Editor?s note: This is the first of three stories in which the members of the Howard delegation will comment on its priorities for the legislation session that started Wednesday.
From gas prices to school construction, Howard County state lawmakers have wide-ranging priorities for 2007.
Among the top issues for Del. Gail Bates, R-District 9A, is “the big fuss about the structural deficit,” she said. “If we continue with our same revenue paths as they are, and spending the way we are, we are facing a deficit three and four and five years out.”
Bates said the state isn?t facing a current budget problem, but legislators have been passing bills, such as a teachers? pension enhancement, that will require money in years to come.
“You have to prioritize, and I think we as a state need to do that,” she said.
For Del. Warren Miller, R-District 9A, gasoline prices are a major concern, and he said he wants to boost pricing competition.
A 2001 law that protects gas stations from large chain stores such as Safeway by not letting the chains sell gas for lower than the state published price, lead to less pressure to lower prices, Miller said.
“I would like to amend or eliminate that law so we can get some true pricing back at the pump,” he said. “I want to have some competition.”
Warren, chairman of the taxpayer protection caucus in the House, also pledged to look closely at state spending and proposed taxes.
Del. Shane Pendergrass, D-District 13, said, “The priorities of the Howard County delegation are always [to get] our fair share of bond money and school construction money. We will be aggressively pursuing that.”
The delegation will then be “dealing with legislation on a case-by-case basis,” she said.
Pendergrass, who was appointed deputy majority leader and started her fourth term in the House, also pledged to co-sponsor a bill that would give a student member of the Howard School Board certain voting rights and, at the request of County Council Chairman Calvin Ball, D-District 2, a measure banning machetes during certain times of night.
