King: State Budget Specter Will Quash Legislative Initiatives

Don't expect a flurry of bills when lawmakers return to Annapolis next month; Maryland's bleak budget outlook won't allow it.

So says Nancy J. King, state senator for the district that covers Montgomery Village, Washington Grove and parts of Germantown, non-municipal Gaithersburg and North Potomac.

In the first of a Patch series on the legislative expectations of District 39's senator and three delegates, King (D) weighed in on Maryland's gas tax, the Corridor Cities Transitway and several of the issues she has championed as a longtime Montgomery Village resident.

Heading into her ninth session, she has high hopes for the District 39 legislative team, which sees incumbent delegates Charles Barkley and Kirill Reznik joined by newcomer Shane Robinson after former delegate Saqib Ali unsuccessfully challenged King's senate seat in a contentious primary race this summer.

"Just having four of us that can talk to each other and do stuff together is huge," King said. "It makes the job much easier."

But King, a member of the powerful Budget and Taxation Committee, expects not to submit any significant bills during the 90-day session, which begins Jan. 12. The cause? Maryland's massive deficit – projected at $1.6 billion for the coming fiscal year, then around $2 billion for each of the ensuing two years – will effectively preclude legislation that carries more than a minor price tag.

"There won't be anything new at all this year," she said. "We sure can't be adding anything for at least a couple years, I don't think."

Tax increases won't be the way out of the state's budget woes, King said. She doesn't see an "appetite" for raising any taxes – other than perhaps the state's gas tax, which has not increased from 23.5 cents per gallon in nearly 20 years.

If Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) balances the budget with cuts before the session starts, revenues generated by a gas tax increase would stay in the Maryland Transportation Trust Fund, the state's coffer for transit and transportation projects.

King says she will do everything she can to steer that revenue toward the Corridor Cities Transitway, a long-discussed mass transit line that would head west out of the Shady Grove Metro station, through the heart of the proposed 800-acre "Science City" between Gaithersburg and Rockville, then turn north before ending just south of Clarksburg.

The CCT has broad support from Montgomery County's business and environmental leaders but is largely overshadowed by the Purple Line from Bethesda to New Carrollton and the Red Line in Baltimore.

Last year, O'Malley announced his preferences for the Purple Line and Red Line. He was supposed to do the same for the CCT, but has not.

"We're still reminding him of that," King said. "Montgomery County was a big supporter of the Governor's and I think he knows that. If we want to see this Great Seneca Science Center moving forward, we have to fix its transportation problem, because if we don't, I think it'll be a huge disaster – just too many people and no way to move them around. … We're looking at revenues from that that will help bring the state out of the hole we're in. If that's the case, we've got to help them do it. … Whether we bring in some private partnerships or get creative as to how we build it, I think that's the only way this thing is going to take off."

The dearth of legislative initiatives doesn't mean that King has given up on the issues she has in recent years advocated for, she said.

One of her most determined pushes has been to tightening state prisons' standards for granting inmates early release based on in-jail behavior.

The issue came to light in 2008 when a Gaithersburg woman was robbed and killed by a violent felon who, because of Maryland's unique rules on inmates' good behavior, had served less than half of a 12-year sentence.

King co-sponsored legislation to tighten the awarding of the so-called "diminution credits" but withdrew the bill after a Senate committee unanimously rendered an unfavorable report in the face of cost projections and the need to motivate inmates to rehabilitate themselves.

"It just still doesn't make sense that someone would be able to reduce their sentence that much for doing what they're supposed to do," King said. "I know you want to create incentive [for good behavior], but it just doesn't seem right for someone to get out of jail because he listened to directions."

Every session, several of the legislature's two dozen or so bills relating to autism – for example, expanding insurance coverage, or increasing licensure and training for care-givers – originate from the District 39 team. That's in large part because the state's largest autism advocacy group, CSAAC – Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children – is based in Montgomery Village.

Autism advocates have succeeded in bringing the issue more attention, though their legislative victories have been slight. King expects that to hold true this session.

"I don't see anything this year," she said.

Among King's more local priorities are: highlighting the successes of Watkins Mill High School (she is a former president of both the Montgomery County PTA and Board of Education), the revitalization of the Montgomery Village Center, and the future of the Montgomery Village Golf Course.

As a 30-year resident of Montgomery Village, she has "huge visions" for the Village's primary shopping center, which is widely seen as being in a state of decline.

"They've got some great ideas for what this should look like, but the bottom line is that WRIT owns it, and they're not even part of the discussion, and I don't see them making any move to make those changes," she said. "It's great to have those ideas and those concepts, but we've got to be realistic about who owns the shopping center and whether they're going to ever do anything with it."

The golf course's possible sale hits King particularly close to home: she and her husband Jim – a member of the Montgomery Village Foundation's board of directors – live just behind the 5th green.

News that golf course owner Jack Doser has entered into an agreement with a Bethesda-based developer that wants to turn half or more of the golf course into housing.

"The bottom line is, I don't see Jack being able to sustain that golf course, and so to say that nothing's going to be able to happen just isn't realistic," King said. "I'm talking to him. He's been very forthcoming as far as accepting ideas. I don't think he knows what he's going to do with it yet, so I think we're just going to have to work with him on it. … He's been talking about senior housing for a long time. I'd love to see him do something like that there. He could put a restaurant up there; he could do a senior citizens health club. There are some good ideas that are floating out there with it. So it's not like we don't want anything; we want the right thing."

About Nancy King:

She was elected to the House of Delegates in 2002, then was appointed as Dist. 39's senator in September 2007 when P.J. Hogan left mid-term to work for the University of Maryland. She is one of 14 members of the Budget and Taxation Committee. She is also Senate chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Children, Youth, and Families.