Category: Sandy’s 2018 Legislative Diary

Extended Hours at the Pratt Library

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The intersection of Pennsylvania and North Avenues was the focal point of the demonstrations and confrontations after the death of Freddie Gray.

The neighborhood branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library at that intersection stayed open.

That commitment to the library’s mission prompted the 2016 General Assembly to enact legislation providing state funds to extend the hours of all Pratt branches.

The bill became law without Governor Hogan’s signature because he opposes mandates that require him to put money in the state budget.

When we told neighborhood groups that their branch would be open longer, they were elated – from Edmondson Village to Roland Park, with branches in Walbrook, Forest Park, and Glen In between.

Delegate Angela Gibson and I wanted to learn about the impact of the longer hours first hand.

We toured the five branches in the 41st District last week.

Patronage and circulation are up.

The lesson I brought home, however, is that a library branch and the access it provides to computers is of great benefit to job seekers.

What they learn from the books they borrow will make them more skilled employees.

A quality education, gun violence, and a 21st Century Pimlico

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Whether it’s providing a quality education for all of our children, protecting us from gun violence, or building a 21st Century Pimlico Race Track that will benefit the entire community, Baltimore City and the 41st District need effective representation in Annapolis. I achieved significant progress on these issues and others during this year’s legislative session and throughout my career.

Universal Pre-K and Seven New Schools

Race to the Tots was the name Senator Bill Ferguson and I gave to our 2013 legislation creating a competitive grant program to stimulate innovation and expand access to high-quality early childhood education. The next year, the Prekindergarten Expansion Act of 2014 was introduced by the O’Malley Administration. Public and private providers could bid for $4.3 million in grants to stimulate innovation and expand access to high-quality early childhood education.

Our efforts helped set the stage for the recommendation of the Kirwan Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education that the state provide universal access to public and private prekindergarten for all four-year olds and low-income three-year olds. This year, we passed legislation mandating that the Governor maintain funding for pre-k expansion at $23 million when a federal grant and state match expire in the next fiscal year.

I look forward to attending the reopening of the new Lyndhurst Elementary School. Arlington, Cross Country, Forest Park, Pimlico, Mary Rodman, and Calvin Rodwell will also be rebuilt under the 21st Century Schools Program, which my City delegation colleagues and I fought for in 2013. We must now ensure that the instruction in these schools is also of the highest quality.

Parochial schools also play a vital role in the education of many children in our community. My advocacy helped bring about a $1.5 million funding increase for these low-income students.

Reducing Handgun Violence

We must reduce the risk of gun violence. It’s become too easy to get a handgun license because of Governor Larry Hogan. In Maryland, if you want to wear, carry, or transport a handgun, you must obtain a license from the State Police. If your application is rejected, you can appeal to the Handgun Permit Review Board, whose members are appointed by the Governor.

That system has worked for over 40 years. However, the current members, all appointees of Governor Hogan, have reversed far more license denials by the State Police than did any of their predecessors.

House Bill 819 will send appeals from the Review Board to administrative law judges, subject its hearings to the Open Meetings Act, and require an annual report on the Board’s decisions. I joined Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary in sponsoring this bill. It passed both houses of the General Assembly with bipartisan majorities. We will continue to monitor the Board.

Black Eyed Susans and a Green Facility

The Preakness is our Super Bowl. Every May, our economy gets a huge boost from visitors and locals celebrating the second jewel of the Triple Crown. An abandoned Pimlico would be a major blow to Northwest Baltimore, the City, and the metropolitan region.

It was my idea for the Maryland Stadium Authority to conduct a study of Pimlico’s future. The final phase of that this review has just begun. The study will include “visioneering and concept development of an ‘ideal’ Preakness venue…and assessing the site’s ability to accommodate various non-racing functions on a year-round basis.” It should be completed by December.

A 21st Century Pimilco must be environmentally friendly. I have asked for a review of alternative paving methods to reduce water runoff and green storm water mitigation facilities. LifeBridge Health expects to use its Preakness Way property on the eastern end of the site as a destination campus, including an outpatient care center.

My top priority for next year’s session will be to keep the Preakness where it belongs – at Pimlico – and to do so in a way that benefits all neighborhoods near the track. The site of the second Triple Crown race will be a jewel in Baltimore’s crown.

See https://marylandmatters.org/2018/03/22/guest-commentary-keeping-the-preakness-at-pimlico-what-are-the-odds/

A Leg Up from Start-ups to Amazon

Whether it’s Amazon HQ2 or a start-up company in shared work space, a well educated work force is essential for Marylanders to compete in the 21st Century economy. The first foot in the door for many young people is an internship.

In 2014, I worked with Freeman Hrabowski, President of UMBC, to create a tech internship program, where the State of Maryland pays part of the salary for a summer internship with a start-up. This session, I worked with Governor Hogan to fund the program and expand it to larger companies, like Amazon, as well as state and local governments.

Not Political Grandstanding

Every day I cringe at the damage being done by the Trump Administration to our democracy and our well being. Last year I introduced the bill which gave Attorney General Brian Frosh the authority to sue the federal government without Governor Hogan’s approval. Whether President Trump is unconstitutionally profiting from his business dealings while in office is the issue in one of the suits the AG filed as a result of this law. A trial judge recently allowed this case to proceed.

When Republicans tried to eliminate funding for the lawyers needed for this litigation, I declared on the House floor, “It is imperative that our Attorney General, on behalf of the people of Maryland, defend the rule of law. It is not tomfoolery to defend the rule of law. It is not political grandstanding to defend the rule of law. That’s what we asked our Attorney General to do.” This funding was not cut.


First Response to Online Dirty Tricks

I was a key player in our first-in-the nation response to the Kremlin’s disruption campaign during the 2016 election. As a result of my introduction of House Bill 768, when such ads target our state or local elections in the future, online platforms will be required to retain copies of campaign material and to disclose who paid for political ads.

Several of the provisions in my legislation were amended on to House Bill 981, which has been enacted. Maryland is the first state to adopt such a law.

Safe Streets and Hate Crimes

The Safe Streets program stops the spread of violence in communities by using the strategies associated with disease control, the Abell Foundation concluded. It detects and interrupts conflicts, identifies and treats the highest-risk individuals, and changes social norms. Mayor Catherine Pugh wants to expand this program, and I supported the bill we passed requiring a $3.6 million funding increase.

A constituent met with me about juveniles who had threatened to rob him. What could be done to impose the appropriate penalty on young but serious offenders? The failure of witnesses to appear, I found out, is a major problem. I worked with Delegate Luke Clippinger on House Bill 1023. A judge can now ensure a witness’s attendance by issuing a court order directing that a witness be brought before the court.

The Weinberg Park Heights JCC was evacuated twice last year due to bomb threats. I sponsored the bill that made hate crimes a felony in Maryland. I introduced House Bill 246 to make a threat to commit such a crime a felony as well, even if there was no attempt to carry it out, as happened at the JCC. HB 246 did not pass, but we did enact a law expanding hate crimes to include illegal actions directed at a group of people, not just an individual. This reflects the harm that such crimes can have on the greater community’s sense of security.

E-cigarette Vaping and Crisis Services

My work has reduced teen smoking. This session, I focused on electronic cigarettes. There is much evidence that this is now the entry point to smoking for many youth. I introduced House Bill 1094, which will impose the same penalties for the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors as we already do for the illegal sale of tobacco products. HB 1094 was enacted.

The demand for mental health and substance abuse services, such as opioid addiction, keeps growing, but treatment resources have not expanded to meet that need. This care can significantly reduce preventable behavioral health crises and offer earlier intervention to stabilize a situation more quickly and at the lowest level of care appropriate. House Bill 1092 will fund a program for local jurisdictions to apply for state grants to establish or expand these services.

I was able to pursue measures this session to improve the health, safety, education and economic prosperity of the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland. There is much still to be done. With your support for myself and Delegate Angela C. Gibson, I promise to continue this vital work for the residents of the 41st District.

The work continues

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Even after a bill passes, the work continues.

We took the final legislative action today on my bill modifying the law authorizing state funding of internships for college students with high-tech companies.

Governor Hogan funded the internships this year, after I suggested that this could demonstrate to Amazon the state’s commitment to creating a well trained high-tech workforce.

I emailed the people at UMBC that I worked with on the bill.

House just concurred in the Senate amendment. Two dates need to be scheduled:

1. Bill signing [by the Governor]

2. Luncheon for the first High Tech Interns. [UMBC administers two public service internship programs that I sponsored. I get to speak to the group every year.]

Excellent work all around.

The response:

We are delighted to hear this!

We are already giving thought to a fall event where we can hear about the experiences of the first cohort and their employers.

At that event, I’ll learn if the program needs to be improved – with a bill or otherwise.

Researching the law

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“Frosh joins suit on census” was the headline for the main story in today’s Baltimore Sun.

It prompted me to write this letter to the editor.

Dear Editors:

It is the judiciary’s duty to “say what the law is,” declared Chief Justice Marshall in 1803.

The lawsuits brought by Attorney General Brian Frosh in response to the questionable actions of the Trump Administration further that bedrock principle.

My colleague Delegate Kathy Szeliga, the minority whip, believes that these cases are “wasting taxpayer money on petty partisan politics.”

The record demonstrates otherwise.

More than forty attorneys general have the legal authority to sue the federal government without the approval of their governor.

Under the law that the General Assembly enacted last year, when Mr. Frosh believes that “the federal government’s action or inaction…threatens the public interest and welfare” of the state’s residents, he must seek Governor Hogan’s input before going to court.

When Obamacare was challenged in 2010, 26 attorneys general filed a brief opposing the law.

When Scott Pruitt was the Oklahoma Attorney General, he frequently sued the Environmental Protection Agency, which he now heads.

Among the cases that Attorney General Frosh has brought are legal challenges to the Muslim travel ban; a Presidential decision on the Affordable Cate Act that would skyrocket health insurance premiums in the private market; and actions harmful to the Chesapeake Bay and climate change.

Judge Peter Messitte has cleared the way to proceed on the suit asserting that President Trump has unconstitutionally profited from his business dealings.

Before AG Frosh took these actions, he did not examine the poll numbers, he researched the law.

A study and a list

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

A study is better than a dead bill.

Especially when your bill has been amended to require that the study be done by the Board of Public Works, whose three members are the Governor, Comptroller, and State Treasurer. ard.

The Laborers’ International Union of North America asked me to introduce House Bill 776.

A contractor or subcontractor bidding on state capital construction projects would be awarded at least a 4% preference if it provides health care coverage for its employees.

This would compensate for the cost of health insurance.

The contractors who don’t provide this benefit for their workers objected.

Meetings were held to see if a compromise could be reached.

The report, analyzing the health care costs and Social Security wages of bids submitted over a three-month period, is the compromise.

The due date is due November 1.

I’ve added this issue to my bills.19 list.

If I’ve earned another four-year term from the voters of the 41st District.

Wait ‘til next term

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

If you don’t get your bill passed by midnight next Monday, it’s wait ‘til next term.

At the hearing on my bill to make the penalty for the sale of e-cigarettes to minors identical to that for tobacco products, one Senator was concerned that police would be arresting juvenile smokers.

I asked one of our reference librarians to research the question.

These are not arrests; civil citations are issued.

I emailed this information to all of the members of the committee, with a link to a New York Times article today about the “vaping explosion” among high school students. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/health/vaping-ecigarettes-addiction-teen.html.

In addition to this digital lobbying, I will talk to two members of the committee and ask them to look out for my bill.

—

A lobbyist for a non-profit spoke to me about a Senate bill in my committee.

He wants to amend it.

“Would this be considered a friendly amendment by the Senate?” I asked him.

If not friendly, we agreed, it won’t be offered.

Don’t risk a bill dying because a compromise could not be reached before next Monday midnight.

Jackie, Brooks, Frank, and Mrs. Glenn

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

This is the prayer I gave at the start of today’s session of the House of Delegates.

This is the earliest Opening Day in Orioles history.

Fifty years ago, Opening Day was delayed one day.

The day before, the funeral service was held for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Among those in the funeral march was Jackie Robinson.

In 1968, there were two Robinsons in the Orioles starting lineup.

Brooks had graduated from Little Rock Central High School in 1955, two years before federal troops were needed to enforce a court order to desegregate the school.

When Frank Robinson arrived in the segregated Baltimore of 1966, he was initially denied a decent home to rent.

I told that story in my Opening Day prayer two years ago.

Later, at the game, I met a woman who had read my prayer online.

Mrs. Glenn and her husband have season tickets in my section.

We have become baseball friends.

Two future Hall of Famers hit home runs on April 10, 1968 – Brooks and Reggie Jackson. The Orioles beat the Oakland A’s, 3-1.

I don’t remember if I was at Memorial Stadium that day.

I may have been across the street in a City College classroom.

My parents, unlike the Speaker, did not always give me the day off from school on Opening Day.

Play ball!

A Fundamental Right

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

We were debating the Secure and Accessible Registration Act on the House floor.

Under current law, when you renew your driver’s license or file for benefits, you’re asked if you want to register to vote.

Under this bill, you would be registered to vote when you renew your license or seek benefits but asked if you did not want to be a voter.

In both instances, you would have to demonstrate your eligibility to be a voter..

One of my Republican colleagues said that one of our most cherished rights as an American is the right to be left alone, citing Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

This is what I said in response:

We are indeed talking about one of our most cherished rights in this debate, the fundamental right to vote. What Lyndon Johnson and many others said is the most important right, the most important civil right.

We have had a steady progression in opening up the ballot since the Voting Rights Act of ‘65. Early voting, absentee ballot. This is just the next step. There are those who’ve tried to make it more difficult to vote, but I would hope that a majority of this body believes that the fundamental right to vote is furthered by this legislation. Thank you.

I was the last person who spoke on the bill.

It passed, 93-46.

This is why I run for office: to protect the right to vote and the other rights secured to each of us in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Two dreamers: Brown and Brin

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I walked by the Thurgood Marshall statue several times today.

With special meaning, because of the passing of Linda Brown, the young girl on whose behalf Marshall sued in Brown v. Board of Education.

The Marshall statue is the centerpiece outside the State House, but there are two smaller statues.

One is of Linda Brown and another elementary school student.

The other is of the plaintiff in the first case Marshall brought in his legal strategy to end segregation, the “separate but equal” legal doctrine.

In 1934, he sued the University of Maryland Law School to admit Donald Gaines Murray.

Murray and I share something in common. Both of us went to Amherst College.

—

A bill in my committee would require the state government to provide foreign language access on state websites if 0.5% of Maryland’s population with limited English proficiency speaks a certain language instead.

Spanish and Chinese are the two that meet that requirement.

This must be done only if there’s no cost to the state.

Google Translate meets the test.

Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, emigrated to Maryland from the Soviet Union when he was six years old.

Whether or not he was English proficient, it makes the point.

Bipartisanship: Sooner rather than later

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Bipartisanship shouldn’t start at the end of the 90-day session.

It’s needed earlier in the legislative process.

I’ve written in this diary about meetings I had with the opponents of my bills.

In several instances, we reached a compromise.

Sometimes people at a higher pay grade are needed to reach consensus.

During my time here, the governor has met with the presiding officers in the final weeks of the session.

Agreement was reached.

During this four-year term, such a meeting didn’t take place on an important bill that the Governor had introduced.

Instead, he lamented the fact that the bill didn’t pass.

Between now and Thursday, several controversial bills are likely to pass both houses of the General Assembly and be sent to the Governor for his signature.

Or his veto.

A veto on bills that meet the Thursday deadline must be made before the session ends.

The legislature will have the opportunity to override those vetoes.

The voters will then judge whether a bipartisan result would have been better.

  • My Key Issues:

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