Four More Years - Weekly Update

On Monday, Senator Sara Love and I filed for re-election and released the below statement. There will be plenty of time for politics next year but I did want to let you know that I am seeking another term. I hope to earn the support of District 16's residents once again.
District 16’s State Senator Sara Love and Delegate Marc Korman File for Re-election
Pair once again running as a team
State Senator Sara Love and Delegate Marc Korman announced today their intention to run for reelection as a team and ask the voters for an opportunity to continue representing Maryland's state legislative District 16 in Annapolis. The legislators have committed to continue to advance a robust and effective agenda for District 16.
"Together, Delegate Korman and I have fought for our constituents, both in tandem on environmental and transportation issues and as a complement bringing our individual expertise in areas such as the budget and criminal justice,” said Senator Love. “As a team, I am confident that we can continue to work together in both the House and the Senate to best serve our constituents."
"Senator Love and I have worked together since 2018 on such issues as public school funding, investing in major transportation projects and systems, and working to meet our ambitious environmental goals. As we face the uncertainty of a new federal era, that work is more important than ever," said Korman. "I look forward to four more years of collaboration on behalf of our District 16 constituents."
“It’s a dark time in the federal government and that has serious consequences for us in Maryland. While I’m fighting for the rule of law in Washington, I am always grateful for the steady and principled leadership of Senator Sara Love and Delegate Marc Korman in Annapolis helping to guide our state and our democracy through the turbulence,” said Congressman Jamie Raskin.
"As a District 16 resident, I am proud to be represented by Senator Sara Love and Delegate Marc Korman. I worked closely with both of them when I was Attorney General on our shared priorities, including consumer protection, public safety and criminal justice reform, and environmental protection. I am pleased to support them for re-election," said former Attorney General and District 16 Senator Brian Frosh.
“Maryland is in challenging budgetary times but I trust Senator Love and Delegate Korman to do what is both right for our state and in the best interests of District 16,” explained Nancy Kopp, former State Treasurer and District 16 Delegate.
“As long-time District 16 residents and activists, we appreciate and applaud how knowledgeable, accessible and responsive Senator Love and Delegate Korman have always proven themselves to be. We have fortunately worked with them for years on a range of issues including social justice, criminal justice, and reproductive health. They are talented leaders," said District 16's Susie Turnbull, 2018 Lieutenant Governor nominee and Bruce Turnbull, community activist
“Senator Love and Delegate Korman are the strong and steady Democratic Party and county leaders we need to keep leading us through these uncertain times,” stated Karen Britto, former District 16 Delegate and Montgomery County Democratic Party Chair
Senator Sara Love is serving her first term in the Senate where she sits on the Judicial Proceedings Committee. This follows her successful tenure in the House where she chaired the Motor Vehicle and Transportation Subcommittee on the Environment and Transportation Committee.  While in the House she led on privacy issues, including authoring the country's strongest online data privacy protection law, and on environmental issues, including cleaning our Bay and updating our forest conservation law to preserve more trees. Learn more at saralove4md.com.
Delegate Marc Korman serves as chair of the House Environment and Transportation Committee, one of just six standing committees in the House of Delegates. He previously served as House Majority Leader and in the leadership of the House Appropriations Committee.  He is the author of Maryland's dedicated funding for the Metro program and has sponsored successful bills related to environmental sustainability, government transparency, education funding, and more. Learn more at marckorman.com.
The District 16 legislative district is represented by one State Senator and three Delegates. At this time, no decisions have been made regarding other campaign team members.

BUDGET UPDATE
One of the components of the Governor's budget proposal is called the Budget Reconciliation of Financing Act, known as the BRFA (pronounced BUR-FA). This legislation accompanies the budget and makes any necessary statutory changes for the budget to balance. For example, if state law requires community college funding to grow by 2% a year but there is only enough funding for 1% in fiscal year 2026--the BRFA amends state law to say only 1% will be provided for 2026. Although we nip and tuck the budget almost every year with BRFA-related changes, the size of the anticipated budget deficit makes this BRFA a hotter topic than in most years. The Governor presented the bill in legislative hearings last week and you can watch the one on the House side here. The Department of Legislative Services (DLS) provided an analysis of the BRFA and some of its own recommendations here.
I will note that DLS recommended changes to one of the Governor's proposals that many of you have written about: eliminating state Arts Council funding. DLS recommends reducing the program but not eliminating it entirely.
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The Governor recently released a supplement to his budget making adjustments to spending, budget cuts, and transfers. The spending includes restoring $300 million for developmental disabilities programs that the Governor had proposed to cut.

LEGISLATION UPDATE
​Two of my bills passed the House of Delegates on a bipartisan basis last week. The Local Boards of Election Transparency Act (HB 412) will improve transparency at local boards around the state with the live streaming of meetings. The County Boards of Education Anti Bias Training Act (HB 324) will expand anti bias training previously passed for school system staff to the school board members as well.

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Legislation regulating conflicts of interests of Maryland Governors that I introduced with Senator Brian Feldman was written up by the Baltimore Sun. Read the article here.

BLUEPRINT UPDATE
​The Blueprint for Maryland's Future is a vast education reform program we passed a few years ago and is currently being enacted. A lot of the discussion around the Blueprint is over its cost. But I saw this update from the Accountability and Implementation Board created to make sure the Blueprint is working and thought it would be good to share. Some of the highlights for me are:
-53% increase in 3- and 4-year olds enrolled in full day pre-K, meaning more students are learning earlier;
-414% increase in the number of teachers statewide pursuing National Board Certification, meaning better teachers; and
-Community schools are now fully phased in with all schools with a concentration of poverty of 55%+ receiving extra funds and support, meaning many needy students are receiving more services and support.

ENERGY UPDATE
Many of you have written to me about energy issues. As you know, we have ambitious environmental goals in the state of Maryland. Under the Climate Solutions Now Act, we are supposed to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. We also have a renewable portfolio standard where we are supposed to use 50% green energy by 2030. I believe in these goals. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions has at least four benefits. First, it is our small part in addressing global climate change. Maryland alone cannot stop climate change but we all need to do our part. Second, many other pollutants accompany greenhouse gas emissions and reducing those means cleaner air and a healthier Maryland. Third, I believe that our transition will ultimately be cost efficient and a savings to many. Fourth, the states are the laboratories of democracy and the actions we take in Maryland can be models for others to follow.
But we face three significant threats to achieving our goals. First, the state budget deficit means we have less resources available to assist with the transition and what are, in some cases, significant up-front costs. Second, energy prices are rising. And third, we now have a completely hostile federal administration with its head in the sand when it comes to combatting climate change. There is no question that we need to adjust our approach in some ways to accommodate these realities.
Regular readers have already heard a lot about the state budget deficit and I am already tired of talking about the new federal administration and it has been less than six weeks since they took office. So let me focus for a moment on energy prices. Some people would have you believe that Maryland has banned gas and coal and this is causing prices to rise. Maryland has no such ban. In fact, there was bipartisan legislation proposed to phase out our coal plants but it never passed. Instead, many energy generators are making the decision to retire some plants and several Maryland coal plants have been retired or are slated for retirement. This is part of a much broader industry trend away from coal. However, obviously the lights need to turn on so any retiring plant needs replacement electrons which is why the federal government has ordered two of Maryland's plants to stay online until replacement capacity is available. However, Maryland is part of a regional electric grid (called PJM) and its complex rules mean that Marylanders pay something of a penalty for those retiring plants.
In the face of all of this, the Senate President and House Speaker are leading a package of bills on energy. The joint hearing was held Friday and can be viewed here. One controversial aspect of the proposal that many of you have written about is related to natural gas. One of the bills requires the Public Service Commission--our state regulator of utilities--to solicit for proposals for new generation and that could include natural gas. Although nothing is stopping an entity from building a natural gas facility in Maryland today, having the government promote it is a challenging proposition for many. Although the legislation is in the Economic Matters Committee, on which I do not serve, I will continue to monitor the issue.

COMMUNITY NEWS
Congratulations to Bama Athreya, District 16's newest Montgomery County Democratic Party Central Committee-member.
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Congratulations to the Walter Johnson boys and girls swim teams, which both won the 4A/3A state swim championships. Congratulations to the Wildcats!
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WAMU ran a story about the various dances that take place at Glen Echo Park's Spanish Ballroom. Read it here.
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The new traffic signal a Woodward High School on Old Georgetown Road will be fully activated this week. Since Monday, you may have noted the signal flashing and it will go into full activation tomorrow (Thursday). The 72 hours of flash operations are to notify regular drivers that a new signal is coming.

OFFICE CORNER
​We had a horrible event in the House of Delegates this week with the sudden passing of one of Speaker Jones' sons. Our hearts go out to the Speaker during this challenging time. The Speaker has guided the House of Delegates through challenging times including the pandemic. Before she was Speaker, I served on the Appropriations Committee with then Speaker Pro Tem Jones and was on the Education and Economic Development Subcommittee she chaired when I started in Annapolis. She gave me some of the best advice I have received about serving in the House: always do the reading (meaning be prepared).
Speaker Jones first took over the position when our prior Speaker, Speaker Michael Busch, died the day before the 2019 legislative session concluded. Speaker Busch was the longest serving speaker in Maryland history and I feel lucky to have overlapped with him, especially in his last year as Speaker when I participated in several meetings with him related to school construction and transportation and got to witness his leadership up close
I keep a few Speaker-Busch related keepsakes in my office which you can see below.