Bill Conway - Candidate, County Council, At-Large

The Activist - Montgomery County, Maryland & Beyond

Hear Bill's Views Regarding:

AGRICULTURAL RESERVE

• Environmental / Preservation of Green Space
• Ensure Reserve Remains a Reserve
• Should Other Businesses Be Able to Operate in the Ag Reserve?
• Staple agriculture is dominant; But a locavore movement is growing
• On Zoning to Build a Residence
• Designation of Rural / Rustic Roads (Some farmers would like to expand to accommodate farm equipment more easily)

TRANSFERABLE DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS

• TDRs - a way to compensate upcountry land owners for lost land value since they can’t develop

BIO

• From Louisiana
• Law School
• Worked at DC Law Firm (Doing Federal Regulatory Work)
• Worked at Senate Energy Committee
• Entrepreneur - Electricity Space
• Partner at Law Firm - Electricity Work / Wind & Solar Work

FINANCING OF CAMPAIGN

• Not restricting any sources of funds
• Approximately four developer contributions from 700 contributions
• Since contributions are from individuals, all contributions should be accepted
• A lot of contributions from environmental groups

CLIMATE

• We are seeing the results of climate change
• A test of the species
• Requires collective action we’ve never seen in human civilization
• Localities / States need to move since federal government is scaling back
• A carbon tax is most efficient way to get the effects we need (needs to happen at the federal level)

COUNTY CLIMATE EMERGENCY RESOLUTION

• Supports a climate mobilization emergency office
• Need programs for retrofitting buildings
• Individuals need to step up

ELECTRICITY SYSTEM

• Need storage in the system to accommodate solar / wind

ADDRESSING THE SCHOOL BUS FLEET EMISSIONS

DICKERSON INCINERATOR / POWER PLANT

• Close the Incinerator
• More neutral on power plant (Burning gas, not coal)

THE CHALLENGE OF GETTING TO Zero WASTE

PRIORITIES:

• Jobs
• Transportation
• Schools

JOBS ARE TRANSCENDENTLY IMPORTANT

• Aging population
• Needy population is growing
• Structural Imbalance
• Only way to keep helping residents in need is to grow revenues (new jobs / business)
• Property taxes are too high
• Need to market the county
• Be welcoming to business
• Streamline regulatory processes
• • Need lots of small changes to change business environment
• Need to attract younger population
• Play to strengths: sciences - biotech, NIST, NIH
• Support universities and vocational tech careers

GOOD JOBS FIRST OUTLOOK ON TAX SUBSIDIES FOR CORPORATIONS

• Better to focus on small / medium businesses, not the big corporate whale

CULTURE OF EVIDENCE / CLIMATE OF CIVILITY

ACHIEVEMENT GAP

• Fix is to have universal pre-care