Sign up to receive County Executive Pittman's Weekly Letter to be the first to learn about big announcements, and get an inside look at issues crossing the County Executive's desk.
Be Revolutionary is the slogan adopted by Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County for its 250th Anniversary promotions. It reminds us that our nation was created through revolution and that in celebrating that bold and creative act, we should remain bold and creative.
Reactions to the word Revolution depend on how we feel about how things are. Most of us have things we want to preserve and things we want to change. I certainly do.
I want to preserve the form of government created in our Constitution, the justice that was promised, the separation of powers, the freedom to say what we think, and the right to vote for and against our leaders. My favorite part of the Pledge of Allegiance is the final five words: liberty and justice for all. But I don’t think we’re there yet.
If I had to choose just one major change, one reform to how we govern ourselves, it would be to get big money out of politics. It’s why we don’t have health care for all, a minimum wage that keeps up with inflation, housing that our workforce can afford, childcare that parents can afford, a level playing field for businesses to compete, clean energy that we can afford, a high level of voter participation in our elections, and peace. Across the political spectrum, Americans consistently support reforms to our campaign finance system.
In national politics, the sources of the campaign money and the policies they influence evolve over time. Big oil, military contractors, gun manufacturers, Wall Street, and pharmaceutical companies have dominated, but in recent years the political contributions from cryptocurrency, the tech sector, and advocates for foreign interests have accelerated.
In Anne Arundel County, campaign spending is dominated by the real estate industry. Developers, builders, and the contractors, attorneys, and engineering firms that they hire have for decades provided a huge percentage of the contributions to candidates for County Executive and County Council. It resulted in what I consider some inappropriate upzoning of land and some permitting of development that was inconsistent with county development plans and land use laws.
During my 2018 campaign for this office, I said that I wanted a ban on campaign contributions from donors associated with real estate projects that are in the development pipeline. When I took office, we went to work on the issue.
We needed state authorization to implement a county ban, so my first request of our county delegation in the 2019 session of the Maryland General Assembly was a bill to authorize our County Council to pass the ordinance. The state bill passed, so we got to work writing our local ordinance. It was similar to bans passed by other counties, and I was assured by our Office of Law that it was constitutional. Some developers were offended that we would target them, but others looked forward to removing political donations from their cost of doing business in Anne Arundel.
Our problem was that we knew the bill didn’t have the votes to pass. So we shifted our strategy, and instead proposed creating a voluntary program whereby candidates receive public campaign support if they meet a threshold of small donations and forego all contributions over $250 (the limit is otherwise $6,000).
I decided to hold off on the developer limit for the time being, and the County Council passed the public campaign finance bill. So far, one candidate for County Executive and one candidate for County Council have opted to participate. I suspect that as people see that this is a viable option used successfully across the state, others will follow their lead.
But I still read Maryland campaign finance reports, and I still see that most of the large contributions in County Executive and Council races are coming from people connected to projects in the development pipeline. It’s frustrating, because these are the very interests that worked to oppose our forest conservation bill, our essential worker housing access bill, and the dedicated funding source for our Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
I am more sure than ever that the best way to restore public trust in local government is to limit what these donors can give, and County Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien feels the same way. She has introduced the legislation that our delegation to the Maryland General Assembly authorized back in 2019, and I fully support it.
My support for this bill is not to punish anybody or accuse them of corruption. It is to protect the diverse voices of our residents in the land use decision-making process.
I respect many of the donors who would be affected by this ban, and many have contributed to my campaigns and the campaigns of my opponents. Developers build the infrastructure that our residents need, so I have found myself advocating both for and against positions they have taken over the years, and feel good about the results.
We have community-driven region plans and a Plan2040 that pursues a greener, smarter, and more equitable future. I’m thrilled that eight affordable multifamily housing developments were completed last year and that our community development agency has 1900 units in the pipeline across 34 projects with an average affordability of 60% of area median income (about what a teacher makes). Our economic growth is strong, diversified, and resilient. And we are on track to achieve our Green Infrastructure Master Plan goals. We did all this in partnership with our County Council, our residents, and the development community.
So why change anything? Because I know how hard we have had to fight to prevent a return to sprawl development. Like all industries, the real estate developers have a natural tendency to pursue growth wherever they can find it, and much of that growth is in places that our residents don’t support. They are eager to urbanize suburban communities, suburbanize rural land, and tend to avoid investments in distressed urban areas. And most of them build what’s most profitable, rather than what our workforce can afford.
If the industry were to convince our political leaders to go along with its full agenda, I am convinced that the sustainable growth path we are on, including the community voice in the process, would end. That would lead to a future in this county very different from the one that our residents and planners have envisioned.
That’s why I support Councilwoman Rodvien’s bill. I don’t know whether it will get a majority vote, but I do know that Councilmembers will be looking to their constituents for guidance. So speak up if you have a position.
As for me, I promised to devote the last year of my term to “Finishing what we started.” Campaign finance reform is at the core of it, and in the spirit of our 250th Anniversary, I’m prepared to Be Revolutionary.
Until next week…