Purple Line and Corridor Cities Transitway are basically a go now! Transportation tax passes House! (Montgomery Village: elementary school, taxes)

[MDAllstar]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

#1 Our major source of wealth at current is the fossil fuel extraction. I would like the Governor to stop attempting to kill the coal mining tax credit every year. The tax credit covers the cost of the enviro regs the state requires for mining in Maryland; upfront bonding for reclamation, returning the land to its original zoned use, mitigating runoff, etc. I think the combination of good enviro regs and a modest tax credit to keep the industry competitive with states that have little to no regs is a good compromise, for us, you, and the environment. Keep the door open for gas drilling. Again, I don't mind studies being done or regs being put in place, but the moratorium shouldn't be used as a defacto ban.

Please try to keep up. This is 2013 and it is time to find a new way to make money. Things change and coal is dead. You can't be mad that the world is changing. Coal will not be used after a while.

New Jersey Quits RGGI, Bans Coal Plants · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader
Ontario Phases Out Coal-Fired Power: Scientific American
Types of Renewable Energy
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Home Page
https://data.maryland.gov/goals/renewable-energy
Obama EPA to finalize rule banning new coal power plants | JunkScience.com
Houston a Hub for Renewable Energy? - NYTimes.com

[MDAllstar]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

#3. Reduce regulatory red tape and cut taxes so our part of Maryland is competitive with WV and PA in competing for residents and business. As it stands, WV and PA put up less red tape and can offer better deals than we can. The result is they get what modest growth does occur in our region.

Yes, let's become West Virginia.....

Environmental groups sue coal mining companies over pollution | West Virginia Record

[MDAllstar]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

#4. Mass transit should be paid by those that use mass transit. The gas tax should be used to pay for things gas users need, like roads. Again, I am willing to find a middle ground to fund needed infrastructure, but it shouldn't be in the form of a regressive tax that hurts the rural poor the most (also the group least likely to ever benefit for the transit lines) and it shouldn't be perpetual. Eventually mass transit needs to be self-funding. If it can't achieve this, it is by defintion, a market failure. At that point it is up to the counties where it was built to decide whether it worth taking their residents' tax money to prop up something that can't support itself.

Road recieve way more welfare money than mass transit and it's not even close!

Transit
UPDATE: Reminder: Amtrak Subsidies Pale in Comparison to Highway Subsidies | Streetsblog Capitol Hill
Do Roads Pay For Themselves? | U.S. PIRG

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by MDAllstar

Please try to keep up. This is 2013 and it is time to find a new way to make money. Things change and coal is dead. You can't be mad that the world is changing. Coal will not be used after a while.

New Jersey Quits RGGI, Bans Coal Plants · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader
Ontario Phases Out Coal-Fired Power: Scientific American
Types of Renewable Energy
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Home Page
https://data.maryland.gov/goals/renewable-energy
Obama EPA to finalize rule banning new coal power plants | JunkScience.com
Houston a Hub for Renewable Energy? - NYTimes.com

Who do you buy power from? What is their major source of energy? Still convinced coal is dead?

[MDAllstar]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

#2 Ease the septic requirements for sub-divisions in counties with decreasing population. Right now, the state's admin agencies are acting as a defacto zoning board, refusing to allow the counties, where zoning legally lies (or always has in the past) to approve plans proposed in their home counties. The Eastern part of our county is already mostly owned by the state (Green Ridge State Forest.) This part of our county is in easier commuting distance to Hagerstown and Winchester. Growth should be allowed here as the market dictates (it isn't right now, but that may change.) Their are plenty of trees and nature here to allow for modest residential growth in the future.

Septic restrictions: A war on pollution, not rural Maryland - baltimoresun.com

[Zimar]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

#1 Our major source of wealth at current is the fossil fuel extraction. I would like the Governor to stop attempting to kill the coal mining tax credit every year. The tax credit covers the cost of the enviro regs the state requires for mining in Maryland; upfront bonding for reclamation, returning the land to its original zoned use, mitigating runoff, etc. I think the combination of good enviro regs and a modest tax credit to keep the industry competitive with states that have little to no regs is a good compromise, for us, you, and the environment. Keep the door open for gas drilling. Again, I don't mind studies being done or regs being put in place, but the moratorium shouldn't be used as a defacto ban.

#2 Ease the septic requirements for sub-divisions in counties with decreasing population. Right now, the state's admin agencies are acting as a defacto zoning board, refusing to allow the counties, where zoning legally lies (or always has in the past) to approve plans proposed in their home counties. The Eastern part of our county is already mostly owned by the state (Green Ridge State Forest.) This part of our county is in easier commuting distance to Hagerstown and Winchester. Growth should be allowed here as the market dictates (it isn't right now, but that may change.) Their are plenty of trees and nature here to allow for modest residential growth in the future.

#3. Reduce regulatory red tape and cut taxes so our part of Maryland is competitive with WV and PA in competing for residents and business. As it stands, WV and PA put up less red tape and can offer better deals than we can. The result is they get what modest growth does occur in our region.

#4. Mass transit should be paid by those that use mass transit. The gas tax should be used to pay for things gas users need, like roads. Again, I am willing to find a middle ground to fund needed infrastructure, but it shouldn't be in the form of a regressive tax that hurts the rural poor the most (also the group least likely to ever benefit for the transit lines) and it shouldn't be perpetual. Eventually mass transit needs to be self-funding. If it can't achieve this, it is by defintion, a market failure. At that point it is up to the counties where it was built to decide whether it worth taking their residents' tax money to prop up something that can't support itself.

#4. For people that don't live here to stop telling us what we should do and what we should be. This one doesn't involve government, per say, but involves the attitudes of many people in Annapolis, in Maryland, and on this discussion board. I have never, nor ever heard anyone from my home, spout out opinions about what downstate Maryland should do, how they should grow (or not), where they should live. Yet, downstate people have no problem dictating terms to us. It comes across as patronizing and creates the impression that we citizens of Western Maryland aren't full partners in state government, but something more like a colony or territory under the control of others.

Feel free to ask anything else you would like to know.

I have another question. Why aren't the legislators from your part of the state agitating on your behalf? Are they, but they're just outnumbered? While I disagree with many of your principles your concerns are reasonable but what is sort of unreasonable is to expect the other parts of the state to go out of their way for rural interests. That's just not human nature. We want to progress on these projects and I think the onus is on your representatives to push for a break for the rural parts of the state.

[MDAllstar]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

Who do you buy power from? What is their major source of energy? Still convinced coal is dead?

When I say coal is dead, I'm talking about it's future. Do you care about the pollution coal causes? Did you even read what those articles said?

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by MDAllstar

Yes, let's become West Virginia.....

Environmental groups sue coal mining companies over pollution | West Virginia Record

Let US become WV? I am not involving you at all, you still don't see this difference. We have no desire or need for your home to adopt what I propose for my region. Again, different regions, different realities, different solutions.

Besides, I have stated that I am willing to compromise with enviro regs so long as tax credits to keep the industries competitive come with them. This kind of compromise benefits us (we get the jobs), you (coal keeps your power on,) and the environment (we do much better than WV in this area.)

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by Zimar

I have another question. Why aren't the legislators from your part of the state agitating on your behalf? Are they, but they're just outnumbered? While I disagree with many of your principles your concerns are reasonable but what is sort of unreasonable is to expect the other parts of the state to go out of their way for rural interests. That's just not human nature. We want to progress on these projects and I think the onus is on your representatives to push for a break for the rural parts of the state.

Our Reps try and fail. We are dramatically outnumbered, pure and simple.

As for the bolded portion, nobody expects you to GO out of your way for rural interests, what I am asking is for you to GET out of our way. We have different regional problems, let's have regional solutions that meet these problems rather than a one size fits all approach.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by MDAllstar

When I say coal is dead, I'm talking about it's future. Do you care about the pollution coal causes? Did you even read what those articles said?

Problem is that we both live in the present...........and you are burning coal right now.