Del. Dalya Attar was appointed by her fellow Democrats to fill Baltimore City’s vacant seat for District 41 in the Maryland Senate.

Attar is expected to take the place of Sen. Jill Carter, who was appointed by Gov. Wes Moore to serve on the Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals.

The Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee recommended Attar’s appointment after a hearing Tuesday. Moore still has to confirm the move.

Attar said she was born and raised in the West Baltimore district and still lives near Reisterstown Road Plaza. One key area that she was asked by committee members to address was the problem of juvenile crime.

“What I continue to see in the last seven years as a legislator, we are not properly rehabilitating our children,” Attar said at the meeting that was shown on Facebook and Zoom. “And that is crucial. Now, we can point fingers at who is not properly [rehabilitating] them, but it’s the entire system. It’s all of us as a society that need to make that the focus of rehabilitating our children.

“What I would like to see this coming session or in the Senate next session is that if we still need to provide the [Department of Juvenile Services] with more services so they could properly rehabilitate our children, that’s what I want to do.”

Attar, who attended the Bais Yaakov School for Girls in Pikesville, also addressed a question about the state’s budget deficit. Taxing millionaires might not be the best solution because many of them could just leave the state, Attar said.

“What I would do is start focusing on revenue,” Attar said. “That would be first. We have made a lot of commitments in prior years for resources and things that we need, for example, like education. We don’t want to automatically cut from those. We want to first look at different revenue options.”

Attar contends the state should be taking more money from cannabis sales, gambling in person and online, and tobacco taxes.

“Those aren’t necessities,” she said.

Attar said her preference would be to serve on the Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee in the Senate.

“We’re not going to see a reduction in crime, especially with our children, if our schools are not grade-A schools, and we are not giving our children what they need,” said Attar, who has an 11-year-old and a 12-year-old. “That starts with education.”

The five central committee members who voted for Attar were Lakesha Brown Wright-El, Alex Friedman, former Del. Angela Gibson, City Councilman Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer and Sandy Rosenbluth.

Brian Easley, Dayvon Love and committee chair Tammy Stinnett voted for Del. Malcolm P. Ruff to fill the vacancy.

“I have made a track record of showing up in the entire district and making sure that I’m present, I’m listening and that I have a great understanding of the issues that are facing our constituents,” said Ruff, who grew up in Park Heights and attended Gilman School.

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