Testimony – Legislative Priorities Hearing

Montgomery County Delegation to the General Assembly

October 11, 2007

Good Evening. I’m Connie Tonat, Action Vice President of the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County. Thank you for the opportunity to share the League’s priorities for the 2008 legislative session. These were adopted by our Board of Directors and submitted to the League of Women Voters of Maryland along with the priorities of other local Maryland Leagues. Our priorities are based on positions of the Maryland and United States Leagues which were developed as a result of studies performed by local Leagues. Since the League of Women Voters of Maryland has not yet announced its priorities, we will provide them to you later this year.

Our highest priority is the solving of the state budget deficit and the provision of sufficient funds to meet the unmet needs of Marylanders. The Maryland League has long held positions regarding the tax structure of the state. We believe that tax proposals should be considered on the basis of a number of criteria such as adequate yield, equity and fairness, compatibility with state social and economic policy, cost effective administration and others. We support a more progressive tax structure including with a more graduated personal income tax as our first choice for increasing revenues. Our current personal income tax, as you know, is tantamount to a flat tax. We could support an increase in the sales tax if it contained enough exemptions to make it less regressive. We oppose the legalization of video lottery machines on the basis of regressivity and the fact that it is poor public policy for governments to encourage gambling. We hope that the legislature will appropriate enough money above that needed to solve the deficit so that state programs can be adequately funded since the amounts cited for closing the budget gap will only bring us to where we are during this current year.

While the League is in favor of the abolition of the death penalty, we also support reforms to the present system so that it is equitably and consistently applied. Among these reforms are uniform, statewide, criteria for death penalty prosecutions; changing the standard of proof in weighing aggravating and mitigating factors in sentencing from “preponderance of the evidence” to “beyond a reasonable doubt; ” requiring prosecutors to provide open file discovery and all favorable evidence to the defense, and to establish uniform internal guidelines for cases that are particularly subject to hum error, such as those relying on eyewitnesses, co-defendants or jailhouse informants; having mechanisms for preserving evidence such as DNA and for introducing newly discovered evidence; requiring judges to explain to jurors life without parole as a sentencing option and to charge the jury to consider mitigating factors; and effecting defense including methods to screen, appoint and supervise lawyers representing defendants charged with capital crimes, adequate compensation for public defense counsel and sufficient funding to mount an effective defense.

We are all aware of the tremendous increase in the number of people who lack health insurance. The League of Women Voters believes that every U. S. resident should have access to a basic level of care that includes the prevention of disease, health promotion and education, primary care, acute care, long-term care and mental health care. While the League’s ultimate goal is a national health insurance plan financed through general taxes, we recognize that the states have become the locus of attempts to solve the problem. We could support an employer based system in combination with governmental programs to provide affordable health and mental health care to all Marylanders. We hope that you will continue to look for solutions to this very serious problem.

Continued measures to mitigate the effects of global warming are another priority of the League. Measures to protect valuable ecosystems such as Chesapeake Bay, old growth forest in western Maryland, and the remaining green infrastructure in the state must be taken. Incentives which promote use of mass transit and other alternative modes of travel to reduce dependence on motor vehicles and continued support for the preservation of agricultural land are important measures that should be addressed.

Once again, thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening and for your service to the residents of Montgomery County.