Progressive MD Launches Voter Contacts for Budget Committee Senators // Direct Mail Hits D32 Sen. Ed DeGrange & Others

UPDATE: On a related note, hundreds of AFSCME members are planning to rally in Annapolis tonight to urge legislators to pass measures to expand collective bargaining rights, protect important services and close tax loopholes for millionaires and corporations. The rally will be at Lawyers’ Mall in front of the State House tonight -- Monday, March 5, from 6:00pm – 7:00pm.

Liberal advocacy group Progressive Maryland is pushing Annapolis legislators to consider restoring Maryland's millionaires tax and close corporate tax loopholes --  before placing additional burdens on working families in the Free State. They are now targeting members of the Senate Budget & Tax Committee (aka B&T) with direct mail and constituent contacts in their home districts. See sample direct mail pieces in Senator Ed DeGrange's District 32 below. In an email message to Maryland Juice, Progressive Maryland also provided some background:

RUH ROH: Biggest Maryland Counties Launch Grassroots Effort to Fight Shift of Teacher Pension Costs from State to County

Maryland Juice woke up today to discover that many of the Free State's politically influential counties have banded together to fight a proposal to shift the cost of teachers' pensions from the State to Maryland's various counties. A new website and advocacy effort called "Stop the Shift" launched today:

Last month, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett called the proposal a "non-starter." But Capital News Service reported that the Senate President was putting his muscle behind the proposal:

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said Tuesday morning that he supports the shift, calling it “a fair and equitable way to assist the counties while balancing the budget.” 

Notably, the Hagerstown Herald-Mail indicates that Democratic Senate President Mike Miller borrowed the pension shift idea from Republican Senate leaders:

Two years ago, [6th Congressional District GOP candidate David Brinkley] and Sen.E.J. Pipkin, the current Senate minority leader, crafted an alternative plan to Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed budget. Elements of the alternative plan were adopted, Brinkley said.