Sandy’s 2012 Legislative Diary – Page 7

Accomplishments, an officer, and an icon

February 20, 2012February 22, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | 1 Comment

Pimlico Race Course, repeal of the death penalty, and stem cell research were on my list of issues to deal with when the day began.

It’s premature to discuss the substance of my power breakfast, meetings, and emails.

But I can say that the commitment made, the contacts planned, and the drafting initiated were what I hoped to accomplish.

—

On my way to that power breakfast, a police car pulled up alongside.

Before I could ask, “Is there a problem, Officer?”, I was informed that my left brake light was not working.

“I’m a legislator on my way to Annapolis for the week,” I responded. “I’ll get it fixed this weekend.”

“I was there Friday for the marriage bill,” the officer said.

“I voted for it,” I replied.

“I know you did, Delegate Rosenberg,” she answered.

—

My words on the House floor during the marriage equality debate were echoed in a Baltimore Jewish Times interview w Rebecca Alpert, author of Out Of Left Field, a book about Jews and Black baseball:

“Jackie Robinson was a Jewish icon. If he could integrate baseball, Jews could become American.”

A man I never met

February 17, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The marriage equality bill has passed the House of Delegates, 71-67.

This is what I said during the floor debate:

I have never been discriminated against because I am a Jew.

But I stand here today because Thomas Kennedy believed that religious freedom was more important than his political future. (Delegate Kennedy sponsored the Jew bill, which allowed Jews to serve in the Maryland General Assembly.)

I stand here today because a man I never met, my grandfather, Samuel Isadore Rosenberg, left Tsarist Russia to come to a land of freedom.

I stand here today because Jacob Edelman also fled oppression and became a member of the Baltimore City Council and chair of the Maryland Human Relations Commission.

In a society that respects differences, that welcomes the minority, we all benefit.

I will proudly vote yes on this bill.

Intricacies and exigencies

February 16, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I wrote my floor speech on the marriage bill in my head last night.

I put it on my hard drive this morning.

I hope to give it before the weekend.

Unless the opponents succeed with parliamentary delays, the bill will be voted on by the full House on Friday.

—-

I always try to work off of my document – except when I don’t.

If everyone’s using my words, I’m shaping the discussion.

I have delegated that crucial task to others for two of my bills.

House Bill 460 would require the police to get a search warrant before getting your cell phone records from your service provider. The prosecutors and police that I met with last week know far more about the intricacies and exigencies than I do. I asked them to draft amendments, which my co-sponsor and I will review, along with the Public Defender.

An economic inclusion plan requiring the developer to hire people from the surrounding neighborhoods is part of the State Center project in Baltimore. House Bill 523 would require that such plans be adopted for all state construction projects of $25 million or more.

Executive Branch officials informed me this afternoon that the Governor very much likes this concept. I asked them to draft an English narrative of how we should do this. That draft will then be discussed by the interested parties and if agreement is reached, become the amended bill.

In both instances, I know the goal I want to reach, but the designated drafters understand the details far better than I do.

Credit for answering a question or not

February 14, 2012February 14, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I was asked a question I didn’t know the answer to.

(In law school the shoe was assumed to be on the other foot: I was taught not to ask a question if I didn’t know the answer.)

My bill would provide tax relief to the working poor.

The earned income tax credit was enacted at the federal level when Gerald Ford was President. Maryland adopted its version in 1998.

For example, the state credit for a married couple with two children with an income of $25,000 is currently $1,147.

House Bill 331 would increase that amount by $266.

Why do we need this bill?

The last time we increased this credit was at the special session in 2007 when we raised the sales tax to 6%.

The taxes we are now considering would increase the sales tax on gas, impose a mandatory electricity fee of $24, and raise the current “flush tax” from $30 to $60. The projected annual cost is $147 for a family earning $25,000.

Since this would have a disproportionate effect on the working poor, I testified, we should increase the benefit.

Now it was time for questions.

Delegate Serafini asked, “Should we pass this bill if we don’t increase those taxes?”

I hadn’t thought about that.

Trying to come up with an answer as I responded, I said, “If that’s the case, I would not ask the committee to pass this bill.”

“I don’t know if the advocates following me will agree,” I added.

They did not disagree.

The secret word is suppression

February 13, 2012February 13, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The first grade classrooms at Cross Elementary School haven’t moved.

I returned to my alma mater to sit in on the class of Aaron Sohaski, a Teach For America corps member whom I’m sponsoring.

It was at the far end of the first floor corridor, just like 55 years ago.

One of the students guessed my age, but no one could do the math to figure out what year I was in first grade.

Turning from math to English, Aaron taught the difference between grouch, grouchy, grouchier, and grouchiest.

I doubt if I knew who Groucho Marx was when I was these kids’ age. So, like Harpo, I said nothing.

—-

Voter suppression – requiring voters to have a government-issued ID or making misleading robo calls the afternoon of Election Day, is an issue I’ve worked on for several years.

During the Great Depression, “paper exclusion” laws were used to deny the vote to people on relief, I learned from an op-ed in today’s New York Times.

When my niece and nephew, Rachel and Elliot, were in the first grade, we tried to coax them into eating mashed potatoes by saying they were French fries’ cousin.

Today’s voter ID requirements are the cousin of denying the vote to the unemployed.

Starting the discussion

February 11, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I’m still batting 1.000, but that won’t last.

The two bills I wrote about last week remain in good shape.

The Senate version of my bill to allow medical practitioners to provide care to homeless youth got a favorable committee report. Monday afternoon, I’ll be discussing my legislation to protect professors’ research and creative work with the subcommittee chairman and the lobbyist for the University of Maryland System.

Thursday was the deadline to introduce bills and be guaranteed a public hearing.

I now have 29 bills in the hopper.

I don’t expect all of them to become law – this session. Several I introduced to start discussing an issue.

Some positive developments to report on some of those bills:

House Bill 460 would require the police to get a warrant before they contact your service provider to learn where you were when you used your mobile communications device. After we met this week, prosecutors are drafting amendments to the bill, instead of opposing it.

I already knew that advocates for senior citizens were enthused about House Bill 991, which would create a task force to study how to assist seniors with minor repairs needed to maintain their homes. I learned that state housing officials are interested as well.

You can’t use someone else’s image to promote your business without their consent. Several states protect the commercial value of an individual’s identity even after they die. House Bill 557 would add Maryland to that list. Yesterday I learned that a prominent Marylander may have assigned his publicity rights to another state because his estate would not be protected here.

No doubt actions have already been taken or planned to kill some of my bills, but I don’t know about them – yet.

Contraceptives and the Center

February 9, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

It’s the center, stupid.

Last week, people were outraged over the Susan B Komen Foundation’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood.

In the midst of the controversy, I wrote a friend, “I think this aroused such a stir, even though only poor women are affected, because people are so fed up with the ideas emanating from the far right and how they’re affecting public policy.”

The money is again flowing, and the official seen as responsible has resigned.

This week, there is an outcry over the Obama Administration’s decision to require Catholic hospitals to provide coverage for contraceptives in the insurance plan for their employees.

There is already talk of compromise, and there is finger pointing from current and recent White House staffers as to who was responsible for the decision.

Here again, many of the people affected are low-wage employees.

For now, the Church occupies the center but that could change if a reasonable compromise is proposed and rejected.

Ditto if GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum repeats his claim, first made on Fox News, that President Obama is “a hostile president, not just to people of faith, but to all freedoms.”

Whether religious organizations and people of faith should be exempted from laws that are contrary to their beliefs will be debated in Annapolis as we consider marriage equality.

When that debate moves to the voting public during a referendum, the center will again prevail, as it usually does.

Without a bill in the hand

February 8, 2012February 8, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

It wasn’t Bill Clinton giving his State of the Union address despite a malfunctioning teleprompter, but it’s as close as I hope to be.

I thought my two election bills would be the last heard at today’s hearing.

Since both had passed the committee last year, I did not ask anyone to testify in support. To avoid having members of the public spend an entire afternoon waiting to be heard, bills with witnesses are usually heard first.

However, the sponsors of other bills were not in the room, and the chair called mine early. As I walked from my seat to the witness table, I realized that I had my testimony in my hand but not House Bills 312 and 314.

There was no turning back.

Since this wasn’t my first time, I don’t think anyone noticed any uncertainty in my testimony or my responses to questions.

Fortunately, there were no questions beginning with, “On page 2, line 5 of your bill, can you explain…”

Knowing the words

February 8, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I know more now about my legislation protecting professors’ work product than I did when I testified in support of House Bill 62.

That’s because I’m about to meet with the chairman of the subcommittee to which the bill has been referred.

Before the full committee, I was discussing policy. Now, I will be dealing with words.

What’s the effect of removing this phrase from the bill? Of using language that the University of Maryland system (and its lawyers) have relied on for many years or creating a new definition?

My chief of staff drafted a memo. As I edited it, I learned more about the issue.

Tomorrow, I’ll give it to the subcommittee chair.

—

Over the years, I’ve gotten lots of nicknames.

I picked up a new one tonight.

Senator Bobby Zirkin introduced to me the crowd at the Jewish community’s Advocacy Day reception as the “dean of the Jewish delegation in Annapolis.”

Like most nicknames, it has the added virtue of being true.

Lost in the translation

February 6, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Politique volontariste sounds better in French.

It means proactive policy, according to Google Translate and SNCF.

In this instance, when used by SNCF, the French national railroad, it means refusing to acknowledge the real reason why the company is making public its records detailing its transport of Jews and others to the German border during World War II, where thousands were subsequently sent to their deaths.

A press release from SNCF heralded its delivery of these digitized documents to the Shoah Memorial in Paris, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and the Holocaust Museum in Washington.

One can assume they’re also being prepared for delivery to the State of Maryland, as required under House Bill 520, the legislation we passed last session.

SNCF has expressed interest in bidding on a major commuter rail contract in Maryland. To qualify, it must make these records available.

I didn’t expect to be praised by SNCF, but our efforts shouldn’t be ignored.

My Key Issues:

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