Coming up June 24th we have the primary election. This is a key election because during our four year term as Commissioners, four of us have held the line on spending and made great progress in reducing the size of government, here are some of the highlight items that we have completed and some reasoning as to why I think you should consider me for the elected Council in District 5.

We have been hit by many issues from the State during our short time in office. Things like reduced State Police presence in the County, which causes our Sheriff to add Deputies which the County now has to fund, fewer dollars back to us in the way of highway user revenues, the "rain tax", just to name a few. Our fiscally prudent ways have caught the eye of the bond rating companies in New York, when they upgraded our bond rating. This rating is important because if you can borrow funds at a lower interest rate, you can borrow more for schools, roads, and infrastructure while your debt ratio remains intact. We will do all of this while keeping the constant yield of $1.060 and increasing the overall budget by less than 0.5%.

As far as Schools, we have taken a lot of flak over school funding. The facts of the matter are this: we funded maintenance of effort at $231 Million, including teachers pensions of $8.44 million. We provided $11.3 Million of in-kind services as well. The FCTA can mis-state facts all they want. They can also act as though they have not received a pay increase in over five years, when the fact is; they received COLA's almost every year. We funded $250,000 to fully restore the $1 Million reduction in funding to the Frederick Community Collage cut by the prior administration.

We have increased the Senior tax credit, allocated funds for emergency shelters, instituted Housing Initiative Funds, funded MOU agreements with the Mental Health Association, and funded Thurmont’s Senior Center and the Forest Conservation Board. We have increased funding for Agricultural preservation by 42%, School construction funding by 2.5%, and Parks acquisition by 100%.

The water and sewer enterprise fund is up 13.8% due to increased rates. These rates were increased due to new mandates by the State for clean water discharge from sewage plants.

State mandates play a big part in whether or not your taxes are increased so this election is critical as well for who we put back in Annapolis to represent us. You need to determine whether you want State Delegates and Senators that favor a stable tax environment with responsible government, or State Delegates and Senators that place things like the bathroom bill as a priority, you know, whether or not men can enter women's restrooms and vice versa. What kind of government we get depends on who we send to represent us. Same goes for Frederick County.

I have fought hard to bring you responsible government at a respectable tax rate. I am not afraid to step on toes at the State level and let them know I will fight hard if I feel we are having burdensome taxes and regulation shoved onto our taxpayers.

Going forward you have to decide whether your quality of life here in Maryland will be maintained by electing responsible, fiscally sound people, or will be left to deteriorate by electing the go along to get along politicians that have the backbone of a wet noodle. It's your call, do your research and most importantly vote. A lot of people gave up their opportunity to vote when they died on various battlefields throughout history. Don't squander the opportunity that was given to you by their sacrifice.