This weekend, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Mike Hillman, editor of the Emmitsburg News-Journal to talk about the issues that are important to people in northern Frederick County. With so much media coverage of the Eighth Congressional District race focused on Montgomery County, it’s easy for some people to forget that this district includes a large portion of Frederick and Carroll counties as well. We need a Congressman who represents the entire district. We have offices all over the district, including one in Walkersville.

I know traffic on I-270 is a major issue for many of you. It takes Mike an hour  to get from Frederick City to Gaithersburg at 10 AM! Residents have to leave their houses at 4 AM to commute to their jobs in the DC area.

Politicians have proposed a number of solutions, including widening lanes on I-270 and constructing rail from the DC area to Frederick City. There’s nothing wrong with any of these proposals, but they may never happen because of lack of funding. This is why we need to find a good way to fund infrastructure projects without waiting for Washington to get the job done. And there’s a very simple way to do this.

Congressman John Delaney, who represents the neighboring 6th District, has proposed a National Infrastructure Bank. The National Infrastructure Bank allows state, county, and local governments to borrow money at rock bottom rates to fund the projects that they need. If Frederick County residents want to expand the lanes on I-270 or create a light rail system to the DC metro area, the National Infrastructure Bank would allow them to secure funding without having to wait years for politicians to appropriate it.

Congressman Delaney has a great way to fund the infrastructure bank. He proposes offering corporations a one-time opportunity to bring their money held in offshore accounts back to the United States at a reduced tax rate. But people on the far left won’t support it because they insist corporations pay the full rate, and people on the far right won’t support it because they don’t want corporations to have to pay any taxes at all.

Rather than compromising and meeting somewhere in the middle, as Congressman Delaney proposes, they dig in their heels and keep arguing with each other. And people wonder why nothing ever gets done in Congress. As a Democrat, I’d certainly like to see corporations pay the full rate. But more importantly, I want Frederick County residents to have reasonable commute times. That’s the kind of thinking we need in Washington.

We need leaders who are less concerned about winning arguments and more concerned about addressing their constituents’ problems, like traffic on I-270. I don’t want constituents wasting time in traffic when they could be at home with their families. In Congress, I will work every day to bring people together to implement practical solutions like a National Infrastructure Bank to solve these problems. I hope to earn your vote on April 26, so we can end the gridlock in Washington and in your daily commute.

Read prior submission by David Trone

To learn more about David visit his campaign website at www.davidtrone.com