For Immediate Release: Friday, December 11, 2020
Council President Hucker calls on Gov. Hogan to allocate Rainy Day Fund to assist Marylanders
ROCKVILLE, December 11, 2020—Today Council President Tom Hucker provided remarks at the Committee for Montgomery’s Legislative Breakfast. This event brings together leaders from across Maryland and is considered the unofficial kickoff of the 2021 Legislative Session. Council President Hucker's complete remarks can be read below.
Thank you County Executive Elrich, and thank you for your leadership on the progress you described. Good morning everyone. It is so great to join you. Thanks to Julie Statland, Andy Stern, Henriot St. Gerard, and the rest of the board members for inviting me and for organizing this great event.
And thanks so much to our terrific Speaker Adrienne Jones for being here this year, as well as to Sen. Van Hollen, Rep. Raskin, Sen. Zucker, Del. Korman, our honored guests and all of our other hardworking elected officials, particularly my outstanding colleagues on the council. Thank you to vice-president Gabe Albornoz and Councilmembers Andrew Friedson, Evan Glass, Will Jawando, Sidney Katz, Nancy Navarro, Craig Rice and Hans Riemer for being here today.
The Committee for Montgomery does an amazing job of bringing people in our county together and advocating for our needs – something that is now more important than ever.
This has been an incredibly difficult year due to the unprecedented health crisis and the economic crisis. But Montgomery County’s response makes me optimistic about the future.
Thousands of our essential workers have been on the front lines keeping our fire and rescue vehicles running, our hospitals and clinics operating, our buses and trains rolling, and our grocery stores stocked with essentials.
Thousands more have stepped up to volunteer in food drives, to distribute essential health information, to offer medical treatment, and to support our nonprofits and local restaurants. Our County can accomplish amazing things when our residents, business leaders, nonprofits, and elected officials put our heads together to overcome challenges.
I’m particularly proud of how the County Council has stepped up to respond to the needs of our residents. We have worked in partnership with the County Executive and his team, we’ve stood up new programs, we’ve insisted on fiscal accountability, addressed inequities and engaged with residents nonstop.
Since March, we have approved 35 special appropriations for $255 million to address County needs, including $76 million to keep restaurants and small businesses afloat, $22 million in rental assistance and eviction prevention, $10 million to reopen childcare providers and $10 million to address food insecurity.
There is no question that COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on our residents and our economy. But as Marc suggested, it has also lit a fire under all of us to solve old problems in new ways. Since March, we have seen the County government address longstanding challenges with much more urgency. For example, we have transitioned thousands of County workers to teleworking, saving millions in energy costs and removing thousands of cars from our roads and tons of carbon from our atmosphere; we’ve engineered Shared Streets so neighbors can walk safely with their kids and Open Parkways where they can hike and bike safely; and we’ve put a spotlight on our persistent health disparities and stood up new programs to address them.
We have changed more in one year than we would have thought possible last December. But the unmet need is still immense. Much more remains to be done, and we can't do it alone.
We have excellent state and federal lawmakers. We need to work hand in glove with them to make sure that Annapolis and Washington meet their responsibilities to our residents to provide the bridge funding our County needs. Government at all levels should be working overtime to keep our businesses open, our workers employed and our residents in their homes.
Every day more businesses go under and more workers lose their jobs, and the State loses the income tax they could be paying. And remember, those businesses have been forced to do so by government action – not bad business decisions – so that means the government bears a special responsibility to make them whole. Our small businesses and our workers are our best assets, and they should not be the collateral damage of these times.
We badly need Governor Hogan to open the Rainy Day Fund to keep our Main Street businesses afloat and our workers employed. That fund is full of our tax dollars, funds that our lawmakers prudently saved for years to be released during exactly the rainy days we’re living through now. It’s not doing any good in the Treasury in Annapolis. It needs to be on the streets in Montgomery County.
And we need Sen. Mitch McConnell and the U.S. Senate to pass the HEROES Act and give us the federal aid we deserve as well.
Finally, I have a plea for all of you this morning. Don’t let your engagement stop with this breakfast. I am urging you all to stay involved, connected and engaged. It has never been more important for Montgomery County’s voices to be heard.
Over the year ahead, we have a tremendous opportunity to recover and to rebuild a Montgomery County that is stronger, healthier, more prosperous, more equitable and more sustainable than the one we have today. I look forward to working with all of you to get us there.
Thank you again for having me.
Release ID: 20-496