Happy new year, everyone!

The following is a summary of legislative actions taken by the Howard County Council and the County Executive in 2020.

This last year has tested our limits. Business closures, layoffs, school closures, government budget deficits, loss of life…the hits kept coming and continue to do so. These challenges were exacerbated by lack of planning, coordination, and accountability at all levels of government. Howard County is no different. Elected officials continue to be engaged in special interest giveaways.

Here is the 2020 legislative score tracker, which summarizes the impact of 52 pieces of legislation based on their substantive impact on accountability, affordable housing, the budget, and school quality.

The voting pattern has not changed from 2019. Councilmembers Jones, Rigby, and Yungmann have voted in lock-step with the County Executive to hurt the budget, school quality, affordable housing, and accountability.

Councilmember Yungmann joined Councilmembers Walsh and Jung on cutting the budget, but he ended up voting for wasteful spending by approving the New Cultural Center. He also joined Councilmember Jung to offer several County Charter amendments to increase accountability, which failed because they lacked support from Councilmembers Jones and Rigby, who voted to protect the County Executive’s power. This explains his slightly better negative scores.

Councilmember Rigby sponsored legislation to raise recordation fees during the economic crisis while the county administration chose not to raise nearly 250 DPZ, DPW and DILP fees, among others, for the 20th year in a row, because it would impact the development community during…the economic crisis.

Councilmembers Jones and Rigby offered several wasteful amendments to the Budget disguised as amendments to address flooding even though they voted against measures that would help such efforts. See CB38-2019, CB40-2019, and CR122-2019.

The developer coalition has not changed. Councilmembers Jones, Rigby, and Yungmann and County Executive Calvin Ball continue to do developers’ bidding.

Here are some of the most glaring votes:

CB1-2020: would have extended the wait-times for new residential development approval from four to seven years when schools are overcrowded and schools are currently overcrowded. Failed 3-2

CR107-2020: taxpayer subsidy of decedents of slave-owners in Howard County. Passed 3-2

CB53-2020: a bill that bestows an egregious giveaway of taxpayer dollars to benefit a single developer by purchasing land above market value. Passed 3-2.

CB56-2020: a bill that would have eliminated an egregious giveaway to a single developer in Turf Valley. Failed 3-2.

CR89-2019: another egregious giveaway of taxpayer dollars for land, which was purchased significantly above market. Passed 3-2.

TAO1-2021: A bill that gives $55 million to finance a cultural center using TIF revenue that should be used to pay off the $90 million TIF debt, new additional TIF debt, and other varieties of debt. Passed 3-1-1