Showing posts with label Anthony Brown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anthony Brown. Show all posts
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown Backs Marriage Equality
The Washington Blade has the story:
“I have always believed that all Marylanders should have an equality of rights and responsibilities and that includes marriage equality,” he said in an exclusive interview.
“So regardless of gender, we should be able to choose who it is that we are going to marry and hopefully spend the rest of our lives with. And so I’m supportive of that,” he said.
Brown said he has friends and acquaintances who are in same-sex relationships and he has seen first-hand how they are “successfully raising children,” a development that has helped shape his views on the marriage issue.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown on "Political Pulse" on Ch. 16 TV
MD Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown will be on "Political Pulse" on:
Fri, Oct. 15th-Sat, Oct. 17th, at 6 p.m.
Tues, Oct. 19th, at 9:30 p.m. and
Thurs, Oct. 21st, at 9:00 p.m.
Political Pulse is on Ch. 16 TV in Montgomery County.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Kane Pulls Out of Debate with Brown – in Her Own Community
GOP Lieutenant Governor nominee Mary Kane has ducked out of a debate with incumbent Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown – even though it was to be held in her own community of Potomac!
On Wednesday, Congregation Har Shalom of Potomac sent out this solicitation for a debate between Kane and Brown to be held this Sunday.
Kane had confirmed participation prior to this notice, but upon learning that Brown had also confirmed, Kane pulled out citing a “scheduling conflict” the day after the notice was sent. Kane lives 3.5 miles away from the synagogue.
Brown released this statement:Marylanders deserve an open and honest conversation between the candidates. I am prepared and excited to engage Mary Kane on the issues important to all Marylanders and was looking forward to sharing a stage with her on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, Mrs. Kane canceled her participation in a debate that is taking place just a few minutes from her home.
This is a true pity. Your author was considering attending this debate to hear Kane defend her running mate’s plan to pay for his sales tax cut by cutting funding specifically intended for Montgomery County Public Schools.
Marylanders are asking real questions about how Bob Ehrlich and Mary Kane will pay for the hundreds of millions of dollars of promises they’ve made. I had hoped Mary Kane would have been willing to join me to answer these questions and others. I’ll be prepared to join Mrs. Kane for a debate at her earliest convenience. In the meantime, I look forward to joining the congregants of Har Shalom on Sunday morning to talk about the important issues we face – including public education, transportation and biojobs – and the O’Malley-Brown commitment to move Maryland forward.
Perhaps Bob Ehrlich will consider elaborating on his reasoning for that position in his upcoming debate with Governor O’Malley – assuming he does not also pull out.
Monday, March 29, 2010
What’s Next? State Leadership Will Enhance National Health Reform
By Lieutenant Governor Anthony G. Brown.
Last week, President Obama signed The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, one of the most comprehensive and critical pieces of domestic health care legislation in over 40 years. While the challenges at the federal level to pass a bill and expand affordable access to care have been discussed in great detail, the challenges individual states will face over the next three years to implement reform have been underreported.
National health reform can only be as good as a state’s ability to implement it. With the right leadership on the state level, health reform can eclipse the original federal intent by greatly improving the quality of care for all patients and reduce health care costs.
While Republican leaders from some of our neighboring states have set a course to politicize the progress we made last week, Maryland views health reform as a tremendous opportunity to make us a stronger, healthier and more prosperous state. We’ve felt this way for some time and have taken measures on our own accord to jumpstart reform in Maryland.
During the special session Governor O’Malley called in 2007 to address the $1.7 billion structural deficit left for us by the previous administration, we passed the Working Families and Small Business Health Coverage Act. The Act created the Health Insurance Partnership, a tax credit to assist small businesses with the cost of employee’s health insurance and expanded Medicaid to 116% of the federal poverty level. Since enactment, the Act has helped 62,000 previously uninsured Marylanders obtain the coverage that they need and deserve. Last year, the state enacted first-in-the-nation legislation requiring state-regulated insurers to provide incentives for electronic health record adoption. Governor Martin O’Malley, with help from the Maryland General Assembly, is developing a statewide health information exchange – the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP) – to collect, consolidate, standardize and redistribute secure medical information. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded Maryland with a $9.3 million stimulus grant to help CRISP implement our exchange.
We began this year knowing that our State’s top priority was the economy, but that health reform was a necessary component to securing our economic future. Federal reform is estimated to save Maryland $1 billion over the next ten years. As the O’Malley-Brown Administration’s point person for health issues, I have spent the past six months meeting with health experts and touring our hospitals, clinics and private practices to ask doctors, nurses, patient-advocates and administrators what policies and programs would be needed for Maryland to implement health reform by 2014. During my discussions, health professionals statewide emphasized that reform must include the expansion of information technology and Maryland’s health care workforce.
States have an incentive to develop more comprehensive health IT systems and encourage electronic health record adoption. Americans deserve the highest quality of care. More reliable and secure electronic health records will provide doctors and nurses with patients’ complete medical histories and the ability to conduct more comprehensive and efficient analyses and diagnoses. Health IT also provides hospitals and physicians with more accurate billing practices, and reduces medical errors and duplicative procedures, the combination of which reduces cost and improves the quality of patients’ care.
One of the most fundamental obstacles in states’ implementations of health reform will be to put in place the necessary workforce to meet the additional health care needs of a larger community of insured patients. In Maryland alone, more than 400,000 uninsured citizens will receive coverage due to the federal legislation and the state will need to train and employ thousands of additional nurses and physicians to meet their needs. We are leaning on our network of community colleges and undergraduate and graduate institutions to train new workers to meet the medical, clerical and IT demands of the federal legislation. To encourage more physicians to pursue employment in primary care, the O’Malley-Brown Administration has introduced legislation to establish a Maryland Patient Centered Medical Home program that places a premium on spending time with patients, emphasizes wellness and prevention, and coordinates patient’s care. This patient-centered approach has shown great promise towards improving the quality of care, reducing health costs and changing how care is delivered.
Last week, Governor O’Malley signed an Executive Order establishing the Health Reform Coordinating Council that will be responsible for coordinating existing State programs and resources with the federal reform. He’s asked me to chair the council, alongside Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary John M. Colmers. Together, we’ll address the full range of challenges presented by health reform and develop a strategic plan for implementing reform in Maryland. We will interpret the federal mandate in order to prepare for the expansion of Medicaid, reform the individual and small group markets, expand innovative pilots, establish a statewide health insurance exchange and examine how to leverage our strengths and improve weaknesses. Most importantly, we will develop a model that makes reform a reality and improves the efficiency and quality with which we provide care and reduce costs for Maryland’s taxpayers.
Health reform is long past due and President Obama’s political courage to take on such a controversial and complex issue is laudable. Still, any national effort to make transformative change must be complemented at the state level and true reform will only be as good as a state’s ability to implement it.
Maryland, for one, embraces this historic opportunity.
Anthony G. Brown is Maryland’s Lt. Governor. His policy portfolio includes the O’Malley-Brown Administration’s efforts on health care, economic development, higher education and veterans affairs. He previously served as Majority Whip in the Maryland House of Delegates while representing Prince George’s County.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Anthony Brown at District 18 Breakfast Club
Susan Heltemes sent us the following notice.
Reminder:
The District 18 Breakfast Club will meet on Monday, March 22nd at the Silver Spring Tastee Diner - 8601 Cameron Street (across the street from a public parking garage.)
Our speaker will be Lt. Governor Anthony Brown. The Lt. Governor has to leave at 8:15 a.m. so we will start as soon as he arrives - before 7:30 a.m.
This should be a great gathering so do invite your family and friends and ask the questions that are on your mind as the session in Annapolis comes to an end and the 2010 campaign begins!
I hope to see you early on Monday!
Susan Heltemes
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Politics and Policy With Anthony Brown, Part Three
By Marc Korman.
After discussing a few policy issues with Lieutenant Governor Brown, we shifted to the political landscape.
Brown’s answer to my question of how often he came to Montgomery County, which gave O’Malley/Brown more votes than any other county in the state, was the nice and political “not enough.” He discussed the effort both he and the Governor make to get outside of Annapolis to see state programs, meet with business leaders, and engage with the community. The “Maryland Capital for a Day Program,” where O’Malley goes to different locations around the state with his cabinet to perform state business, demonstrates that effort. He also said Montgomery County would be a more frequent destination in the future, which is not a surprise given its importance in Maryland elections both for votes and fundraising.
Brown also compared his boss to the previous two governors, who he experienced as a member of the General Assembly. Not surprisingly, he had a lot of nice things to say about his boss’ policy aptitude and political sense, admitting he was learning a lot from working for him.
But I also asked about their specific interactions with the legislature. Governor Ehrlich was notorious for not engaging in the legislative process, though to be fair he was a Republican dealing with overwhelming Democratic majorities. But to paraphrase Brown, Ehrlich had no interest in governing at all and when he left there was no evidence of his presence in state government. Brown said that when he first came to the legislature in 1999, Governor Glendening was engaged with legislators and his policy people were always willing to help with bills. Brown has tried to emulate that approach. He also refuses to sit in his office and have legislators come to him, but likes to make the most of his legislative experience to engage directly with his former colleagues on whatever issue needs whipping.
At my request, we mostly skipped discussion of 2010 in favor of longer term politics. When I asked Brown about his future, he said his goal has always been to put his skills to the best use possible to serve others. When the O’Malley/Brown Administration comes to an end, that could mean running for governor in 2014, returning to his private legal practice, or taking advantage of other opportunities. But his focus was on his current job as Lieutenant Governor and reelection, though he did return to the thought of a gubernatorial run and signaled he was more likely than not to head in that direction.
After our meeting, Brown went to do a little politicking with the Montgomery County Young Democrats, where a large turnout welcomed the only statewide elected official to not claim some Montgomery County tie.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Politics and Policy With Anthony Brown, Part Two
By Marc Korman.
After discussing the budget and education, Lieutenant Governor Brown turned to the topic of transportation. Cavan Wilk from Greater Greater Washington took the lead in questioning Brown on the issues, since it is his area of expertise.
Cavan Wilk, Anthony Brown and Press Secretary Mike Raia.
As discussed last time, Brown has a few areas the Governor has given him the lead on. Outside of the BRAC Subcabinet, those issues are not really transportation related. But the Lieutenant Governor was previously a land use and zoning attorney and dove right into some difficult transportation questions.
Brown said a gas tax increase was off the table in 2010, with Marylanders already pinched by salary cuts, unemployment, and other effects of the recession. But Brown did discuss how existing transportation revenues could be used better, with a particular emphasis on mass transit. He acknowledged that finding the right mix of transit versus roads was difficult, and even within each area there were many questions: rail or bus; maintenance of old roads or bridges or construction of new ones; and so on. Brown identified three Administration priorities for transportation: The Purple Line, the Red Line, and the BRAC Intersection program. Every other project is about finishing, fixing, or maintaining, not starting anything new. Brown was not yet up to speed on proposals to expand 270 and/or construct the Corridor Cities Transitway.
Brown also highlighted the Administration’s MARC train plans. The plan goals are ambitious, but Brown took umbrage at the idea that instead of improving MARC, the system was actually moving in the other direction due to the cuts enacted in 2008 that reduced service and effectively increased fares by eliminating certain multi-ride passes. The Lieutenant Governor talked about short term advances that had occurred, including new trains (which was happening prior to the Administration’s plans), improving parking, and renovating stations and platforms. He also said discussions were ongoing with CSX to help address freight traffic issues. As readers of the blog know, two of the MARC train lines are owned by CSX, who control dispatching on the lines. The state is continuing its efforts to coordinate scheduling better with freight trains. But Brown was more passionate talking about long term MARC train plans, including serving new locations. Those plans are more grandiose and nice ideas, but seem fantastical when track switches and signals are malfunctioning on an almost daily basis.
Wilk also kept after Brown about his role in the BRAC Subcabinet and how to address the increased traffic that will be caused by the newly consolidated Walter Reed at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. Brown differentiated Bethesda from other military installations benefiting from BRAC, due to its more urban location. But he also emphasized that the intersections around Bethesda Naval were failing independent of any increased BRAC traffic, so addressing Wisconsin, Jones Bridge, Connecticut, and adjacent roads would be necessary whether Walter Reed moved to Bethesda or not. BRAC just brought more attention to an existing need.
Brown conceptually agreed that expanding roads would, in the long term, just lead to more cars filling those lanes. But he was not prepared to embrace a specific and aggressive transit alternative. He said he has been working with Congressman Van Hollen on some type of transit improvement, but whether that would be a pedestrian bridge, an underground tunnel, a new entrance to the Medical Center Metro Station on the east side of Wisconsin, or other innovative approaches such as higher subsidies for employees to ride instead of drive was not yet known. With the expanded facility set for full operation in 2011, Brown and Van Hollen will need to act much quicker if they hope to affect transportation around the project.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Politics and Policy With Anthony Brown, Part One
By Marc Korman.
Last week, Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown sat down with Cavan Wilk from Greater Greater Washington and me at the Silver Spring Library for a blogger roundtable where we discussed policy and politics.
Lieutenant Governor Brown is a New York native. He served in Iraq, but has been in the Army or Army Reserve since 1984. In 1998 he was elected to the General Assembly from Prince George’s and reelected in 2002. In 2005, he joined the O’Malley ticket. He is Maryland’s eighth LG, a position created in 1970.
Brown opened by discussing what a Lieutenant Governor does. In his case, the Governor has given him a few specific assignment areas to pursue. These include: chairing the BRAC Subcabinet, veterans issues, chairing the Maryland Healthcare Quality and Cost Council, addressing higher education with a focus on community colleges, foster care, and domestic violence. According to Brown, the Governor does not send him on specific errands so much as give him room to run with these broad issues to make progress for the state.
Brown acknowledged that the O’Malley/Brown Administration has been about the budget more than anything else, including cutting spending, cutting programs, and containing costs. Brown emphasized that when elected officials talk about cuts, they are usually talking about curbing the rate of growth and not actual cuts. But Brown said the budget was smaller this year than the previous year, and for the first time since the 1970s the budget is actually smaller than it was three years previous. Presumably, Brown was referring specifically to the General Fund which has dipped below $14.5 billion in spending this year, a few hundred million less than the last few years.
Our conversation took place just after the Board of Public Works (BPW) cut $280 million from the current budget. But preserved from the cuts, and according to Brown what will continued to be preserved, is K-12 Education. Brown trumpeted O’Malley/Brown’s funding of Thornton, including the Geographic Cost of Education Index and disparity grants which have at least seen partial funding under O’Malley/Brown. It was not clear if preserving education funding going forward meant not passing the approximately $125 million in Montgomery County teachers’ pensions down to the county.
Brown also highlighted the Administration’s three consecutive years of higher education tuition freezes. But BPW just cut approximately $40 million from higher education, undercutting the argument that tuition freezes can be sustained because the state is providing enough in direct appropriations. Because Brown was a member of the Commission to Develop the Maryland Model for Funding Higher Education, I asked him about the sustainability of tuition freezes. The Commission report set ambitious goals for how much Maryland colleges and universities should charge compared to institutions in other states and how much they should provide in financial assistance. But to reach the goal, the report estimated a $750 million increase in costs and failed to recommend a funding mechanism.
Brown said the funding mechanism was the set aside from slots proceeds for higher education. But funding for capital projects at community colleges and other higher education institutions is just one use of the education trust fund slots are supposed to benefit. And of course, slots do not appear able to deliver on their fiscal promises. The Lieutenant Governor recognized the limitations of the slots account even as he was explaining the funding.
I asked Brown about the possibility that freezing tuition, as opposed to moderate increases tied to inflation or some other measure, would lead to large increases once the freeze ends, not unlike what has happened with energy rates. Brown said Maryland would not follow Florida, which has hiked public tuition by 15% this year. But he also said he preferred a year by year approach, rather than establishing formula funding tuition increases.
Brown next turned to a long conversation on transportation, which we will discuss in Part Two.
Monday, May 04, 2009
On Political Pulse
Maryland Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown will be on the "Political Pulse" TV Show on Tuesday, May 5th at 9:30 p.m. and Thursday, May 7th at 9:00 p.m.
"Political Pulse" is on Channel 16 TV in Montgomery County.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Anthony Brown is Staying Put (Updated)
President-elect Barack Obama is picking Eric Shinseki, the Iraq War prophet, as his Secretary of Veterans Affairs. That means Maryland Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown is not going anywhere and none of the fun things we speculated about are going to occur. That's OK because we have plenty of speculation on other things starting next week!
Update: Brown spokesman Mike Raia now says that the Lieutenant Governor "was never a candidate for the job and was not vetted by the President-elect's transition team for any permanent position."
Hmmm... assuming that this is correct, we should express some admiration for Mr. Raia's press skills for doing nothing to tamp down speculation by the media (and certain bloggers). We thank Mr. Raia, who is himself a former blogger, for giving us something fun to write about!
Saturday, November 29, 2008
For Those Who Want to be Lieutenant Governor...
Now we have nothing against Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown, so save the emails. But keep in mind that in Maryland the Lieutenant Governor's duties are set by the Governor. And what did the Governor have the Lieutenant Governor do a couple weeks ago?
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reports the following:Lt. Gov. Brown Leads Celebration of New State Exercise
Read the full press release here.
State employees join in walk near State Office Complex
For Immediate Release
Karen Black, DHMH, 410-767-6490
BALTIMORE, MD (November 12, 2008) -- Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown today joined state employees in a celebration of the new state exercise of walking by leading a group of walkers around the State Office Complex near Baltimore’s cultural arts district.
“It should go without saying, the health of Maryland population is of utmost importance to the O’Malley-Brown Administration,” Lt. Governor Brown said. “Exercise leads to better health, and walking is great low-impact way to reap the benefits of aerobic exercise.”
The event is sponsored by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) and is designed to draw attention to the University of Maryland’s Get Fit Maryland, a 12-week pedometer-based walking program.
Are you guys sure you really want this job?
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
What Happens if Anthony Brown Leaves? (Updated)
Rumors are swirling that Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown is under consideration by the Obama administration for a cabinet job. If he leaves, what happens next?
Governor Martin O’Malley will have to pick a replacement, subject to approval by the General Assembly. And that will be very interesting. Lieutenant Governor picks in the recent past have been made for the sake of regional and demographic ticket-balancing. Of the five statewide officials other than Brown, three (O’Malley and Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin) are from the Baltimore area, two (Attorney General Doug Gansler and Comptroller Peter Franchot) are from Montgomery County, four are male and all five are white. That leaves obvious gaps in representation that the Governor will be urged to fill. But this time around, there may be other considerations besides ticket-balancing as the Governor will be the favorite in both the 2010 primary and general elections.
Our informants have named these people as possibilities:
1. Prince George’s State Attorney Glenn Ivey
Ivey is a highly-regarded prosecutor, even by many in Montgomery County. (That is rare for any Prince George’s politician.) He is particularly praised for trying to rein in the county’s notorious police department and avoiding the appearances of impropriety that have dogged many of the county’s other politicians.
Ivey’s selection has two hurdles to overcome. First, he is generally believed to be running for County Executive in 2010. Second, rumor has it that he turned down an offer from O’Malley to be his number two in 2006. County Executive or Mayor may be a better route to the Governor’s office than a Lieutenant Governor position. Still, one source says the dropoff after Ivey is “huge.”
2. Senator C. Anthony Muse (D-26)
Aside from Ivey, Muse may be the most prominent Prince George’s politician not under investigation. By picking Reverend Muse, O’Malley could patch up his relations with black churches in the wake of the slots referendum and deny Prince George’s County to any primary challenger. On the other hand, Muse would generate objections from the GLBT community and he is also rumored to be running for County Executive.
3. Delegate Dereck Davis (D-25)
Davis is a four-term Delegate and Chair of the Economic Matters Committee at the ripe old age of 41. He is the pick that most resembles Anthony Brown. But would he want to leave his chair and enter a largely ceremonial office for the chance of someday running for Governor? Davis’s departure would give Speaker Mike Busch an interesting choice for his replacement on Economic Matters.
4. Labor Secretary Tom Perez
Perez has performed excellent work for the Governor in pushing his slots referendum, but he is probably a more likely Obama cabinet pick than is Brown. One thing is for sure: Tom Perez is going places.
5. Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith
I know what you’re thinking: why would O’Malley pick another white male politician from the Baltimore area? The logic behind this pick would be to give Smith the full-time job of raising money and making the rounds of the state. Why? That would set him up nicely to take on the Governor’s arch-enemy, Peter Franchot, for Comptroller in 2010.
6. Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett
Leggett has several advantages to the Governor aside from demographics. First, he is a former Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party and has relationships across the state. Second, because he will be 69 in 2010, he may have no ambitions for the Governor’s seat and that will make life in Annapolis a bit easier for O’Malley. Third, he can be counted on to be a low-key team member. Fourth, he may be the one Montgomery County politician who is acceptable to the rest of the state. And does Leggett truly want to deal with the next two brutal budget cycles in cash-starved MoCo?
Best of all, Leggett’s ascension would set off a chaotic fracas for the County Executive’s chair in Rockville. At least four County Council Members will go for it!
Update: I cannot let this discussion pass without reference to Maryland’s most significant Lieutenant Governor choice: William Donald Schaefer’s pick of Melvin Steinberg in 1986. Steinberg, then the President of the Maryland Senate, became embroiled in a feud with the hot-tempered Schaefer and was shut out of all administration duties. After losing to Parris Glendening in the 1994 Governor primary, Steinberg endorsed conservative Ellen Sauerbrey four years later. But none of this makes Steinberg the most important number two pick in the state’s history. What is really important is the identity of Steinberg’s successor as Senate President.
You guessed it: Big Daddy Mike Miller. And so out of small acts are empires born!
Update 2: The Examiner and the Gazette have more, including speculation that County Council Member Valerie Ervin might get the job.
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