Bailey, Crosby talk legislation
St. Mary’s College hosts pre-session event
A pair of area state legislators talked about how they brought in the dough for St. Mary’s County during a legislative event hosted by St. Mary’s College of Maryland on Dec. 1.
Sen. Jack Bailey (R-St. Mary’s, Calvert) and Del. Brian Crosby (D-St. Mary’s) said they’ve worked together with other members in a bipartisan fashion to bring $213 million to the area in the past three years from bills that were passed.
“The three of us [including Del. Matt Morgan (R-St. Mary’s)] have been able to procure more than [former state House] finance chair John Bohanan. Our predecessors brought nothing back,” Crosby said.
Bailey talked about plans for the Fort to 400 Commission that will plan events and other things leading up to 2034 for the 400th anniversary of Catholic English settlers landing at St. Clement’s Island.
Responding to a question from the audience of about two dozen people, Crosby said the “fort” part of the name refers to the fort that was discovered by Travis G. Parno in St. Mary’s City using ground-penetrating radar.
“It’s much more than planning a party,” Bailey said. “This is an economic driver for our county for years to come.”
Referring to the historic site near Williamsburg, Va., Bailey called it “our own Jamestown right by this school.” He said the property consists of nearly 1,000 acres with artifacts from the 1600s and from native people 1,000 years ago.
The legislators also talked about bills they weren’t able to get through earlier this year and plan to propose in the upcoming session in January.
Bailey noted that the state did away with a prohibition for students having tobacco on school grounds a few years ago. His bill would’ve prohibited it again, including vaping.
“It’s just like people used to deal drugs. They’re dealing Juuls” at 100 or 200% profit, he said, referring to a vaping product.
Bailey said he met with some people from the NAACP of Calvert County and referred to a 1,000% increase in kids vaping in schools over a two-year period.
“This is a pandemic for us,” he said. “When we’re talking about vaping, this is very detrimental to their health.”
The state senator said he doesn’t want to increase the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline,” but was trying to figure out how to get the punishment right. Along with providing education, this could involve community service work for second and subsequent offenses, he said.
“I’m trying to do a pilot program in St. Mary’s County,” he said.
Brandon Russell, the second vice chair of the St. Mary’s County Democratic Committee, asked Bailey if he would get behind or sponsor legislation to require that the redistricting board in St. Mary’s County include members of more than one political party. The current board is made up of
five Republicans. “That is completely a county issue,” Bailey said. “I want to see how that process works. It was rather embarrassing the way it got out of control last night,” he said, referring to a heated argument between the St. Mary’s redistricting board chair and county attorney on Nov. 30.
Russell pressed Bailey about the issue and said he didn’t want one political party to dominate the redistricting board again in 10 years.
“I will take a look at that,” Bailey said.
Crosby said he favors taking people out of the equation and letting a computer draw the lines all across the state.
After the meeting, Russell was asked by Southern Maryland News if he liked the revised draft map that the St. Mary’s redistricting board tentatively approved on Nov. 30. Russell replied that he wanted to see demographic and political party registration figures before he decided.
The redistricting board — which made several changes, including putting Great Mills back with Lexington Park in the revised draft map — has said it did not consider racial/ethnic data or political party registrations when redrawing the lines.
In regard to state legislative redistricting, Bailey noted his efforts against an earlier map produced by the governor’s bipartisan citizens’ commission that would’ve split St. Mary’s County into a district that included all of Calvert and a portion of southern Anne Arundel County.
Bailey said he encouraged people to call or email
state officials to get their comments on the record because that information can be used if the issue goes to court.
The map “will probably be sorted out in court,” he said.
In addition to the citizens’ commission, which is evenly split between political parties and includes independents, the Democratically-controlled state legislature has its own commission.
In a Dec. 2 press release, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) called the legislative commission’s proposed maps “an embarrassment.”
He noted that the Princeton Gerrymandering
Project gave an A rating to the citizens’ commission proposed maps and a F rating to the legislative commission final maps. The latter gives Democrats big advantages in seven congressional districts and a 2-point advantage for them in District 1, which is currently represented by Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md., 1st), the only Republican in the state’s congressional delegation.
Bailey noted that the General Assembly will meet this month to decide on U.S. congressional districts and will decide next month on state legislative districts.