Thank you for joining me this morning, I know it's early but if we are going to be the birds that get the worm this year I thought we should get started. Over the last year, I have had the chance to visit with community associations and citizens all over Baltimore County. I am proud to report that the Baltimore County Renaissance is underway, and the people of Baltimore County are excited about the future. They are working hard to make their communities better.
Our Renaissance needs government that is equally committed, that anticipates and meets the needs of our communities. The people who live and work in Baltimore County have told me how this government can help, and as we begin this legislative session our goals are clear. Education, Public Safety, relief for the victims of Isabel, and a continued Baltimore County Renaissance.
Now is the time for the leaders of Baltimore County to focus our efforts on the things most important for our citizens and our communities. In tough economic times, our infrastructure doesn't stop aging, our citizens don't need fewer services, and our children don't need less education. Now is not the time to be timid in our work as representatives of the people, now is not the time to put the needs of our citizens on the shelf for another year.
Yet again this year, we enter the legislative session facing tight budgets, and questions about where new revenue can be found. We can accept slots, but not at the Timonium Fair Grounds.
We also see signs that the economy is improving. There are better years ahead and planning for those years begins with this session. We have aggressive goals for this legislative session. Aggressive, but not unreasonable.
We face challenges, but this delegation - speaking with one voice and working for common goals - can overcome those challenges. When I look at the future of this county, I see secure neighborhoods, a thriving economy, and people prepared to face our changing world. "Renaissance" means a Baltimore County where families come first, where citizens and government work together to safeguard our communities, and where both the government and the people of Baltimore County work.
That Renaissance begins in our schools. It begins with children who graduate from our school system ready for the changing world and the changing economy. Much of the education debate this year will focus on Thornton funding. Like many counties, Baltimore County has high expectations for funding of the Thornton Schools Initiative.
There is potential for thirty seven million dollars in Thornton funding for Baltimore County schools, money that can make a real difference in the quality of the education we provide our children.
Thornton funding must be new revenue for local schools. The state has committed to full Thornton funding, and must find the state revenue to meet this commitment. This past year, Baltimore County received just over seven million dollars in state education aid under Thornton. At the same time, the county lost three and half million dollars in promised aid for teacher salaries and over fifteen million dollars in other state aid.
Education is a top priority for Baltimore County, as it should be for the state government. We believe in full Thornton funding for public schools while maintaining current state aid to Baltimore County. As we look for ways to raise teacher salaries and supply schools with the resources to educate students, we must keep in mind the value of the buildings themselves. Overcrowded hallways and aging facilities make it difficult for children to learn and for teachers to teach.
Baltimore County is seeking funding for two new schools and four middle school renovations. The Interagency Committee on School Construction has recommended that we receive four and a half million dollars for the construction of Woodholme Elementary and six hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the renovation of Sudbrook Magnet Middle School. I am pleased with these recommendations and excited to begin construction of Woodholme Elementary, but we must address our other needs, and we must have full delegation support to achieve our school construction goals.
Baltimore County has the second oldest inventory of school buildings in the state. Renovations at Arbutus Middle, Ridgely Middle, and Southwest Academy are also necessary if those schools are to continue providing quality education. For the county to complete all of these much needed middle school renovations we are asking the state for 18.5 million dollars.
The last piece of our school construction request is the new Windsor Mill Middle School. Building this new middle school will relieve overcrowding at five Baltimore County middle schools. Schools like Southwest Academy, which alone has 222 more students than it was designed to serve. Our funding request for Windsor Mill is 6.7 million dollars, money that will take Baltimore County students out of parking lot trailers and put them in new classrooms.
It is equally important that we have experienced teachers in classrooms. I support the retire-rehire program as a valuable incentive to put good teachers and principals in challenging schools. We should support efforts to refine and improve the program to ensure that schools needing the most help, get the most help.
Our commitment to put families first means we must also work to create neighborhoods where families feel comfortable. It means building the Inverness Community Center in Dundalk, Tall Trees Park in Essex/Middle River, and it means fulfilling our public safety obligations with a new police substation in Randallstown. It means a nature center in Chase, a senior center in Woodlawn, renovations to athletic fields around the county, and greenspace in place of an abandoned gas station in Towson.
Baltimore County has set aside funds for these projects, and we have requested matching funds from the state. Our older communities need these projects to remain vibrant. For many residents on the west side of Baltimore County, talk of renaissance must include significant improvement to standards and oversight of state-licensed group homes. I want to see state agencies add facilities in underserved parts of the state so children in those areas who need care can stay in their own communities and schools and maintain important support relationships.
Senator Kelley and others will be reintroducing legislation to address group homes and I look forward to our delegation joining in support of these measures.
Our commitment to families goes beyond the neighborhood. We can help sustain a thriving economy, and we can help create the family-supporting jobs that will allow the young people raised in Baltimore County to stay in Baltimore County.
On the east side, there are several "brownfield" sites; vacant land once occupied by heavy industry. We know these areas are important to our economic future, and we intend to support the Baltimore Brownfields Council when it makes its recommendations to Senator Hollinger's committee.
A new, mixed-use development for Towson Circle is in the works. The plan includes high-quality retail and office space and new housing for Towson University students. For this project to go forward, we need two million dollars in state assistance for infrastructure improvements. In the north, the Hunt Valley Town Center is in the midst of a 35 million dollar private investment renaissance. Two additional liquor licenses are needed for this project, and I am asking our delegation to help make that possible.
Perhaps the most important thing we in government can do is to keep our communities safe. Safe from crime, safe from sprawl and congestion, and safe in the wake of natural disasters.
All of Baltimore County - all of Maryland - can benefit from a change in how we prosecute identity theft. Through my experience as an attorney and as a judge, I know first hand the difficulty in prosecuting cases where the crimes spread across jurisdictions. Our police departments are already effectively investigating these difficult cases, and I will be asking for your help to pass legislation allowing prosecutors to efficiently prosecute these crimes. Every forged check, every act of credit card fraud connected to a single identity theft should be tried in the jurisdiction where the identity theft victim lives, not in multiple trials in different jurisdictions.
We need to continue to support state funding for the Regional Auto Theft Task Force. A city/county partnership, the Task Force has substantially reduced auto theft in the Baltimore area.
Baltimore County is a growing community. New homes are built, old homes are renovated, and every day more and more cars occupy our local roads and state highways. We must see a serious commitment to transportation funding. The time to improve our roads and transit systems is now, before the Baltimore region faces the same gridlock as our neighbors to the south. The bipartisan Hellmann Commission has recommended significant state funding for new highway and mass-transit projects, and I support those recommendations. Baltimore County also needs full funding of the Highway User Fund, to pay for critical maintenance of local roads.
Last fall, many of you had the opportunity to view first-hand the destruction caused by Hurricane Isabel on the east side of Baltimore County. Our east side residents are strong, and our many recovery efforts have been successful. But the rebuilding process is incomplete. Many of our shoreline families find themselves tens of thousands of dollars short of what they need to rebuild. Baltimore County has reallocated $1.5 Million in federal home support funding to help middle and low-income homeowners rebuild. But we have exhausted county resources, and we are asking for matching funds from the state so that all the residents in Bowleys Quarters, Millers Island, Turners Station and other east side communities can rebuild and repair their homes.
The storm also had a profoundly destructive effect on county and state parks, causing severe shoreline erosion. The public parkland on the shore of the bay is a tremendous resource for the county, and for the region. Without repairs, Baltimore County's Rocky Point Park and state-owned Pleasure Island will continue to erode, damaging the land and the bay. We need the delegation to support our request for two million dollars in restoration funds, so Baltimore County can preserve these areas. We cannot afford to ignore this environmental damage.
Neither can we afford to ignore the recommendations of the Larsen Work Group. In the weeks and months following Isabel, all of us heard countless stories of unresponsive insurance carriers and under performing adjusters. The work group headed by former state insurance commissioner Steven Larsen may soon offer recommendations for some statewide insurance reforms, and I will be looking for your support.
Our House Delegation Chair, Delegate Sonny Minnick, has already called for hearings on this issue, and I will offer all the assistance I can. Baltimore County has always had a mutually supportive relationship with the state, and I hope we can continue that. This delegation, and my administration, have always worked to serve the best interests of our citizens. I look forward to continuing that tradition this year.
Revised March 22, 2004
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