Krebs in search of a second House term

08/09/06 By Jim Joyner Susan Krebs says her first lesson in being a state legislator came not during her first term in the House of Delegates, but years earlier when she was on the Carroll County Board of Education. During the debate about overcrowding at Sykesville Middle School and the need for a new facility - eventually Oklahoma Road Middle School - the board hosted a public hearing attended by parents, children and school officials - and only one state legislator. "(Then-delegate) Richard Dixon was the only member of the delegation who came. None of the others even responded," said Krebs. "We needed that (attention); South Carroll had been the step-child for a long time," she said. Krebs said that despite Dixon's opposite party affiliation, the two became allies on that school issue, and she said his attendance at that hearing to hear residents' concerns helped fuel the cause to get Oklahoma Road MS built. She said she has tried to carry that experience - and the mission of being engaged in local issues - during her term in the House of Delegates. And she hopes to bring that message to the campaign as well, where she's facing a primary challenge from fellow Republican Larry Helminiak. The winner of that September vote will face Democrat Anita Riley in the General Election. Krebs is a frequent attendee at community meetings, especially those of the Freedom Area Citizens' Council, and said she also sits in on several county budget meetings and other deliberations. "You have to be involved. You can't solve a problem if you don't understand it," she said. "The state and county haven't always worked together, but that's what you need," she said. "Without us all working on these things, they wouldn't happen." Krebs, a mother of three children, lives in Eldersburg with her husband, Mark. A graduate of Towson University with a bachelor's degree in accounting and business administration, she became involved with school issues as a parent, then served on the Carroll County Board of Education from 1999-2002, including a term as board president in 2001-02. She was elected in 2002 to the House of Delegates in the newly-crafted District 5A, a Carroll section of the larger Carrroll/Howard 5th District. In her first term, Krebs said she's focused on issues that she raised in the 2002 campaign - education, transportation and economic growth. On transportation and growth fronts, she points to Route 32 and support for the widening and improvement project south of Liberty Road to MacBeth Way. She also touts her support for Sykesville's Warfield Complex, which she describes as the biggest economic project ever to come to Carroll County, and a key project to grow Carroll's industrial tax base and reduce the dependence on residential taxes. Taxes have been a hot issue in the District 5A race - particularly regarding Krebs' support in 2005 for a bill that would have allowed the county to impose a 1 percent transfer tax on real estate transactions. The bill was defeated by a 4-3 vote, but Krebs defends her stance - not as a means of boosting taxes, she says, but as a mechanism for reducing the property tax burden on Carroll residents. "It was enabling legislation, and (was) connected to a reduction of the property tax cap," she said. "To me, it would have helped to shift the burden away from property taxes. ... I think it was a reasonable request to try to get the emphasis off property taxes." Also on the tax front, Krebs says she has worked on an effort to see the state's estate tax - also known as the "death tax," match federal levels. Krebs has sponsored legislation to boost the state's standard on estate taxes to exempt the first $2 million of assessed value from any tax - thus matching the federal government guidelines. Currently, the state guideline exempts the first $1 million. While her effort failed over the pass two years, a bill was approved in the 2006 session to cap the tax at 16 percent once that $1 million threshold is hit. Krebs called it "a step in the right direction," but said she hopes to get the opportunity to revisit the issue next year.