1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,460 Okay, first of all, I want to welcome you guys. We've got the head of MAKO in front of us. We've got Jack Wilson and we've got Michael Sanderson. 2 00:00:11,340 --> 00:00:20,800 So once again, guys, welcome, Jack. Congratulations. I don't know if that's good or bad, but yeah, either way, either way. 3 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:26,340 But honestly, I've been around you for many years, you know, and seeing you in action. 4 00:00:26,660 --> 00:00:34,300 And I really appreciate what you're doing and helping out all the counties and all that. 5 00:00:34,580 --> 00:00:42,560 So, and really, more than that, too, is, you know, govern beside you guys and all the stuff 6 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:48,840 that you would help us do and the leadership you're doing down there in Queen Anne and helping 7 00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:52,940 helping us and guiding the guys and helping us and being a good partner. 8 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:55,200 I really, really appreciate it. 9 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:58,720 We have a very solid team here on the upper-short, upper-short channel. 10 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:01,020 We definitely appreciate the partnerships with everybody. 11 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:06,440 So if you guys want to go ahead and get kind of organized here and get started, that would be great. 12 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:09,040 Just in the spirit of the new season, we'll kick her off. 13 00:01:09,180 --> 00:01:09,400 Yeah. 14 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:12,520 So yes, just for the record, I'm Jack Wilson, 15 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:15,120 Queens County Commissioner and President Mako this year. 16 00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:22,000 and to my right is the esteemed Michael Sanderson Executive Director of MAKO. So as I said before off 17 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:28,140 the camera we are on our 17th county today. We visited the two other upper shore counties earlier 18 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:35,620 and we started out we hit gangbusters we did like seven six counties I think right out of the 19 00:01:35,620 --> 00:01:41,840 gate right after session so we kind of went around and we Michael gave a very depressing 20 00:01:43,300 --> 00:01:49,260 look back at session and what it was and wasn't to be and the things that were, well, let's 21 00:01:49,260 --> 00:01:52,900 just say, anyway, we decided when we got back to go, since we left most of the rooms with 22 00:01:52,900 --> 00:01:57,260 people just really, I mean, like they just wanted to quit their meeting and just get 23 00:01:57,260 --> 00:01:58,280 up and leave at that point. 24 00:01:58,460 --> 00:01:58,660 Right. 25 00:01:58,700 --> 00:01:59,960 And so we got to pick it up for a second. 26 00:02:00,180 --> 00:02:05,040 Not that we have a whole lot of better content now, but we're kind of, we're looking ahead, 27 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:05,300 right? 28 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:07,220 The past is the past, so we're going to look ahead. 29 00:02:07,220 --> 00:02:10,960 So Michael give you a little bit of a backtrack on this past session 30 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:16,040 But looking more forward to some of the stuff that's still hanging out there from this past session and some other stuff 31 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:22,000 That may rear its head in this next session, but the most part that seems like a rosier picture than the old one 32 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:27,340 So yes, sir with that Michael went one thing. Hey Pete. Can you hear us? Okay, Pete? 33 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:31,880 Hey Pete. Can you hear us? 34 00:02:38,140 --> 00:02:43,320 Okay. All right, so you stay yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, and I think you meant 35 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:52,440 Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah. Well, thank you. Good afternoon. Thanks very much for clearing some time for us 36 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:56,960 Yeah, as mentioned I'm Michael Sanderson director at the Maryland Association of Counties and 37 00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:01,380 We always feel duty bound to bring you a stack of paper and that sort of stuff 38 00:03:01,380 --> 00:03:04,380 Without any intention of going through that in a whole lot of detail 39 00:03:04,380 --> 00:03:11,880 But it's a coverage of a lot of things that have been in our media in recent weeks particularly issues that I think have some 40 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:16,100 consequence going forward and that's what I want to focus on. Some of the stuff on 41 00:03:16,100 --> 00:03:19,020 the front of the page is looking backward at this last legislative 42 00:03:19,020 --> 00:03:23,100 session but once we get to July and August it feels a little more attractive 43 00:03:23,100 --> 00:03:27,840 to look forward. So I'll try to do some of that. I'll set the table a little bit 44 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:32,280 with just some nuts and bolts on fiscal issues state budget and where we are 45 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:38,220 and that connects to the 10-year rollout of the blueprint education plan 46 00:03:38,220 --> 00:03:41,260 and which we're about four years into or thereabouts 47 00:03:41,700 --> 00:03:43,440 that connects to the state fiscal stuff 48 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:45,120 and it's also been a hot topic 49 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:47,840 as we've met with county officials and other jurisdictions. 50 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:50,560 I'll mention a couple other topics 51 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:52,440 that have some fiscal consequence 52 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:56,520 where more policy-driven housing still a hot topic 53 00:03:56,520 --> 00:04:00,060 and energy generally speaking is gonna be in the headlines 54 00:04:00,060 --> 00:04:02,520 and gonna be on the menu for the General Assembly 55 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,760 this next legislative session, I'm rather confident. 56 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:08,800 and then close with a comment about road funding 57 00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:11,660 that we're due for a fix there too. 58 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:13,780 So let me try and skip through that handful of things 59 00:04:13,780 --> 00:04:15,020 and then if there's something I miss 60 00:04:15,020 --> 00:04:16,460 or something you want to get into further, 61 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:17,320 we'll double click there. 62 00:04:18,300 --> 00:04:21,280 State budget situation overall got really bad. 63 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:25,180 I think we were here visiting with you around a year ago 64 00:04:25,180 --> 00:04:27,860 and I was guessing how bad the number gets. 65 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:31,240 With a 25 or 26 billion dollar state budget, 66 00:04:31,540 --> 00:04:33,760 they can have a pretty big sounding number 67 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:35,240 not turn into a really big problem. 68 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:41,060 like $300, $400 million these days for the state budget is a couch cushion kind of thing. 69 00:04:41,220 --> 00:04:45,060 We can handle that by nips and tucks and we won't have to, we're not going to furlough 70 00:04:45,060 --> 00:04:48,640 state employees or anything at all like that for $400 million, not that big of a problem. 71 00:04:48,980 --> 00:04:53,580 Once it got to $3 billion going into last session, that's when the consequences get 72 00:04:53,580 --> 00:04:54,420 really serious. 73 00:04:55,040 --> 00:05:00,420 They closed the $3 billion problem with about halfway with new revenues, changing 74 00:05:00,420 --> 00:05:04,160 tax rates and extending application of taxes to different things and so forth. 75 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:06,720 and then some other things to slow down spending, 76 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,420 not a whole lot of conventional budget cuts, 77 00:05:09,500 --> 00:05:10,840 but slowing down state spending. 78 00:05:11,340 --> 00:05:14,280 One element of that is going a little deeper 79 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:17,320 and invoicing counties for state services, 80 00:05:17,780 --> 00:05:19,560 which I don't like that as a trend 81 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:21,720 because it's just too darn easy. 82 00:05:23,020 --> 00:05:25,380 So that ended up being, counties ended up taking 83 00:05:25,380 --> 00:05:27,640 about 150 million total in shifts. 84 00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:30,520 Most of them of that flavor have sort of shifted costs. 85 00:05:31,620 --> 00:05:36,300 Help me with that, help me with that, what you mean by that, is that sort of like a teacher's pension stuff? 86 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:46,260 Yes, yes, so for this particular year, I mean, forgive me, but like the two-minute version is, if they're sitting in a budget strategy meeting saying, 87 00:05:46,300 --> 00:05:52,460 well we need to find 100 million bucks out of a local government or probably out of the counties, they could do something like, 88 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:57,720 let's zero out all the money we send to them for their local health department, that's about 100 million dollars, you could do that. 89 00:05:57,720 --> 00:05:59,960 But what a cruddy headline, right? 90 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:02,620 That goes in the newspaper, state backtracks 91 00:06:02,620 --> 00:06:04,380 in the wake of this terrible pandemic, 92 00:06:04,380 --> 00:06:06,120 now we're no longer interested in prevention. 93 00:06:06,460 --> 00:06:07,280 Like, terrible, right? 94 00:06:07,900 --> 00:06:09,780 So you suddenly, and even if they thought 95 00:06:09,780 --> 00:06:11,280 the counties would pick up the slack 96 00:06:11,280 --> 00:06:12,120 and cover the surface, 97 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:13,620 it's still a really rotten headline. 98 00:06:14,140 --> 00:06:19,060 Instead, the idea of, oh, the cost of pensions 99 00:06:19,060 --> 00:06:21,000 for our teachers in public schools 100 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:22,580 have gone up more than expected 101 00:06:22,940 --> 00:06:24,840 to the tune of almost 200 million bucks. 102 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:28,140 We can just invoice the county for half of that. 103 00:06:28,340 --> 00:06:29,560 They tinkered with doing it all. 104 00:06:29,680 --> 00:06:32,140 They only did half, but 93 million bucks, 105 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:33,420 it just comes out of the sky. 106 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:36,980 It's out of your budget, but they don't feel it, 107 00:06:37,100 --> 00:06:40,760 and the teachers aren't mad, the people get the pensions, 108 00:06:40,780 --> 00:06:42,100 they're fine, the pensions still whole, 109 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:43,940 it's just being paid for by somebody else. 110 00:06:44,380 --> 00:06:45,780 That's like political magic. 111 00:06:46,820 --> 00:06:48,580 So the next time the chips are down, 112 00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:49,600 why wouldn't they do it again? 113 00:06:49,740 --> 00:06:52,660 I don't love to say it that way, but yeah. 114 00:06:52,660 --> 00:06:57,660 So I think that's a it's an it's an alarming trend if they were cutting a service 115 00:06:57,660 --> 00:07:02,740 We'd have the firefighters with us or the libraries with us or the health departments with us in this case 116 00:07:02,740 --> 00:07:08,440 It's just paper shuffling between their budget and yours and I regret you're losing that fight 117 00:07:09,860 --> 00:07:11,940 Don't love how that played out, but 118 00:07:11,940 --> 00:07:17,300 What what the state wanted to do was put themselves in an okay situation for two years 119 00:07:17,300 --> 00:07:27,720 So make the 26 budget that we're in now work out and then also the forecast for FY 27 looked good enough for them to get out of town thinking we're probably fine. 120 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:36,460 Unless the federal budget reconciliation that happened earlier this summer, unless that went way sideways and they threw states overboard with Medicaid and programs like that. 121 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:42,160 If that was a new billion dollar hole in the state budget right away, that could have been a fall special session. 122 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:45,280 Come back to town and do some more things to fill that gap. 123 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:50,400 It wasn't that immediate in that abrupt. It's going to have some state effects, but it's not a billion today 124 00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:58,180 So I think the reasonable forecast is the 26th session where they do the 27 budget 125 00:07:59,060 --> 00:08:00,100 relatively calm 126 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:05,500 probably not a big crisis what they do have coming for them though is 127 00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:14,320 The education trust fund set up set up with casino money and some other revenues dedicated for education purposes 128 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:17,040 the casino money was by constitutional amendment, 129 00:08:17,580 --> 00:08:18,840 fenced off, can't be used, 130 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:21,120 even for current education programs 131 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:23,260 asked me for new and like new improvements 132 00:08:23,260 --> 00:08:24,240 in education stuff. 133 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:26,620 It means it built up a multi-year balance 134 00:08:26,620 --> 00:08:28,820 before the blueprint even started. 135 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:31,460 So the status had the luxury of taking money 136 00:08:31,460 --> 00:08:33,560 out of a piggy bank to pay for their share 137 00:08:33,560 --> 00:08:36,200 of the blueprint for years one, two, three and four. 138 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:37,880 And they got enough balance there 139 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:38,800 they could pay for year five. 140 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:40,600 Next year's budget they don't really need 141 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:47,680 general fund money for the blueprint in 27. So next year can be relatively calm. It's in 28, 142 00:08:47,980 --> 00:08:53,820 fiscal 28, that'll be the 27 legislative session, where the balance in the funds no longer going 143 00:08:53,820 --> 00:08:57,440 to carry it, they're going to need cash, and suddenly they're going to need more than a billion, 144 00:08:57,580 --> 00:09:02,800 probably more like two to three billion dollars. They'll be back in the hole for the FY28 145 00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:07,760 budget. So the story from last year is going to repeat itself, but with a year off, 146 00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:12,700 like something skip a generation, it's like we're gonna skip a year. 25 was 147 00:09:12,700 --> 00:09:18,920 lousy, 26 can be okay, 27 can be lousy again. It'll set up timing for a debate 148 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:23,520 about education by the way, built into the 10-year plan that created the 149 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:27,320 whole thing was supposed to be, they're calling it an audit, I don't think 150 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:30,740 it's truly an audit, but an evaluation on what are we getting for our 151 00:09:30,740 --> 00:09:34,440 investments in education, what are we seeing with student performance, what 152 00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:36,900 what we're seeing with services to children in need 153 00:09:36,900 --> 00:09:39,440 and the areas of high concentration of poverty 154 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:41,360 and our English language learners and so forth. 155 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:43,800 Not all the results will be in, 156 00:09:43,900 --> 00:09:45,480 but we would hope to have seen the needle move 157 00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:46,340 on some of those things. 158 00:09:46,560 --> 00:09:49,320 So we'll have that analysis in hand 159 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:51,220 by the end of next calendar year. 160 00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:53,980 So again, pointing toward the 27th session 161 00:09:53,980 --> 00:09:55,960 for the time for some reckoning 162 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:57,580 on both fiscal and the policy side 163 00:09:57,580 --> 00:09:58,800 of the education blueprint. 164 00:09:59,200 --> 00:09:59,900 I'm sorry I interrupted. 165 00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:02,460 So just help me out real quick. 166 00:10:02,460 --> 00:10:09,420 So the education part that we have money's tucked away here. That's not they can't be used for pensions. I 167 00:10:09,420 --> 00:10:15,440 Think it probably could have been used to pay for those pension costs the state elected not to do so 168 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:19,480 The wording in the constitutional amendment was 169 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:27,240 Was vague enough to allow almost anything under the education universe? I see someone has been used just curious 170 00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:31,220 just curious yeah it's a good question they probably could have covered these 171 00:10:31,220 --> 00:10:36,360 costs at least temporarily with that okay it was a legislative idea rather than a 172 00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:42,520 governor's idea I got some of this stuff okay okay just curious so so that's kind 173 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:47,000 of where we are on big picture budget and fiscal stuff education has been 174 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:50,040 coming up as we've been meeting with your counterparts from other county 175 00:10:50,040 --> 00:10:55,940 jurisdictions every county is either in the mix or a year or two away from 176 00:10:55,940 --> 00:11:01,420 seeing a year where the increase in in school spending required under the 177 00:11:01,420 --> 00:11:05,440 blueprint requires all the money or even more money than your county's likely 178 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:10,100 to gain in revenue for that year and so that's it's an obvious squeeze at the 179 00:11:10,100 --> 00:11:15,060 local level it's also a squeeze at the operational level school systems are 180 00:11:15,060 --> 00:11:19,680 finding even if they get the supposed full funding from the state through the 181 00:11:19,680 --> 00:11:22,700 formula and all the funding all the money that's required to come from 182 00:11:22,700 --> 00:11:24,640 in the county, we're seeing school systems say, 183 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:27,480 but we can't afford band, we can't afford sports, 184 00:11:27,740 --> 00:11:29,560 we can't afford teacher mentoring programs 185 00:11:29,560 --> 00:11:31,660 or a variety of other things that are not 186 00:11:31,660 --> 00:11:33,640 really elements of the blueprint, 187 00:11:34,120 --> 00:11:36,000 but they've been successful and effective 188 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:37,340 and you'd wanna maintain them, 189 00:11:37,680 --> 00:11:39,640 it just becomes, we come hand in hand to the county 190 00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:41,580 and say, well, for us to have band, 191 00:11:41,780 --> 00:11:42,720 we need a million too. 192 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:46,020 That debate is happening in the county governing bodies 193 00:11:46,020 --> 00:11:47,280 in your budgeting cycle. 194 00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:51,300 So, the program has its weaknesses 195 00:11:51,300 --> 00:11:53,620 is implemented at each level. 196 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:55,900 So we can talk about that more as you like. 197 00:11:56,240 --> 00:11:56,480 I can. 198 00:11:57,540 --> 00:12:00,300 Let me mention quickly a couple other areas 199 00:12:00,300 --> 00:12:01,840 that I think remain relevant. 200 00:12:02,740 --> 00:12:05,020 Last couple of years, we've seen multiple bills 201 00:12:05,020 --> 00:12:07,260 about affordable housing in one form or another. 202 00:12:07,940 --> 00:12:09,460 Depending on who's doing the counting, 203 00:12:09,780 --> 00:12:14,880 we are 70,000 or 90,000 or 140,000 units short 204 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:17,720 of residential housing units where we ought to be 205 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:19,080 at the statewide level. 206 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:26,340 In all candor, most of this debate is really being driven by the desire to find more downtown 207 00:12:26,340 --> 00:12:29,960 density and built-up areas already, mostly in the center part of the state. 208 00:12:30,340 --> 00:12:35,240 This conversation is mostly not about Talbot, it's not even about Easton, it's mostly 209 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:36,260 about Silver Spring. 210 00:12:36,900 --> 00:12:44,420 However, General Assembly frequently sees these avenues as an opportunity to talk about 211 00:12:44,420 --> 00:12:45,520 one-size-fits-all. 212 00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:52,160 We saw bills introduced last year to change local zoning approval process, 213 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:57,140 timetables and take you to court if you haven't decided things in the right way 214 00:12:57,140 --> 00:12:59,540 or at the right schedule and other things along those lines. 215 00:13:00,220 --> 00:13:04,960 The original bill was just on several counties calculated to have a housing shortage. 216 00:13:05,420 --> 00:13:08,260 The later part of the session the bill turned into all 24 jurisdictions. 217 00:13:08,900 --> 00:13:10,420 It ultimately just failed, period. 218 00:13:11,300 --> 00:13:16,140 that's been laying at the foot of Mako and County Objections, 219 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:19,440 at least partially fairly, maybe partially unfairly, 220 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:21,480 but that debate is going to continue. 221 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:25,480 The smart money is that a bill will pass this session, 222 00:13:26,020 --> 00:13:29,240 even if only because it's an election year, 223 00:13:29,560 --> 00:13:31,240 and that's what legislators do. 224 00:13:31,340 --> 00:13:31,920 They pass bills. 225 00:13:32,060 --> 00:13:33,880 There's a lot of components to the housing crisis 226 00:13:34,220 --> 00:13:38,240 that are not really connected to state policy 227 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:40,440 or local zoning and so forth. 228 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:43,140 There's interest rate concerns and there's consolidation 229 00:13:43,140 --> 00:13:44,760 in the marketplace of builders 230 00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:48,440 and there's all sorts of external private equity players 231 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:50,280 and meddling with our housing markets 232 00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:53,280 to build for Airbnb and other things like that. 233 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:54,520 A lot of stuff like that is going on, 234 00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:56,980 but set it all aside, I think a bill's gonna pass. 235 00:13:57,400 --> 00:13:58,240 We should be in the middle 236 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:00,380 trying to make sure it doesn't overwhelm 237 00:14:00,380 --> 00:14:02,220 our local capacities and processes 238 00:14:02,220 --> 00:14:04,100 for local and community input. 239 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:06,040 So I anticipate that being a big fight. 240 00:14:06,660 --> 00:14:10,720 whether it's a big fight in the more rural jurisdictions is yet to be seen. 241 00:14:10,980 --> 00:14:15,160 One smart way to go would be to again focus on the big places that have a 242 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:20,000 calculated shortage and try and deal with it that way. We'll see. And then I'll 243 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:24,720 mention energy just because it's it's going to be on everybody's mind. 244 00:14:24,860 --> 00:14:29,040 Everything you read in the newspaper about energy bills rates are going up. 245 00:14:29,420 --> 00:14:33,320 The last capacity auction in our multi-state region there was sort of a 246 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:38,420 cabal among the regulators to say well let's put a cap on how how much our rate 247 00:14:38,420 --> 00:14:42,480 increase can be at this meeting at 28 percent which is a staggeringly high 248 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:47,120 number and they sat down and the first bids from the suppliers started at 28 249 00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:52,680 percent they've just immediately started at their ceiling it looks as though 250 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:57,560 there's just too much going on in the energy universe we haven't been the 251 00:14:57,560 --> 00:14:58,940 United States, not we, Maryland. 252 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:01,780 But the United States has not been building very much 253 00:15:01,780 --> 00:15:05,620 generation capacity in the 80s, 90s, and into the 2000s. 254 00:15:05,660 --> 00:15:06,720 So we've got a bunch of old stock 255 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:08,360 that probably should be mothballed, 256 00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:11,800 like the Anorundal coal burning plant on Brandon Shores 257 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:13,460 probably should be mothballed now. 258 00:15:13,820 --> 00:15:15,660 We can't afford to mothball a plant right now 259 00:15:15,660 --> 00:15:19,420 because we can't generate enough for all of our demand, 260 00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:21,500 which is spiking like mad, 261 00:15:21,860 --> 00:15:23,160 because everybody loves the AI 262 00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:25,160 and we need huge data centers 263 00:15:25,160 --> 00:15:27,120 that are monstrous energy users 264 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:29,760 to maintain these fantastic little tools. 265 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:35,100 So, we haven't seen a spike in electric demand. 266 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:37,120 There's only one in American history 267 00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:38,500 and it was with the advent of 268 00:15:38,500 --> 00:15:40,620 window unit air conditioning, I'm told. 269 00:15:40,900 --> 00:15:42,640 It's the only other time anything like this, but boom. 270 00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:44,400 So, everybody wants electricity 271 00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:47,340 and we don't have an infrastructure to generate it. 272 00:15:47,380 --> 00:15:48,940 We also don't have a very good grid 273 00:15:48,940 --> 00:15:50,560 to distribute what we need. 274 00:15:51,100 --> 00:15:54,860 And it's gonna be upward pressure on rates. 275 00:15:54,860 --> 00:15:58,220 And so legislators had an event yesterday 276 00:15:58,220 --> 00:16:00,180 where they were trumpeting a bill they passed 277 00:16:00,180 --> 00:16:02,460 to give people like a couple of rebates. 278 00:16:02,900 --> 00:16:05,340 Folks will see a $40 rebate a couple of times. 279 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:09,400 I guess you make, they liquidated a state fund 280 00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:11,560 to send those one-time rebates out. 281 00:16:11,700 --> 00:16:13,420 But what do you do about a long-term 282 00:16:13,420 --> 00:16:16,500 40, 50, 60% increase in electric rates? 283 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:18,400 Folks on fixed income don't have any way 284 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:19,840 to find that money. 285 00:16:20,500 --> 00:16:23,180 So that's a political issue of its own. 286 00:16:23,180 --> 00:16:26,880 adjacent to it is the siting of clean energy facilities. 287 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:29,960 Marilyn has said we want to have portfolio of electric 288 00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:34,900 suppliers in our state driven largely through growth 289 00:16:34,900 --> 00:16:36,840 in clean specifically solar. 290 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:38,620 So we're seeing land use pressures. 291 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:39,980 I'm sure you're in the middle of that too. 292 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:43,040 The whole eastern shores in it, just about every state. 293 00:16:43,300 --> 00:16:46,660 It's just as each click as the standard for solar 294 00:16:46,660 --> 00:16:49,320 goes up, there's more and more projects that go 295 00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:51,020 from being this doesn't make sense to, well, 296 00:16:51,020 --> 00:16:56,280 Well, maybe it'll pen slot now because BGE is desperately looking for suppliers of clean 297 00:16:56,280 --> 00:16:56,620 energy. 298 00:16:57,440 --> 00:17:00,160 So put all that together, energy stuff is going to be tricky. 299 00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:05,980 I don't think it's likely that we have a full top to bottom like re-litigate last year's 300 00:17:05,980 --> 00:17:07,880 fight over siding the facilities. 301 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:15,560 We got a tiny tool on that front for the counties who have a priority preservation area as 302 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:16,700 defined as rural. 303 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:20,340 There's a cap on how much of that can go solar and then you can start to say 304 00:17:20,340 --> 00:17:24,260 know up until now the courts have said you have no ability to say no so that's 305 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:29,220 potentially an arrow in our quiver but it doesn't feel like much and you do the 306 00:17:29,220 --> 00:17:33,100 math on five percent of all that area in a typical rural county and it's a 307 00:17:33,100 --> 00:17:41,410 breathtaking number so that will probably see well definitely see something on 308 00:17:41,410 --> 00:17:45,410 energy whether it's something material on solar and sighting I really don't 309 00:17:45,410 --> 00:17:50,050 know it's possible this is the year off on that front and I'll close with for 310 00:17:50,050 --> 00:17:55,390 For years we've been fighting on highway user revenues, the share of like gas taxes and so forth to come back to locals. 311 00:17:56,930 --> 00:18:03,510 We got decimated back in 2009 and this has been a crawl to try and get the counties back toward full funding. 312 00:18:03,910 --> 00:18:10,930 We're not even particularly close, but a few years ago, they passed a bill to give us a multi-year bump up and then sort of three good years. 313 00:18:11,550 --> 00:18:14,730 This coming year is the last of the three good years, then we fall off a cliff. 314 00:18:14,730 --> 00:18:20,050 So without a bill passing this year to it the very least extend the plateau. We're on 315 00:18:20,050 --> 00:18:22,690 We'll actually see we'll lose 316 00:18:22,690 --> 00:18:26,650 20 to 30 percent of our level of highway user revenues 317 00:18:27,630 --> 00:18:29,670 That the governor would be mandated to put it 318 00:18:29,670 --> 00:18:32,550 We'd have to go hat in the hand and beg the governor to keep funding inside 319 00:18:32,550 --> 00:18:35,770 We don't want to be in that situation. This is the year to get something done 320 00:18:35,770 --> 00:18:37,630 We'll be pushing on that as well 321 00:18:37,630 --> 00:18:43,570 We'll have allies with municipal government and Baltimore City who has a bigger stake in this than anybody else 322 00:18:43,570 --> 00:18:50,270 and right now some political sensitivities in Baltimore will work in our favor. We don't want to leave Baltimore City holding the $70 million bag. 323 00:18:50,850 --> 00:19:01,610 So that's a quick, hopefully, run-through of a handful of issues. I can't get into everything, but I'd be happy to hear from you if there's something I missed or something we want to get further into. 324 00:19:02,770 --> 00:19:06,570 Okay. Good. Good job. Good job. So council. 325 00:19:08,850 --> 00:19:11,650 No, I think I think he covered everything. 326 00:19:11,850 --> 00:19:16,710 I think the main concern would be, as he mentioned, is the highway user revenues. And as you 327 00:19:16,710 --> 00:19:23,350 stated, I mean, this has been an ongoing issue ever since 2009. So do you anticipate 328 00:19:23,350 --> 00:19:30,770 a bill being put forward to continue that percentage back to the counties. 329 00:19:32,110 --> 00:19:38,890 The last time we got something done here, the tactic we used was put in a 330 00:19:38,890 --> 00:19:45,050 bill to fully restore the entire amount. Fully restore Baltimore City's share, 331 00:19:45,450 --> 00:19:48,250 all the municipalities share, and all the counties share. And it has an 332 00:19:48,250 --> 00:19:52,530 overwhelming fiscal note, but and there was almost no chance that the 333 00:19:52,530 --> 00:19:54,610 the legislature could really pass all of it. 334 00:19:55,230 --> 00:19:58,070 But the value of putting in a full restoration 335 00:19:58,070 --> 00:20:00,610 rather than a gradual or let's get halfway back 336 00:20:00,610 --> 00:20:01,790 or something like that is, 337 00:20:02,310 --> 00:20:05,670 it illustrates how far behind we've been left. 338 00:20:06,430 --> 00:20:09,170 So my first instinct is we put in a bill 339 00:20:09,170 --> 00:20:11,650 to just say, let's fully restore the money, 340 00:20:12,290 --> 00:20:13,810 maybe not for next year's budget, 341 00:20:13,890 --> 00:20:15,210 but for the following or something like that, 342 00:20:15,250 --> 00:20:17,590 but like a full restoration, here's what it looks like. 343 00:20:18,050 --> 00:20:18,570 And then. 344 00:20:19,170 --> 00:20:19,650 Negotiate. 345 00:20:19,750 --> 00:20:21,290 Yeah, and then you negotiate from there. 346 00:20:21,290 --> 00:20:23,990 And we got an OK deal last time. 347 00:20:24,150 --> 00:20:25,990 We got 20% or 30% bump in funding. 348 00:20:26,170 --> 00:20:28,730 It's not everything, but it's moving in the right direction. 349 00:20:29,250 --> 00:20:30,470 But Annapolis does like this. 350 00:20:30,510 --> 00:20:31,990 Every four years, in some sense, it 351 00:20:31,990 --> 00:20:35,390 kind of come back and gravel and cut a new deal, which 352 00:20:35,390 --> 00:20:36,710 sadly, we're at that point. 353 00:20:37,130 --> 00:20:37,230 Yeah. 354 00:20:37,430 --> 00:20:37,650 OK. 355 00:20:37,790 --> 00:20:38,210 Thank you. 356 00:20:39,330 --> 00:20:43,130 Yes, I smile when you were talking about the energy 357 00:20:43,130 --> 00:20:47,590 issue, because President Trump told the UN today 358 00:20:47,590 --> 00:20:48,950 that we're bringing back coal. 359 00:20:48,950 --> 00:20:51,330 So maybe they need to keep that plan. 360 00:20:51,610 --> 00:20:52,030 Just kidding. 361 00:20:53,330 --> 00:20:57,550 The second thing is on the affordable housing, 362 00:20:58,210 --> 00:21:02,770 I'm on the attainable housing task force through the town, 363 00:21:02,970 --> 00:21:05,850 and we are working on legislation for the town. 364 00:21:06,590 --> 00:21:09,630 Are we ahead on our skis on this one, 365 00:21:11,070 --> 00:21:14,770 or do they have to be met together? 366 00:21:14,770 --> 00:21:21,790 I think I think there's absolutely a window for if there are if there are 367 00:21:21,790 --> 00:21:26,170 things that our counties or our towns are lacking an authority to be able to do 368 00:21:26,170 --> 00:21:31,370 that could help promote housing I think we got a very ripe opportunity so that 369 00:21:31,370 --> 00:21:38,950 something Mako has been working on is at the same time we we generally want to 370 00:21:38,950 --> 00:21:42,990 keep land use decisions local and based in the community and that's a 371 00:21:42,990 --> 00:21:48,150 point of general wide agreement among the even people who are pro-housing 372 00:21:48,150 --> 00:21:52,910 mostly will default to but each community knows best how to how to guide 373 00:21:52,910 --> 00:21:57,430 things locally so that's our first instinct but that sounds like a heck 374 00:21:57,430 --> 00:22:01,150 no in Annapolis you come to the bill hearing and you either oppose the bill 375 00:22:01,150 --> 00:22:04,330 or you ask for 17 different amendments and it sounds like you're doing 376 00:22:04,330 --> 00:22:10,050 violence to the supporting housing so tactically we've been working with 377 00:22:10,050 --> 00:22:13,430 professional planners and a number of other stakeholders to say hey there's some things 378 00:22:13,430 --> 00:22:19,610 that are not really about local permit approvals or zoning processes but actually maybe our impact 379 00:22:19,610 --> 00:22:26,530 fees a one impact fee per house might be unfair it's a bigger share of a lower cost home maybe 380 00:22:26,530 --> 00:22:30,710 we should do impact fees in two tiers we can't do that right now under the state on the state 381 00:22:30,710 --> 00:22:35,890 authority think of that and 12 more things like that load them into a bill to say here's some 382 00:22:35,890 --> 00:22:40,370 local option tools for jurisdictions that are trying to promote housing in parts 383 00:22:40,370 --> 00:22:44,490 of the town or parts of the county or wherever we can and get some more stuff 384 00:22:44,490 --> 00:22:50,070 on the table. First of all, I like it if it'll help us get tools that'll work but 385 00:22:50,070 --> 00:22:54,950 I also like it that it brings us to the table with some solutions of our own to 386 00:22:54,950 --> 00:22:58,090 get into the mix so you know we can all be cutting ribbons at the end of 387 00:22:58,090 --> 00:23:01,650 session together. Can I circle back on one more question that you had with 388 00:23:01,650 --> 00:23:05,130 that regarding the housing, weren't the bills mostly 389 00:23:05,130 --> 00:23:08,490 geared towards counties that had TOD projects? 390 00:23:09,170 --> 00:23:11,330 So there was a standalone bill 391 00:23:11,330 --> 00:23:13,330 around transit-oriented development, 392 00:23:13,750 --> 00:23:17,270 but there are multiple bills in on housing sort of stuff. 393 00:23:17,410 --> 00:23:20,050 So one bill was exclusively about TODs. 394 00:23:20,470 --> 00:23:22,870 There was another bill that was a much broader 395 00:23:22,870 --> 00:23:25,970 and wider process bill that mostly said, 396 00:23:26,310 --> 00:23:29,310 the initial bill, I'm probably not doing it full justice 397 00:23:29,310 --> 00:23:31,070 here, but the initial bill more or less said, 398 00:23:31,070 --> 00:23:37,510 If you're in a county with a housing shortage, calculated so and so, you'd better have all 399 00:23:37,510 --> 00:23:41,590 your receipts if you're going to say no to a proposed housing project because you can 400 00:23:41,590 --> 00:23:46,850 be taken to court on a long series of grounds that would not have been the case prior to 401 00:23:46,850 --> 00:23:47,670 passing this bill. 402 00:23:48,050 --> 00:23:51,750 So you'd better have dotted all the I's and crossed all the T's and make sure you're 403 00:23:51,750 --> 00:23:55,830 not, you know, you're applying the laws correctly and wisely and so forth, none 404 00:23:55,830 --> 00:23:57,810 of these like thumb on the scale kind of things. 405 00:23:58,090 --> 00:23:59,990 But wasn't that geared towards APFOs? 406 00:23:59,990 --> 00:24:02,710 part of that bill was about APFOs. 407 00:24:02,950 --> 00:24:05,210 So it's jurisdictions who have limits on 408 00:24:05,210 --> 00:24:06,930 we can't build until you have the infrastructure. 409 00:24:07,290 --> 00:24:09,990 By the way, that's been a central tenet, forgive me, 410 00:24:10,070 --> 00:24:13,050 but that's been a central tenet of smart growth policy 411 00:24:13,050 --> 00:24:15,070 in this state for as long as I've been at Mako, 412 00:24:15,250 --> 00:24:17,750 which is, since the dinosaurs basically. 413 00:24:18,990 --> 00:24:22,610 And in all candor, we resisted some of those things 414 00:24:22,610 --> 00:24:24,890 saying that's the state being awfully heavy-handed 415 00:24:24,890 --> 00:24:26,570 and telling us how to make growth policy. 416 00:24:26,970 --> 00:24:28,530 And ultimately we came up with, 417 00:24:28,530 --> 00:24:34,570 Okay, these are going to be the the priority funding areas that will designate the growth areas and we have the tier maps for 418 00:24:34,570 --> 00:24:40,170 Development on septic and so forth. All those were done sort of at the bay net from the state and now we're being told 419 00:24:40,170 --> 00:24:41,410 You're not allowing enough growth 420 00:24:42,550 --> 00:24:47,930 Interesting a whole report from the housing department saying that there's not enough as a high-density 421 00:24:48,590 --> 00:24:54,090 Rural development. Yeah, we're not not enough huge apartment buildings out there in the cornfields. What's going on with you guys? 422 00:24:54,090 --> 00:24:57,710 Well, I think Easton has plenty now in the cornfields. 423 00:24:58,950 --> 00:24:59,550 Anyhow. 424 00:25:00,410 --> 00:25:01,290 I had a third question. 425 00:25:02,090 --> 00:25:03,450 And this may be on the scope. 426 00:25:03,670 --> 00:25:05,810 I didn't know whether MAKA would play 427 00:25:05,810 --> 00:25:09,070 any role in the discussions about redistricting 428 00:25:09,070 --> 00:25:10,730 the congressional districts. 429 00:25:11,030 --> 00:25:11,110 Do you? 430 00:25:11,730 --> 00:25:12,750 Probably not. 431 00:25:13,050 --> 00:25:15,350 We have a historic that got involved at that level. 432 00:25:16,770 --> 00:25:18,910 In the event that the conversation might 433 00:25:18,910 --> 00:25:22,250 go as far down as the processes that the counties use 434 00:25:22,250 --> 00:25:25,050 to either draw and develop districts 435 00:25:25,510 --> 00:25:29,410 or potentially into the process for how do you vote, 436 00:25:30,610 --> 00:25:33,550 which has been, Annapolis has nibbled around that issue. 437 00:25:33,930 --> 00:25:36,810 Some counties, there's at-large voting 438 00:25:36,810 --> 00:25:41,230 for district-only representation in some counties. 439 00:25:42,010 --> 00:25:45,430 And that's turned into an issue in Annapolis for me. 440 00:25:45,570 --> 00:25:48,050 Those are the sort of things that feel like our lane, 441 00:25:48,570 --> 00:25:50,550 but the drawing of congressional districts, 442 00:25:50,550 --> 00:25:52,990 which is the cause of the moment, probably not a question. 443 00:25:54,410 --> 00:25:55,610 Interesting spectating, though. 444 00:25:57,590 --> 00:25:58,210 Yep, I'm good. 445 00:25:59,650 --> 00:26:00,950 Mr. Steph, are you good? 446 00:26:02,470 --> 00:26:05,310 Hey, Pete, do you have a few questions or anything? 447 00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:12,040 Okay, okay. 448 00:26:13,580 --> 00:26:16,080 I would like to mention, under the year, you're an 449 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,980 invoicing topic. Maybe you could take a moment to talk about this 450 00:26:19,980 --> 00:26:23,960 core funding that we're hearing in specific 451 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:28,000 public health at their growing issue, and what your view 452 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:31,640 is on that, and what authorities do they have, and do you see it hardening? 453 00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:40,080 We're putting a lot of time into this right now, in hopes of 454 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:41,520 that landing in a decent place. 455 00:26:42,740 --> 00:26:44,760 I'll try and abbreviate what could be a long 456 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:47,120 and technical conversation into a manageable 457 00:26:47,120 --> 00:26:48,860 and hopefully understandable one, 458 00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,960 but like the 60 second version on this is, 459 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:55,820 for decades the state has been providing some money 460 00:26:55,820 --> 00:26:57,900 for your local health department through a formula 461 00:26:58,540 --> 00:27:00,820 and then expecting the locals to match that 462 00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:02,380 through a match. 463 00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:05,020 What's your match, 50-50? 464 00:27:05,300 --> 00:27:06,380 One to one, two to one? 465 00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:08,760 We're not sure because it was never actually 466 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:11,400 are written down either in law or in regulation. 467 00:27:12,100 --> 00:27:14,820 So it's probably in a manila folder some place 468 00:27:14,820 --> 00:27:17,780 in an office of a person who retired in the 90s. 469 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:21,160 So we now are in a weird mess where 470 00:27:21,620 --> 00:27:24,100 we've had staff turnover at the Department of Health, 471 00:27:24,380 --> 00:27:27,640 and I think probably without any malice, 472 00:27:28,020 --> 00:27:30,020 this has gotten complicated in multiple ways. 473 00:27:30,220 --> 00:27:32,440 The states put more money on top of their own formula. 474 00:27:32,780 --> 00:27:33,940 Does the match apply to that, 475 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:35,640 even though it's not really formula money? 476 00:27:35,940 --> 00:27:37,600 What happened to the money from that one year? 477 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:41,700 We're not sure it's gotten complicated and in the recent years 478 00:27:41,700 --> 00:27:48,720 We've had a couple counties suddenly out of the blue after giving well over their required match for years and years suddenly be told 479 00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:51,920 Oh, you missed your match when you passed your budget two months ago 480 00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:57,240 It's August 10th now, but I'm letting you know you missed your mansion and your health officers coming to you with a letter saying 481 00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:02,300 We need another seven hundred thousand dollars or in one county's case another four and a half million dollars 482 00:28:03,900 --> 00:28:08,240 It's an awkward circumstance which I think is not helped by there being 483 00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:13,320 opacity in the law and in the regulations and so forth. So there's no 484 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:16,660 place you can go back to and say this is definitely what it was supposed to be 485 00:28:16,660 --> 00:28:21,640 it always was because it was just kind of probably in a Lotus 123 file or 486 00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:26,160 something like that. Anyhow, that's where we're stuck. I think there's a 487 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:30,880 good opportunity for some new leadership in the Maryland Department of 488 00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:35,880 health and our health officers and our counties to kind of work out an MOU and 489 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:39,860 how this ought to work and sort of document a reasonable path forward that 490 00:28:39,860 --> 00:28:44,940 keeps us out of this weird oddity of wait invited our match go up you know more 491 00:28:44,940 --> 00:28:49,300 than double in one year that should never happen hopefully we'll have that 492 00:28:49,300 --> 00:28:57,080 figure out okay Michael and Jack I really appreciate your time and yeah 493 00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:02,760 anything that we can do to help you guys with we're here for you too yeah we do 494 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:09,220 yeah yeah exactly okay guys okay thank you we'll work closely with like too 495 00:29:09,220 --> 00:29:10,320 So I appreciate you talking. 496 00:29:10,660 --> 00:29:12,160 Can you have a new friend who had a shot? 497 00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:12,560 Martha. 498 00:29:12,860 --> 00:29:13,580 He did answer. 499 00:29:13,780 --> 00:29:13,880 Oh. 500 00:29:14,620 --> 00:29:15,420 Martha, do you have? 501 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:16,140 I'm sorry. 502 00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:16,820 I'm sorry. 503 00:29:16,940 --> 00:29:18,660 I was trying to do a clarion. 504 00:29:19,220 --> 00:29:20,760 Check your phone. 505 00:29:21,100 --> 00:29:21,320 Yeah. 506 00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:21,640 Yeah. 507 00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:22,580 So great. 508 00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:23,700 I did. 509 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:24,640 I was curious. 510 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,120 Martha, could you come up here so people could hear please? 511 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,160 If you just turn one of your mics around please. 512 00:29:30,940 --> 00:29:31,320 Sure. 513 00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:34,280 Well, I am Martha Sparks, finance director for Tolga 514 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:43,880 County. So I'm curious about what MAKO sees as the next steps for tweaks to the bill that 515 00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:47,820 will allow the Comptroller to collect the automations tax because I guess we've got 516 00:29:47,820 --> 00:29:53,240 two more legislative sessions to iron those things out before that bill comes effective 517 00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:53,680 in June. 518 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,260 I think for all intents and purposes we've got one legislative session to get this 519 00:29:57,260 --> 00:29:57,460 fixed. 520 00:29:57,620 --> 00:29:58,360 One? Okay. 521 00:29:58,360 --> 00:29:59,320 I 522 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:05,280 I haven't heard about what the nuts and bolts may be, but I remain optimistic that we'll get there. 523 00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:13,420 So if you've got specific concerns, I know both my colleague Kevin Kamali, he's been really close, working very closely on this. 524 00:30:13,820 --> 00:30:19,040 My sense is the comptroller's office has been as well, but I'm not at the level of chapter and verse right now. 525 00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:21,200 Whatever you need, we're on it. 526 00:30:21,300 --> 00:30:22,120 Okay, thank you. 527 00:30:25,580 --> 00:30:34,880 Okay, so anybody else? Okay, so I want to I want to introduce Michael, Mason, you 528 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:36,160 want to go ahead and introduce yourself? 529 00:30:38,860 --> 00:30:42,880 Thank you, Council Chair, and Mason, 530 00:30:43,140 --> 00:30:47,260 Providence Strategies, we were selected by the Council through the RFP process to be 531 00:30:47,260 --> 00:30:52,380 the Government Relations Committee for a team for Talbot County and look forward to working 532 00:30:52,380 --> 00:30:56,960 with Michael and leadership as well as Rameco to assist the county and keep 533 00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:00,040 everybody in the loop of the happenings in an ambulance. Well that's great and 534 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:04,660 we're happy to have you and a pleasure to have you so hopefully this will help 535 00:31:04,660 --> 00:31:10,160 get things moving a little bit faster and you know just just help be a voice 536 00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:13,980 for us for Talladee County and we really we really appreciate it that's 537 00:31:13,980 --> 00:31:17,700 for sure. We look forward to it as well. Thank you.