Category: Sandy’s 2015 Legislative Diary

Concurring with Justice Ginsburg

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was interviewed on MSNBC last night.

MSNBC: You’ve been a champion of reproductive freedom. How does it feel when you look across the country and you see states passing restrictions that make it inaccessible, if not technically illegal?

Ginsburg: Inaccessible to poor women. It’s not true that it’s inaccessible to women of means and that’s the crying shame. We will never see a day when women of means are not able to get a safe abortion in this country. There are states – take the worst case, suppose Roe v. Wade is overruled – there will still be a number of states that will not go back to old ways.

             Maryland is one of those states.

If you’re older than 40, you’ll remember that in 1991 we passed a law adopting the holding of Roe v. Wade.  The next year, the voters approved it on referendum, 62-38%.

Consequently, if Roe is overruled, nothing will change in Maryland because that law will be on the books.

That other states did not follow our lead demonstrates how poorly organized liberals are.  Contrast that with the voter ID laws in more than a dozen red states.

I shared the Ginsburg quote with my colleagues who were the pro-choice floor leaders in 1991, as I was, (Senators Barbara Hoffman and Paula Hollinger and Delegate Larry LaMotte) and with the leading lobbyist for the bill.

“Saw the interview & it sounded like she was on the floor with us when we fought the good fight!” responded former Senator Hollinger.

“I glow with pride at what we were able to do together to secure and strengthen reproductive rights for all women in Maryland,” wrote Steven Rivelis, the lobbyist for Planned Parenthood.

For me, it’s the bill that will touch more lives than any other legislation I’ve worked on.

And I’m sending this blog to my niece, Rachel, because it’s her generation and the ones that follow that will benefit from knowing that we fought and won this good fight.

Personalize and diversify

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You always want to personalize your testimony.

Sometimes you also need to diversify it.

This summer, a constituent told me his life insurance company would not provide coverage for travel to Gaza or the West Bank when in Israel.

After researching the issue, I introduced House Bill 352, which is modeled on laws in several other states.

It would prohibit a life insurer from denying coverage “for reasons associated with an applicant’s or insured’s future lawful travel plans.”  It’s already illegal to do so because of someone’s “past lawful travel plans.”

Excluded from this protection would be travel to areas where the Centers for Disease Control has issued a highest level alert or warning or where “there is an ongoing armed conflict involving the military or a sovereign nation foreign to the country or conflict.”

I will ask my constituent to testify.  That will personalize the issue.

I will also seek testimony from people of different faiths or whose jobs take them to countries where my bill would benefit them.  That will diversify the issue.

On the whole, I’d rather be in…

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“Yes, the schools are still a problem, crime is still a problem, gun violence is still a problem,” said a statewide elected official who has watched the city evolve over several decades. “But people have much more optimism about the future now.”

“While its public school system remains a mess, its crime rate elastic and its poverty rate high,” adds the reporter, “Philadelphia has been revitalized over the last decade and a half, with celebrity chefs, a vibrant technology sector and thriving art scene, all boxes to check for cities on the move these days.”

Could the same be said about Baltimore? If not, what needs to happen for that to be the case?

Guiding principles

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Two of my guiding principles for the legislative process:

  1. Co-sponsorship is the biggest waste of time in Annapolis.

2. You always want an advocate in the room when decisions are being made about your bill.

The number of cosponsors on a bill has little impact on a committee’s decision making.

But if your only co-sponsor is the chair of the subcommittee that will consider your legislation, that individual will most definitely be present when your legislation is debated and voted on.

I introduced two bills today with the relevant subcommittee chair as my only co-sponsor.

They did so after reading a two-page summary of the bill in one instance and discussing the issue at a 20-minute meeting in the other case.

Co-sponsorship too often results from a 15-second conversation on the House floor.

The subjects of my two bills: a plan to train pre-k teachers and protections for tenants when their public housing rental unit is transferred to a for-profit developer.

Favorable action is not guaranteed, but I will have eyes and ears and a voice – where and when it matters.

Counting all votes

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I don’t take anything for granted.

My reporter’s shield bill is on the agenda for the Criminal Law Subcommittee meeting tomorrow.

Today I was counting votes.

I asked a colleague if he would vote for the bill.

“Yes,” he replied.  “I voted for it last year when it failed.”

“I knew that,” I responded, since I had looked at that roll call yesterday.  “I don’t take anything for granted.”

This year’s deficit, next year’s bill

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I knew my bill was doomed.

House Bill 148 would reduce the interest rate on unpaid taxes from 13% to 3 points above the prime rate.

The problem: its cost.   As introduced, $41 million in the next fiscal year; under the amendment that I offered to phase in the change, $9 million.

Given the state’s fiscal problems and the legislature’s intent to restore funding for K-12 education, we are not going to pass a bill with either price tag.

But there’s always next year.

After the hearing ended, I turned to a business lobbyist who had testified alongside me.

I asked him to put this issue on his agenda for Hogan Administration bills next year.

He agreed to do so.

I will follow up with him this summer.

 

A reply they can’t refuse

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You don’t want to leave this session without a supportive document in your hand, I advised the advocate.

(If the analogy to “The Godfather” is unclear, please Google.)

It can be a bill, language in the budget, or a letter from a committee chairman.

What it does is put the legislature’s position on the record.

Our power to influence policy diminishes after we adjourn in April.

But what we put in writing during the 90-day session obligates the executive branch while we’re gone.

Passage of a bill is legally binding. A letter from a legislator must be answered.

In fact, I’m following this advice on another issue this session.

I don’t know what form the written obligation should take, but I know I need it.

 

The numbers that really matter

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The number of co-sponsors you have on the charter school bill will mean nothing compared to the amount of money the Governor ultimately commits to public education in his budget.

I said that to advocates for his charter bill.

I could have told the same thing to supporters of the tax credit for donations to parochial and public schools.

The reason why: the Governor’s budget would have a negative effect on every school system in the state.  It would reduce the number of teachers in classrooms.

The number one priority of the Democrats in Annapolis is to restore funding for public schools by making cuts elsewhere in the budget.

Then the Governor could increase education spending and keep the budget balanced.

If that happens, then other education issues can be considered.

From Greatest hits to a simple test

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At some point, the campaign will end and the governing will begin.

Not today, however.

Governor Hogan’s State of the State speech began with his greatest hits from the election.

           “40 consecutive tax hikes have taken an additional $10 billion out of the pockets of struggling Maryland families and small businesses. We’ve lost more than 8,000 businesses, and Maryland’s unemployment nearly doubled.”

He also stated that he would introduce legislation cutting taxes by an estimated $30 million.

What he would cut from his budget if these reductions are made, he did not say.

The Governor further said, “We have universities and schools that are among the best in the nation.”

How that jibes with the increase in K-12 class size that his budget would bring about, he did not say.

However, the Governor did give an indication as to how he will deal with the realities of governing:

             “And every decision I make as governor will be put to a simple test.

            “Will this law or action make it easier for families and small businesses to stay in Maryland?

            “And – will it make more families and small businesses want to come to Maryland?”

Before we complete our work in April, the Governor and the legislature will have countless opportunities to answer those questions.

At the witness table for the first time all over again

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I was at the witness table for more than two hours.

My first two bill hearings of the session.

I was joined by two journalists, a lawyer, and a lobbyist for the bill that would extend Maryland’s reporter’s shield law to subpoenas issued by another state.

Many questions – the most important by the vice chair of the committee:  How is the judge to decide whether our law would be violated by enforcing the subpoena?

The vice chair will be in the room with the committee chair at the first discussion of whether House Bill 8 should get a favorable report.

I hope to draft an amendment that will address her concerns.

A more supportive reception for  my second bill.

The No Wrong Door Act would increase the circumstances when applicants for public benefits – housing, health care, disability benefits, could find out if they were eligible at one computer site.

I was joined by advocates for the poor and a woman whose homelessness was addressed with state help..

Management and labor opposed the bill – the Hogan administration and AFSCME, the state employees union.

They told me in advance of their opposition.  I acknowledged it when I testified and said I was looking forward to working with them on a solution.

The committee chair vocally shared my concern.

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning