Below is a summary of our recent legislative forum. If you would like to get involved in working with us on future forums, please email pn4change@gmail.com or call 301-587-5559.

Progressive Neighbors Legislative Forum
May 5, 2013

Over 80 progressive activists attended Progressive Neighbors' very successful and informative “Wrap-Up and Analysis of Legislative Session” Forum on Sunday May 5 at the Silver Spring Civic Building. 

The Forum, which was co-sponsored by Progressive Maryland, featured the following elected state representatives from Montgomery and Prince George's Counties: Senator Jamie Raskin (Dist. 20) and Delegates  Bonnie Cullison, Dist. 19; Ana Sol Gutierrez, District 18; Sheila Hixson, District 20; Tom Hucker, District 20; Eric Luedtke, District 14; Heather Mizeur, District 20; and Aisha Braveboy, Dist 25 (which is in Prince George's County). The audience included participants from Montgomery County Districts 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, and 20 as well as several activists from Prince George's County.

Kate Planco Waybright, Executive Director of Progressive Maryland summarized the 2013 legislative session at which 766 of 2,610 introduced bills were passed.  Successes included wind power approval, repeal of the death penalty, firearms safety, transportation improvements, expanded voting, and protections for pregnant women in the workplace. Failures included the Lockheed Martin giveaway, combined reporting, minimum wage, living wage, gender discrimination and fracking.

Heather Mizeur spoke about the success of repealing the death penalty in Maryland, making us the 18th state to do so.  She also spoke of her disappointment that more wasn’t accomplished to control fracking and improve conditions for workers with increased minimum wage and paid sick days.

Questions and answers

Christine Real de Azua asked about the Genuine Progress Indicator, an index that measures beneficial, as opposed to gross, economic activity, specifically how the legislators plan to use this new tool.
Raskin: “This is the heart of where we need to go.”
Gutierrez: “The GPI should be added to the fiscal note for legislation.”
Cullison talked about the importance of services for families including health and child care, both of which improve economic stability and productivity.
Braveboy spoke about the importance of a minimum wage increase being not only humane, but also taking pressure off of government-provided assistance.

Mike Tabor asked about “stealth” legislation, giving the example of the Lockheed Martin tax exemption bill which was introduced with little notice.  Another example was the Agriculture Certainty Bill which exempts big farms from certain regulations.
Gutierrez responded that all bills are available online. Hixson and Raskin added that PM and PN can be notified when bills are introduced. Both said that legislators are victims of these 'stealth bills' as well.

Fred Evans asked what the legislature can do about the sorry, corrupt state of prisons, specifically the Baltimore City Detention Center.
Gutierrez stated that the legislature holds the purse strings for the prison system and should be able to have influence through that.
Raskin spoke about the useless war on drugs that can’t be won and makes the criminal justice system unwieldy.

Tim Willard asked about wind power and wanted to know what the next step is. He mentioned “community energy.”
Hucker talked about the four year project to pass wind power. He also spoke about a bill that he is working on with Rob Garagiola to promote solar power.

An unidentified participant asked when Maryland will repeal its anti-sodomy laws.
Raskin explained that the problem has been taken care of on the federal level by the Supreme Court but agreed that there are obsolete laws on Maryland's books.

Lorig Charkoudian brought up food policy and the need to promote local food production.
Braveboy talked about making more use of the USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.
Luedtke spoke about tax credits for urban agriculture, school nutrition and getting away from centralized mass production, more farmers markets and addressing “food deserts” where healthy food is hard to find.  But he said, “there is no one solution.”

Stan Boyd brought up public utilities.  He said that while rates may be controlled, he thinks that the utilities get “legislative breaks.”
Hucker: [The Public Service Commission] “doesn’t do a good job at all and has been a lapdog of Pepco.” He spoke of the STRIDE bill (Strategic Infrastructure Development and Enhancement Program) that is designed to reduce energy costs to utility customers while accelerating upgrades to natural gas facilities.

Steve Mortellaro asked what happened with renters’ rights.
Hixson said that a state-wide bill needs broader support e.g. Baltimore City and Prince Georges County.  Even if Montgomery County is in favor, there needs to be more state-wide support.
Raskin pointed out the “Home Act,” which outlaws rental discrimination based on source of income, was defeated by the General Assembly this year and that it was a real disappointment.

Ed Tevor wanted to know what progressive taxation measures were being considered, e.g. marginal rates, loopholes and graduated property tax.  He asked which side the Maryland government is on. The top 1%? or the bottom 99%?
Hixson said that a gas tax was passed to support the Purple Line. She also said that the House has passed combined reporting, but it didn’t have enough support in the Senate and lost by one vote.
Luedtke spoke in favor of revenue streams including combined reporting, an on-line purchase transaction tax, cigarette taxes, and progressive property taxes.
Gutierrez spoke about the difficulty that Montgomery County has in being the biggest, richest county in the state.  She said, “we have many poor kids,” - in fact, there are more poor children in our schools than in 18 other counties, and they need public programs. Her committee, Appropriations, writes the budget for funding state programs. She feels that other county delegations seem to do a better job of sticking up for their constituents.

Luis Zapata asked for a rundown of progressive issues for next year.
Braveboy: Minimum wage
Luedtke: Reform special education
Cullison: Civil rights for transgender people
Gutierrez: Community/public banking
Hixson: Affordable housing
Raskin: Decriminalize marijuana
Hucker: Paid sick leave, minimum wage

David Moon asked about a change in leadership (Busch, Miller) in Annapolis.
Luedtke  said that change in leadership may not make things more progressive. He feels that a bigger question is lack of communication inside and outside the legislature. One problem is that economic bills always need to fight “entrenched interests.”
Gutierrez thinks that progressives legislators need a caucus.
Cullison feels that it is important to make connections with people from other districts and counties in all parts of the state.
Hixson: “Other counties don’t believe that Montgomery County has poverty.”
Raskin: “Corporate power is a serious issue, but real leadership comes from below.” That is how we got the Dream Act and Marriage Equality.
Hucker said that progressives win on social issues because of grassroots support but lose on economic issues because there are hundreds of lobbyists working for the top 1%.

Marc Elrich (Montgomery County Councilmember) brought up the issue of how state-wide legislation has a big effect on the county, e.g. Lockheed Martin. He feels that there is a “mutual disconnect” between state and local elected officials and there needs to be a “mutual connect.”

A Prince Georges County Resident brought up the issue of fair, accurate voting procedures.
Hixson said that voting procedures are overseen by the Ways and Means Committee.

Participants were treated to the poems of two young rap artists - Hindwa Corneh and Tommy Raskin. 

At the conclusion of the question and answer session with elected state representatives, Mike Tabor, Dana Beyer and Ken Stephens led a discussion of a draft progressive legislative scorecard and analysis of legislators in the 2013 session. Participants focused on what needs to be done to make the Maryland Legislature more progressive and more responsive to the needs of the community of residents in Maryland.

Progressive Neighbors is very proud of the role we played in the Nov. 6th elections. We covered early voting in Silver Spring, Rockville, and Burtonsville and, on Election Day, we had 26 volunteers at 13 polls in Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Rockville, Bethesda, and Leisure World, plus we had help at a few other polls. We passed out 9,500 Progressive Voter Guides and the Guide was put on a number of neighborhood listservs and also emailed to hundreds of our neighbors. We received a very positive response from voters and had many good discussions about the ballot questions and the candidates with folks waiting on line.

PN 2012 Voter Guide can be downloaded from Scribd

The steering committee would like to thank everyone who helped out.

And, of course, the election results were great! At the end of this email is the score card on the races and ballot questions where we endorsed.

We're In a Hole: We spent $1,700 for printing the Voter Guides and for Progressive Neighbors t-shirts, and we don't have that much money in our treasury. We need your help to retire our debt. Go to https://www.wepay.com/donations/progressiveneighbors  or www.progressiveneighborsmd.org to make a secure online contribution. A $25 contribution gets you an attractive Progressive Neighbors t-shirt!

Support the Montgomery County Renters Alliance, Inc.

The Renters Alliance was formed in direct response to the Montgomery County Tenant Work Group report which called for the establishment of an organization dedicated to advocating on behalf of renters. Now the Alliance is ready to build a renter movement in the County that calls upon landlords and government to keep rents affordable and rent increases fair, end evictions without just cause, encourage a more renter-responsive government, and give all renters a greater voice in all County affairs

The Alliance's immediate aim is to create a database and develop Alliance contacts throughout the County. More than 25% of County residents rent, and many more residents support fairness for renters.

Visit the Alliance at www.RentersAlliance.org and sign up, whether you are a renter or a home or condo owner who supports renters' rights. And please share this email with your friends and listserves.