2010 End of Session Letter

April 16, 2010

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

At midnight on April 12, 2010, the General Assembly of Maryland ended its 427th session with 810 bills and 4 resolutions passed.

The following is a wrap-up of this 2010 Session. Major priorities included balancing the budget, public safety, job creation and education.

BUDGET

Maryland is constitutionally required to balance its budget every year. Details are as follows:

The Operating Budget:

• Cuts spending by $525m for the next fiscal year, bringing the General fund budget down to $13.19B. This source is below 2007 levels. Overall spending also decreases almost 2%. (FY10=$32.2B compared to FY11=$31.9B).
• Makes government smaller and more efficient with 4,000 fewer State government positions over the past four years.
• Maintains our commitment to K-12 education. Next year, the State will provide $5.7B in education aid for teachers, textbooks, and other important education requirements. This budget supports 849,000 public school children in Maryland.
• Continues our commitment to higher education as well, providing $1.2B in funding to our colleges, universities and community colleges. This budget supports 121,235 students who want to attend a Maryland school next year and the 140,000 community college students.
• Curtails out year increases by cutting over $1 billion from the projected 2012 structural gap.

The legislature leaves nearly $830M in cash reserves including the State's Rainy Day Fund. Maryland is one of only seven states in the country to retain the coveted triple-A bond rating in spite of the global recession.

The State will continue to have a robust capital budget that will generate jobs in construction. That industry has suffered as a result of the housing market crisis. Since June of 2007, employment in that market has fallen by 24%, to 145,400 in October 2009. Over the next two fiscal years, capital budget spending will provide 44,913 direct jobs.

The capital budget includes:

• $250M in school construction funding, bringing the full funding to $1.25 billion for this term.
• $350M in funding for higher education facilities, including $73M for historically black institutions and over $80M for community colleges.
• $330M for environmental programs, including $20M for the Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund, which provides funding for cover crops and other environmental programs to help restore the health of the Bay and Atlantic Coastal Bays. We funded $65M in Program Open Space and Rural Legacy programs. Maryland's agricultural economy supports 350,000 jobs and $17B in revenue.
• $26M for new public safety facilities. This funding will help the men and women of law enforcement continue to fight crime in the State- an investment that has led to the lowest levels of violent crime since 1986.

EDUCATION

The majority of bills I personally sponsored were focused on educational issues as follows:

Maryland has been on the cutting edge of education reform as noted by student test scores improvement over the past decade. This fact, plus the 82% increase in education funding since 2002, has led to Maryland schools being ranked first in the country for two consecutive years. Under the terms of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Maryland is eligible for up to $250M in education funding. If Maryland receives the maximum funding amount, every school could receive additional education funding. This competitive program is known as the Race to the Top.

To enable Maryland to become more effective in competing for these funds, our Governor introduced the Education Reform Act of 2010, which I cosponsored.

This legislation will begin the third wave of education reform by:

• Increasing the length of time for a new teacher to achieve tenure from two years to three. At two years, Maryland has one of the lowest teacher tenure durations in the country. Thirty-three states require 3 years; 8 states require more than 4 years. The law also requires that student growth data be used in teacher and principal evaluations.
• Providing local jurisdictions to implement differentiated pay programs to attract high performing teachers to low performing schools. The bill would provide stipends to teachers and principals in the lowest achieving 5% of Title I schools. Incentive pay programs have been piloted in Prince George's County and parts of Baltimore City and Queen Anne.
• Governor's P-20 Leadership Council, a partnership among the State, educators and the business community to better prepare Maryland's students for jobs of the 21st century which will enhance the State's economic competitiveness by creating a workforce with 21st century skills. I am a member of this Council.
• Fairness in Negotiations Act which establishes as an independent unit of State government a Public School Labor Relations Board to assume specified duties previously held by the State Board of Education; requiring that the newly established Board hear controversies and disputes.
• Maintenance of Effort – Penalty: waives the maintenance of effort penalty for fiscal year 2010 and requires the Senate Budget & Taxation Committee and the House Ways & Means Committee to study the maintenance of effort requirement and penalties and report to the General Assembly on or before December 31, 2010.
• Public Schools – Student Information – Availability to Military Recruiters – this bill protects private student information collected during the administration of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) from being disclosed to military recruiters without the consent of parents and students.

The following bill received considerable attention from many of you and for that reason, I am sharing this report:

• BOAST – Building Opportunities for All Students and Teachers (failed). This bill would have created an income tax credit for 75% of the contributions made by a business or nonprofit organization to an eligible nonprofit organization that either provides scholarships at a nonpublic school or grants to public schools to support innovative programs. The fiscal summary stated that if the program is funded at a similar level as existing programs in other states, general fund expenditures will increase by $50M annually. There were many opponents to this bill, including labor unions, the Maryland Board of Education, county boards of education, and many private citizens; there were also many proponents such as the Maryland Catholic Conference, (the Archbishop of Baltimore testified), parents of children who attend private schools, and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. The bill did pass in the Senate and then was heard in my committee. Each witness presented his/her testimony and we carefully considered all aspects of the bill. Finally, I voted with my committee and we gave this proposal an UNFAVORABLE vote. I am especially proud of the Education Sub-committee for its work and thank the Ways & Means Committee for its careful and thorough deliberations.

ECONOMIC STIMULUS

• The Jobs Creation Recovery Tax Credit offers a $5,000 tax credit to any Maryland business that hires an unemployed Marylander. This is a one-year program, capped at $20 million and $250,000 per employer.
• Increasing Biotech Tax Credit confirms our continued commitment to the biotech tax credit again this year by increasing the available funding to $8 million in the budget for a program that creates jobs across Maryland. This credit has put Maryland at the forefront of the growing biotech industry.
• Supporting Stem Cell Research The General Assembly put $10.4 million into stem cell research funding this year. This research supports at least 514 jobs here in Maryland. This investment represents a clear commitment to providing hope for Marylanders to whom stem cells represent the best opportunity to cure debilitating illnesses.
• Property Tax Relief for Small Businesses gives them the ability to pay property taxes in two installments instead of one lump sum payment if the assessment is under $50,000. This bill provides over 93,000 small business properties with added flexibility to avoid making difficult cuts to their businesses.

PUBLIC SAFETY

• The Safe Schools Act of 2010 expands the types of crimes that law enforcement must report to school personnel if a child is arrested; requires the creation of a statewide model gang policy for school systems; and requires an assessment of intervention and prevention programs that schools can access.
• Sex Offender Laws The Legislature passed bills to bring Maryland into compliance with the federal Adam Walsh Act. The bill require homeless sex offenders, sex offenders convicted of indecent exposure and possessors of child pornography and offenders who repeatedly abuse children under the age of 14 to register on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry. Other laws require lifetime supervision of serious and repeat sex offenders including GPS monitoring; and increase mandatory minimum sentences for second degree sex offenders and rapists from 5 to 15 years.
• Distracted Driving – Cell phones SB 321 passed which prohibits any driver from using a handheld phone while the vehicle is in motion. Hands-free phones are permitted. Exceptions include emergency calls and law enforcement and emergency workers on duty.

There were also a number of bills that passed that addressed Developmental Disabilities issues which I supported including the Income Tax Checkoff for Developmental Disabilities; the Developmental Disabilities Waiting List Equity Fund which requires the Governor to include a specified appropriation to the Waiting List Equity Fund to provide community-based services to individuals eligible for those services; and a bill to establish collective bargaining rights for family child care providers who participate in the Maryland Child Care Subsidy program.

ELECTION ISSUES

I was disappointed when the Governor chose not to provide funding in the budget for a new voting system that will provide a voter-verified paper trail due to concerns about the costs. I successfully advocated for an amendment to Senate Bill 141, the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act of 2010, that requires the Department of Legislative Services to hire a consultant to study the cost of transitioning to a new optical scan voting system. The consultant will evaluate the potential for achieving cost savings with a new voting system due to lower operations and maintenance costs. The consultant will also make recommendations for procuring an optical scan voting system in a cost effective manner. The report of the consultant is due to the Governor and the General Assembly by December 1, 2010, in time to be considered when the Governor is deciding whether to provide funding for a new voting system in the next budget.

Another provision I requested also passed as part of Senate Bill 141. This amendment will prohibit the use of $2 million from the Fair Campaign Financing Fund that the General Assembly set aside for the procurement of an optical scan voting system for any other purpose. This will ensure that those funds are available to help finance a new voting system in the future.

My friends, in closing, I must report that this was absolutely one of the most contentious and divisive sessions in memory. The negative emphasis on issues of individual rights was repeated and repeated in committee and on the floor. Much of the other rhetoric we heard was similar to that which the Southern Republicans in New Orleans were espousing. Now, more than ever, we must go to the polls and support our men and women in Congress, our Governor and our Montgomery County State representatives here in Maryland.

If there are any issues or concerns you wish to discuss further, please call my office directly at 301-858-3027. My Aide will be pleased to assist you.

I invite you to visit my website at www.sheilahixson.org

And again thank you sincerely for allowing me to represent you here at the Maryland General Assembly.

Sincerely,

Sheila E. Hixson
Delegate, District 20