From the office of Del. Kathy Szeliga:
Dear Friends,
The big issue this week was the passage of the budget bills from the House of Delegates.
We are also having double sessions (in the chamber twice a day) to get bills passed by the crossover deadline of Monday, March 28th. Bills need to be out of the House and Senate by Monday night for their best chance of passing.
My 1st bill passes out of the House!!
HB 499, Admissions and Amusement Tax – Exemption – Hot Air Balloons, passed out of the House of Delegates earlier this week!
This bill protects small businesses, specifically hot air balloon companies, from unwarranted taxation. Matt Lidinsky from Up Up Away Balloon Co. in Baltimore County brought this issue to my attention. Matt fought the Comptroller over an unfair tax he had been charged and was eventually successful. My bill will protect these small businesses from future unnecessary tax bills and tax appeals.
HB 499 is now over in the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. I’m going to help blow this bill out of the Senate and into law!
Action on the Floor of the House
Here’s a picture of us at work today. I’m talking to Delegate Guy Guzzone from Howard County. I sit next to Guy in subcommittee. He’s been a lot of help to me and has a great sense of humor. Guy even grew up in Parkville!
March Madness in Annapolis!
(The following OpeEd was published in the Aegis Newspaper today!)
The Maryland Budget – March Madness in Annapolis
As a newly elected delegate serving on the Appropriations Committee, I am honored and thrilled to be representing you in Annapolis. The Appropriations Committee’s primary responsibility is passing the budget.
Unlike Congress and most other states, Maryland’s governor has the power of the purse. The governor submits a budget to the legislature reflecting his fiscal priorities for the state. The Appropriations Committee is responsible for evaluating the budget and looking for savings. This year’s state budget as submitted by the Governor will grow by more than $1 Billion to $34 Billion. After 10 weeks of evaluation, the House Leadership was only able to find $6.5 million in cuts (a miniscule reduction). My hopes for meaningful changes and cuts were unfulfilled. That same cut to a family making $50,000 would equate to $20! I know the legislature could have done better!
Despite the rhetoric coming from Annapolis, the budget includes fees, taxes, and assessments. As the Governor said in his commercials during the campaign, a tax is a fee and a fee is a tax. Here are some of the fees/taxes/assessments passed during March Madness in Annapolis. For the record, I voted against all of them:
– Car tax – Car titling fees increased from $50 to $100 (100% increase) after being raise in 2007 from $23 to the current $50 (117.5% increase).
– Land tax – Land recording fees increased from $20 to $40
– Baby tax – Birth certificate fees increase from $12 to $24
– Health Care tax – Hospital assessments increased 2.5%
– Granny tax – Nursing home assessments raised to 5.5% (was 2% in 2009)
– Construction tax – 2% tax on IWIF worker’s compensation insurance + $4 million from IWIF – IWIF insures many companies in the construction industry in MDWe were able to make some meaningful pension reforms that I supported. These reforms include increasing vesting time to 10 years, increasing the retirement age to 65 and having employees pay a little more into their pension plan. Unfortunately, the Governor will be taking the extra money employees are paying for their pension plan (roughly $120 million), and putting that money in the General Fund for at least 2 years. Essentially, this is now a tax on teachers and state employees and bad public policy.
The Republican Caucus proposed a comprehensive Pension System Reform Plan to address the $39 Billion unfunded pension liability. Some Republican ideas were accepted. The Republicans also offered an alternative budget plan and some of those ideas were also accepted. However, the overall budget does not incorporate enough of the savings suggested by the minority party to solve the structural deficit and guard against tax increases.
As March Madness continues, here are the Elite Eight picks for tax increases under consideration: gas tax, school tax (allowing counties to add an additional tax on residents), alcohol tax, cigarette tax, plastic grocery bag tax, toll tax, snack tax and energy tax.
Maryland’s Leadership has Maserati taste on a Mercedes budget while you and I live on a used mini-van budget. You can count on me to continue to vote against tax increases and try to reign in the out of control state government. Please feel free to call or email me with any suggestions on ways to help make Maryland State government a lean mean efficient machine! I’d also like to hear your views and opinions on issues that are important to you and your family.
If you’d like to sign up for my weekly email Annapolis Update let me know by contacting my office. I look forward to hearing from you.
Standing for you in Annapolis,
Delegate Kathy Szeliga
What is Gender Identity?
Friday night on the House floor, we will be debating a bill entitled, Human Relations – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity – Antidiscrimination, HB 235.
This 11 page bill will put “gender identity” in the Antidiscrimination list for housing, employment and other things.
According to HB 235, Gender Identity means, “the appearance of an individual regardless of the sex assigned at birth.” This bill will provide special protections for “transgender” individuals–an umbrella category that includes transsexuals (people who have had “sex-change” surgery), transvestites (cross-dressers).
You can read more about it here:
I’m very concerned about the slippery slope this bill puts us on. What happens when a man dressed as a woman goes into the girls bathroom? What happens when your child’s 3rd grade teacher decides his gender identity is a woman and he starts wearing dresses to school? Although there may be amendments and exemptions listed today to address those two specific questions above, this is not a direction I want the State of Maryland to take.
The law should not allow the rights of transgendered men to transcend the rights of women and vulnerable children. Transgendered individuals should not become a protected class of citizens and that is what HB 235 will do.
I will oppose this bill. More March madness in Annapolis!
Human Trafficking
There are a number of bills in Annapolis that deal with the issue of Human Trafficking. We don’t usually think of this as an issue in the United States. Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the world that prays largely on children and women.
There has been a task force working hard in Maryland and they were instrumental in the rescuing a 12 year old girl from a life of prostitution:
Of the 5 bills that have been introduced, one cleared the House this week. I was glad to support this measure and it passed unanimously. These bills will help bring awareness to the public about this issue and also assist law enforcement in stopping and apprehending criminals involved in human trafficking.
Thanks for your continued support and encouragement. I am humbled and honored to be representing you and your family in Annapolis.
Kathy Szeliga
Maryland House of Delegates
The answer is simple. You respond by doing what God would want you to. You dont hire such a person to teach, and if someone hired then changes their sex, you fire them, If you are in the legislature, you dont support same sex marriage and other bills that continue to lead our society in the same direction. What if someone wants to dress as a man one day and a woman the next? You dont worry about the law. What you concern yourself with is God’s rules and laws. If you get fired or get negative feedback, you stick up for what is right even though it may cause you to suffer. The bible says that those who suffer for Christ will be rewarded, and it doesnt mean that we should condone violence, as the Muslim koran says. If your child’s teacher changes their gender, tell the school that you do not want your child to be in that class. Get other parents to express how they feel about it. Put your child in a Christian school if you need to. Tell the press what you did and why you did it. God created one man and one woman to populate the earth. Their example of disobedience and what happened to them should be a good example for us to follow.
Clay you do know that is against the law! The supreme Court ruled on this when Kentucky tried to fire a teacher for becoming pregnate out of wedlock. It essentially said that teachers personal lives can not be held as a basis for firing them.
People use the bathroom example all the time, but is there any actual law that says a woman can’t go into the mens room or vice versa? I don’t think so. It’s all implied under other laws. The concern for sexual misconduct in a bathroom completely disregards the reality of sexual assault. It assumes women can’t assault women or men can’t assault men or that an individual bent on assault won’t just walk through those little specified doors and do as they d*m* well please.
Let’s be real here. If a school were confronted with this situation they would handle it with kid gloves. Kids could be reassigned to other classrooms in the event a parent were concerned (about what?)
Well, about what is the kids being distracted all year by looking at the teacher and wondering what is going on and some of the kids in school constantly making fun of that teacher. I think that is a big distraction. Kids not only look to their parents for guidance and direction but also to other adults. Sometimes another adult can be a huge influence on a child. So school administrators will have a lot less problems to begin with if they do what is right to begin with.
Right, Clay. Because no kids have ever made fun of their teachers before this issue came up. There are no problems in classrooms relating to distraction and no students ever spread rumors about teachers. Thankfully, Clay, people like you and Delegate Szeliga are here to address this issue over jobs and the economy.
(By the way, if you can’t see the sarcasm in my statement, then that is about as sad as the issue posited by Del. Szeliga in the headline of this piece or you insinuating God would want schools to turn away anyone wanting to teach our youth)
Tom Meyers,
What is your position on comedians paying taxes/FICA/Medicare on their self-employment income?
Floyd The Barber
@Floyd I’ll put you in touch with my accountant on that one. Does that answer your question?
Tom Meyers,
No it doesn’t answer my question.
Either you think self-employed comedians should pay their federal taxes, taxes on income for each state they perform in and 15.3% FICA/Medicare or you don’t.
Floyd The Barber
Tom Myers’ accountant: talk about an easy gig! Sign me up!
@Terrance You would have to give me your name and address to send the appropriate forms. Oh right. You don’t have the balls to do that. Never mind
Yeah Tom, like the teachers who get arrested for homosexual pedophilia. They should also be allowed to teach our kids, right? Should anyone who just wants to teach and be in contact with our most precious little citizens be allowed just because they want to?
It does not matter if the pedophilia is Homo or Hetero Sexual they should not be teaching!
Once again Cdev, you are correct. No pedophile should be anywhere near children, whether they’re teaching, praying, camping, etc.. I was thinking of a specific incident involving a male teacher with an adolescent male student, hence my statement.
Just figured that since the letter was written to harp on members of the homosexual community I wanted to make sure that either
a) you knew pedophiles came in all sexual orientations
b) felt that all pedophiles should be treated equally
Somebody needs to vote him out of office. I can’t believe that all that is going on in our state that this is what is being brought up. A complete waste of time and tax payer money. I completely agree with Clay in the first comment.
Delegate Szeliga is a woman (or was the gender mix-up an homage to her primary focus on gender identity. If so, bravo!)
And I concur with you. Election 2014 isn’t that far away.
I am regreting voting for her. She is almost as bad as Pat. The only difference is she does not lie about the bills she sponsors and he does.
Delegate,
This bill worries me because of its ‘special treatment’ for specific people. That alone makes the bill discriminatory.
If someone chooses to select a specific lifestyle, that person ought to have to live w/ the consequences. I as a business owner should not have to do business w/ that person if I don’t want to do business. If a teacher is hired as a women, she needs to stay a women, in dress and behaviors, for the length of her contract. The world does not revolve around individual choices. Nor should a contract, signed by 2 adults. Let them dress anyway they want, but w/n the constraints of the contract, the agreements made must be held.
Taxpayer does that mean if I do not want to subsidize heterosexuals getting a tax deduction we should not have a married filing status. That too is a lifestyle choice.
The fact that kids already poke fun at teachers doesnt mean that we need to give them more reasons to do it. I as a Christian dont believe that transgendered people should be hired to teach kids. If it is going to be allowed, at least make the person keep the same sex identity for the whole year. However, I dont see any point in hiring them because then they come back the following year and all the kids will know who they were anyway. It isnt setting the best example for our youth. From what I understand, it isnt officially allowed to talk about God in a supportive way in the public schools. If a teacher cuts down God, nothing will probably happen. If a teacher promotes God, it is much more likely that something will. If a teacher supports an unGodly attitude by cross dressing or changing sex identities, the bill wants to support that unGodly attitude. How about supporting a Godly attitude and not passing it?
Clay take an Ed Law class you might learn what SCOTUS has truly said about religion and God in school as well as the ability of a school system to place restrictions on the private life of a teacher!
Well I do know about the tract handout that shows a teacher teaching about evolution in class. A girl speaks up and says that we were created by God and not by evolution. The teacher growls at her and essentially tells her to shut up. Is evolution taught in schools? Is creationism mentioned along with it? I am guessing then that the teacher can give their support of evolution but not creationism? That doesnt seem fair to me.
Clay not sure which case you refer to. However your thought seems to not understand evolution as contained in the Maryland State Curriculum. Furthermore I am not sure if you are aware that the Supreme Court has ruled that creationism is not appropriate in a biology class along side evolution as it is not science but theology and most appropriate in a social studies class. You may not think it “fair” but I don’t think it fair to use a science class to teach religion! Teachers in science class do not “support” an idea but simply teach a concept. evolution in the state curriculum simply deals with change over time not the origin of man!
Tell me sir, which other creation myths would you like to be taught in the Public Schools? Have you given any thought to the Ancient Egyptians or the Mayans or the Hindus? All very compelling “theories” in their own right and sharing equal certainty among their cultures.
Please don’t drag out that tired old story that nation is a Christian Nation. There are many who would disagree with you and I dare say we were created by God to teach you just as much as you want to teach us.
Anytime you teach evolution in biology class or wherever you present it, even if you dont discuss the origin of man, you are implying to the students that if plants and animals evolved from wherever they came from then perhaps so did humans. You are implying that if these plants and animals can change over the years and turn into something else, then so can man come from apes or wherever and turn into something else. Fact is it didnt happen that way. Yes plants do change over time, people do too, but that doesnt prove how they were created to begin with. And how do the courses of evolution of plants and animals start? With one celled animals etc.? Isnt it only natural to assume that man came from the animals therefore? The more science looks into the true origins of man, the less it can really explain it. If there were ape like creatures that walked upright and kind of looked like us, they were wiped out with Noah’s flood. The bible says that there were giants on the earth in those days. We all came from Noah and his sons and their wives, and they came from Adam and Eve. After the flood, God told Noah’s sons and their wives to populate the earth. One went to Asia, one to Africa, one to Europe, etc. The ones in Asia eventually came to America, etc. To create those kids, someone was having relations with their cousin or sibling for a generation or two. Perhaps cousins had kids and then spread out. Sooner or later there were enough generations so that you married someone who wasnt directly related. You married someone related to your great great great great uncle and aunt. Those going to Africa evolved to have darker skin. Those in colder areas lighter hair and skin due to less warmth and sun. Now thats how it happened. Isnt it a shame that kids in public schools cant be taught the truth? When we leave God, we leave the truth.
@ Clay the questions you pose are not ones which evolution or even science are used to seek the answers to or explain. Your questions lead me to believe you do not have a firm grasp on modern evolution or biological theory. Typical evolution as is taught in high school science does not cover specieation. Rather the out comes may include that we observe that humans have an appendix. It is obviously part of the digestive system and it serves no function. At one time it probably did but as a humans diet changed over time so did our need for a vestigial organ. Change in a population of mouths to all become one color as a result of an internal ecologogical force or a colony of bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics.
It is funny you mention the flood story. Most major religions societies have a great flood story. If you propose we teach that; which one do you suggest we focus on and why?
The supreme court ruled that creationism or creation science is in fact not a science and has no place in a public school curriculum as science. It’s appropriate place is in a social studies class. Science does not explain why but simply how.
Let me educate you to the eternal truth of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. May his noodly goodness bless us all.
South Park episode? Mr. Garrison?
Well cdev, remember that evidence of the great flood has been found in rock formations. There is nothing unusual in different cultures having a great flood story. I know all I need to know about evolution. What we all need is a good knowledge of God and His Son, and remember, God is more impressed with what is in our hearts than in our knowledge base.
Oh are we going to bring geologic theory into a discussion of proof of biblical events. Please please carry on Mr Geologist. Tell us all how Plate Tectonics works… the of folding the planet’s crust over other surfaces that lead to earthquakes or caused by the hand of God. How movements are now calculated in inches per year and how the great continent Pangaea saw all land surfaces locked together so Humans could ride Triceratops into combat against the Philistines. And all this only happened 9000 years ago. Please tell us more about how astronomy also plays a role in showing us that the Sun and Moon and other planets orbit the Earth and our notion of a round planet is a delusion created by a liberal based scientific community.
Please educate us on what you know about radioactive half lives of isotopes and planet formation. And the metamorphosis of Limestone into Marble.
Yes but which cultural and which religions flood story do you wish to teach? Should we spend 25% of the year in a science class teaching them information which is not pertinant to a biology class?
I agree with your last statement which is why God knows what is in my heart and that it is not my place to put limits on what and how he did what he did. All I can do is try to figure it out!
Cdev, you are one whacked out dude or dudette. If only your arguments were as relative, coherent, and tangential as you’d like to think. Facts are facts as much as you’d like to twist and mangle them. People are people, whatever their sexual preference. When they turn to criminal, predatory behavior, that’s when the game changes. Personally, I wasn’t even thinking of disparaging, demeaning, or cornering any particular group. You’re the one veering off course, stirring the pot, so to speak.
K to clarify when I said letter I was refering to the original text!
Well Kathy dear, I am thrilled to hear about your “1st bill”… how wonderful, relief for hot air balloon operators. That should thrill the thousa… hundr… dozen or so people that will be affected. Well done. I suppose Annapolis is a terrific source for hot air balloon stuffing, huh? I was more impressed though with the list of fees you stated that are doubling and the taxes that are increasing. I particularly liked the potential “toll tax” wow, only politicians would think of taxing a fee. When will we achieve that most elusive creature tax on tax? Call it tax squared? But, alas, all this is lost in the bickering over opinions about someone who’s process is so screwed up they can’t decide if they’re a man or woman – I don’t care how they ultimately decide, but should they be allowed around impressionable children at all?
Who introduced this gender identity bill and why did they introduce it? That is the trouble with being politically correct. One thing leads to another. What if someone who has relations with their pet wants protected status so that you cant refuse to hire them? I feel sorry for the staff at the animal shelter. If we cant discriminate against homosexuals because of their sexual preference, why stop there? We include homosexuality in the area of not being legally allowed to discriminate but not other preferences? There are tons of preferences. I saw a story of a guy who collects shoes because of a shoe fetish. So we give gays protected status but not him? If he gets fired by the shoe store it is ok but it isnt ok to not hire a gay male gym instructor to work around young men? Yes, not all gay men want someone younger but many do. Where does it stop? The law says sexual orientation cant be used to not hire a teacher. If they show preference towards youth, legally they cant be fired until they break the law. What is the difference between a preference and an orientation? Isnt an orientation of being homosexual a preference for the same sex? It is better to allow the discrimination in these cases. It protects vulnerable people. Yes, it can discriminate against a gay person who could make a great teacher. You know what I say to that teacher? Find a school system who will hire you. Dont punish the system for trying to protect people, and remember, if a heterosexual person does something wrong around the kids, they are down the road also. So not having sexual orientation will allow a school to not hire a straight person? Fine. We can deal with that situation when it comes up. When we stray from God’s path, the devil takes over.