— CUMBERLAND — Local legislators painted a bleak picture of the General Assembly session that ended earlier this month.
Sen. George Edwards said it was a “contentious year, the worst year since I’ve been in the legislature.” A special session is planned for May 14, Edwards said, to pass a budget instead of falling back on the so-called “doomsday budget.”
Edwards was speaking at the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce Legislative Wrap-Up Breakfast at the Holiday Inn downtown. Also attending were Delegates Wendell Beitzel, Kevin Kelly and LeRoy Myers Jr. A second special session in the summer could deal with gaming issues, he said.
“The problem is ... they picked winners and losers (in the ‘doomsday budget’),” said Edwards. The senator said he would have preferred a level funding approach. “That way you are treating everybody the same,” Edwards said. No matter what happens “we still have a very serious structural deficit,” Edwards said.
While Edwards said he thought income taxes would likely go up for some people, other taxes were nixed during the session and will stay dead for the special session.
“One thing I don’t think you have to worry about is a gas tax increase,” Edwards said. Edwards said mass transit programs should be funded as they are in several other states by a local mass transit tax. “We need to have that conversation,” Edwards said, rather than raise the gas tax.
“You will pay 30 more dollars when you flush your john,” Edwards said, referring to the increase in the Chesapeake Bay restoration fee increase. Edwards was successful in exempting those living in Garrett County west of the Continental Divide, since their streams do not flow into the bay.
The Agricultural Land Preservation Act, which effectively limits septic systems for large subdivisions will heavily affect rural Maryland, Edwards said. The effect will be a decrease in the value of farmland throughout the state, he said.
In the last three years “the governor has raided every fund you can possibly, think of,” said Beitzel, who introduced legislation to put a lock box on the bay fund. The legislation failed.
“We haven’t drilled one well in Maryland, but we had 22 bills on natural gas,” Beitzel said. Beitzel said the one bill that did pass dealing with natural gas drilling in Marcellus Shale created a presumption of fault by a gas company for problems within 2,500 feet of a well.
“This is a very difficult thing for the companies to deal with,” Beitzel said.
Education funding was also a disappointment for Beitzel. Garrett County had the biggest loss of education funding of any county in the state, he said, and that has led to decisions to close schools in the county.
Myers said one of his biggest concerns is the state business climate.
“We are becoming even more of a business-unfriendly state,” he said. The population of the state is increasing, Myers said, but not the number of taxpayers.
“Attracting new business to Maryland is just not happening,” Myers said.
Myers said the special session will cost taxpayers $50,000 a day, “which is wrong.”
“I wonder if as a state we really know where we are going,” Myers said.
Kelly believes allowing table gaming in the state, which would require a statewide vote, could benefit Rocky Gap. The General Assembly spent a great deal of time on same-sex marriage, which all the local delegation members oppose. Kelly said he believes voters will nullify the state’s same-sex marriage law if it goes to the expected referendum in November.
Kelly said he believed the May special session would last two to three days.
Beitzel said he felt the administration was “getting even” with rural Maryland. Edwards said the general view in Annapolis is that it’s cheaper to live out here, but Edwards said he wasn’t sure that was the case. “The fees add up,” Edwards said.
Maryland is the richest state in the nation, but Allegany County only has a median income of $38,000 and therefore a gas tax increase or $30 fee increase “means a lot more to someone here than out there,” he added. Edwards cited the median income of Howard County as $102,000.
Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com.
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