The new tax bill hits residents of wealthy Blue-state jurisdictions like Montgomery County hard. The IRS said it would disallow moves by local government to accept prepayment of real estate taxes for 2017 tax year deduction purposes. Hal Ginsberg (a former lawyer, but never a tax lawyer) notes "The IRS did not explain its reasoning, which is understandable since the law specifies just the opposite."

The Maryland General Assembly opens Wednesday and there is plenty to accomplish and plenty to guard against – the usual.

Progressive Maryland is working to advocate for and advance progress on criminal justice, override of the Hogan veto on Paid Sick Leave, and many other critical needs in Maryland, while fighting against the business-as-usual routines of high-paid lobbyists influencing legislators in dire need of corporate cash for their 2018 reelection campaigns. Not having their money, we'll just have to outwork them. And we know how to do that.

The Maryland General Assembly deals in big bucks, and businesses, corporations and the just plain filthy rich spend money, too, to make sure they get as much benefit as they can from the session that begins next week. Highly paid lobbyists are there to pursue that goal, and the welfare of ordinary folks are often not part of their plans, as we can surmise from this account by Len Lazarick of Maryland Reporter.

Welcome to 2018. More than ever this will be a year when solidarity matters. It is going to be top-line critical that we all, as progressives, seek our commonalities and find broad areas where we can work together. And make your voice heard. See below, and in the weeks that follow, for how.

A 2013 bill in the Maryland General Assembly backed by Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker created an environment where the School CEO was basically only accountable to the County Exec.    So when it came to big decisions, public input wouldn’t really matter much as long as they had unflinching support from the other side of Upper Marlboro. It's time to reverse that process and make the board all-elected again.

The co-directors of our national affiliate, People's Action, have a positive view of the prospects for 2018. Nothing will happen without struggle, of course, but struggle will bring progress despite the GOP oligarchy at the top.

One of our jobs as progressives is to figure out how to have these conversations in a way that presents acceptable alternatives but doesn't scare away the Trump voters of the world.  I know that some of my views would not be acceptable to my co-worker, but I also know we don't have to agree 100% in order to have a conversation. 

For your attention: Action today and the early week (Dec. 18-20) against the GOP tax scam; our statewide meeting Dec. 21, plus chapter meetings for Progressive Howard (Thursday, Dec. 21) and PMD Montgomery happy hour Wednesday, Dec. 20… details for all below. And, yes, we’re already talking about January (Take Action Anne Arundel County meeting Thursday, Jan. 18).

No more Memos till January 2 – but you may hear from us if circumstances warrant, holidays notwithstanding.

Georgetown University "opposes the unionization efforts of its advanced degree candidates who are working as research and teaching assistants .. , Georgetown is betraying its obligation as a Catholic and Jesuit institution to workers and the less affluent." Hal Ginsberg analyzes Georgetown's opposition to seeing its students as working people.

The tax incentives that have brought renewable energy sources up from 1% to 7% of the US total in a decade are threatened by the GOP tax plan. Despite heavy lobbying from pro-renewables forces it is clear that their adversaries got there first and had easy access to the tax writers. The result could be a disaster, MoCo activist Susan Nerlinger recounts here in a post from the PMD Montgomery blog site.