the Governor's housing legislation. I have shared information about the Governor's three housing bills previously but they are complex pieces of legislation related to housing supply, tenant rights, and financing.
-Advancement of a "good cause" law to protect tenants. This proposal has been kicking around the General Assembly for seven years but the Environment and Transportation Committee has crafted a heavily amended compromise to move this bill forward.
-Dozens of local bills--including many that affect just Montgomery County--like legislation to allow Montgomery County to deploy automated speed enforcement in more high risk locations and improve the County's development review process.
-Legislation related to the climate, including a bill to place the manufacturing sector under our greenhouse gas reduction laws for the first time.
-More elements of the Speaker's Decency Agenda, including the Freedom to Read Act and training in anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of discrimination for our school workforce.
-Cyclist safety Legislation sponsored by my seatmate, Delegate Sara Love, in response to the death of Sarah Langenkamp on River Road.
-And MUCH MUCH more. I often get replies noting my failure to include some particular issue and I welcome such feedback. If you have a question about a bill or issue, please just click reply.
 
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE 
Among the bills working their way through the legislative process are the ones I am sponsoring.
Legislation renaming the Port of Baltimore was on both the House and Senate floor this week.
The Electric Vehicle Recharging Equipment Act of 2024 passed the House several weeks ago. The Senate version--sponsored by our State Senator Ariana Kelly--has also passed the Senate.
The Maryland Metro Funding Act of 2024 passed the House several weeks ago and the Senate version is on the Senate floor this week.
The Open Source Phonics Matching Grant Program Act I sponsored is also on the House floor this week.
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And a big shout-out to my seatmate, Delegate Sarah Wolek, on passage through the House of her first bills: three on the same day! The three bills relate to financial well being, eligibility for House and Senate scholarships, and villages for those aging in place.
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Unfortunately, one piece of legislation apparently not moving this year is the End of Life Options Act--sometimes referred to as Death With Dignity. The Senate has indicated that they will not bring the bill--which has previously passed the House--up for a vote.
 
SCHOLARSHIP UPDATE 
If you or someone you know is a District 16 resident pursuing a higher education, remember we have scholarships available through our office. To be eligible for a Delegate Scholarship, you must plan to attend a Maryland college or university, or a private career school.  Private career schools must have the Maryland Higher Education Commission's approval to operate and be accredited by a national accrediting association approved by the U.S. Department of Education.  You may also attend a nursing school if the Commission approves the curriculum.  Students may attend full or part-time.

If your major is not offered at a Maryland institution of higher education, you may apply for a unique major designation that would allow you to use our Delegate Scholarship funds for an out-of-state school.
Learn more at https://www.marckorman.com/scholarship.html

COMMUNITY NEWS
Congratulations to several District 16 residents on their appointment to Montgomery County Boards and Commissions:
Betty Romero and Margaret Rajnic, Montgomery County Commission for Women
Marian Block, Bethesda Urban Partnership Board of Directors
Rodrigo Figueroa, Montgomery County Advisory Committee on Consumer Protection
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Bethesda Big Train is looking for applicants for the Alexander DiMisa High School Leadership Fellowship program this summer. Learn more and apply here.
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Montgomery County Parks will hold a virtual meeting to discuss proposed renovations at Merrimac Neighborhood Park. The meeting is on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, from 7 – 8:30 p.m. Register to attend here.
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The Bethesda Chevy Chase Democratic Breakfast Club's next meeting is with District 18 state legislators on April 10th at 7:30am. The following meeting with be with candidates for Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge on April 25th. To obtain the link for the meeting, please email [email protected]
BOOK CORNER
 I was in the news quite a bit all around the state last week for my efforts to fund our transportation infrastructure.  So this is a good week to recommend Moving Maryland Forward: A Century of Modern Road Building by Harold J. Counihan. This is a bit of a propaganda piece by the State Highway Administration to celebrate the centennial of its founding as the State Road Commission in 1908. Its a chronological review of Maryland's increasing investments in transportation, which has only continued since publication in 2008.

I have loved all ten of my legislative sessions as a District 16 Delegate, but serving as a committee chair this legislative session is a very different experience than the nine that came before. As I have been telling people, it is the same sport but a totally different style of play. If you're a baseball person, think about going from the dead ball era of hitting to the late 1990s home run bonanza in a year.
In addition to my own legislative agenda, I now feel responsible for the 387 pieces of legislation (and rising) in my committee's hands. I am learning a lot about the legislative process from this seat that I never fully understood before, including the limits of time and staff capacity. The committees are staffed by legislative counsel from the Department of Legislative Services. The three counsel on my committee are excellent and experienced. For two of them, I am their third chair as they have worked on the committee for decades. But with almost 400 bills to work through, we need to triage and prioritize what can reasonably be worked on by three people. We are a week and a half from crossover--the day bills are supposed to pass one chamber to get a hearing in the other--and we are feeling the ticking clock as we work to perfect the bills before us.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
​Last week I had three bill hearings on legislation I am sponsoring. 
The simplest of the three was legislation renaming the Port of Baltimore. Former Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich and Hogan-era Transportation Secretary Jim Ports testified in support of the bill, which I must say is not my usual witness panel!
More challenging were the hearings I had for bills to help our transportation funding challenge. Right now we are facing an approximately $3 billion shortfall for transportation over six years which means no new construction, fewer Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) office hours, reduced road and transit aid for the counties, less mowing and cleaning along state highways and other cuts. And that is all before we try to do major projects people are asking for like the American Legion Bridge or significant MARC Brunswick line improvements. Why the shortfall? There are many factors but inflation and reduced motor fuel/gas tax revenue because of improved fuel efficiency--combined with adoption of zero emission vehicles--are both major contributors. Part of my mission this legislative session has been to offer up ideas for transportation funding and two of those ideas had hearings last week.  I do not relish needing to introduce bills and policies such as these, but I believe they are necessary at this stage to have the type of transportation network many of you have expressed support for.
The Toll Rate Reform Act would follow the lead of states like Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia and leverage our toll facilities for broader transportation needs. You can watch the hearing here. If this sounds familiar, it is because I have proposed something similar before to fund transit projects.
The Transportation Funding Act of 2024 would use two fees to fund transportation. One is a statewide 50 cent fee on Transportation Network Company (ride-hailing company) trips, which would be in addition to the local 25 cent fee already levied in Montgomery County. The other is a 50 cent fee on e-commerce deliveries. Each of these policies have been undertaken in other states. You can watch that hearing here.
PURPLE LINE UPDATE
On March 13, the Board of Public Works will consider another change order on the Purple Line. The project cost is going up by $425 million over five years and the opening date is being delayed from summer 2027 to late 2027. Why is this occurring? It goes back to a few years ago when the project was between contractors and the state agreed to undertake utility work, most of which did not occur when it was supposed to. This change order puts that issue behind the project. You can read more starting on page 75 of the BPW agenda.
COMMUNITY NEWS
Tomorrow (March 7), the Planning Board will be briefed on the results of the Friendship Heights Urban Design Study. You can read the study here.
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The B-CC High School annual used book sale is Saturday, March 9th, 10am-5pm and Sunday, March 10th, 10am-3pm.
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Montgomery County Parks will hold a virtual meeting to discuss proposed renovations at Merrimac Neighborhood Park. The meeting is on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, from 7 – 8:30 p.m. Register to attend here.
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The Bethesda Chevy Chase Democratic Breakfast Club's next meeting is with District 18 state legislators on April 10th at 7:30am. To obtain the link for the meeting, please email [email protected]:
BOOK CORNER
Since I used a baseball reference above and we are deep into Spring Training, I will venture away from my usual political recommendations and tell you about Where They Ain't by Burt Solomon. Long before the current Baltimore Orioles came to town in 1954, there was a professional Baltimore Orioles from 1882-1899 and again from 1901-1902 (the team ultimately became the Yankees). The old Orioles had some true titans of baseball past including John McGraw and Wee Willie Keeler. This is a fun book for local baseball fans about that long ago team which was fairly dominant in those pre-World Series days.