Sandy’s 2012 Legislative Diary – Page 8

A perfect record, thus far

February 4, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I’m batting 1.000.

Let me assure you. I’m not at Orioles Fantasy Camp.

I’m in Florida but with my mother.

My perfect record is in Annapolis, thus far.

A work group agreed to amendments on my bill to allow medical practitioners to provide care to homeless youth.

I also learned that the Health and Government Operations Committee will be working on my amendment to the bill protecting professors’ intellectual property. Committees don’t spend time on legislation they expect to kill.

We’re still at the start of the game for both bills, but you can’t score if you don’t get on base.

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When I gave my mother this past week’s diary printout, she pointed out that one of my sentences was incomplete because it lacked a verb.

Error me.

A staple in time

February 2, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Little things count.

A staple, in this instance.

Late yesterday, I took my staff’s advice and decided to narrow the scope of my legislation exempting a professor’s research or other information of a proprietary nature from the Public Information Act.

Using the University System of Maryland’s definition of intellectual property, we drafted an amendment that exempts from public access a faculty member’s research that meets that definition.

All of the language in the original bill would be deleted. The amendment would become the bill.

After I made the final edits to my testimony this morning, I left this note for my staff:

Staple the amendment to my testimony.

The reason: When committee members read my testimony, they will also see the amendment. When I speak before the committee and refer to the amendment, they won’t be searching for it among the many papers on their desks.

The hearing went well. Committee members read my amendment.

It doesn’t guarantee they’ll vote for the bill, but every little thing helps.

The power of persuasion

February 1, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Gov hasn’t found the two votes yet, but he has the power and the skill to “persuade.”

That’s how I responded to a friend’s email about the status of the marriage equality bill.

That analysis equally applies to the revenue measures that Governor O’Malley discussed in his State of the State address. And on those issues, he needs to “persuade” more than two members.

“How much less education do we want? How much less public safety?” declared the Governor.

If my colleagues agree that their constituents would answer “none,” they will vote yes.

One thing for sure: the next 70 days will be a case study of how many tough votes we can make in one session.

Done in by the Commerce Clause

January 31, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

No doubt many of you read Taylor Branch’s expose of the NCAA, The Shame of College Sports.

Since I know Taylor, I asked him if there was anything that he and I could do in Annapolis to reform how the NCAA rules over intercollegiate athletics.

Provide procedural protections for student-athletes who are under investigation, he advised.

So I drafted a bill that would give those in the cross hairs of the NCAA the same due process protections they would have if accused of violating the Code of Student Conduct for the University of Maryland System.

Today I met with U of M officials. My assigned reading was NCAA v. Miller, where a federal court struck down a Nevada law requiring that certain procedural protections be provided for a state university student or employee subject to an NCAA hearing.

The court held that the law imposed an excessive burden on the NCAA’s enforcement procedures, which violated the Commerce Clause in the Constitution.

Since my bill would meet the same fate, I will not introduce it.

However, the court did note that member institutions of the NCAA can seek “desired changes in the NCAA bylaws which regulate the investigative and enforcement procedures.”

When I was a student at Amherst College, the football coach, Jim Ostendarp, rejected televising one of our games on NBC during a NFL players strike.

“We’re in the education business, not the entertainment business,” he declared.

Coach Ostendarp could not say that today about Division I athletics.

Explaining and extinguishing

January 26, 2012January 26, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Lottery proceeds were never designated for education.

Lots of people think that they were, but that’s not the case.

So our constituents were skeptical when my 41^st District colleagues and I told them four years ago that a portion of slots proceeds would be used to implement the Park Heights Master plan and to further economic and community development in other neighborhoods within one mile of Pimlico Race Track.

That was before a sharp drop in the projected revenues going to these communities. Many residents assumed that the money had been improperly sent elsewhere.

The General Assembly’s budget staff makes these estimates, but they couldn’t leave Annapolis to attend a community meeting on the subject last night.

So I was the designated explainer.

I began by identifying the cause of the shortfall: the decision not to open a temporary slots facility at Arundel Mills.

Then I shared the blame. “When that was announced, my colleagues and I should have asked for revised estimates, instead of waiting for staff to do so.”

I concluded by discussing the provisions in the law that determine how much money goes to communities, slots players, and education. This time there is an explicit allocation for schools – 48.5% of the money that is not returned to the slots players.

“You put out the fire” about the loss of money, one person said to me afterwards.

An amendment made only in heaven

January 25, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The story begins with a request from Sen. Delores Kelley.

She asked me to introduce in the House a bill she was sponsoring in the Senate – a crossfile in the legislative lexicon.

She has done this for me on several occasions; so I said yes.

Senate Bill 216/House Bill 164 would repeal the requirement that a marriage license be issued by the clerk of the county in which the marriage is performed.

A couple that lives or works in the Baltimore metropolitan area may be getting married elsewhere. It’s an inconvenience to go to a distant clerk’s office.

A staff member told me that a rumor was circulating that my bill was a Trojan horse.

It would pass the committee and then a marriage equality amendment would transform it on the House floor.

“The thought hasn’t crossed my mind,” I replied.

Truth be known, I relish such strategic maneuvers, but I didn’t think of it this time.

Then a reporter called. “Is the bill prompted by concerns that a clerk of the court might not issue a license to a same-sex couple?”

“Not the case,” I answered.

There was no mention of my bill in the newspaper story.

Scalia and me, together in public

January 24, 2012January 24, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

On this issue, Justice Scalia and I agree.

Your right to privacy extends beyond your home, whether the police are using a wiretap, tracking your movements with a GPS device, or learning the location of your cellphone calls.

Yesterday, the Justice wrote a majority opinion holding that before the police attach a GPS device to a suspect’s car, they must get a warrant.

Two years ago, I introduced a bill requiring the police to get a warrant before they learn where you used your mobile communications device by obtaining the records from your service provider.

I will now reintroduce my legislation. Before the bill hearing, I’ll meet with the advocates and opponents from two years ago. This time, with Justice Scalia on my side.

This was not my only high tech encounter today.

If the Maryland Lottery begins selling online, software can determine where you are when you make your purchase.

Under existing law, to play to win, you gotta be in the state.

I was in the Ways and Means hearing room when I learned that. At a public hearing.

Here to help you

January 23, 2012January 23, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.

Ronald Reagan said those were the “nine most terrifying words in the English language.”

Elderly homeowners who need minor maintenance on their home would disagree – if such help were available and they knew of its existence.

An elderly homeowner may face more pressing problems than a leaky roof and is justifiably reluctant to take on debt.

However, a deteriorating property poses a problem for its owners, their heirs, and their neighbors.

We need to intervene before these people get “caught in the crosshairs of code enforcement,” said a participant at my pre-bill drafting meeting.

CHAI is already providing such assistance in Northwest Baltimore, but the need far exceeds its resources.

My conversations with some of the first families to buy on their block in Forest Park and other communities are confirmed by the census data. There are hundreds of homeowners 75 and older in the Park Heights and Liberty Heights corridors.

We decided to draft a bill creating a task force on aging in place.

Help from the government may be on its way.

Clearing the biases

January 22, 2012January 23, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Even though you don’t want a campaign to be waged on your opponent’s terms, there will be a moment in the debates this fall when President Obama responds to a right-wing falsehood/slur with the equivalent of “Stop lying about my record” or “Have you no sense of decency” and hit the ball/bum out of the ballpark.

My Key Issues:

Category: Sandy’s 2012 Legislative Diary