• Because I appreciate the need to preserve our heritage, I was  pleased to co-sponsor the African American Heritage Preservation Program which will help to preserve many important historical sites around Maryland.
• The District 18 team was successful in obtaining additional state bond bill funding this year to rehabilitate and preserve the historic Warner property in Kensington. Brainard Warner was a prominent Washingtonian and land developer who founded the Town of Kensington in the 1890s. He also served as a trustee for Howard University in Washington DC, the historically black university where my Dad attended medical school in the late 1950s when there were still few schools admitting African-American medical students. I am glad I can return the favor and celebrate his heritage by helping to preserve his historic estate.

 Governor O'Malley signs a bill on May 20th, to help Wheaton businesses

• My bill to expand and improve the Enterprise Zone tax credit program in Montgomery County to support smart growth and boost revitalizing areas like Wheaton's commercial district, was signed into law by Governor O'Malley on May 20th (Click here to read more in this week's Gazette newspaper).

• A second bill I authored adds further enhancements to the Enterprise Zone tax credit program across the entire state of Maryland.

• We also Instituted a Small Business Credit Recovery Program, which would offer loan guarantees up to $50,000 for small businesses through an existing Department of Business and Economic Development loan guaranty program. The program is capped at $5M. This program will streamline the loan approval process and allow the State to guarantee a small percentage of loans, helping banks provide much-needed capital for our small businesses.

• We provided Property Tax Relief for Small Businesses by passing a law I supported giving them the ability to pay their property taxes in two installments instead one lump sum payment, if the property tax assessment is under $50,000. This bill provides over 93,000 small business properties with added flexibility.

• I co-sponsored a bill creating the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit which replaces the Heritage Tax Credit with a new program designed to create and sustain construction and design jobs in redeveloping historic structures, and support environmentally-friendly building standards. The Sustainable Communities Tax Credit is funded at $10M, maintains the commercial project cap at $3 million and residential project cap at $50,000, but also provides a bonus credit of 5% for LEED certified construction on a commercial project.

• The Governor signed a bill I co-sponsored that puts pedestrian safety improvements on an equal footing with roadway improvements for cars.

• Two bills I supported improve Maryland's transportation planning process by requiring that future projects are evaluated based on our land use and transportation plans and strike a better balance between planning for roads, bicycling and pedestrian access.

• Montgomery County was recently awarded a Federal "TIGER" grant to install special enhancements on Veirs Mill Road to give buses priority over other vehicles. Priority bus features such as "queue jumpers", real time information and smart traffic signals have been proven in other North American cities to be a cost effective way to get more people out of their cars and onto transit.I worked to advance HB1404, a bill that would add priority bus features to our menu of transportation planning options in Maryland.

Al Carr & son participate in the annual Rock Creek Cleanup

• I introduced a bill again this year to reform the Maryland Public Information Act. This important "sunshine law" has been on the books for many years but was written when most government records were on paper. My bill proposes to update this law to require that public records stored electronically must be share in usable formats. The federal government and many other states have already made this change. In unanimous votes, the bill passed the House of Delegates and received a favorable Senate committee vote. However it missed the deadline for a full Senate vote by a few minutes. I plan to introduce the bill again next year! More information

• The recently released film Casino Jack and the United States of Money documented the exploits of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the corrosive effect of big money on our politics at the federal level. I continue to support Public Financing of Campaigns at the state and local level.

• I co-sponsored two bills to improve the transparency of the state legislative process. The bills did not receive a committee vote but many of the proposals in the bill were implemented administratively. Legislative Committee roll call votes are now listed online. Citizens will also soon be able to view Committee bill hearings over the internet.

• I also led the initiative to post committee and subcommitte votes for local bills on the Montgomery County Delegation web site so that citizens can better track their progress.

• I enjoyed working with Equality Maryland this year as the lead sponsor on a bill to add Gender Identity and Expression to our list of protections against discrimination. Currently 40% of Americans live in states or cities with such protections.

• House Bill 1382 permits a residential tenant or legal occupant who is a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault and who obtains a protective Order or Peace Order to terminate a lease within 30 days of giving the landlord notice and providing a copy of the Protective Order or Peace Order, and permits them to change the locks if the protective order or peace order issued for the benefit of the tenant or legal occupant requires the respondent to refrain from entering or to vacate the residence of the tenant or legal occupant. The bill prohibits a landlord from bringing an action for possession of the property against a victim because an act of domestic violence or sexual assault occurred.