Issues

• Creating Jobs Is Our #1 Priority

  With the most educated workforce in the country, Maryland is faring better than most states during this global economic recession. However, Mike Busch has remained focused on creating and maintaining good-paying jobs in Anne Arundel County. As he often says, the future of Maryland is an educated workforce. Continuing to create a better business climate and investing in education are the keys to job creation.
  
  Mike sponsored and passed the Job Creation Recovery Tax Credit program, which offers a $5,000 tax credit to any Maryland business that hires an unemployed Marylander. This legislation directly creates 4,000 jobs and will also build private sector confidence in the State’s economy.
  
  Maryland continues to have a robust capital budget, focused on shovel-ready projects, which will support a total of 44,913 jobs in the construction industry, this year and next year.

  Mike led a bipartisan effort to pass legislation to help 93,000 small businesses to pay their property taxes in two installments instead of one lump sum payment.  This helps small businesses keep their doors open in tough times.
  
  Maryland was ranked #2 in the country this year by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
  
  Mike was a key leader in passing the Small Business Credit Recovery Program to streamline the loan approval process and allow the State to guarantee a small percentage of loans, helping banks provide much-needed capital for our small businesses.
  
  Working with the U.S. Department of Labor, Maryland secured a $5 million grant for the Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corp. The grant will create a new training program in cybersecurity and information assurance, with training opportunities for more than 1,000 students here in Anne Arundel County.
  
  Maryland is a leader in job creation in 2010.  Our unemployment rate is 25% below the national average.

• Balancing Our Budget

  The State does not deficit spend. Along with the Governor and Senate, the House of Delegates balances the State’s budget every year while continuing to protect our priorities. As Speaker of the House, Mike took unprecented steps over the last four years to put our fiscal house in order and tighten our belt. Here are the facts:
  
  We cut planned spending by over $5 billion in the last four years and made government smaller and more efficient.
  
  Over the past four years, we have made the tough decisions necessary to cut 4,000 positions from State government.
  
  Careful planning and fiscal discipline have left us with nearly $830M in cash reserves, including the State’s Rainy Day Fund.
  
  Maryland continues to be one of only eight states in the country to retain the coveted triple-A bond rating.
  
  Over the past four years, the State’s General Fund has decreased 3%; our General Fund budget is smaller than it was in 2007.

• Quality Education = Greater Employment Opportunities

  Mike has always believed that the best investment we can make is a quality education for our children.  It’s a simple equation: educated children grow up to join the workforce with good-paying jobs.  Because of our investment in education, Maryland has the best educated workforce in the country.
  
  Refusing to sacrifice education standards even in this tough economy, Mike has led the charge in continuing to prioritize funding our schools in Maryland. While slashing the budget this year, the Mike was able to continue to increase funding for teachers and classrooms. For example, this year’s capital budget funded $250 million in school construction, with a total of $1.25 billion in school construction monies going to communities across Maryland over the last four years. Here in District 30, this includes the new Germantown Elementary School, which began construction in July, as well as improvements at Anne Arundel Community College, Southern Middle, and other public schools. Mike has advocated for a thirteenth high school in Anne Arundel County, and he plans to help make that dream a reality if re-elected. Mike also led the charge to pass reform legislation that increases teacher accountability and positioned Maryland to win more than $14 million in additional federal funds for Anne Arundel schools.
  
  Under Mike's leadership, the House of Delegates voted to freeze tuition for four straight years at Maryland public colleges and universities. After this record investment to make college more accessible and affordable, we again took prudent action to pass the Tuition Stabilization Act, which caps in-state tuition growth at 3% for the 2010–2011 school year. This means that tuition for Maryland universities rose only 3% in five years, at a time when many states are seeing double-digit increases over the same period.

  Maryland’s K-12 education system ranks first in the nation for the second year in a row, according to Education Week magazine. Mike Busch is one of the leaders who made that distinction possible, because he believes that an educated workforce is the key to Maryland’s future.

• Protecting Our Families

  Mike led lawmakers from both political parties to protect our children from sexual predators and gang violence. Last year Maryland passed the most comprehensive package of sex offender laws in the last twenty years including:
  
  Bringing Maryland into compliance with the federal Adam Walsh law and requiring lifetime supervision, including GPS monitoring, of serious and repeat sex offenders.
  
  Increasing mandatory minimum sentences to 15 years for second degree sex offenders and offenders who rape children.
  
  Eliminating good time credits for the most serious and repeat sex offenders.
  
  The General Assembly also unanimously passed Mike's top priority, the Safe Schools Act of 2010, which breaks down communication barriers to keep our kids safe and away from the influence of gangs.  The average age of gang recruitment is now 13 years old.  Mike is committed to ending this cycle of violence. He also led the fight to pass multiple pieces of legislation to give prosecutors the tools to crack down on gangs with tougher sentences and better technology.
  
  As a parent and former teacher, Mike is dedicated to keeping  our children safe. These laws will take an important step forward in trying to prevent another child from becoming a victim of sexual predators and gang violence.  These efforts and others have brought Maryland's violent crime rate to it's lowest point since 1975.

• Protecting the Chesapeake Bay

  The Chesapeake Bay is the crown jewel of Maryland.  Mike remains deeply committed to its protection and clean-up.  Clean air and clean water are not a luxury, they are a necessity.  Last year he led the fight to protect $20 million in funding for the Chesapeake Bay Trust Fund, which creates living shores around Maryland, educates children and leads clean-up efforts. It was Mike who made sure that upgrades to our wastewater treatment facilities in Broadneck and Annapolis were funded.  He was instrumental in providing homeowners on the Bay and its tributaries with the financial assistance they needed to replace failing septic systems with modern nitrogen-removing systems.  He helped pass the Chesapeake Bay Conservation Corps, to provide young people with valuable job training while cleaning up the Bay.  His commitment to open space and smart growth remains steadfast.  Mike knows that these programs are crucial to not only the health of the Bay, but to our way of life here in District 30.  When talks broke down between developers and the environmental community around stormwater runoff into the Bay, it was Mike's leadership and the House of Delegates that put everyone in the same room until a compromise was reached to limit stormwater runoff without killing important jobs.
  
  For his efforts, Mike has been endorsed by the the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Maryland League of Conservation Voters. In October, he will recieve the John V. Kabler Award, given to Maryland's top conservation leader every year by the League of Conservation Voters.  Everyone talks about their commitment to the Bay; Mike has a proven record of delivering.