Delegate Trent Kittleman - District 9A
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Contents:
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Education Part IV: Marylanders Can't Afford Kirwin's Myths
- Relief Act of 2021
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DEMS LOOK TO OVERRIDE VETO OF DIGITAL ADVERTISING TAX
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First target of "police reform:" Eliminate School SROs
- Our Equity Obsession Can Cost Lives
- New costs & regulations on small businesses
- Tips & Times for Testifying
- District News: Howard County
- District News: Carroll County
- Updates on Vaccine Locations
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"Blueprint for Maryland" needs a Dose of Reality
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NOTE: the "Blueprint for Maryland" is the name of the bill implementing the Kirwan Commission recommendations.
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"Maryland’s schools are underfunded."
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NOT TRUE: Per pupil, Maryland spends 22% more than the national average
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"Maryland’s teachers are underpaid."
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NOT TRUE: Per pupil, Maryland teachers are paid 28% more than the national average
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"Kirwan is necessary to reduce education inequality."
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NOT TRUE: The only way to eliminate education equality is to give low-income parents SCHOOL CHOICE through more Charter Schools and BOOST vouchers
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"The Kirwan reforms would not impose heavy financial burdens on Maryland's local jurisdictions."
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NOT TRUE: About 1/3rd of Kirwan's eventual costs will fall on all local jurisdictions
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"Maryland's poorest jurisdictions are inadequately funded & unfairly treated by current school funding formulas"
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NOT TRUE: For example, Baltimore City spends 10% more than the state average and gets 79% of its budget from federal & state sources.
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"Kirwan Commission's spending recommendations are new ideas"
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NOT TRUE: In 2002, the Thornton Commission recommended a 60% hike in state aid to education. Billions of spending later, students' test cores are virtually flat.
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"Kirwan recommendations can be implemented without significantly raising taxes."
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NOT TRUE: The legislature will vote to override Hogan's veto of the "Netflix" bill imposing a new tax on digital advertising and specifically directing that all revenues go to the "Blueprint for Maryland." (the Kirwan bill)
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"The Kirwan reforms would certainly improve student outcomes."
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NOT TRUE: Even if the plan, as written, would work, the likelihood that it would remain intact over a 10-year implementation period is less than 1% (see Thornton)
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"Kirwan would make Maryland's education system more transparent and accountable."
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NOT TRUE: There is very little accountability in Kirwan; annual spending for "Governance and Accountability" is less than one-tenth of one percent of the plan's budget.
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"The Kirwan proposal (the Blueprint for Maryland bill) is very popular."
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NOT TRUE: Polls that show support for Kirwan often fail to disclose the taxpayers' cost of the plan; when costs are mentioned, the majority of Marylanders turn thumbs down.
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Last week, Maryland's Senate unanimously passed Governor Hogan's bipartisan $1.5 billion Covid-19 stimulus package. The house cross-file, HB 612, was heard in the Ways & Means Committee on February 4.
"This is really about the next four months," said Sen. Guy Guzzone, a Howard County Democrat who chairs the Budget and Taxation Committee that handled the bill. "This is immediate relief that is directed toward individuals that have suffered the most because of Covid."
Businesses will receive several forms of relief aid. One provision will allow some 55,000 restaurants and small businesses to keep up to $12,000 in sales tax for four months. An additional $125 million in business assistance includes grants for entertainment venues, restaurants, and other hospitality businesses
Individuals. The package will provide direct payments of up to $750 to families who claimed the state's earned income tax credit in tax year 2019 or are set to receive the credit in 2020.
The bill will also provide one-time $1,000 payments to about 39,000 individuals who have been stuck in the Maryland Department of Labor's system waiting for unemployment insurance benefits.
Governor Hogan thanked the Senate for its "swift and unanimous passage" of the RELIEF Act., adding that "this is what effective and bipartisan leadership looks like."
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Dems look to Override Governor's Veto of Digital Advertising Tax!
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This week, the General Assembly will consider overriding the Governor's veto of the "21st Century Tax Fairness Act" -- also known as the Netflix Tax. Doing this would add the 6% sales tax to all video and music streaming services, cable and internet providers, and online news providers.
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The bill also carries a hefty penalty for willfully failing to file a digital advertising gross revenues tax return. Upon conviction, the party is guilty of a misdemeanor and is subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.
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Marylanders for Tax Fairness is an independent coalition of Marylanders and Maryland businesses dedicated to ensuring that the General Assembly does not place unnecessary and undue burdens on the state’s entrepreneurs and job creators. To support their efforts, sign the petition to tell the lawmakers, "don't raise our taxes during a pandemic."
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School Resource Officer (SRO) Program Under Siege
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Among the calls for "police reform," is an effort to eliminate the School Resource Officer (SRO) program. an SRO is a career law enforcement officer, trained and assigned by the local police department to work in the schools in collaboration with school administrators and community-based organizations. Two primary purposes of the officer are:
- to address crime and disorder problems, gangs, and drug activities affecting or occurring in or around an elementary or secondary school;
- to create an opportunity for police officers to relate to young people in a comfortable environment
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Are SROs in schools to arrest students??
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Are SROs in schools to protect students??
They serve both roles--but students may perceive these two roles as incompatible.
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Howard County has put forth a local bill to eliminate funding for the program, and several state-wide bills have been filed.
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House Bill 496 (Primary and Secondary Education - Mental Health Services - Expansion (Counselors Not Cops Act) which repeals mandated State funding for school resource officers (SRO) and adequate law enforcement coverage after fiscal 2022, and instead requires the Governor, beginning in fiscal 2023, to include $10 million in the State budget to enhance school-based mental and behavioral health services for students; and,
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HB 522, School Resource Officers - Prohibited Conduct, that would prohibit an SRO from enforcing discipline-related school policies, rules, regulations, and procedures, whether self-initiated or asked to do so by the school.
Unfortunately, opposition to SROs in the schools is coming from many African Americans and Hispanics who say they feel threatened by the presence of the officers, and that black and brown students are disproportionately arrested. These are legitimate concerns and must be addressed by every Maryland jurisdiction.
The SRO program began with several goals in mind, not the least of which was to allow for positive interactions between students and police in a familiar environment, and that is what happens regularly in every school these well-trained officers serve; these officers truly care about the kids.
At the same time, police officers are also there to prevent violence, and on occasion, they must arrest students; certainly, this can create tension. Nonetheless, experiencing arrest as a juvenile can often serve as a wake-up call and keep these kids from joining gangs or engaging in the kinds of activities that would cause them to be arrested as adults.
No doubt there are “bad apples” among the SROs just as there are in any organization. And sometimes the actions an SRO may take can be perceived differently depending upon a student’s background or culture.
But let’s not discard the entire program without making any effort to address whatever problems there are with the program. Rather than removing SRO’s, let’s identify specific problems and see if we can provide resources and training that will help address the legitimate concerns that some of our young people have.
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"The Left’s Vaccine Problem"
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Maryland Public Policy Institute columnist, Stephan Walters, reports on a New York Times article, taking the liberal progressive states to task for "putting equity before human lives."
"They’re not putting shots in arms rapidly enough to save as many lives as possible, and the main reason is their obsession with “equity” and their determination to control the vaccination process to make sure that the right people get shots first.
“Some blue states… created intricate rules about who qualifies for a vaccine and then made a big effort to keep anybody else from getting a shot. These complicated rules have slowed vaccination in both California and New York.”
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"Why aren’t progressive leaders doing a better job at mass vaccination?"
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"Across New York State, medical providers have had ‘to throw out precious vaccine doses because of difficulties finding patients who matched precisely with the state’s strict vaccination guidelines — and the steep penalties they would face had they made a mistake.’”
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“Many Democratic states,” Mr. Leonhardt notes, “are below the national average [in vaccination rate]. ‘The parts of the country that pride themselves on taking Covid seriously and believing in government are not covering themselves in glory,’ the Times’s Ezra Klein has written.”
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New costs & regulations on
small businesses
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At a time of great economic uncertainty and as we navigate reopening, the General Assembly should be focused on moving the Governor’s Emergency COVID-19 RELIEF Act of 2021, not on imposing new burdensome regulations on our small businesses.."
HB 581/SB 486 impose significant new rules and regulations on employers. Local government expenditures increase significantly to provide the hazard pay and other benefits required by the bill to essential workers.
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“Reopening our businesses safely and ensuring the employees remain in good health remains a shared goal. However, the language in House Bill 581/Senate Bill 486 is extremely broad and goes beyond the scope of the current public health crisis brought on by COVID-19. We should be providing more relief to our small businesses, not adding regulations and financial burdens,”
--Senator MaryBeth Carroza MD General Assembly,
Update-- Week 4N.
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The Howard County Council passed CB 63-2020 (Sanctuary County) over the holidays, on December 7th -- despite the number of times this issue has been raised and defeated by the residents of the County. Three days later, County Executive Calvin Ball signed the bill and Howard was set to become a Sanctuary for illegal immigrants starting on February 9th, 2021.
Since then, members of the GOP joined with area business and community leaders and have mounted a campaign to challenge CB 63-2020 by way of a county-wide referendum.
The group is on schedule to collect the number of petition signatures needed, but still must vet and prepare the signatures for submission to the Board of Elections.
Supporting this ballot initiative is our best—and only--remaining chance to influence this issue. If the petitioners are successful at getting CB 63-2020 on the ballot, then it will be residents making the decision, not the political progressives running County Government.
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To see the Howard County Delegation's Proposed Bond Initiatives and Proposed Local Bills as well as their current status
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CONGRATULATIONS CARROLL COUNTY !
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The accuracy of the 10-year Census depends a great deal upon the willingness of its citizens to self-report. This time, Maryland achieved a self-report rate of 71.2%, which put it number ten in the nation.
Among the state's 24 jurisdictions, CARROLL COUNTY had the highest self-report rate -- again -- of 81.5%. This put Carroll 24th in the U.S. out of 3,200 counties!
Howard County had the second-highest rate, just over 80%. Overall, Maryland had four counties in the top 100 in the United State! Congratulations to all!
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Right to Life Rally
By Carroll County Republican Central Committee Member Katherine Adelaide
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The Maryland March for Life occurred live this year on Thursday, February 4th from 4:30 to 6:30 in Annapolis with social distancing and face masks. The extremely peaceful event was heavily scaled back due to covid, but still well attended by citizens and legislators alike.
I made the trek from Taneytown, Maryland to support pro-life legislation and legislators, especially the first-ever Equal Protection bill filed in Maryland by Delegate Rick Metzgar who spoke briefly with Senator Salling.
Delegate Dan Cox is working with Kathy Szeliga to establish a Pro-Life Committee within the Caucus and asked for assistance to decrease abortion funding in the budget. Delegate Cox also expressed thanks for the MDGOP Resolution Against Infanticide passed at the fall 2020 convention.
Maryland Right to Life legislative lobbyist Laura Bogley gave a legislative summary and introduced the Delegates and other speakers.
The event concluded with a prayerful candlelight vigil for those lost to abortion.
Pictures - Top Right to Life Crowd gathers masked and distanced waiting for remarks
Bottom Right - Del. Metzgar, CCRCC Member Katherine Adelaide, Sen. Salling
Bottom Left - Laura Bogley, Maryland Right to Life
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Update on Vaccine Locations
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MASS SITES OPEN UP, LOCALS REPORT DROP IN VACCINE AVAILABILITY
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Two of Maryland's mass COVID-19 vaccination sites are opening this week, in the Baltimore Convention Center and in Six Flags America in Largo, reports Shen Wu Tan reports for The Washington Times.
- Appointments will be required at both of these sites, reports Jayne Miller, WBAL-TV
- As large state-run sites and private companies are ramping up vaccination efforts, the Frederick County Health Department continues to be concerned about equity as some people who have time and a vehicle to drive farther may be able to access vaccines faster, writes Greg Swatek for The Frederick News-Post
- Local health departments have complained that the number of doses they get from the state has been cut almost in half as Maryland is set to open its two big vaccination sites, leaving local sites empty due to lack of doses, reports Mik Hellgren for WJZ
- Will the state ever have one place to register for vaccines like in other states, instead of going on an online scavenger hunt, asks Jean Marbella of the Sun.
- Maryland's local health departments will receive more than $114 million to help fund COVID-19 vaccination efforts and support equitable access and distribution of vaccines, reports Marcus Dieterle, Baltimore Fishbowl.
The state has added information on other sites across Maryland in addition to Health Department clinics where registration for vaccination is currently or will soon be available:
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Lowe House Office Building
Suite 202
10 Bladen Street
Annapolis, MD 21401
410-841-3556
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