Briefings
This year the Senate\’s Budget & Taxation Committee will work on the budget first, so in the meantime, me and my colleagues on the House Appropriations Committee are given a variety of briefings on topics that will be coming up in the budget and throughout the Session. These are helpful and provide a lot of great background information to legislators. This week we heard more about the fiscal health of the State and also started hearing testimony on new school construction bills. I support school construction, but I feel that it\’s important to ensure that maintenance money is also worked into the plan so local school systems can keep-up these new facilities.
New Transit Caucus
This session I joined the newly created Transit Caucus that has brought together legislators from both houses and parties to advocate for transit projects throughout the State. I joined this caucus so I could stay up-to-date on proposals to bring rail services through Hagerstown to Hancock (W.Va.) and ensure that Western Maryland was part of the conversation. I\’ll share more as this proposal develops.