Issues

• Education

  Nancy King’s commitment to Montgomery County schools began when her own children attended our local schools, and deepened when she became president of the PTA and the Montgomery County Board of Education.
  
  Nancy fights for progressive education reform while protecting Montgomery County’s schools. As a member of the Budget & Taxation committee, she blocked a $23.4 million cut to our educational system, and brought home over $100 million for school construction and renovation projects. She stood up to leaders in her own party when they tried to push pension costs back to local government, saving the County $70 million annually.
  
  In addition to fighting for Montgomery County’s fair share, Nancy supports new and innovative ideas in education. She helped pass laws to make sure teachers have professional development and mentorship programs. She authored legislation to create a K-12 digital library to provide on-line resources to students in the classroom. And she is leading the way in creating a path to universal pre-kindergarten in Maryland.
  
  

• Public Safety

  As a parent, Nancy King understands the need to keep our communities safe. She has voted to strengthen penalties for child abuse and fought to crack down on school bullying, gang violence, and child neglect. She worked with a bipartisan coalition to crack down on sexual predators, increasing penalties and eliminating “good behavior” credits for these criminals.
  
  Nancy is leading the fight to protect our children from the common household dangers. She voted to ban the chemical BPA from ordinary household products and to ban lead from children’s toys. After a local family lost a child to a corded drapery blind, Nancy fought to raise awareness of the danger of these items and passed legislation to prevent a horrible accident from occurring in the future.
  
  

• Job Creation

  Nancy King supports innovative public investment to strengthen our economy and create jobs. As Delegate, she voted to increase small business loans and to increase small business assistance. She is a strong proponent of tax credits to create jobs in the biotechnology field. She is also a strong supporter of common sense investments in “green” jobs, including innovative legislation to grow the “green collar” jobs in Maryland.
  
  In 2010, Nancy worked with Governor O’Malley to pass a $5,000 tax credit, available to an employer for each unemployed Marylander the employer hires. This emergency legislation has put hundreds of Marylanders back to work as the state emerges from a deep national recession.
  
  

• Government Accountability and Transparency

  Nancy King believes that Government accountability starts at home. That’s why she voted to reject a pay raise for herself and other members of the General Assembly twice, and has returned 12 days of her pay to the taxpayers. Additionally, she voted to require the State to develop a single searchable on-line database containing every State disbursement over $25,000 so that taxpayers have additional tools to hold government accountable.
  
  In 2010, Nancy led the way to bring greater transparency to the General Assembly. She was the lead sponsor on a bill to require webcasts of committee hearings, record online votes, and open up all the features of the General Assembly website to the general public without a costly fee. She joined the Governor, Senate President and Speaker of the House this summer to announce that most of the reforms contained in her bill will be adopted by the General Assembly next session.
  
  
  

• Foreclosure Prevention and Protection

  Our community has been hit harder by the foreclosure crisis than any other community in Montgomery County. Senator King took action to crack down on unethical mortgage lenders and scams, and to require more leniency and mediation when homeowners fall behind. She worked with Governor O’Malley to pass legislation to give people the tools necessary to stay in their homes make it through the foreclosure process. To help seniors, she fought for a property tax freeze, so long time residents can afford to stay in their own homes.
  
  

• Environment

  The environmental disaster that is still unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico is a stark reminder that our environment is fragile, our natural resources are critical to our quality of life, and we need to do what we can to protect both. We must reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, improve the quality of our water and our air, and crack down on overdevelopment in environmentally sensitive areas. Nancy has a record of securing real results in all three of these areas.
  
  Maryland is leading the nation in the effort to promote the use and development of alternative energy sources. Nancy wrote the law to create Maryland’s Solar Energy Grant Program, which provides grants to private citizens, businesses and local governments to defray the cost of acquiring and installing solar energy products. She voted repeatedly to require energy companies to increase the percentage of renewable energy they are providing to Maryland consumers. Taken together, these steps will help us reduce our dependence on dangerous fossil fuels.
  
  The legislature has taken steps to improve air and water quality. Nancy voted for the Healthy Air Act, which required energy companies to cut nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. She also voted to raise vehicle emissions standards. She supported the creation of the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund to upgrade wastewater treatment facilities, and she voted to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous runoff. These bills curbed the release of thousands of tons of deadly toxins into our air and pollutants into our water.
  
  We know that development, left unchecked, is a major source of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Nancy voted to strengthen our Critical Areas law, which restricts development along the shoreline, and she voted to give citizen groups better access to our courts to stop development in environmentally sensitive areas. She also worked with Governor O’Malley to preserve funding for Program Open Space, so that we can protect land from development.
  
  Nancy is working to solve environmental problems in Maryland – and she has a record of securing real results as we fight to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, to improve our water and air quality, and to crack down on development in environmentally sensitive areas. As your State Senator, she will continue to work to solve these problems, and to get results so that we can all enjoy healthier air, cleaner water, and a safer environment.
  
  

• Civil Rights

  Nancy King is the only candidate in this race to earn an endorsement from Equality Maryland. She voted for equality throughout her career in the General Assembly, including defining domestic partner under Maryland law, extending insurance benefits for domestic partners, and exempting domestic partners from various taxes from which married couples are exempt. She fought to add sexual orientation to hate crime language until it finally passed. She cosponsored similar legislation regarding gender identity and will continue to fight for its passage.
  
  

• Other Issues

  Have a question on any other issues? Please contact Senator King here.