Md. PWG, Meeting Saturday Jan 14th, 2012, 2:00 pm, Wheaton Public Library
Last year PWG held a successful Monday night event in Annapolis. We combined several missions into one evening – a press conference about war funding, a dialogue of our issues with invited legislators, and lobbying where constituents visited their legislators on our chosen topics.
We would like to have a similar event this session in Annapolis, but we need your assistance and feedback, including whether to retain or modify the format of last year's event.
We plan to meet 2 pm, Saturday January 14th at the Wheaton Public Library (11701 Georgia Ave., Wheaton) to strategize and plan our 2012 progressive legislative event in Annapolis.
The major issues we identified at our fall meeting are shown below (in no particular order). The steering committee would like to distribute a letter to legislators based on these priorities. At our upcoming meeting, we will need to further develop and refine this list. Since the legislative session has not yet started, we cannot yet state bill numbers and identify sponsors. We also need to identify supporting groups for each issue.
Environmental issues – Chesapeake Bay, clean water, wind power, sustainable agriculture
Civil rights issues – Civil marriage equality, gender identity rights, extension of health care, right to organize, non predatory loans,
Good Government – transparency, fair and verifiable voting, clarify internet petition laws, no corporate personhood, campaign finance
Economic & financial concerns – a more progressive income tax structure, combined reporting, promote peace economy, fee on financial transactions, job creation programs, wealth disparity concerns, state pension fund stability
Community issues- preservation of green spaces/land use, public transit funding i.e. (CCT, purple lines) BOAST
Single Payer Health Care
Obviously this is a long list which we will need to refine at our January 14th meeting. There may be participating organizations that won't be able to support all the issues, but we do need to work together. We know there is strength in joining forces and mentioning our support for additional progressive bills when we speak with legislators about our particular issue or bill.
Join us!