Stop the Maryland Unsafe Driver

Posts Tagged ‘general assembly’

Late last night the Maryland General Assembly passed House Bill 363!

Thanks to you, Maryland made history in enacting the Manslaughter by Vehicle or Vessel – Criminal Negligence bill. The passage of HB 363, is a great victory in making Maryland’s roads safer and our system more equitable. Bike Maryland thanks the many organizations that supported this bill, as well as, the advocates and the families of victims that passionately promoted this critical legislation. We give deep thanks to Delegate Simmons, sponsor of the bill, and the many legislators that worked to pass the bill.

We support the Senate’s amendment to the bill that is based on the Model Penal Code, a suggested criminal code developed by the American Law Institute. Click here to view the amendment.

Many hundreds of you called and emailed your legislators asking them to support HB 363. We thank you for your meaningful outreach and ask that you again contact your legislators and thank them for their support. They will greatly appreciate hearing from you.

Early in May, we expect Governor O’Malley to sign the bill into law. The new law will become effective on October 1st!

A proposal before the General Assembly would increase taxes on alcohol by a dime a drink, thereby raising about $216 million in new revenue.

via A dime a drink would help solve Maryland’s budget woes.

(There is some seriously fallacious logic in this whole sin-tax approach. First, Maryland is in this pinch because Mr. O’Malley and his tax-and-spend Democrats wouldn’t tighten the purse strings. It wasn’t until recently you actually heard them wince a little. Predictably a progressive will then search for new ways to tax in order increase spending. When roads were a priority Maryland went from perfectly adequate schools to building palatial schools.  Maryland created a millionaire’s tax that fell flat because the millionaire’s left the state taking jobs with them.

A more inexpensive approach to traffic safety would be to encourage Marylanders, like the Delegate behind license tag 82C, to drive safely. Look up 82C on Zapatag.com. We would save far more cash every year because residents wouldn’t be crashing into one another.

Annapolis ought to be thinking about ways to stop increasing the financial burden on its residents and taxpayers rather than finding new ways to take our money.  I don’t care what the tax is on.

I say we keep the weasels out of our wallets and start FOCUSING on the primary causes of collisions in this state – people.

This liquor tax idea is as dumb as reducing the brightness of highway lighting. Make unsafe driving easier and less bumpy on repaired roads or make any kind of driving really unsafe on highways where the lights have been dimmed. Lawmakers are looking for a way to obfuscate and make less painful the obvious cuts that MUST occur now due to bad financial stewardship by those in power. Sin taxes stir up the masses and distract them from what is really going on in Annapolis.

Every Marylander has it in their own power to help reduce state spending on emergency services, and who knows what else just by driving safely. You stop and think what a contribution that would be to the bottom line.

Tax and spend or crash and spend. It could be your choice.)

Although the fight to expand the state s ignition interlock program for those convicted of drunk driving was for naught in the General Assembly the Motor Vehicle Administration continues to make its own tweaks to what they call a “relatively new” program.

via MVA wants tweaks to controversial drunk driving restriction.

Maryland drivers should head to a cell phone store or get those pesky headsets out of the box. The General Assembly has decided to ban hand-held phone use while driving starting this fall.

via Lawmakers decide: It’s shut up and drive (www.HometownGlenBurnie.com – The Maryland Gazette).