Tag: Governor Hogan

Get involved before you get credit

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

It doesn’t matter who sponsors the bill.

When the Governor signs it, he gets credit for its enactment.

Nonetheless, this is what Governor Hogan wrote to Maryland’s Congressional delegation yesterday.

Maryland’s current course [for vaccinations] has brought the state “from 2,000 shots per day to over 22,000 shots per day in a matter of weeks,” Hogan wrote to the Democratic federal lawmakers from Maryland who last week called on him to improve the state’s vaccine rollout. The Republican governor suggested congressional staffers spend more time reviewing relevant federal vaccine policies and briefing their bosses, “as opposed to writing press releases disguised as letters.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/bs-md-hogan-vaccine-tour-20210208-ug5l75yx4befhgjzfolap3ibw4-story.html

Vaccinating Marylanders safely, fairly, and efficiently is our number one obligation – at all levels of government.

We won’t solve the problem by encouraging people to sign up on multiple vaccine lists, as acting state Health Secretary Schrader suggested yesterday.

One way to improve this process is to have a single website where everyone can make an appointment – wherever you live in Maryland.

See http://www.delsandy.com/2021/02/02/doing-this-better/.

That idea will be discussed at the hearing on my legislation, House Bill 1263, Maryland Department of Health – COVID–19 Vaccination Plan

I hope that the Governor and his Department of Health will get involved – before any bill signing.

A Big Step Forward

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

Speaker Adrienne Jones has written Governor Larry Hogan, urging him to “increase funding for the state’s rental assistance program and commit funding for a tenant legal assistance program through the end of the year.” 

Throughout my career, enabling tenants to remain in decent, safe, and sanitary housing has been one of my priorities.

The Speaker’s letter is a big step forward in achieving those goals. 

Even if the Governor responds favorably, these issues will be at the forefront when the General Assembly reconvenes. 

Emergency funding would be a stop-gap measure.  Long-term solutions will still be needed.

My job will be to assist in getting these issues addressed. 

I will be adhering to my newsletter rule:  My name does not have to be first on the sponsor line of a bill, as long as I can legitimately say in my end-of-session newsletter that I played a part in accomplishing something.

Grievances and Openings

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

Perhaps you read the Baltimore Sun article about Governor Hogan’s memoir:

In the book, Hogan writes of hearing from Baltimore residents about what he refers to as “grievances”: a lack of jobs, poor schools and closed community centers. Hogan writes that he told people he would “keep working on the things you’re talking about that aren’t right. But first, we have to get the city back under control.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-pr-pol-hogan-memoir-2024-presidential-possibility-20200715-doh6bf7md5cj5o3ojkev2x7m6u-story.html

The disturbances after Freddie Gray’s funeral are the subject of the chapters released to the press.

The center of the confrontation between residents and the police was the intersection of North and Pennsylvania Avenues. 

There’s a Pratt Library branch there.  It stayed open, unlike the community centers Governor Hogan speaks of. 

That decision was made by Carla Hayden, then the CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, now the Librarian of Congress. 

When the General Assembly reconvened, Speaker Mike Busch made a decision. 

He had a bill introduced to increase state and local funding for Pratt branches throughout the City so that hours could be extended.

The bill passed the House and the Senate by wide margins.

The Governor let the bill become law without his signature. 

My constituents – from one end of the 41st District to another, were enthusiastic. 

The next year, however, the Governor introduced legislation to eliminate this funding. 

The General Assembly restored the money. 

— 

You can speak with City Council President Brandon Scott on our 41st District Town Hall Tuesday evening from 5:30-6:30.  For details on this Zoom meeting, contact aswilliams@house.state.md.us.

No one thought

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

It began as a change to an obscure regulation.

It resulted in an emergency bill that will be signed into law this afternoon.

The issue is telehealth.  The question is when can a health care provider give advice to a patient who is not physically present.

The regulation was brought to my attention because it did not allow a patient seeking reproductive health care to use telehealth.

Robyn Elliot, the lobbyist for Planned Parenthood, contacted me last fall in my capacity as House chair of the committee that reviews proposed regulations.

It soon became apparent that a host of health providers and advocacy groups supported broader access for patients with telehealth.

The intent of House Bill 448 was to assist patients who are home bound or whose schedules keep them from making regular office hours.

No one thought that it would be needed because the coronavirus would necessitate hospitals excluding non-emergency patients and doctors closing their offices.

The original bill would have taken effect on July 1.  As the pandemic worsened, we adopted an amendment to make it an emergency bill.

It will take effect this afternoon when signed by Governor Hogan, President Ferguson, and Speaker Jones.

I don’t make a big deal out of bill signings.  I have photos on my office walls from only two – my very first bill in 1983 and the repeal of the death penalty in 2013.

Legislators will not be allowed at today’s signing.  I’ve asked for a pen that was used to sign House Bill 448.

“It’s magical in here.”

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

“The Preakness isn’t going anywhere. I’m for keeping it here in Baltimore.”

I was quoted extensively in the media this past week, but I’m not the person who said that.

It was Governor Hogan.

He wasn’t the only big name supporter of keeping the Preakness at Pimlico.

“To me, it’s magical in here. There’s something about it. I’ve been watching it since I was 10, 11 years old. You think of Jim McKay. You think of the Preakness. There’s so much history here,” said Bob Baffert, the Hall of Fame trainer of Justify, the Preakness winner.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/horse-racing/bs-sp-bob-baffert-is-still-charmed-by-charm-city-20180516-story.html

Last year, the conversation was about whether the State and City should spend more than $250 million for a one-day per year return on its investment.

Now there are serious discussions about both renovating the track and making the rest of the site a 365-days per year asset of economic and community development.

Our goal is redevelopment that benefits Maryland, the Baltimore region, the track’s neighbors, and the track’s owners.

If that’s our objective, I like the odds.

And I won’t stop working to attain that result until we cross the finish line.

One thing you can’t negotiate

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

If you’re going to negotiate, make sure the other side is in the room where it happens.

If you reach a compromise with a neutral third party without your opponents at the table, they are certain to demand that your bill be weakened further.

I gave that advice to a liberal group I‘m working with.

Then I walked 30 feet to a group of conservative friends I’m working with on another issue and gave them the same advice.

But you can’t negotiate about the facts.

In his State of the State speech today, Governor Hogan declared, “The day after I was sworn in, we submitted the first balanced budget in a decade, which eliminated nearly all of the $5.1 billion dollar structural deficit which we inherited.”

The State Constitution requires that the budget be balanced. So does Wall Street.

The budget must be balanced when it is introduced by the Governor, when it is amended by either house of the General Assembly, and when it is finally adopted.

In the 36 years that I have served in Annapolis, the budget has always been balanced.

The heat in our public schools

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

City schools should not have to close because the boilers don’t work.

With aging buildings, what happened last week was not a surprise.

It is now our obligation to assess the blame and more importantly, to prevent this from happening again.

There will be discussion of the formula that determines how much money is allocated for building upkeep to the 24 school systems in the state. (The vast majority of state aid to local government is written into law or regulation.)

There will be discussion of whether individuals are to blame for the City schools being closed during last week’s Arctic chill.

And now there will be discussion of whether the state’s schools need an Office of the State Education Investigator General.

Unveiled by Governor Hogan at a press conference yesterday, this office “will be charged with investigating complaints of unethical, unprofessional, or illegal conduct rela, ng to procurement, education assets, graduation requirements, grading, education facilities, and school budgets.”

This should result in a healthy debate. Is adequate overview of our public schools provided by the existing system of checks and balances – annual review of agency operations during budget hearings, the General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Audits, the State Prosecutor, and reporting by the media?

It will be a vitally important discussion of government and politics.

A Taxing Issue

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2017 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I don’t ask my colleagues to vote for my bills before I’ve written them.

Neither should the Governor.

“Our goal will be to leave that money in the pockets of hard-working Marylanders,” Governor Hogan said in an opening statement yesterday at a Board of Public Works meeting. “I am confident that our partners in the General Assembly who have expressed concern over the impact of this tax reform bill will support us unanimously in protecting Marylanders who could be negatively affected. Protecting taxpayers should be a bipartisan issue.”

The process by which the Republican majority just passed the tax bill reinforces my point.

Public hearings and debate raise issues that should be addressed.

Then we can decide what tax policy is in the best interests of hard-working Marylanders.

April 6 – Judging our commitment

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2016 Legislative Diary | No Comments

We should be judged this session by how we respond to the life and death of Freddie Gray.
I have focused on preventing lead poisoning and creating incentives for fathers who owe child support to find a job.

There will be several studies focused on enforcement but no new laws on lead. The child support bill could pass this weekend.

Speaker Mike Busch initiated several bills that include funding for demolition and neighborhood renovation, extended Pratt Library hours, tutoring and after-school programs.

Governor Hogan chose not to sign or veto this legislation, noting that requiring him to fund these programs was unnecessary because his “administration was already 100-percent committed to” those projects.

The proof of that commitment will be in the implementation – by the state government, as well as the new Baltimore City administration.

My priority this summer will be to find out from our neighborhood associations which of these programs can benefit their communities.  Then I’ll work with them and my 41st District colleagues to obtain this funding.

From Greatest hits to a simple test

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

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.

  • My Key Issues:

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