Year-End Legislative Score Tracker Summary (2019)

Happy new year!

The year-end summary of actions taken by the County Council and County Executive is finally here. Some may know that this site has been tracking legislative actions taken by members of the Howard County Council and County Executive over the past year.

In 2019, a total of 66 bills and 145 resolutions were introduced. The County Council took action on most of them and a few were tabled.

The legislative score tracker’s focus is on pieces of legislation and resolutions that impact school quality, budget, accountability, and affordable housing.

For too long, local politicians have found it advantageous to use the lack of information as a shield to avoid scrutiny over positions taken on pieces of legislation that hurt the public.

Many elected officials take advantage of low information even before taking office by taking generic and superficial positions on issues. They make open-ended promises that can be spun such as to “fully fund schools” or commitment to “diversity and inclusion” or “public safety”. They pick some hot button issues such as immigration or equity (lack-thereof) to rile up their base. They create wedge issues and positions that paint the other party in unfavorable colors.

Once they get elected, they maintain power by supporting legislation that benefit their special interest groups while also passing token legislation that make indiscernibly positive impacts in the voter’s live, but has the benefit of making it appear as if they are doing some meaningful work.

What is the biggest lesson from the 2019 legislative scoring tracker? Political party is not a good predictor of whether an elected official is serving the public or developers.

The most meaningful pieces of legislation that hurt the budget, school quality, affordable housing, and accountability were supported by both democrats and republicans as evidenced by the scores of County Executive Calvin Ball, Councilpersons Jones, Rigby, and Yungmann. Looking at the scores below, all four county officials seem to have identical positions on many bills.

So perhaps the biggest lesson is in Howard County, political party is not a big predictor on whether elected official is working for the voter. Both parties voted in lockstep to help developers.