SALISBURY – Sen. Jim Mathias and Del. Mary Beth Carozza shared views on everything from offshore wind to rising health care costs at a forum this week.
On Tuesday, Mathias and Carozza, both candidates for the District 38 senate seat, faced off in a forum moderated by WBOC’s Steve Hammond and hosted by the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Salisbury Committee and the Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Salisbury University.
Mathias, who is seeking to retain his senate seat for a third term, used his opening statement to assure voters that he wasn’t the person depicted in campaign mailers sent by the opposing party.
“I’m not who you see in the mailbox,” he said. “I’m not in the pocket or the hand of the majority party. From the very beginning, when we went to Annapolis we went for one thing … We went as an Eastern Shore person. We went to make the Eastern Shore better and tonight as we come together I want to let you know who we will be, who we will continue to be. A better Eastern Shore.”
Carozza, who has served as the District 38C delegate for the past four years, stressed that she wanted to continue her efforts to help the Eastern Shore in the senate.
“I can tell you that Governor Larry Hogan has been focused on our shore priorities and I have been his partner every step of the way which is why he has fully endorsed me,” she said. “I’m here to tell you tonight Governor Larry Hogan needs to be reelected and I need to be sent to the state Senate so I can be a stronger voice for the shore.”
Mathias told the crowd his top priorities were keeping families on the Eastern Shore and improving health care.
“My top priority is to continue to grow our strongest asset and that’s our families,” Mathias said. “When you look around, when I grew up, on a Sunday afternoon I went to my grandmother’s home for dinner. By four or five the family was all together. I want to make sure those opportunities are here for our families. We talked about the brain drain, we talked about the folks that have to go elsewhere to find careers, I’m here to make sure those careers happen.”
Carozza said her focus would be on jobs and tax relief as well as education, specifically the promotion of career and technology education.
“We are doing better with job growth and with policies, with our budget decisions, with our tax relief,” she said. “We need to keep on that track. I don’t have a record of voting for eight O’Malley budgets in the past when you had an opportunity to step up. I’m in a position now that I am a leader on this. Governor Hogan turns to me to be a leader on tax relief.”
Offshore Wind
When asked to address the issue of offshore wind, the candidates shared clearly different viewpoints. Carozza stressed that an initiative of that magnitude needed local support.
“There is a major visibility issue that would impact Ocean City and that impacts the shore and the whole state of Maryland because we do not want to jeopardize and risk one of our key economic drivers …,” she said. “The second concern is the negative impact on our commercial fishing industry. Our commercial watermen finally got a say, got their own hearing that the Town of Ocean City allowed them to come in and voice their concerns and they have major concerns. That’s an industry, their backs are already up against the wall. We have to fight for the traditions of those families. When they say that those turbines are going to affect their livelihood we have to take that seriously. The third area is the true cost to ratepayers and to taxpayers. We have not determined that. I’m very concerned about the cost of that. There is not local support and local consensus in those areas.”
Mathias referred to the history of the related legislation. He said he supported it the first year it was introduced but not the second year because there was no consensus.
“In 2013 we found it,” he said, adding that he’d worked to incorporate the concerns of Ocean City officials. “After all that, the bottom line is ladies and gentlemen the Public Service Commission, which is the quasi-judicial hearing group, had to find that it was a net positive benefit for the ratepayers of Maryland. We capped the rates at $1.50 for 1,000 kilowatt hours. We capped the rate for commercial users. Clearly as that hearing went forward our governors changed. You’ve heard those allegations in why this bill came forward. It came forward for a better environment. To take the pressures off the grid. When Governor Hogan, who I work extremely well with, came in, we thought maybe he wouldn’t be for renewable energy. Guess what — when they took that vote at the Public Service Commission there were four commissioners. They voted unanimously. Three of the four were appointed by Governor Hogan … I believe it’s right. I’ve worked for renewable energy. When you look at that part on your bill, just remember the carbon emissions we’ve offset. Please remember the goodness that we’re bringing to the next generation.”
Partisan Politics
As candidates were asked how they’d put the needs of people over the needs of their parties, Carozza stressed the importance of working in a bipartisan way.
“I can tell you from my door to door, day in day out, that’s exactly what the voters want,” she said. “They want effective government and they want you to focus on the priorities and the solutions. What we do under Governor Hogan’s leadership, he has been able to work in a bipartisan way. I’ve been able to work in a bipartisan way, I’m a member of the house appropriations committee, and I’ve been able to get fair funding formulas and push other issues when the chairman is Maggie McIntosh from Baltimore City… You have to understand the priorities of your own district and then you have to have all the facts and prepare those facts in a way you can make the strongest case. That is done in a bipartisan way and you can be effective that way. That is the approach I’ve taken to my public service. I’ll be able to do even more in the state Senate.”
Mathias, referencing an early political mailer produced by the Maryland Republican Party, offered a more pointed response.
“Why don’t we just start by telling the truth here tonight?,” he said. “How about leading by example? That works. About two years ago, when you went to your mailbox and you started seeing people’s records that were distorted … I heard a little earlier about the opioids and working together, did you see what happened this week? The overdose death rate has gone up another 15 percent. I stood strongly with Governor Hogan. You talk about bipartisanship, you talk about working together, I sponsored bills and we got them passed. A number of things we did and yet the death rate’s still going up. We have some recovering folks in the room tonight. They didn’t want to be criticized. You did not want to hear something about making a drug in your community easier to get than ice cream. So let’s do this — we want to talk about being congenial, we want to talk about having a high tone, let’s start doing it here.”
Carozza said there was a clear difference in her and Mathias’ approaches to the opioid epidemic.
“I listen to what they think are the solutions at the local level. That’s why I have supported treatment and recovery and peer recovery specialists,” she said. “That’s why I’m supporting Poplar Hill in Wicomico County where we’re moving forward with recovery, detox, treatment, recovery and job skills. It’s also why I strongly oppose the heroin injection sites at the community level paid by the taxpayers. All of my meetings, there is no local support for that. That’s the wrong approach. Maybe it works in Amsterdam or New York City but it does not work on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I will continue to oppose those approaches and I will support the solutions that are coming from our own local opioid intervention teams.”
The Hogan Effect
Bill Chambers, president and CEO of the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce, noted that both candidates appeared to be aligning themselves with Hogan. He asked Mathias to explain why he was distancing himself from Ben Jealous, Hogan’s Democratic challenger.
“Clearly, I work with the people that are effective,” Mathias said, adding that he’d worked well with former governor Martin O’Malley and later had worked with Republicans to promote a post-Labor Day school start and to repeal onerous phosphorous management regulations. “I’ve proven to be able to work with both Democrats and Republicans, but I’ve been able to make my relationships strong and continue to move forward for the people of the Eastern Shore. Whether it’s a Democrat, whether it’s a Republican, that’s not what I see when I go to work. I see getting the job done across the aisle.”
Chambers varied his question for Carozza.
“Clearly you have the support and endorsement of Governor Hogan in this campaign,” he said. “If there’s one area where you and the governor don’t see eye to eye, it’s support for President Trump. Why do you see President Trump in a different light than the governor sees him?”
Carozza confirmed that she supported Trump.
“I support President Trump because he has focused like Governor Hogan on jobs and the economy,” she said. “I look at results. When you look at what’s going on on the shore, in Maryland, in this country, and you see the fact that unemployment is coming down and jobs are going up, that is at the leadership at the federal level and that’s also with Governor Hogan. When I’m out doing door to door, I talk about the fact that they’re both focused on that. I can tell you that my constituents, they are seeing the positive effects of President Trump’s leadership when it comes to the economy and it comes to jobs.”
Mike Dunn, president and CEO of the Greater Salisbury Committee, asked Mathias what he would say to those who said that the Democratic party and Sen. Mike Miller were part of the problem in Maryland.
Mathias replied that simply wasn’t true.
“You heard about my eight budgets that I voted for,” he said. “Look at the positive benefits that came from that. Not every budget that we vote for I agree with everything.”
Mathias said those budgets had helped fund universities and important projects like the dualization of Route 113. He said Miller helped him address phosphorous management tool regulations.
“I traded on his institutional knowledge,” Mathias said. “That showed me how to get the job done. Clearly there are times in committee it doesn’t look like it’s going that way but he stands up, he stands by me. School after Labor Day, it didn’t look like we were going to get that done but I went to Governor Hogan that first month he was there, talked about the executive order, we got it done. Guess what else? Not only did we get it done it’s been protected. You know who helped me protect it? President Miller. President Miller told those in other counties in other parts of our state this is about tourism. This is about what they need on the Eastern Shore. When I go to work, I’m one of 33 in the Democratic caucus … You’ve heard me tonight, working positively and effectively with Governor Hogan. Governor Hogan will be there one more term most likely, but I go and I work with the 33. One Eastern Shore senator, one rural senator in Maryland and I’ve clearly earned their respect and I’m able to bring home what we need here.”
Legislative Effectiveness
Greater Salisbury Committee CEO Mike Dunn said the flip side of the Democrat-controlled assembly was the concern that Carozza would be ineffective.
“I have been effective in every public service position I’ve ever held,” Carozza said.
She said her record from the past four years showed that she could work with whoever she needed to in order to address local issues. She said she’d worked with Democrats to address inequalities in funding formulas for both local senior centers and for Wor-Wic Community College.
As far as legislation they’d introduce if elected, Carozza said she’d look to the local level for guidance. She did say she was concerned about the families of individuals dealing with addiction.
“Right now, our privacy laws do not allow college officials to call the family if the student may be at risk of overdosing because of the strictness of our privacy laws,” she said. “I want to work with the families because this is what they requested. They want to see if we can draw a very narrow exemption, that if you have strict criteria and that student’s life is at risk that we would be able to notify the families and perhaps save more lives … That’s an example of the type of legislation I would introduce. I really think you should introduce legislation as a last resort. When I knocked on over 5,000 doors, my constituents weren’t looking for a slew of new bills. What they were looking for was effective limited responsive government.”
Mathias said he already had a bill drafted to restore prescription drug benefits to state retirees.
“I pledge to those retirees to restore that benefit,” he said, adding that he had another bill in mind already as well. “You see how important our politics are. I’ll put in a bill that will franchise our independent voters. We’re not going to leave you out in primaries anymore. We’re all in this together. I want to work hard to bring our primary voters, our Democrats and Republicans, all of us together as Marylanders.”
Mandatory Leave Bill
Carozza and Mathias were also asked to address the state’s mandatory leave bill, which many Eastern Shore business owners opposed. Mathias said he told business owners two years ago that the bill would pass and asked them what would make it more palatable. He said they wanted to see an employee work at least 120 days before they were eligible for accrued sick leave.
“The bill came out of the house with 90 days,” he said.
Mathias said he worked to get that to 106 days and worked toward establishing a tax credit to help businesses.
“Not everyone owns a business,” he said. “We have employees that are on the line that need that, that are sick themselves, their moms, their dad, their children are sick. When they earn that benefit, they are deserving of that benefit. I stand by that.”
Mathias stressed that he worked to make something that was “really onerous” to local businesses more affordable.
“With all due respect if you were going to support that bill, which you did, and voted for it, and you voted to override Governor Hogan’s veto, you should have gotten the 120-day seasonal exemption,” Carozza said. “I introduced that three years in a row… It was very clear what the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce and our small business operators were saying. They needed that.”
Health Insurance Costs
As for lowering health care costs, both candidates talked about reinsurance, the state’s plan to cut the rising costs of individual insurance premiums. Carozza praised Hogan for moving forward with the program but said more needed to be done in the future. She also addressed the riding number of seniors on the shore.
“We have a disproportionately higher senior population and so that’s a challenge because we have to provide quality affordable health care service but it’s an opportunity because health care can be one of our major economic drivers,” she said. “When you talk about the shortages of primary doctors and specialists and nurses and think that we can have a pool right here on the shore… It’s a tremendous opportunity to have our young people stay here on the shore in an exciting field in the health care industry.”
Mathias talked about the cooperative efforts that led to reinsurance being approved.
“That’s when we came together in a bipartisan way,” he said. “This is about coming to the table. That’s how we found reinsurance but we needed money to pay for it. When they took the monies away from the federal side, our governor, our house and our senate came together. They came together to put an assessment in place to generate revenue. Revenue to hold down the spiking in the individual market and also to be able to buy reinsurance for catastrophic illnesses. That’s what we have been able to do. That is what it’s like and we can both stand up here gladly and smile because we have a common goal and that is you. That is your health. That is when we all work together at the table.”
High-Tech Shore Jobs
At the request of an audience member, Mathias and Carozza also addressed how to bring more high-tech jobs to the Eastern Shore. Mathias suggested focusing on the technology on today’s farms and pointed out the array of potential at Wallops Island. Mathias, joking that he and Carozza had talked more about Hogan than they had themselves during the course of the evening, praised the governor’s efforts in that regard. He referenced his decision to support the substantial $40 million tax break for Northrop Grumman.
“My friends, call them to the left, call them progressive, said that’s corporate welfare,” he said. “I said absolutely not that’s tens of thousands of jobs.”
Carozza again said there were opportunities for high-tech jobs in health care. She also mentioned the More Jobs for Marylanders Act.
“The follow-up on that is just as important as passing those bills,” she said, “because the follow-up is to make sure we are going out making sure that existing companies know of this opportunity, these tax credits…”
Carozza also mentioned the construction industry and its pleas for more skilled workers.
“There’s so much more we can do,” she said.
