State Transportation Cuts Affect Baltimore County

For 15 years before my election to the Baltimore County Council, I worked in the transportation sector.    During my two years on the County Council, I have tried to advance long-needed funding for resurfacing and interchange improvements throughout the Fifth District.

Transportation does not garner the attention that other issues command, but it is critical to our way of life.   Crumbling roads and congestion impact both businesses and families.   Local governments like Baltimore County not only need to repair roads that were originally built in the 1950s and 1960s, but deal with bottlenecks that are clogged with traffic.   In my district, much of this congestion results from Harford County motorists who use Belair and Harford Roads for their commutes.

Unfortunately, recent state budgets have sharply cut the money Baltimore County and other local governments receive for road improvements.   In 2007, when Governor O'Malley was inaugurated, local jurisdictions shared $535.3 million in Highway User Revenues.  Baltimore County received $45.6 million of this amount.  

Within four years, local road funding had been cut by about $402.6 million, shrinking from $535.3 million to $132.7 million.   Excluding Baltimore City, all other jurisdictions shared a total of only $7.9 million in 2011!   Highway User Revenues have recovered slightly from 2011, but the amount is pitiful compared to the 2007 level when Governor O'Malley was inaugurated.   

These cuts have not received a lot of attention.   While Governor O'Malley crows about school construction money--and I commend him for that funding, which has been very helpful in Baltimore County--his administration deserves scrutiny for its treatment of local road needs.

Fortunately, County Executive Kamenetz proposed robust funding for resurfacing in the most recent budget.   Thanks to that funding, major routes throughout the Fifth District are targeted for resurfacing.  But imagine what could be done if Highway User Revenues were restored to the level that counties received before 2007!

A"No" Vote on Question 5, Governor O'Malley's Redistricting Map

The proposed Third District.

This fall, I am teaching a course in political science at Loyola University. When I needed to illustrate some examples of Congressional gerrymandering, it was easy to find them right here at home.

The map proposed by Governor Martin O'Malley and passed by the General Assembly twists and turns the state's eight House districts in order to maximize the Democratic Party's chances of gaining as many seats as possible. A Philadelphia-based consulting firm recently concluded that three of Maryland's districts are among the most gerrymandered in the country. One of these is the Third District, which a judge said reminded him of "reminiscent of a broken-winged pterodactyl, lying prostrate across the center of the state." You can see that district to the right.

Some Democratic politicians have courageously challenged this map. Montgomery County Councilman Phil Andrews recently wrote that "whenever proponents of Maryland's new congressional districts make their pitch, there is something missing: the map itself. The gerrymandered map of Maryland's congressional districts produced by Gov. Martin O'Malley and a majority of the General Assembly is so outrageous that proponents of the new map are embarrassed to show it in public."  Here is a link to the map if you want to judge for yourself.

I will freely admit that Republicans have been guilty of the same type of gerrymandering in states like North Carolina and Texas. Here in Baltimore County, the new Council districts are more compact than the ones adopted in 2001, and certainly nowhere as egregious as the Congressional map.

Voters have been inundated with information about the other ballot questions, but not about Question 5. That is wanted to share my opinion on this particular question.  When you go into the voting booth, there won't be a picture of the map on the ballot, but you can look for yourself beforehand to determine if this is the type of redistricting that epitomizes the best in government.

O'Malley's Teacher Pension Shift

Governor O'Malley's proposed state budget would shift $240 million in teacher pension costs to local governments.  Bryan Sears details the impact on Baltimore County in Patch. 

This shift has been debated at the state level for several years now.   State legislative leaders have repeatedly sought the change, but the governor held off such a move due to concerns raised by the Maryland Association of Counties and individual county leaders.   The Maryland Association of Counties has a good summary of the debate over pension costs at its blog, Conduit Street.

I will be following this issue closely as the Maryland General Assembly considers the governor's budget proposal.  Teacher pension costs represent another bill for Baltimore County to pay, even as we emerge from a difficult economic recession.  Money that Baltimore County will need to spend on teacher pensions could be targeted toward other priorities, such as schools, infrastructure, and economic development.