Progressive Maryland 2008 Legislative Scorecard

by: Isaac Smith

Fri Aug 01, 2008 at 06:17 PM EDT

Among the issues on which lawmakers were rated this year were the restructuring of the income tax, expansion of Medicaid, public financing of elections, the rescuing of the Prince George's hospital system, and measures to protect homeowners from foreclosure. PM has come under a lot of criticism lately, but their scorecard is one of the few tools available for keeping the General Assembly accountable on matters affecting low-income and middle-class households, so do check it out.

PS: Why no mention of the Global Warming Solutions Act? Dealing with climate change in an equitable manner ought to be a top progressive priority. Its omission from the scorecard is rather curious.

Fringe Left: O'Malley Not Fringe Left Enough!!

by: Isaac Smith

Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 03:25 PM EDT

Now that I've gotten the obligatory retort from Brian Griffiths out of the way, I'd like to comment on Eric and Adam's posts on Gov. O'Malley's problems with key Democratic constituencies. Generally, I think they're right that O'Malley has lost a bit of momentum when it comes to leading on key progressive issues, including climate change, labor reform, and same-sex marriage. Part of that, I think, can be attributed to the fallout over the special session budget package last fall, which seems to have used up a lot of O'Malley's political capital. But, as Eric notes in passing, the General Assembly also deserves scrutiny here. Although Maryland is regarded as a state with a "strong governor" system, I think we've seen in the last few years just how much power the legislature -- in particular Mike Miller's Senate -- is able to wield. Recall, for example, that Nathaniel Exum's amendment to the Global Warming Solutions Act more or less killed its chances of passing this year. Likewise, Anthony Muse's opposition to same-sex marriage proved to be fatal for legislation legalizing it.

Connected with this is the fact that many of the Democrats in the General Assembly are not as liberal as we would like them to be, nor can they be easily pushed around by liberal activists and bloggers. Eric's map of partisan voting in Maryland, for one, shows that Democrats are doing much better in state legislative elections than partisan voting patterns would suggest. So while liberals should lament the slow progress on certain issues, they should also look at some of the structural factors that make getting their favored legislation passed more difficult.

In Re Montgomery County vs. the World

by: Eric Luedtke

Thu Jul 10, 2008 at 09:18 PM EDT

Adam at MPW has just finished a four-part series of posts about how Montgomery County can assert its power in the General Assembly (one, two, three, four - and Bernie Hayden's response is also worth a read). The series is based on the premise that Montgomery County does not have the power it should in Annapolis, or, in the words of one of Adam's unnamed sources, "Our guys are pathetic. Every year they go to Annapolis and every year we get jacksh*t!"

This is the argument we heard last year when Senators Kramer and Madaleno voted against the millionaires tax, because it disproportionately affected Montgomery County. And it is accompanied, as is invariably true, by the assertion that, "Montgomery taxpayers get 15 cents back in aid for every dollar they pay in taxes, less than half the state average of 35 cents." Both are true; Montgomery County as a whole does not get much back from the state for what we pay in, and the millionaires tax took much of its revenue from Montgomery County.

Now, no offense Adam, but this is a pretty tenuous complaint. Why? Well, the reason both of these things are true is because there are a hell of a lot of rich people in Montgomery County. As of the last census:

- Households in Montgomery County making $200,000 or more: 43,903, or 12.9% of households

- Households in Baltimore City making $200,000 or more: 4,737, or 1.9% of households

- Households in Somerset County making $200,000 or more: 100, or 1.2% of households

- Mean household income in Montgomery County: $115,225

- Mean household income in Baltimore City: $50,239

So when we talk about Montgomery County as a whole in discussions of taxation and service dollars received, we're obfuscating a couple points. First, a lot of large streams of money in the state budget, including some health care and education programss, were created to go to those most in need. By percentage of population, Montgomery County has fewer people in need than other jurisdictions. That's not to say there are no poor people in Montgomery County, because there are, and they have needs. But it's obvious that a jurisdiction with 30% poverty will get a lot more money per capita than a jurisdiction with 10% poverty. Unless you believe that more of the ultra-wealthy deserve state-funded health care, those facts porbably shouldn't change much.

Second, when we talk about the taxes paid to the state, any effort to make taxation more progressive will inevitably take more money out of Montgomery County, simply because we have more of the wealthy here. The millionaires tax wasn't targeted at Montgomery County, it was targeted at the small minority of millionaires in Montgomery County, and elsewhere in the state. Progressive taxation is based on the belief that a 'fair share' for the super-rich and a 'fair share' for the working poor are not the same thing. So, again, unless you want the tax burden to rest on the middle class and the working class, the state income tax probably shouldn't be made more regressive.

In fact, if Senators Kramer and Madaleno had really been interested in protecting the majority of citizens in their districts, they would have fought to make the tax package passed last fall much more progressive than it was. The vast majority of Montgomery County residents would have benefited far more from a battle to reduce the sales tax increase than from drawing a line in the sand on the millionaire's tax. It hurts me to say, because I deeply respect Senator Madaleno and many of our Senators and Delegates as strong progressive voices on most issues, but the average Montgomery County resident was betrayed by their delegation when Montgomery became the major road block to a more progressive income tax. To put it crudely, and perhaps a little unfairly, they screwed their voters to protect their donors.

Now, of course, there are places in which Montgomery County isn't getting its fair share. School construction is one, and I suspect the same is true of many state funding formulas that are based on jurisdictions as a whole rather than needs of individuals within a jurisdiction. As a teacher, I'd love to see us get our fair share of school construction dollars from the state. In that respect, some of Adam's ideas for power plays may deserve further attention from legislators, or at least those who are never interested in getting in Mike Miller's good graces. But the argument that Montgomery County deserves a fair share has in many ways been hijacked by those who would see a less progressive state budget and system of taxation, or who simply want taxes decreased. The latter are especially funny, complaining at the same time that taxes are too high and that we don't get enough state funding, as if services didn't require taxes to pay for them in the first place.

In the end, the county lines are all rather arbitrary, some of them having been drawn more than three hundred years ago when Maryland was still a proprietary colony of the Lords Baltimore. And the whole idea that parochial needs should be the highest priority of legislators is a little insulting to the concept of democracy. I'm not going to vote for a Senator or Delegate just because they get a slight increase in our school funding formula. I go to the polls on election day to vote for those who share my beliefs. I believe we should help the less fortunate. I believe that those who have more to give should be asked to give more. I believe that we need to protect the environment, that quality health care is a fundamental human right, and that there are a whole hell of a lot deeper and more complex causes of poverty than laziness. I will vote for a Marylander who stands up for those values, because they matter a lot more to me than how much my neighbors and I are getting from the state compared to people a couple miles up Route 29.

I didn't vote for Donna Edwards because she promised to bring more federal dollars to the fourth congressional district, I voted for her because I agree with her on most important issues. That's what representative democracy should really be about.

Measuring Partisan Voting in Maryland

by: Eric Luedtke

Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 10:04 PM EDT

If you read national political blogs, you're familiar with something called the PVI, or Partisan Voting Index. It's a rating system created by Charlie Cook that gives an idea of how Democratic or Republican a specific congressional district is, created by averaging the vote in a specific district in the last two presidential elections compared to the national vote in those elections. It's a useful metric, and gives a quick at-a-glance way of figuring out how competitive a specific district may be come election day. For example, Maryland's 8th congressional district is very Democratic at a PVI of D+20, or 20% more Democratic than the nation as a whole.

I've created a version of the PVI for the Maryland General Assembly, for a couple of reasons. First, it is a useful way of measuring how successful the Democratic Party has been in getting moderate Democrats elected in districts that lean Republican. It's also useful if progressives are going to get serious about targeting Democratic incumbents who are too conservative for their district. It will make it easier to quantiatively define where conservative Democrats can be challenged in safe Democratic districts.

Rather than using the last two elections as the basis of the index, I've used an average of the results from the last gubernatorial (O'Malley v. Ehrlich) and Senate (Cardin v. Steele) races. I didn't use 2002 results because the data is not as easily accessible on the state elections website. The results are laid out in a spreadsheet located here (Excel) or here (csv). And because I'm a visual person, I also created a map of Maryland's house districts based on the data:

More after the fold...

It's Over. Now What?

by: Isaac Smith

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 08:00 AM EDT

So with the General Assembly's legislative session all wrapped up as of last night, what got accomplished?

• The Global Warming Solutions Act died in House committee. It's sad that the environmentalists and labor couldn't work together on this issue, since it's clear that strong climate change regulations wouldn't necessarily mean the death of the Sparrows Point steel mill. At the same time, it's hardly a tragedy that it didn't get passed: According to Dawn Stoltzfus of the Maryland LCV, Nathaniel Exum's amendment to have every new climate regulation be subject to legislative approval weakened the bill so badly that it would be better just to start over next year. Or better yet, let Congress adopt a broad climate policy, and we can obviate the concern of potentially losing jobs in Maryland to other states. In any case, the more important measures, in my opinion -- increasing renewable energy and energy efficiency standards -- passed, which will help put Maryland in a better position to transition to a low-carbon economy.
  
• Speaking of energy, the Constellation settlement also got approved, and without any provision to regulate the sale of electricity from new plants. This is also good news, as Jay Hancock notes, as it gives Maryland a good place from which it can decide where to go with respect to electricity, be it further deregulation or reregulation.
• Of the expanded DNA database for criminal investigations, I don't see it in as apocalyptic terms as Paul Gordon does, but it seems true to say that it's of dubious constitutionality. This seems to be part of an unfortunate pattern when it comes to Gov. O'Malley's record on civil liberties.
• I was also disappointed that neither same-sex marriage nor civil unions got anywhere this session. There was some progress with respect to domestic partnership benefits, but the leadership needs a lot more cajoling on this issue.

One more thing I should add is that I think we can explain the right-ward lurch, as Paul puts it, in the General Assembly this session as a reaction to the economy taking a nosedive and the aftermath of the special session. I know I harp on this, but the inability of states to do deficit spending like the federal government severly constricts what states can do during a recession. We can all admire Gov. O'Malley's courage in taking on the budget deficit last November, but let's not kid ourselves, he paid a price: the sales tax increase, besides being regressive, came at a rather bad time; and unlike the federal government, Maryland doesn't have the ability to pass a stimulus package. Given that environment, it's easy to see how O'Malley and the General Assembly adopted a tempermentally, if not ideologically, conservative stance on fiscal matters.

Of course, that doesn't explain why the Democratic leadership would act timid on social issues or civil liberties issues, as Paul laments; it may be enough to say that 1) there are still many Democrats uncomfortable with the concept of same-sex marriage or abortion rights, and 2) Being "tough on crime" is a well both Democrats and Republicans like to draw from. So perhaps instead of saying the General Assembly tilted right this session, they hunkered down and tried not to rock the boat too much.

UPDATE: Be sure to check Think Progress's Wonk Room, which has a good post on the Global Warming Solutions Act. (h/t to Josh)

Energy Conservation Back On in Senate

by: Isaac Smith

Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 08:00 AM EDT

A key part of Gov. O'Malley's energy agenda this session was to take the revenue gained from the auctioning off of carbon credits under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and use it to fund energy conservation efforts in the state. The Senate, however, nixed the bill to authorize that over concerns that not enough money would go to insulate people from any resulting increases in electricity rates. Fortunately, they went back to the drawing bill and passed a compromise bill:

After taking a procedural vote to reconsider the bill that had failed, the Senate voted to amend the bill to reduce the rate relief and direct more money to the Electric Universal Service Program, which provides assistance to the poor. The amendment also dictates that half of the auction proceeds be dedicated to energy-efficiency and conservation programs, with the rest going to renewable energy initiatives and other projects.

The question of how to use the revenue from carbon credit auctions is a hard one to figure out; like many, I'm sympathetic to the idea of direct payments or rebates as a way to make putting a price on carbon emissions more politically saleable, but it's also true that energy efficiency produces more savings over the long run. As is often the case in talking about climate change, it really comes down to what your rate of time preference is, i.e., whether you prefer to enjoy something now or later.

One thing that militates in favor of investing in energy efficiency and against rebates in this case is the fact that the RGGI auction revenue wouldn't yield a whole lot of money for the purposes of rate relief. As I've noted and as Joan Conway notes in the Sun article, using some or all of the revenue for rate relief would only knock off a few dollars a month off electric bills. This is because RGGI credits are expected to be auctioned off at only a few dollars per ton of carbon dioxide (between $3 and $7 if I'm not mistaken). Now if the auction price were at around $30, as the current price of carbon credits is in Europe, then I could see a stronger case for putting the money toward rate relief. As it is, it looks like Maryland would do best to spend the money on increasing energy efficiency over the long term, which will likely also be the best way to bring down people's electric bills.

Getting Very Near the End

by: Isaac Smith

Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:59 PM EDT

We've got about two weeks left in the legislative session for this year, and there are still a lot of bills left to be considered. The Washington Post has a fairly comprehensive list, which I've pasted below the fold.

The first thing that jumps out at me is that any action on same-sex marriage this session is looking increasingly uniikely. This isn't an issue the leadership in the General Assembly wanted to touch at all (I suppose deciding on the state dessert was more, shall we say, palatable), and I expect they'll get their way -- at least for now.

I also worry that, in the rush to get bills passed before the sessions closes, we're going to get some ill-considered legislation sent to Gov. O'Malley, much like the computer services tax in the special session. It's good to see that there's some movement toward replacing it with an income tax surcharge on high earners, but it's far from a done deal. Adam and David over at Maryland Politics Watch have a good debate going on that proposal.

Global Warming Solutions Act Gets Preliminary Approval

by: Isaac Smith

Thu Mar 20, 2008 at 06:19 PM EDT

Final vote will be tomorrow, but it looks like the final bill will be less stringent than it was initially. The bill now has a "soft", rather than "hard," target of 90% carbon emissions reductions by 2050; it requires that any regulations made by the Department of the Environment get legislative approval; and allows the Governor to nix regulations if he thinks reductions would raise energy costs.

The Chesapeake Climate folks are on record as being against at least two of these amendments, with some justification: They make carbon reductions much harder to get through than it would otherwise. On the other hand, these are hardly poison pills: It may be better for policy makers to have some leeway to respond to changing economic and environmental conditions, given possible future federal action on climate change, energy prices, and whether the more harmful effects of climate change come sooner or later. Besides, given that any climate change regulations are going to be economy-wide, it's good to have public input in the form of elected representatives. Whether politicians are to be better trusted on climate change than bureaucrats, though, is another question.

Revised for clarity. 

Taxes, Transformation, and Credit Where Credit's Due

by: Eric Luedtke

Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 04:33 PM EDT

From Evan West in the comments to my previous post:

I can't tell you how frustrating it is to read something that I agree with on an abstract level only to get smacked in the face by what I see as a concrete contradiction.

I see what came out of the special session as a transformational, progressive change.  The O'Malley package was changed, but I think to say that it was gutted is an exaggeration.  There were compromises, no doubt.  Some of them were to the anti-slots factions.  O'Malley's package would have had the legislature enact a slots proposal immediately.  Instead, the compromise was to let the voters settle it.  More democratic that way, right?

O'Malley proposed that the top tax bracket be increased from 4.75% to 6.5% The compromise was 5.5%.  Obviously, this is not sweeping, proletariat-type change, but I'd call it progress.

The corporate income tax increase was boosted from 7% (fairly high already) to 8.25% in the special session version. Again, progress in my opinion.

It also managed to create the largest increase in Medicaid in a generation.

Isn't this what we stand for as progressives?  And yes, I am one.  

It bothers me when we see the first real, progressive change in our tax system in many years, one that took guts and is politically unpopular, pilloried by progressives as "not enough".

Evan's got a point, of course. Maybe we have focused a little too much on the failures of the past few months, rather than the important successes. And referring to what the Senate did as gutting is probably a little over the top. 

I agree that the creation of a progressive income tax structure in Maryland was a very good thing, and long overdue. And whatever complaints I have about the special session are moot now. In the long term, what I'm criticizing is the failure to discuss taxes as a public good - a way to continue to provide high-quality public services - instead of an infringement on individual rights, which is what the right wing thinks. That's the sort of transformational effort to change the playing field of public debate that I was looking for.

But in the interest of giving credit where credit's due: to Martin O'Malley, for having the courage to make the politically unpopular changes to end the structural deficit, something his predecessor was incapable of. To those state senators and delegates who fight for progressive causes, and who over the last few months brought us a progressive income tax, medicaid expansion, improved school funding through GCEI, and a new program to help save the bay. And to those same people for maintaining their commitment to progressive causes in a bad budget time during the current session.

Lobby for the Environment Today

by: Robb_Black

Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 09:20 AM EST

Today is the annual Environmental Lobby/Action Day in Annapolis.  It is sponsored by the MD League of Conservation Voters.  They want you to RSVP but I'm sure you can show up and participate today.  So if you are looking for something to do on your day off today, head on down to Annapolis. 

Where: 1st Floor Conference in the Miller Senate Office Building (11 Bladen St. Annapolis, MD 21401) Visit www.mdlcv.org for directions.

Agenda:

Noon - Registration
12:30 p.m. - Welcome
1:00 p.m. - Presentations information from top state officials (Governor O'Malley, Senate President Miller, Speaker Busch, and others invited)
2:00 p.m. - Expert briefings on the top environmental issues
3:00 p.m. - Fast pace lobby training and helpful tips
4:00 p.m. - Opportunity to meet your legislators and have your voice heard. 

If I can find a place to plug in my laptop, I might try to do a diary live from the event...