Governor O’Malley’s Blog
ICYMI: O’Malley seeks religious support for same-sex marriage bill
By Rick Abbruzzese, Director of Public Affairs
KEY POINT–“Coates said he feels comfortable that the legislation would not force his church to do something against its beliefs, and he thinks that gay marriages can co-exist with traditional ones. “I think everyone is protected here,” he said.
In case you missed it…….
O’Malley seeks religious support for same-sex marriage bill
Drafters looked to other states for language
By Annie Linskey, The Baltimore Sun
12:25 AM EST, January 25, 2012
It is highly unlikely that there will be a gay wedding at Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Prince George’s County, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. But its pastor, the Rev. Delman Coates, went to Annapolis on Tuesday to support Gov. Martin O’Malley’s same-sex marriage bill.
Coates said he feels comfortable that the legislation would not force his church to do something against its beliefs, and he thinks that gay marriages can co-exist with traditional ones. “I think everyone is protected here,” he said. “You don’t have to agree with same-sex marriage as a matter of personal religious choice.”
The minister’s reaction is exactly what O’Malley and advocates for legalizing same-sex marriage are looking for as they begin their push in the Maryland General Assembly. The governor’s top aides re-wrote a bill that failed last year so it would have a greater focus on religious protections. They are hoping the new language will blunt opposition to the bill from some religious groups and bring wavering delegates to their side.
But many critics — including representatives of the Roman Catholic Church — said they remain staunchly opposed. Mary Ellen Russell, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, said she cannot support the measure because of “the impact such a drastic change would have on all society.” She added: “No changes to the bill can change that fundamental fact.”
Another opponent, Republican Del. Don Dwyer of Anne Arundel County, said he’s going to work “every hour of every day” to defeat the same-sex marriage bill. “It is my only legislative agenda. Period,” he said.
It was too early to know Tuesday whether any lawmakers were persuaded by O’Malley’s changes; several who are on the fence said they needed more time to study the legislation. Last year a same-sex marriage bill passed in the state Senate but was pulled from the House of Delegates when leaders realized they did not have the 71 votes needed for passage.
O’Malley invited faith leaders, gay couples and union supporters to a breakfast Tuesday at Government House, the governor’s residence. Afterward about 40 supporters stood with him on the front steps of the mansion to show their support for the legislation.
“Other states have found a way to do this,” O’Malley said at the event. “We can find a way to do this, too.”
O’Malley’s legislation was introduced Monday night in the state Senate with 20 co-sponsors, including Howard County’s Sen. Allan Kittleman, the only GOP legislator to support the bill. A House version has not been introduced, though advocates were passing it around and gathering co-sponsors Tuesday.
O’Malley’s proposal borrows language and ideas from similar laws in New Hampshire, New York and Washington, D.C., to attempt to make clear that religious institutions would have some protections without rolling back the state’s anti-discrimination laws.
In New York, where a same-sex marriage bill passed last year, amending the legislation to add religious protections was key for some lawmakers who were hesitant about supporting the bill. Six states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage. In Washington state this week advocates announced they have the votes to pass gay marriage there as well.
Maryland’s new bill — called the Civil Marriage Protection Act — includes four changes from last year: It is now stated that religious leaders, as well as their institutions, are protected from lawsuits; that the state can’t withhold funds to penalize a religious institution that does not recognize same-sex marriages; and that the state can’t dictate religious doctrine. There also is an attempt to clarify that some programs run by religious institutions can exclude same-sex couples.
“The exemptions are more explicit this year,” O’Malley said. “They may be more explicit in this bill than they have been in any other bill around the country.”
Supporters offered this example of how the legislation would apply: If a church ran a homeless shelter that also offered marriage counseling, the shelter could not refuse to house a gay couple — but it could refuse to provide the counseling.
Del. John A. Olszewski, Jr., a Baltimore County Democrat, said he wanted more time to discuss the measure with staff from the Maryland attorney general’s office before declaring his position.
“I’m looking at it,” Olszewski said. He thought last year’s bill did not have strong enough religious protections. “I think this bill goes a long way in addressing those concerns,” he said.
But some religious leaders said they remained worried that legalizing same-sex marriage could force them to recognize the unions in more subtle ways.
For example, would the bill require a faith-based school to provide benefits to the same-sex spouse of a teacher? Would state-licensed marriage counselors working for religious institutions be required to meet with same-sex couples?
Bryce, said that in both cases the new bill would favor the religious institutions. A gay teacher could be fired. A counselor would not face state retribution if working for a church.
If the legislation does pass in the General Assembly, most believe that it will be petitioned to referendum and Maryland voters will have the last word. A recent poll shows the state is split evenly on the topic.
That means House passage — far from a sure bet — would set up a statewide battle on the issue, a point O’Malley made Tuesday.
“This issue will go to the people in referendum,” he said. “And, in fact, there are some issues that can only be resolved when people come together and give it some thought.”
twitter.com/annielinskey
Ravens’ Inspired Healthy Recipe
By Katie O’Malley
As you prepare for a Ravens victory over the Pats this afternoon, I wanted to share a quick and easy, healthy recipe that you can make with your kids. This Ravens’ inspired Purple Slaw is sure to be a winner with all of your guests at your game day party!
Hands-on Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 8
Kitchen Gear
Cutting board
Sharp knife (adult needed)
Grater
Measuring cup
Measuring spoons
Large bowl
Ingredients
1 purple cabbage, thinly sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 carrots (use purple if you can find it), shredded
¼ cup canola or vegetable oil
¼ cup rice vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ cup raisins, currants, dried cranberries or chopped prunes (if you like)
Instructions
Put everything in the bowl and toss well. Serve right away or cover and refrigerate up to overnight
For more healthy recipes that you can make with your family, sign up for monthly ChopChop Maryland recipes today and be sure to “like” their Facebook page.
Have a great day and LET’S GO RAVENS!
Maryland Invests: Part V
Investing in Infrastructure and Creating Jobs through Public-Private Partnerships
By Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown
As we start the 430th legislative session today, Governor O’Malley and I remain focused on our number one priority of creating jobs and putting Marylanders back to work. Investing in infrastructure projects is one of the most effective ways to spur job creation and encourage economic growth. By building roads, transit, schools, ports, hospitals, courthouses, water and sewers, we will also strengthen our State’s economy, productivity, environment and quality of life. Through well structured public-private partnerships we can increase investment in our infrastructure, ensure accountability, and create more jobs.
The Seagirt Marine Terminal in the Baltimore Harbor is a good example of a public-private infrastructure project at work in Maryland. The agreement is creating 5,700 jobs over its lifetime and bringing increased business opportunities and over a billion dollars to the State. By 2014, larger vessels from the newly widened Panama Canal will be able to dock in Baltimore. This will bring a significant boost to commerce, tourism and transportation.
Investments like Seagirt not only strengthen Maryland locally and nationally, but they have a powerful job-creation impact. Initial estimates by Maryland departments overseeing capital projects have found that additional utilization of public-private partnerships could contribute between six percent and ten percent, or $205 million and $315 million respectively, of Maryland’s $3.1 billion annual capital budget while creating as many as 4,000 jobs. This includes an estimated $160 million to $240 million annually that could be invested in Maryland transportation projects through public-private partnerships.
Maximizing public-private partnerships is vital to our state’s success, which is why we are working to improve the process for these partnerships, creating a framework that is fair, balanced, and transparent. Maryland’s P3 Commission, the Joint Legislative and Executive Commission on Oversight of Public-Private Partnerships, which I chair, has been collaborating with numerous stakeholders, including representatives from labor, the business community and the State Legislature, to iron out the parameters for such partnerships. This week, the Commission submitted a report to the Governor and General Assembly with recommendations for streamlining and enhancing the framework for establishing public-private infrastructure projects in Maryland.
Marylanders need us to act now. Modernizing our state’s infrastructure is critical and encouraging public-private partnerships can be an effective way to move projects forward and put more Marylanders back to work.
A Recent History of Maryland School Construction
By Rick Abbruzzese
2004: During the Ehrlich Administration, The Kopp Commission, a Blue-ribbon commission led by the State’s non-partisan Treasurer, declared that, “Maryland faces a crisis in public school construction” and that “the state would need to allocate at least $250 million annually for the next eight years” to pull us out of the crisis.
2007: The O’Malley-Brown Administration invests a record $400 million into school construction projects.
2008-2011: The O’Malley-Brown Administration continues to invest heavily in school construction projects including this new school construction project at Germantown Elementary School in Annapolis.
August 2011: Construction on Germantown elementary school is completed. As Molly Connors, a mother of a fifth grade student explains, The new facility is ““great for the community, great for the kids and great for Annapolis.”
Maryland Invests: Part IV
Investing to Restore Maryland’s Heart and Treasure
By Secretary Robert Summers, Maryland Department of the Environment
We are blessed in Maryland to be home to our nation’s largest estuary—an estuary that drives the culture of our region, our shared history, our tourism—and most importantly, our economy. But for decades, we have neglected Maryland’s heart and treasure, the Chesapeake Bay, allowing its health to deteriorate and its ecosystem to suffer.
However, under the leadership of Governor O’Malley, things have started to turn around. We are investing in efforts to improve the health of the Bay, setting goals for its recovery, and implementing plans that will ensure that the Bay is around for generations to come.
One of the most important actions we have taken to protect the Bay and the jobs it creates was in developing Maryland’s Watershed Implementation Plan. The plan is now in Phase II and we recently submitted it to the EPA. We are confident that this plan, the most detailed yet, will not only save the Bay, but will be critical to protecting our fresh water supply.
The plan is comprehensive and includes upgrading wastewater treatment plants and septic systems improving our storm water management systems in urban and suburban areas, planting cover crops, eliminating the over-application of manure and fertilizer and expanding stream buffers on our farms. These efforts are funded, in part, through Maryland’s Bay Restoration Fund. These types of projects not only protect the Bay, they support thousands of jobs that cannot be outsourced.
Additionally, we are taking steps to reduce pollution from stormwater runoff — the fastest-growing source of Bay pollution. We enacted new regulations requiring “environmental site design” on new development and re-development. In consultation with local governments and environmental groups, we have developed, and over the next year will be issuing, new stormwater pollution control permits for Maryland’s most densely populated urban and suburban jurisdictions. These permits will require increased efforts to reduce stormwater pollution from older communities that do not have modern stormwater management systems. We also issued a new permit requiring the State’s largest animal feeding operations to improve manure management and reduce nutrient pollution from pastures and cropland.
We are making great strides toward reaching our goals. By the end of 2011, working with county and municipal governments, we have completed upgrades of 23 major wastewater treatment plants and installed more than 3,000 nitrogen removing septic systems — which together supported more than 1,200 jobs and will prevent an additional 2 million pounds of pollution per year from entering the Bay.
But we must continue to make investments and work aggressively to restore the Bay and its tributaries.
We cannot afford to sit idly by and watch the heart and treasure of Maryland deteriorate without hope of repair. As Governor O’Malley said at the Bay Executive Council meeting with the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia, “While it is very, very true that cleaning the Bay is expensive, letting her die is even more expensive.”
Believe
By Rick Abbruzzese, Director of Public Affairs
Ten years ago, a television commercial aired simultaneously on all of the TV stations in Baltimore with a call to “Believe” that, together, we can make our city a safer and better place for kids to grow up. That jarring and disturbing commercial signaled the very public start of Baltimore’s campaign — of Baltimore’s fight — to “Believe.”
Watch the commercial below and check out Governor O’Malley’s oped.
A Year in Review and a Look Ahead
By Takirra Winfield, Deputy Press Secretary
This morning, Governor O’Malley joined members of the press for a year-in-review roundtable discussion, where he reflected on the progress we’ve made, addressed the challenges we’ve faced, and looked forward to the opportunities we have in the year ahead.
To view the Governor’s slideshow presentation from today’s roundtable, click here.
Well wishes for a safe and prosperous New Year.
Maryland Invests: Part III
By Secretary Richard Hall, Department of Planning
Smart Investments in Smart Growth
Earlier this week, Governor O’Malley accepted “PlanMaryland,” our State’s first long-range plan for sustainable growth and a vision that will allow us to invest in a smarter, greener, more prosperous future. We need smart growth for a number of reasons. But it really boils down to a simple concept: we need to believe enough in tomorrow to invest in it today.
Today, I see the waterways that I enjoyed as a boy growing up on the Eastern Shore continually threatened, the rural areas I helped protect as a county planner being overtaken, and some cities and towns struggling economically as growth has spread far beyond them. For decades now, we have been over-consuming our land, destroying farms and forests, harming our environment and over-crowding our under-invested transit ways leading to some of the worst commute times in our country. For decades, we have been moving in a direction that’s not sustainable, not cost-effective and imperils the very reasons we love Maryland.
Between 1982 and 2007, total farmland declined by one-fifth, or 500,000 acres. The fragmentation and suburbanization of farmland has made it more difficult for remaining farmers to assemble large enough parcels to achieve economies of scale in production. If current trends continue, we will lose another 226,000 acres by 2035. Much of that land will be converted to homes on septic systems; homes that will represent about one-quarter of new residences in Maryland but will churn out three-quarters of the nitrogen pollution into the Bay.
“Business as usual” on sprawl doesn’t work. If current trends continue, we estimate that we would need more than 15,000 new miles of roads; roads that would cost $110 billion. But hope is not lost. A smarter-growth approach could save an estimated $1.5 billion a year in infrastructure costs during the next 20 years. It would also cut down the time Marylanders spend in traffic. In 2009, Marylanders spent more than 700 million hours commuting, time valued at almost $9 billion. By investing in a smart approach to development, moms and dads will be able to spend more time with their kids and less time sitting in traffic.
Planning and land development are complicated issues that we can only hope to tackle together. PlanMaryland is about working together to make the investments today that allow our children and grandchildren to enjoy the same quality of life that we have tomorrow. It’s my hope that my two young sons are able to visit my hometown on the Eastern Shore in 30 years and enjoy the same beauty that I saw as a young man. With Plan Maryland, I believe they will.
Three Steps Forward, One Step Back
If it feels like every month our national economy is taking three steps forward and then one step back, that’s because, as a country, for every three jobs the private sector creates, the public sector eliminates one. While the private sector has created net new jobs for 21 consecutive months (for the first time since 2005-2006), the public sector has lost jobs 16 out of the last 18 months.
Here in Maryland, over the last month while our private sector created 4,300 jobs, 2,300 moms and dads working in the public sector lost theirs, in a year in which Maryland has created 26,700 net new jobs (98.5% in the private sector).
Police officers, firefighters, teachers – all these public sector jobs, are jobs we cannot afford to lose. They are jobs that allow moms and dads to put food on the table, pay their mortgage or rent, send their kids to college, heat their homes in the winter, and serve as a multiplier for our economic growth.
Public sector job losses can kill this fragile jobs recovery just as surely as private sector job losses can kill this jobs recovery. We have to move forward together.
An Open Letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama,
Thank you for doing what you said you would do in bringing our troops home from Iraq. Thank you for valuing the lives of our brave young men and women over the politically expedient course. Thank you for standing your ground against those who criticized and mocked you. Thank you for doing what only a few presidents have had the courage to do – end war.
Sincerely,
Martin O’Malley
Governor, State of Maryland
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