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2013 Session Wrap-UpBy Senator Nathaniel McFadden
As unemployment goes down, revenues rise, and we emerge from the
great recession, the legislature continueto manage the State's
budget in a fiscally responsible manner, while focusing on job
recreation. Wherever thelegislature could find waste in the budget,
it was cut, and the legislature significantly reduced the
structural decit. Throughout the recession and including this
year's budget, we have cut over $8.3 billion of projected spend
ing to ensure a lean and fully functioning state budget for
years to come while protecting the priorities of ourstate and its
residents :
Total state aid to Baltimore 1.3 billion dollars:
Education- $915,000,000; Disparity Grant- $80,000,000; Health
-$7,000,000 ; Public safety -$12,000,000Recreation-$ 5,000,000;
Libraries-$6,000,000; and Transportation -$1,350,000.
Lamb Community Resource Center-125,000; Morgan State University
Athletic Facility Renovations $200,0Mount Pleasant Family Life
Center- $100,000; New Creation Christian Academy Day Care
Playground- $100,0
Soulful Symphony- $200,000 and Eager Street Park$1,350,000
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 classrooms. K-12 education continues to represent 40%
of our operating budget, and we fully funded our commitment to our
children throGCEI and providing opportunities for all students to
succeed. All told, we invested over $6 billion in K-12 education.
This investment will mwell-paid teachers, smaller class sizes and
better opportunities for students, no matter where in the state
they reside. Attached to this doment 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 cstruction. In addition, the budget
includes $25 million for school safety. These measures include
funding for security cameras, photo idencation systems for
visitors, and stronger locks and glass barriers. This funding means
that over this term, the General Assembly has invesover $800
million to make our schools more modern and accessible.
The budget this year includes funding to provide a free school
breakfast to an additional 57,000 Maryland children across the
state. Tfunding will make certain that Maryland children can focus
better at school and receive a nutritious start to the day.
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 o
students prepare to compete in Marylands increasingly high tech
economy. For four years now, Maryland has had tuition increases
kept a
just 3% a year, making our colleges more affordable and
accessible for all.
Senator Nathaniel J. McFadden
3301 Blair Road
Baltimore, Maryland 21213
Phone: 410.563.4500
Fax: 410.563.5003
Email: Nathan-
[email protected]
Voters are not an interruption to ourwork, they are the reason
for our work!
Nathaniel J. McFadden
Senator Nathaniel J. McFadden
President Pro Tempore
PASSING A BALANCE BUDGET
April 2013
Volume 11 , Issue 1
45th Legislative District News
Building and Renovating Schools
Ensuring no child goes hungry
State Aid to Baltimore
Keeping Higher Education Affordable
Bond Bills
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Page 2 45th Legislative District News
This years capital budget includes over $1 billion for road
repairs, library and hospital construction, school construction,
and other pro-jects that improve our quality of life and create
jobs in the states construction industry. This bill will support
the creation and retention of
over 44,000 jobs.
This year, we continued our path of ensuring that job seekers
had the resources they needed to gain employment with two
innovativebills. Under the Employment Advancement Right Now (EARN)
Act, the state will work with businesses and our educational system
to pro-vide free skills trainings in construction, advanced
manufacturing, cyber security, and wellness. This program will be
run in partnershipwith 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
sameskills to find jobs here. Under the Veterans Full Employment
Act, the state will help veterans gain job opportunities in
Maryland. The legis-lation will expedite professional licensing for
veterans who wish to relocate to Maryland, so they can find jobs
sooner. Importantly, thelegislation also will credit military
veterans with education and trainings to lower the cost of a degree
and to help our veterans earn theirprofessional licenses at a
quicker pace.
Following the tragic events in Newtown, CT, members of the
legislature and the Governor worked together to address gun
violence tokeep dangerous guns off our streets and out of the hands
of those who would use them for to harm innocent people. The bill
bans high-capacity magazines and military-style assault weapons,
requires licensing and fingerprints for future handgun purchases,
and bans vio-lent criminals from purchasing guns. In addition, the
bill tightens regulations and gives the Maryland State Police the
tools that they willneed 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 thosewith mental illnesses who may be dangerous to
themselves or others cannot access guns. Additionally, the bill
helps to improve mental-health services in Maryland and provides
information sharing between the state and federal government to
make certain that our back-ground checks are getting the State
Police the necessary information regarding mental health.
In Baltimore City, schools are crumbling. Children are learning
in schools that are over one hundred years old with failing
equipment andoutdated technology. Modern and clean classrooms are
essential to a good education and have been shown to have a direct
corre lationto student achievement. Working together, the General
Assembly came up with a plan that will have the state and city
provide funding toobtain bonds for school construction. This
project will have oversight from the Maryland Stadium Authority,
and will allow the City to con-struct the modern classrooms to help
improve education.
This session, Maryland became the 18th state in the nation to
abolish the death penalty. The death penalty, which has not been
used inMaryland since 2005, was abolished over concerns of its
effectiveness and its fairness. This will be the first time
Maryland does not havethe death penalty on its books since the
early 1970s.
Over the past couple of years, we have taken steps to ban
certain forms of distracted driving including concerning the use of
a cellphone. This year, we passed legislation to make using a cell
phone while driving a primary offense.
The Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund (MAIF) is the car insurer
of last resort for Marylanders. Under current law, MAIF may not
pro-vide for the financing of premiums or accept premiums on an
installment basis. Premiums owed to MAIF may be financed by a
premiumfinance company registered with the Insurance Commissioner.
Under law passed this session, MAIF is authorized to accept
premiums onan installment payment basis on 12-month personal lines
policies subject to approval by the Insurance Commissioner. In
addition, thebill provides for additional protections and
notification requirements.
Building Infrastructure and Creating Jobs
Keeping Communities Safer
Connecting employers with the employees they need; and employees
with the jobs they deserve
Building Schools in Baltimore City
Ending the Death Penalty
Keeping our Roads Safe
Providing Equal and Fair Access to Insurance
