Many people in this part of the state commute to work for a significant amount of time (greater than 30 minutes).  This commute is a consequence of growth in the state as well as an ever expanding transportation system (roads and public transportation).  Considerable high paying jobs exist in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore areas, and many of our neighbors commute to work in those locations every day. 

Daily traffic on local state routes is generally up 30% from 1996, and increases on the areas highways (e.g., Route 50 and Interstate 97) is up as much as 82%.  While our highways are considerably wider than they were ten years ago, and they can support more cars – it is also true that commuting takes a considerable amount of our citizens’ daily lives.  This reduces worker productivity and cuts into our coveted quality of life.  In addition, increased vehicular traffic and higher speeds on the highway have led to increased highway accidents and traffic delays.

Development which supports a high quality of life and protected natural environment

The Governor’s administration has developed and implemented one of the nation’s strongest Smart Growth programs.  Under Smart Growth, state and local governments are incentivized to build in areas which already have established infrastructure and to revitalize so-called, “brown field” areas which have fallen into disrepair and underutilization.  In addition, the program also works to protect historically rural areas and farmland.

Programs which protect our state’s natural rural landscapes, as well as provide business and housing to grow  are important to sustaining our quality of life.  I will support continued initiatives in state-wide Smart Growth, as well as rural preservation.

Work and live in your community

I remain committed to finding ways for our citizens to work closer to home and reduce their time spent in traffic.  The state should investigate incentives which encourage our citizens to work within 15 miles of their home.  These incentives could come in the way of employer tax credits which would encourage employers to support smaller, more numerous offices across the state which allow workers to enjoy a shorter commute while at the same time reducing the burden on our transportation infrastructure. 

In addition, employers should much more aggressively pursue telecommuting for their employees when they have duties and family circumstances which are conducive to working at home via virtual private networking.  Technology exists today to support full motion video, telephone quality audio, and highly interactive collaboration via the Internet.  National trends in the amount of telecommuters is on the rise, and our highly professionalized state workforce is just the sort of group which can benefit from this trend.  Furthermore, aggressive action in this area will place our state in an excellent position to take advantage of pollution credits made available by the federal government.

Following election, I will put forward legislation which provides employers with tax credits for the percentage of employees at work sites that live within 15 miles of the location, as well as the percentage of employees who spend at least two days a week telecommuting from home.

Supporting our local infrastructure

We have a state which is growing, with a considerable amount of new building.  While Smart Growth programs provide incentives for state and local governments to focus growth in areas with existing or planned infrastructure, new growth does occur which impacts the capacity, maintenance, and support of roads, schools, and other county or city services.  Under normal circumstances, counties levy impact fees on developers to help defray these costs.  All too often, however, these funds do not seem to cover the effect of these developments.  This is due to the fact that impact fees are collected in the year that the development is completed, and those funds are made available for capital programs which have been approved to funding in that same year. 

Unfortunately, capital projects such as school or public works can require years to plan and often times are delayed in their adoption on the county’s capital budget (due to a backlog of worthy capital programs).  As such, impact fee dollars collected for a given development project do not end up directly funding capital improvements that are needed for that area that is impacted.  The unfortunate outcome is that the impacted community may never see the funds that were collected.  In addition, since time elapses between the time the funds are collected and the time improvements are made, the funds are both worth less (due to inflation), and they are less appropriate (since additional wear and tear on infrastructure will have occurred in the intervening time). 

What is worse, is the fact that in some cases, local governments waive these impact fees in exchange for other considerations from developers.  In these situations, developers are able to avoid paying these fees and in effect they pass on the burden of infrastructure to the tax payers.  What is further frustrating is that local residents of that community will have to bear the burden of over crowded schools and congested roads

If elected, I will fight to protect the rights of property owners to insure that school and public works infrastructure are improved in a timely and appropriate manner.  Monies for impact fees should be collected from developers, and these funds should be applied where the impact has occurred – not to a general fund.