Montgomery County activist Robin Ficker has challenged Maryland state Sen. Rob Garagiola, D-Montgomery County, to a debate on the 15-cent gasoline tax increase recommended as a way to fund the state’s transportation needs.
Garagiola sits on the Blue Ribbon Commission, the panel tasked with filling an annual $800 million gap in the state’s transportation needs. The panel recommended a 15-cent-per-gallon gas tax hike — implemented as a 5-cent increase every year for three years — among a list of tax and fee increases.
“People in the Sixth District have to drive long distances to commute to work,” Ficker wrote in an e-mailed statement. “Garagiola, a tax increase specialist, would spend the $150 a year that Western Marylanders could otherwise use for Christmas presents, on transportation projects that would have little benefit in Western Maryland.”
However Garagiola doesn’t plan to accept the request, according to his spokesman Morton Brilliant.
“Though we look forward to debating the eventual Republican nominee, right now we’re focused on launching this campaign,” Brilliant said.
Ficker, a Republican, announced his plans to run for Maryland’s recently redrawn Sixth Congressional District on Monday. Garagiola and former Montgomery County Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg also have expressed interest in the seat, which is currently occupied by 10-term Republican incumbent Rep. Roscoe Bartlett.
Following the statewide redistricting process that ended last week, Bartlett’s typically Republican district now stretches from northern and western Montgomery County through Garrett, Allegany and Washington counties in what many lawmakers have described as an attempt to give Democrats another seat in Congress.
