A state delegate said he would reintroduce a bill this year declaring English Maryland?s official language.
“I believe Maryland is out of step with the mainstream on this issue, particularly the General Assembly and [Gov.-elect Martin] O?Malley,” said Del. Pat McDonough, a Republican who was re-elected this month to his second term in District 7, which includes Baltimore and Harford counties. “Thirty-five states, including the ones surrounding us, have passed some form of English as a formal language bill.”
McDonough, the self-described “poster boy” for the state?s one-language effort, supported the passage of Taneytown?s English-only resolution this week.
Following two failed statewide English-only bills he introduced the past two legislative sessions, McDonough said the movement is gaining momentum and was reflected in his successful campaign, which he described as a referendum on the issue.
He framed his re-election bid around the bill, printing “Speak English” on his campaign signs, and as a result, despite a “tide of Democratic voting,” he garnered “more votes than anyone else in [my] district,” he said.
McDonough has asked Taneytown Council Member Paul Chamberlain Jr., who introduced the city?s successful resolution, to testify in Annapolis in favor of the state bill.
McDonough named philosophical and practical reasons for making English official in a bill he expects O?Malley to veto:
» One language unifies.
» Business owners would no longer have to buy federal workplace regulation posters in languages other than English.
» Laws that require students to learn Spanish in addition to English would be prevented.
Making English official could eliminate the costs associated with conducting business in more than one language, as in Canada, according to ProEnglish, a nonprofit.
