Commentary

I am responding to David Plymyer’s criticism of my effort to reform the Baltimore County Planning Board. My legislation requires members of the Planning Board to be confirmed by the Baltimore County Council. This change would allow the public to weigh in on a nominee’s qualifications and temperament. The recent decision to compensate planning board members makes it even more imperative that the right members serve on this body.

One of the biggest stressors for my husband and me as new parents was the prospect of finding affordable childcare. If you’ve watched the news, talked to parents, or scrolled through social media, you’ve probably heard the complaints. I had, as well, but it was an entirely different thing than a lived experience until the birth of our daughter. The prospect of finding someone to trust with your child and paying them thousands of dollars each year is daunting.

The mayor’s race in Baltimore had one candidate who pledged to cut the city’s property tax rate to a competitive level and thus stem the flight of people and capital that cripples its economy and threatens its financial future. Before he dropped out of the race, Thiru Vignarajah said he planned to cut in half Baltimore’s confiscatory 2.248% tax rate on real property and its 5.62% annual tax on “personal property” (really, on business equipment, supplies, and inventory).

Long emergency room wait times are unsafe and a problem across the country, but they are particularly bad in Maryland. After Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, we have the longest average wait time in the U.S., at four hours, seven minutes. A complaint of a nearly 12-hour wait was recently reported. Long wait times are a direct result of our health care systems failing us.

In the 2000 election cycle, less than $500 million was spent on campaign advertising for the presidential, Senate and House races combined. Fast forward 24 years, and the expected expenditure for these same races is now a staggering $6.5 billion, a 1,200% increase. Yet, what some candidates are discovering is that “money can’t buy me love.” The biggest spenders do not always win.

Our words matter. This adage has never been truer to me as I increasingly hear contentious rhetoric about immigration buzzing around the dinner table and in the media during this election year. Using natural disaster or criminal language terms such as “surge,” “influx,” or “illegals” to describe increases in immigration tends to stir fear and replace truth with political diatribes.

If there’s one thing we’ve come to count on from Lawrence Joseph Hogan Jr., the state’s 62nd governor, it’s that he won’t commit to protecting abortion access for Marylanders, let alone the rest of the country. So you’ll forgive our shock when, after securing the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Ben Cardin, he suddenly said he supports codifying abortion access into federal law.