BLOGS BY THE DELEGATE

CARDIN ANNAPOLIS REPORT

February 27, 2013 – Week Eight

This week the House began to take votes on some of the more controversial, higher profile issues of the Session. I want to highlight just a few that have resulted in significant correspondence to my office.

As an advocate for humane treatment of animals and landlord rights, I am pleased to say that HB 78, which creates a breed-neutral, rebuttable presumption of liability in dog bite cases, passed the House chamber by a vote of 133-0. After the disastrous Solesky Court of Appeals decision created strict liability for pit bull owners...

CARDIN ANNAPOLIS REPORT

February 22, 2013 – Week Seven of Fourteen

This week all six of our standing committees are in full swing with long days of bill hearings and voting sessions. Two of my bills, Healthy Maryland (HB 185) and this year’s bicycle passing law (HB 445), which I discussed in detail in previous editions of the Annapolis Report, were heard last week, and I believe both were engaging policy matters taken up by the committees. This week, I will have hearings on two tax payer rights bills attempting to correct unfair  interest rates you pay (but the State does not) on tax...

CARDIN ANNAPOLIS REPORT

February 15, 2013 – Week Six of Fourteen

Last Thursday’s deadline for bill introduction saw a very light 1,390 bills filed. I am proud of the package of twenty one bills I introduced as well as the sixty-three others I was asked to co-sponsor. We are focusing our legislative efforts on bills to protect schoolchildren from public bullying on the internet, to keep bicyclists safe on our roads, to reign in rampant abuses in county speed camera programs, to prevent energy companies from bullying homeowners into granting far-reaching easements to their land, and to close loopholes in campaign...

CARDIN ANNAPOLIS REPORT

February 8, 2013 – Week Five

Last week, Governor O’Malley delivered his seventh annual State of the State address. While there is always have progress to be made, Governor O’Malley passionately and effectively argued to the legislature that the state of the State is strong. One notable statement was that “[n]o other state can say at once, that they are #1 in education five years in a row, #1 in holding down the cost of college tuition, #1 in innovation and entrepreneurship, #1 in human capital capacity, #1 in access...

CARDIN ANNAPOLIS REPORT

JANUARY 30, 2013 – Week Four

As the session gets into full swing and more than 1000 bills have been introduced, Maryland received great news on jobs and the economy this week. We found out that Maryland is the 9th fastest State in the nation in job recovery with 80% of jobs lost during the recession recovered. Further, Maryland created 30,300 jobs in December including 7,700 jobs created in the private sector. Finally, unemployment decreased to 6.6%, 1.5% below the national average.

On the...

ANNAPOLIS REPORT

JANUARY 23, 2013 – Week Three

This week Governor O’Malley released his fiscal year 2014 budget. This session’s budget comes in at $37.3 billion, a 3.3% increase from last year, while closing the structural budget deficit from nearly $2 billion to $166 million without raising taxes or fees for the first time during the Governor’s six years in office.

The Governor called this session’s budget a “jobs budget” because it creates 43,000 jobs in Maryland. The budget, which includes...