Thank You Ariana, Sara Love for Senate, and We Still Have A Legislative Session - Weekly Update

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.