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The state budget and public utilities were the top issues at a forum last week for candidates in the District 19 Senate and House of Delegates races, one which attracted more than 100 people trying to get a last look at the officer-seekers before the Sept. 14 primary.

All seats were filled and the line of people standing in the back of the meeting room at Aspen Hill Library extended out the door.

On the issue of tax increases, Bonnie Cullison and Jay Hutchins, House Democratic candidates, and Del. Roger Manno (D), who is running against incumbent Sen. Mike Lenett (D) for the Senate seat, said they would support legislation for combined reporting in Maryland as a form of revenue. Combined reporting requires corporations with subsidiaries or affiliates to file a single tax return that lists all of a corporation's business activity instead of treating each subsidiary as a separate entity to avoid paying higher taxes.

Cullison said she plans to adopt a comprehensive approach toward balancing the budget by analyzing all programs to determine if they are needed.

"We need to look at all the possible sources of funding for revenue streams," she said.

House candidate Hoan Dang, also a Democrat, said he would raise the gasoline tax by 5 cents and use the revenue to replenish the state's transportation trust fund.

Both Manno and House candidate Sam Arora, another Democrat, said they support the millionaire tax, which puts residents who make $1 million or more in taxable income in a higher tax bracket.

Manno said he wants to adjust the gas tax to reflect the rate of inflation, and he supports raising the alcohol tax by 10 cents.

Regarding alcohol-related legislation, Manno said he was not in favor of the legislation that allows fruit-flavored malt beverages, or so-called "alcopops," to be subjected to the 9-cents-per-gallon tax on beer instead of the $1.50-per-gallon rate on distilled spirits.

Manno said Lenett supported the bill put forth by alcohol lobbyists that drew critics who said the legislation would make the beverages more readily accessible to underage drinkers.

"I was on the side of Mothers Against Drunk Driving," Manno said.

Lenett did not address or counter Manno's comment on the alcopops legislation.

Lenett said he also supports raising the alcohol tax by 10 cents and was a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 717, often called the "10 cents makes sense" bill.

"We absolutely have to increase the alcohol tax," Lenett said, adding the alcohol tax has not been raised since 1972 and the tax on spirits and wines has not been raised since 1955.

Lenett said he also proposes a 20 percent cut to nonessential state contractual services such as information technology, landscaping, interior design and management companies, which he said would save the state $570 million.

All of the Democratic candidates for the House of Delegates, which include Del. Benjamin F. Kramer and Vivian Scretchen in addition to Arora, Cullison, Dang and Hutchins, said they also support a 10 cent increase in the alcohol tax.

Kramer, the only incumbent running for a House seat in District 19, said he supports the alcohol tax increase but will not commit to any other tax increases until he has reviewed the budget and considered all the options and alternatives. "Everything and anything will be on the table in the next session in Annapolis," he said.

Republican House candidate Linn Rivera, a mental health therapist for the county's Department of Health and Human Services, said she would consider a 5 cent increase in the alcohol tax if the revenue would go towards supporting mental health and substance abuse services and programs for the disabled.

Besides that, Rivera said she would not propose any tax increases.

"Taxes are plenty high in Montgomery County," Rivera said. "We have a very nice budget laid out, but something is not going right at the top in Annapolis. We only receive 17 cents back on every dollar we send to Annapolis."

That amount of return on the dollar often is cited as anywhere between 15 cents and 19 cents, depending on what formulas are used to calculate the amount.

Hutchins said legislators must not rely on tax increases as an absolute solution to the budget deficits, and instead, must focus on innovative measures to fund the state's important programs. "We're not going to tax our way out of this, and we're not going to cut our way out of this," he said.

Other issues

Candidates also spoke on the storm outages this summer and Pepco's ability to restore power in a timely manner to residential areas in Montgomery County.

Some candidates, such as Lenett, said they have a no-tolerance policy towards the company's performance.

Hutchins and Cullison said they would support Del. Brian J. Feldman (D-Dist. 15) of Potomac and the bill he plans to introduce requiring the Maryland Public Service Commission to establish reliability standards by 2012. The bill proposes reducing utilities' profits incrementally if they fail to meet those standards.

Other candidates, such as Arora and Dang, both of whom have years of work experience in the private sector, warned that punishing the company is not going to improve the needed infrastructure in the county.

Arora said he would be in favor of Feldman's bill, but said the measures would only be a slap on the wrist for Pepco. "That's not the kind of incentive we want for the county," Arora said.

Arora added the county needs to move forward by helping Pepco to develop and implement smart-grid technology and to bury the power lines

Kramer, a businessman, conceded Pepco was given a chance to resolve the issues related to the power outages, but it had failed and has to be made accountable.

Kramer said he also was disappointed by the performance of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission in addressing customer concerns and repairing pipe infrastructure.

"WSSC needs to start holding their contractors accountable," Kramer said. "We have pipes that are supposed to have a life expectancy of 100 years, and they're already starting to fall apart after 20 years. That's not acceptable."

The two Republican House candidates, Rivera and Tom Masser, who could not attend the forum because he was out of the country, will move directly to the Nov. 2 general election without a primary race, facing the top three vote-getters in the Democratic Primary.

Republican Senate candidate Don Irvine, who also could not attend the forum because of a family obligation, will face either Lenett or Manno in the Senate race in November.

The Aug. 25 forum was co-sponsored by the Aspen Hill Civic Association, the Strathmore-Bel Pre Association, the Friends of the Aspen Hill Library and the Aspen Hill Library Advisory Committee. Former District 19 Del. Carol Petzold, a Democrat, attended and helped to plan the event.

mliu@gazette.net