Yesterday evening, the political science department sponsored the event “So What Just Happened: A Report from Annapolis” which featured Maryland Senator Edward Kasemeyer ’67 and Maryland Delegate Susan Krebs speaking about the past session of the Maryland General Assembly.
Both had attended McDaniel College, back when it was Western Maryland College. Krebs had needed to transfer after her freshman year due to financial reasons, which was very poignant to the students in the room as she was citing an amount around $4,000 as being too expensive. Both have worked towards grants for funding students in Maryland, valuing both higher education and K-12 education very highly.
In Maryland, the General Assembly (GA) meets for ninety days in the spring and has that time only to pass all of the legislation it wants to. The one thing they are required by law to do is to passed a balanced budget. In the past election, Maryland elected a Republican governor, so the session this year was different to how it had been in past Democratic years.
I asked them about the most contentious legislation that had been on the floor, and was surprised to find that it was the small things that they tended to get wrapped up in. They talked about a piece involving online hotel booking systems and the taxes they paid that had meant a lot of lobbyists had become involved, as well as a bill for pregnant women to give birth at home. I was trying to get some ideas for legislation for Maryland Student Legislature’s Annual Session, which is quickly coming up, and was excited to get some ideas to research.
They were both extremely friendly, and though Kasemeyer is a Democrat and Krebs a Republican, it was fun watching their dynamic and how they were playfully courteous.
Leave a Reply