February 2003 Newsletter

Contents

• President's Report by Steve Lafferty
• Interested in Serving on Board?
• Thanks to Steve Kirsch
• Meeting Recap: Councilman Vince Gardina
• February Meeting Preview - Gary Gensler
• Baltimore County Democratic Unity Reception
• We Still Need People to Help
• Is Gambling Money the Solution
• Environment -- What Happened?
• Tax Reductions for the Wealthy
• Treasury Summary for 2002
• Membership
• Upcoming Club Events
• What Do You Think?

President's Report by Steve Lafferty

The Maryland Legislature is in full, if not slow, swing. The new Governor's budget reflects new priorities and his commitment to use slot machine revenues to balance the budget this year. He has also proposed to eliminate $300 million in local transportation projects and the community parks program, and substantially reduce funding for school construction and small business assistance. And, while the public supports raising taxes for the wealthiest, he has rejected that idea.

The SUN likes to present this as an issue of Democrat v. Republican, but it is much more than that. It is a cultural change in the way government operates and meets the needs of Maryland. So, those of us who disagree with the priorities or with the proposals should act. In our democracy, action is critical.

The Club Board wants to help focus on more local issues and concerns. Many, many thanks to Margie Brassil for proposing, organizing and moderating our open meeting with Councilman Vince Gardina. While one issue dominated, it was a great opportunity for nearly 100 people to hear Vince and ask him questions. It was a great community outreach effort. In March, since the proposal to legalize slot machines is of local and statewide importance, we will have speakers on this issue to help educate and possibly stimulate action. All of our efforts are planned to raise our profile and the actions and knowledge of our members.

And, we remain committed to building up the strength of the Democratic Party. In February, we will have Baltimore County resident and State Party Treasurer, Gary Gensler. Then, in March we will sponsor our annual Legislative Reception in Annapolis with other County Democrats.

Lastly, I want to urge you to please pay your dues to join and to recruit others. While there is no election looming this year, we should be building our membership so the Club can take an active role in the elections in 2004 and 2006.

I look forward to hearing from you and to seeing you at our upcoming meetings.

Steve

Interested in Serving on Board?

As a result of the resignation of Board member, Steve Kirsch, we are seeking a hard working Democrat to fill the balance of his term. The Board will make its decision at its meeting on February 11, so if you are interested, please contact Steve Lafferty or another Board member ASAP!

Thanks to Steve Kirsch

Board member Steve Kirsch has decided to resign from the Board of Directors after more than three years of service. Steve, as many of you know, ran a hard campaign for the House of Delegates and is very active in community, church and recreation activities (in addition to family and his law practice). We thank Steve for his commitment to the Club and his work to strengthen us. We also wish him the best as he continues to work for the well-being of the community.

January 12th Meeting Report

The Town Hall meeting with Councilman Vince Gardina attracted close to 100 people, members and nonmembers. A number of issues were raised, among them the proposed McDonald's on Joppa Road, the affects of budget cuts on renovating middle and high schools, the need for more English as a Second Language (ESOL) centers in middle schools, and the need for more services for adolescents.

Councilman Gardina began the session by explaining the County Council's three main responsibilities: approving the budget, land use, and passing local laws. There will be a significant reduction in county revenue this year, he said, because of cuts from the state, as well as a reduction in local revenue due to the economy. He is already aware that there are some serious issues facing Towson, such as the number of vacant properties in prime downtown areas, bus traffic, and the need to maintain quality education in the county.

Close to forty residents of the Ridgley Condominiums attended the meeting to ask the councilman if he would help them in their opposition to the McDonald's, which is planned for 207-209 East Joppa Road.

Councilman Gardina expressed his understanding, and agreement, with their opposition, but he pointed out that the matter was not in the hands of the County Council. The property in question is currently zoned for any business or commercial use; therefore, the property owner legally has the right to develop the property however he wishes, even with a McDonald's.

Although he has no authority over the matter, Councilman Gardina promised he would not be inactive. He had already planned a meeting with the lawyer for McDonald's to discuss alternatives to that site. For example, a the site could be much better used for a high rise, perhaps with a McDonald's on the ground floor.

The concerned residents need to be prepared to either compromise with McDonald's or appeal the decision of the hearing officer, Gardina advised. As there is no legal reason to stop it, they would need to persuade the hearing officer that the McDonald's either commercializes a primarily residential area or that it changes the neighborhood's character.

In response to a question about whether the council could do much regarding redevelopment of older areas in an era of tight budgets, Councilman Gardina said the council would have to prioritize projects. The council might also have to look into providing tax credits or tax relief for some projects.

The problem with trying to close Generation X on York Road, as with stopping the McDonald's on Joppa Road, is that the use is allowed by current zoning regulations. During the last council session, former councilman Wayne Skinner got a law passed requiring permits for such businesses as Generation X. If it is found in violation of the permit, the County will now be able to take some action against it.

Councilman Gardina's two assistants are responsible for handling constituent issues when he is not in the office. Susan Thompson is specifically assigned to Towson area-related issues and Anne Marie Humphries for areas east of Perring Parkway. Office hours are 8:30-4:30 and the office phone is 410-887-3384. You can also reach them by email: bccdistrict5@comcast.net.

by Margie Brassil

February 11th Meeting

On February 11th at the East Towson Community Center, we will have the Treasurer of the State Democratic Party, Gary Gensler, as our guest. He will speak on 5 issues:

• The Party and what our plan is
• The impact of campaign finance reform
• The Bush economic plan
• The Ehrlich economic plan
• Corporate accountability.

You'll see that he's a really fascinating guy with a wealth of experience. We're lucky to have him as the State Party's Treasurer. We Democrats have a lot to do to ensure that Democrats win the Presidency and the Congress in 2004. With the first primary for that election only 14 months away, there is much to be done and we can help. Come to this meeting to learn more.

Baltimore County Democratic Unity Reception

Monday, March 24, 2003

PLEASE MARK THIS DATE and join us for:

The annual Baltimore County Democratic Unity Reception that will take place on Monday, March 24th from 6 pm to 8 pm in the Calvert Room of the State House.

** Food and Drink will be served **

No charge to proud Baltimore County Democrats - but registration is required. Senator Norman Stone (chairman of Senate Delegation) has been very helpful in securing this location and has agreed to be one of our hosts for the evening. Delegate Sonny Minnick (chairman of the House Delegation) has also been very helpful and will be our co-host.

Our own Club has again taken the lead on this event but many other clubs and the Baltimore County Democratic Central Committee have joined us in sponsoring the event. More details will be in the Club website (www.cbcdc.org) and in the March newsletter. Invitations are being mailed out to the Democratic leaders (federal, state and local) in the county.

For questions and to tell us you will join in, contact:

Tom Quirk, tquirk@cbcdc.org.

We Still Need People to Help

Do you have some time to help with these Club activities?

• Tom Quirk; Organize the Legislative Reception on March 24 in Annapolis
• Margie Brassil; Help with the Towson Town Spring Festival on May 3 and 4
• Noel Levy; Develop and organize an environmental event in May or June
• Steve Lafferty; Plan the Annual Fall Fund Raiser

Is Gambling Money the Solution

Now that our new Republican governor is determined to bring slot machines to our state's horse racing tracks, we Democrats need to focus on how deeply this will impact on our quality of life in Maryland. These "racinos" as they are now being called, are not going to be a few slot machines shoved into a dark corner down at the Pimlico Race Track. We are getting 4,500 slot machines in a humongous new casino facility. No windows, no clocks, dark atmosphere, piped in music, with colored blinking lights and chiming bells.

Our state government could become inextricably tied to and dependent on revenues from gambling at these privately owned facilities. According to a study by economists Earl Grinols and David Mustard, every dollar of profit generated by slot machines in a casino incurs $1.90 of social costs. Those social costs include but are not limited to treatment for gambling addiction, prostitution, embezzling of money from businesses and organizations, domestic violence and bankruptcy.

We keep hearing the argument about Marylanders traveling to West Virginia and Delaware to play the slots, and how we need to keep that money in Maryland. But have West Virginia and Delaware benefited so wonderfully since they have installed slot machines at their race tracks? According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau statistics, Delaware's violent crime rate was #16 out of the fifty states in 1990, before the slot machines went in at Dover Downs. As of 2000, Delaware's violent crime rate is now the fifth worst out of fifty states! And what about the jobs all of these casinos will provide? Census data reveals that West Virginia unemployment is #1 out of fifty states, even though they have had more than one "racino" operating in the state for several years. And personal income per person hasn't improved in West Virginia, either. They were ranked #48 out of fifty states in 1990, and since the slot machines have gone in, were ranked #49 in the 2000 Census.

West Virginia and Delaware don't have the population, the industry, the educational institutions and the transportation infrastructure that Maryland has. West Virginia and Delaware are no examples for us to follow. Please contact your State Senators and Delegates today and let them know we can balance our budget without legalizing slots.

Gambling and slot machines will be the topic of discussion at our Tuesday, March 11 meeting at the East Towson Community Center. Derrick Adams will be representing NOCasiNO Maryland, the anti-gambling group. We will have a pro-gambling speaker as well, to be announced in our March newsletter. Hope to see you all there!

by Noel Levy

Environment -- What Happened?

Here is the text of a couple of the balloons in a Doonesbury strip of Sunday, January 19, 2003:

Bush: "Okay, let's move on to our contributors from the extraction industries-is everyone happy there?"

Aide: "Very sir! With all the national security distractions we've been able to quietly gut one environmental protection after another. For instance, we've produced new rules to speed up logging in national forests, rolled back protections of 50 million acres from roads and developments, eased pollution controls for power plants and factories, rejected new fuel-efficiency standards, sped up permit-granting for power companies, lifted a ban on snow mobiles in parks, proposed 1,000 new natural gas wells, removed limits on coal producers for dumping mountain-top fill in streams, reduced EPA fines of polluters by 64%, opened up Padre Island [off Texas coast] for drilling, halted funding for several superfund sites, replaced scientists who don't support our views, rejected the Kyoto global warming treaty, and much much more."

The 97,000 people who voted for Ralph Nader in Florida proved what?

by Ron Bowers

Tax Reductions for the Wealthy

Two of the men who inspired much of our national public philosophy saw that the concentration of wealth in the hands of a small proportion of the people was not only a danger to liberty under a republic, but also to contrary to nature. They were Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. Some of their ideas:

TJ (1785): "The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on."

TP (1791): "But the landed monopoly that began with [cultivation] has produced the greatest evil. It has dispossessed more than half the inhabitants of every nation of their natural inheritance ... and has thereby created a species of poverty and wretchedness that did not exist before."

TJ (1785): "I am conscious that an equal distribution of property is impracticable, but the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property"

TP (1791): "Taking it for granted, that no person ought to be in a worse condition when born under what is called a state of civilization than he would have been had he been born in a state of nature, and that civilization ought to have made and ought to still make provision for that purpose, it can only be done by subtracting from property a portion equal in value to the natural inheritance it has absorbed."

TJ (1785): "Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt from all taxation below a certain point and to tax the higher portions ... in geometrical progression as they rise."

TP (1791): "Plan of a progressive tax operating to extirpate the unjust and unnatural law of primogeniture and the vicious influence of the aristocratic system."

P.S. The first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, enacted the first progressive income tax.

by Ron Bowers

Treasury Summary for 2002

Membership

Regular membership in the Club is open to any person who is registered as a Democratic voter in Maryland. The current annual dues are only $20.00 per person You may be receiving this newsletter even though not a member. This is one of our ways to reach out to concerned citizens and Democrats. We encourage you to be a part the Club in our effort to build a stronger base in the central part of Baltimore County.

The label shows your status, including the last year for which you are paid up if a member. If your dues are current, we thank you. If not, or if you want to join our club, please send the coupon and your $20.00 dues to: Herb Lodder, 120 W. Seminary Ave., Lutherville, MD 21093.

Join The Club

Upcoming Club Events

Regular Meetings begin at 7:30 PM and are open to all

Meetings are held at the East Towson Community Center, Lennox and Jefferson (left onto Jefferson from Towsontown Blvd East of York Rd.)

What Do You Think?

Members of the CBCDC are invited to send their own articles and letters of about 300 words or less. Send yours to the editor as the text of an e-mail message (not as attachment!).

We reserve the right to edit for grammar and space and to exclude anything we judge to be inappropriate for this publication. The opinions expressed are always those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Club.

	CBCDC News
	Editor
	404 Kilree Rd. #301
	Timonium, MD 21093

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