Volume 11 , Issue 1

April 2013

45th Legislative District News

2013 Session Wrap-Up
By Senator Nathaniel McFadden
PASSING A BALANCE BUDGET
As unemployment goes down, revenues rise, and we emerge from the great recession, the legislature continued to manage the State's budget in a fiscally responsible manner, while focusing on job recreation. Wherever the legislature could find waste in the budget, it was cut, and the legislature significantly reduced the structural deficit. Throughout the recession and including this year's budget, we have cut over $8.3 billion of projected spending to ensure a lean and fully functioning state budget for years to come while protecting the priorities of our state and its residents :

Senator Nathaniel J. McFadden President Pro Tempore

Senator Nathaniel J. McFadden 3301 Blair Road Baltimore, Maryland 21213 Phone: 410.563.4500 Fax: 410.563.5003 Email: Nathaniel.McFadden@senate.state.md.us Voters are not an interruption to our work, they are the reason for our work!

State Aid to Baltimore

Total state aid to Baltimore 1.3 billion dollars: Education- $915,000,000; Disparity Grant- $80,000,000; Health -$7,000,000 ; Public safety -$12,000,000 Recreation-$ 5,000,000; Libraries-$6,000,000; and Transportation -$1,350,000.

Bond Bills
Lamb Community Resource Center-125,000; Morgan State University Athletic Facility Renovations $200,000; Mount Pleasant Family Life Center- $100,000; New Creation Christian Academy Day Care Playground- $100,000; Soulful Symphony- $200,000 and Eager Street Park$1,350,000

Nathaniel J. McFadden

Building and Renovating Schools

Our schools have been ranked #1 in the nation for five years in a row, which is why it is critical that we protect the state s investment in our classrooms. K-12 education continues to represent 40% of our operating budget, and we fully funded our commitment to our children through GCEI and providing opportunities for all students to succeed. All told, we invested over $6 billion in K-12 education. This investment will mean well-paid teachers, smaller class sizes and better opportunities for students, no matter where in the state they reside. Attached to this document is a document that breaks our spending by county. Public school construction continues to be a priority for our state. This year alone, we invested over $325 million in funding for school construction. In addition, the budget includes $25 million for school safety. These measures include funding for security cameras, photo identification systems for visitors, and stronger locks and glass barriers. This funding means that over this term, the General Assembly has invested over $800 million to make our schools more modern and accessible.

Ensuring no child goes hungry

The budget this year includes funding to provide a free school breakfast to an additional 57,000 Maryland children across the state. This funding will make certain that Maryland children can focus better at school and receive a nutritious start to the day.

Keeping Higher Education Affordable

We continued our historic investment in higher education by budgeting over $1.3 billion for our public colleges and universities. In addition, we increased funding to our community colleges by almost 7%. These investments will help to prevent drastic tuition increases and help our students prepare to compete in Marylands increasingly high tech economy. For four years now, Maryland has had tuition increa ses kept at just 3% a year, making our colleges more affordable and accessible for all.

Page 2

45th Legislative District News

Building Infrastructure and Creating Jobs

This years capital budget includes over $1 billion for road repairs, library and hospital construction, school construction, and other projects that improve our quality of life and create jobs in the states construction industry. This bill will support the creat ion and retention of over 44,000 jobs.

Connecting employers with the employees they need; and employees with the jobs they deserve
This year, we continued our path of ensuring that job seekers had the resources they needed to gain employment with two innovative bills. Under the Employment Advancement Right Now (EARN) Act, the state will work with businesses and our educational system to provide free skills trainings in construction, advanced manufacturing, cyber security, and wellness. This program will be run in partnership with employers so they will help to ensure that we are training people in the most in-demand jobs. In addition, this session we passed legislation to make certain that when our veterans return from overseas, they can use those same skills to find jobs here. Under the Veterans Full Employment Act, the state will help veterans gain job opportunities in Maryland. The legislation will expedite professional licensing for veterans who wish to relocate to Maryland, so they can find jobs sooner. Importantly, the legislation also will credit military veterans with education and trainings to lower the cost of a degree and to help our veterans earn their professional licenses at a quicker pace.

Keeping Communities Safer

Following the tragic events in Newtown, CT, members of the legislature and the Governor worked together to address gun violence to keep dangerous guns off our streets and out of the hands of those who would use them for to harm innocent people. The bill bans highcapacity magazines and military-style assault weapons, requires licensing and fingerprints for future handgun purchases, and bans violent criminals from purchasing guns. In addition, the bill tightens regulations and gives the Maryland State Police the tools that they will need to stop illegal gun purchases. Additionally, the bill works to address the mental-health aspects of these unfortunate incidents. The legislation will make sure that those with mental illnesses who may be dangerous to themselves or others cannot access guns. Additionally, the bill helps to improve mentalhealth services in Maryland and provides information sharing between the state and federal government to make certain that our background checks are getting the State Police the necessary information regarding mental health.

Building Schools in Baltimore City

In Baltimore City, schools are crumbling. Children are learning in schools that are over one hundred years old with failing equipment and outdated technology. Modern and clean classrooms are essential to a good education and have been shown to have a direct correlation to student achievement. Working together, the General Assembly came up with a plan that will have the state and city provide funding to obtain bonds for school construction. This project will have oversight from the Maryland Stadium Authority, and will allow the City to construct the modern classrooms to help improve education.

Ending the Death Penalty

This session, Maryland became the 18th state in the nation to abolish the death penalty. The death penalty, which has not been used in Maryland since 2005, was abolished over concerns of its effectiveness and its fairness. This will be the first time Maryland does not have the death penalty on its books since the early 1970s.

Keeping our Roads Safe

Over the past couple of years, we have taken steps to ban certain forms of distracted driving including concerning the use of a cell phone. This year, we passed legislation to make using a cell phone while driving a primary offense.

Providing Equal and Fair Access to Insurance

The Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund (MAIF) is the car insurer of last resort for Marylanders. Under current law, MAIF may not provide for the financing of premiums or accept premiums on an installment basis. Premiums owed to MAIF may be financed by a premium finance company registered with the Insurance Commissioner. Under law passed this session, MAIF is authorized to accept premiums on an installment payment basis on 12-month personal lines policies subject to approval by the Insurance Commissioner. In addition, the bill provides for additional protections and notification requirements.

Volume 11 , Issue 1

Page 3

Volume 11 , Issue 1

Page 5

Letters from our Children