PROGRESSIVE NEIGHBORS' LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

Progressive Neighbors supports a broad legislative agenda for Montgomery County and the state of Maryland that is aimed at enhancing residents' quality of life, ensuring equity for all, and supporting a sustainable and healthy economy. We want to continue to make the promise of our great country, our state and our county a reality for all Montgomery County residents. To achieve this, we believe that county residents must become more active and vocal in demanding that their ideals and interests be heard so they are not drowned out by the power of moneyed special interests, corporations, and developers whose large direct and indirect contributions exercise undue influence over the political process in Rockville and Annapolis. The following are the standards to which we intend to hold our elected representatives as well as all candidates who seek our support in the future, and we ask all residents in the Silver Spring/Takoma Park area who hold similar values to join with us.

VOTING AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

1.) To assure a greater voice for all in the political process and encourage greater participation in government, we support campaign finance and voting reforms including

• Public financing of campaigns
• IRV (instant runoff voting)
• An auditable paper trail for voting
• Same day voter registration, age 16 voter registration, and expanded hours and days for voting
• Greater transparency and better public access to state and county records
• The scheduling of public meetings and hearings on all issues of legislation and policy to maximize citizen input, including having these meeting at times and places accessible to ordinary working people
• A requirement that elected officials recuse themselves when dealing with or voting on issues that would financially benefit themselves or relatives or large contributors to their campaigns
• Measures to ensure citizens and community groups are given the highest priority in terms of access to elected and appointed public officials.

EDUCATION

2.) To ensure that schools give all students an opportunity to reach their full potential, we support

• Full state funding of the Thornton Commission to ensure that all students receive a “thorough and efficient” education
• Expanded state investment in school construction with an emphasis on green school construction
• Expanded state funding the state colleges and universities to prevent large tuition increases
• An independent and assertive school board that will ensure greater transparency and critical questioning in the school budgeting process; that will more closely question and monitor the school system administration; and that will insist on more complete and independent data on students' progress and school operations
• Comprehensive initiatives to close the achievement gap in the schools including a critical look at the current tracking of students
• Full funding for Head Start and early childhood development programs
• Greater recruitment of African American and Hispanic teachers to make the teaching staff more representative of the school population
• A focus on education of the whole child and de-emphasis on teaching to standardized tests, including increased funding for art, music and physical education
• Expansion of after-school and mentoring programs and increased funding for adult education
• School programs that promote conflict prevention and conflict resolution skills
• The serving of nutritious, appetizing and, where feasible, sustainable and locally grown food in school cafeterias
• Programs to educate students on the importance of healthy diet
• Careful monitoring of and restrictions on military recruitment in the schools

HOUSING

3.) To guarantee the availability of affordable and adequate housing, we support

• Protection of existing affordable housing for low and middle income and senior residents and expansion of the pool of affordable housing in the County by
• prohibiting condo conversions that destroy affordable rental units and involuntarily displace current tenants
• restricting rent increases that exceed the rise in the cost of living
• expanding the stock of affordable housing units in the County by subsidizing the construction of low and moderate income housing
• Expansion of programs to enable moderate and low income tenants to purchase homes in the County.
• Providing relief to senior homeowners with limited incomes in the form of tax credits.

TRANSPORTATION AND LAND USE

4.) To provide public transportation systems that combine convenience and environmental protections, we support

• Expansion of public transit including the building, as soon as possible, of the Purple Line and the funding of the Corridor Cities Transitway (with rail)
• Cancellation of the ICC because of its drain on public finances, its destructive environmental effects, and its emphasis on a car-centered solution to transit
• The expanded use of energy efficient vehicles by the state and county governments
• Significantly increase investment in the Transportation Demand Management approach to mobility (e.g. Montgomery County’s Commuter Services Section). This means a transportation system centered around the individual, not the automobile, to ensure rapid, easy and cost-effective mobility emphasizing reliable transit, vanpools, carpools, bicycling, walking, and telework.

5.) To develop land use and planning policies that are sustainable, serve residents, and don't overburden our infrastructure, we support

• Common-sense growth policies such as those described in the reports “Getting to Smart Growth, 100 Policies for Implementation”: and “Getting to Smart Growth II, 100 More Policies for Implementation” which directs growth to areas served by public transportation and other infrastructure.
• Only approving growth that can be accommodated by the county's infrastructure (schools, roads, parking, water and utilities) and the environment (water runoff, impervious services, wetlands and green space); that adds to the quality of life in the County; and that does not displace low and moderate residents and small businesses
• Protection of the Agricultural Reserve

ECONOMIC JUSTICE

6.) To guarantee real economic opportunity to all residents, we support

• A significant increase in the state minimum wage and the indexing of the minimum wage to the cost of living
• The state living wage and its expansion to include more workers
• The passing of a prevailing wage law for public construction in Montgomery County
• The creation of an occupational safety and health office in Montgomery County to monitor unsafe working conditions and raise awareness of occupational safety and health issues among workers and the public
• The rebuilding of a modern vocational training and job readiness program to help young people and others learn skills and a trade that will provide future economic security and the opportunity to become productive residents of our county
• Programs to provide meaningful employment for county youth who cannot otherwise find jobs

7.) To promote equitable and progressive state and county tax policies that fully fund needed social services and programs without placing the burden of high taxes on those least able to afford them, we support

• A truly progressive income tax structure at the state and county levels
• Reform of corporate taxes to eliminate loopholes and to ensure that corporations pay their fair share
• A tax credit for health care expenses over 5% of income
• Real estate and energy tax credits for low and moderate income residents (home owners and renters)

HEALTH CARE

8.) To protect the health and well-being of all residents of the state and county, we support

• Universal and continuous health care coverage.
• Health care coverage that promotes high-quality care that emphasizes prevention and is effective, efficient, safe and timely.
• Health care that is equitable and culturally appropriate.
• Health care coverage that is affordable for individuals and families.
• A health care financing strategy that is affordable and sustainable for society. This will require cost management and simplified administration.
• At the national level, a public single-payer insurance plan for all, (HR 676, which currently has more than 70 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.)
• At the state level, we support The Maryland Citizens Health Initiative “Health Care for All” Plan, and
• Legislation toward the goal of universal health insurance, such as HB 754, “Children and Working Families Health Care Act of 2007”, which passed overwhelmingly in the House.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

9.) To provide effective protection against crime stressing prevention, community involvement and fairness, we support

• Repealing the death penalty in Maryland
• Investment in additional gang-prevention programs including after school programs for youth
• Additional investment in quick removal of all litter and graffiti, repair of broken lights and windows, etc., to prevent the "broken glass syndrome"

10.) To promote fairness and equality for all regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, income or sexual orientation, we support

• Equal rights for same sex marriages and oppose efforts to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage
• A Maryland civil rights and anti-discrimination statue to parallel Federal Title VII

11.) To establish immigration policies that provide services to immigrants and help them become full participants in American society with citizenship a more accessible goal, we support

• Passage of immigration reform legislation that provides the opportunity for undocumented immigrants to become full citizens
• Legal rights for all residents, regardless of immigration status
• The creation of a full-service immigration center in the County
• In-state college tuition for resident immigrants, whether documented or not
• County not assist in the round-up of or deportation proceedings against undocumented immigrants
• English language and other education programs to help immigrants become full participants in the civic life of our County

PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT

12. To eliminate conflicts of interest and ensure greater democratic participation we support

• Legislation and rules requiring public officials, elected or otherwise, to recuse themselves from decision-making on environmental matters in which they have a financial interest. Environmental matters includes infrastructure projects (e.g. highway projects), environmental legislation (e.g. clean air bills), and land use policy. Financial interest includes political campaign donations, stock ownership, real estate ownership, and connections to charitable organizations.
• Legislation and rules to ensure citizens and community groups are given the highest priority in terms of access to public officials (including meeting time and scheduling), testifying at public hearings, attention to their written comments on environmental matters, and the ability to set the policy agenda (instead of just reacting to it).

13. To help prevent the looming global climate crisis (often called “global warming”) as well as the public health and ecological risks of air pollution we support

• Cancellation of the Outer Beltway Project (often called the ICC) because of its drain on public finances, its destructive public health and environmental impact, and its emphasis on a car-centered solution to transportation.
• Legislation modeled after the New Jersey Global Warming Response Act that will reduce climate pollution (greenhouse gas emissions) through enforceable regulation to 1990 levels by 2020 (approximately a 20 percent reduction) followed by a further reduction of emissions to 80 percent below 2006 levels by 2050.
• A study done on the feasibility of a Maryland revenue-neutral tax swap, replacing some state taxes with carbon-related emission taxes and done in a way that would avoid adverse consequences for low-income residents. This study would also consider Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend program as a revenue-neutral model for rebating funds to Maryland residents.
• Expand public transit including building the Purple Line as soon as possible and funding the Corridor Cities project (with rail)
• Legislation making the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Neighborhood Development and building construction standards mandatory for all public and private sector development.
• Tax incentives for clean cars and green buildings, including for small business owners, who often cannot afford the overhead needed to convert to renewable energies.
• The Maryland Clean Cars Act of 2007
• Measures on land use and mobility described above in the “Transportation and Land Use” section
• Measures on energy described below in the “Energy” section

14. To protect our region’s wildlife and fish we support

• Legislation to protect the County Agricultural Reserve
• Legislation and funding for programs to protect the Chesapeake Bay
• Other land use policies described above.

ENERGY

15.) To encourage more efficient energy use, greater use of renewable energy, and reduce climate pollution (greenhouse gases) associated with the looming climate we advocate

• Creation of publicly owned electric utilities, chartered with a mandate to maximize use of renewable energy sources.
• Price supports for renewable energy production based on cost of production to encourage development of new sources that have not achieved economies of scale.
• An increase the state Renewable Portfolio Standard to 25% by 2020.
• Simplification of the electricity market to make it easy for consumers to switch suppliers if they choose to.
• Measures to support local sourcing of food and other products, reducing fuel intensive supply chains of goods sold in Maryland.
• Measures on land use and mobility described above in the “Transportation and Land Use” section
• Measures on energy described above in the “Protecting the Environment” section

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