Tag: Justice Brandeis

Working in the Laboratories of Democracy

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“The states are the laboratories of democracy.”

I didn’t think of that.

Justice Louis Brandeis did.

For example, a minimum wage law was first enacted by Massachusetts in 1912.  FDR made it part of the New Deal in 1933

Maryland became one of the first states to set aside a separate fund for the settlement we received from the tobacco industry in 2000.

I sponsored the bill, along with Delegate Peter Rawlings.

The veto override of House Bill 732 was before the House yesterday.

The bill included an increase in the tobacco tax  Every year, at least $18.25 million of this new revenue would be used to prevent people from starting to smoke and to get others to stop smoking.  Those are the two principal goals of the fund we created 30 years ago.

The bill would also impose a tax on digital advertising.

One of the arguments made by the Republican opponents of the bill was that Maryland would be the first state to impose such a tax.

I rose to speak, “Justice Brandeis said that ‘The states are the laboratories of democracy.’”

The House voted to override the Governor’s veto, 88-48.

A worker in a laboratory of democracy

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

During today’s floor debate on the paid sick leave bill, I sent this email to one of the people who had asked me to make a charitable donation to Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital.

We’re in the midst of debating the paid sick leave bill. It reminded me of the meeting I had with a Levindale employee who participated in the job advancement program that I supported. Her ability to get to work hinged upon a car that wouldn’t start or day care she needed to have for her child. She and countless people like her need paid sick leave.

Justice Brandeis famously said, “The states are the laboratories of democracy.” I am proud today to do right for my fellow man and woman as a worker in that laboratory.

Preakness, Northwestern Senior High, and Laboratories

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

The 90-day legislative session starts in two weeks.

A reporter asked me today, “What do you want to accomplish in 2017?”

This is my reply.

  1. Preserving the Preakness at Pimlico – Next month, the Maryland Stadium Authority will release a study evaluating the ability of Pimlico Race Course to serve as the permanent home of the Preakness.  I will work with Governor Hogan, Mayor Pugh, the Stadium Authority, and the Maryland Jockey Club, which owns Pimlico, to secure financing for a new seating facility.

 

  1. Future Use of Northwestern Senior High School site – The School Board has voted to close the school.  That will take place after Forest Park High School is reopened (September 2018) and possibly after Cross Country Elementary/Middle is renovated.  (September 2019)  The process that determines the future use of the building and the site must provide for input from all of the affected parties.

 

  1. Laboratories of Democracy – Justice Brandeis wrote, “The states are the laboratories of democracy.”  If the Congress or President Trump take actions that are not in the best interests of Marylanders and we have the legal authority to undo that misguided action in our budget or laws, I will try to do so.

 

I welcome your thoughts.

November 14 – Legislative Laboratories

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

“How concerned should I be?” a constituent and friend, Scott Sherman, emailed me yesterday. Scott asked me about a tweet that said Democrats now control only 13 state legislatures (26%). If they lose one more they fall below the % needed to stop constitutional amendments.

“Any words of wisdom or comfort?” he asked.

“The states are the laboratories of democracy,” I replied. “Put your time and expertise into making this dictum of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis a reality in one aspect of policy in Maryland.”

Then I read a Sun article headlined Trump victory sparks activism.

The article describes a 21-year-old political science and American studies major at Washington College who has already shifted his post-college plans from finding a well-paying job that could reduce his student debt to looking for work at a nonprofit or a political job “where I could make a difference.”

I wrote him about the state program which provides grants to recent graduates to help repay their academic debt if they take a lower-paying job in the government or non-profit sector. I introduced the bill that created the Janet L. Hoffman Loan Assistance Repayment Program.

Which legislative district in Maryland has the most people 25 years of age or older without a college degree? The 6th District in Essex and Dundalk.

A trade war with China will not bring unionized well-paying manufacturing jobs back to Beth Steel or the GM plant on Broening Highway.

On Friday, I asked that language be drafted to require the Baltimore City and County Community Colleges to target job training efforts in areas where the number of college graduates is below a certain level.

I’m no scientist, but I look forward to spending time in Brandeis’ laboratory.

February 29 – Bills dead but the work continues

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

I withdrew two of my bills today.

One because the executive branch wrote a letter.  The other because it was the right idea but not yet in the right pew.

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene “plans to continue to make Wraparound services available to youth with intensive needs,” Secretary Van Mitchell wrote me today.

That was the purpose of House Bill 759: to maintain high quality mental health care for youth in outpatient settings.

I introduced the bill at the request of the mental health community. As we hoped, it brought everyone to the witness table for both the bill hearing and discussions afterward.

The letter and better care are the results.

The bill is no longer needed.

When I was in Israel last December, I learned that the government assumes the cost of the charitable sector’s successful social welfare programs.

“I’ll introduce a bill to do the same in Maryland,” I told my startled hosts.

I had even written the opening lines of my testimony.

Justice Brandeis wrote that the states are the laboratories of democracy.

                 In this instance, the state of Israel is a laboratory for democracy. 

House Bill 748 would have created a grant program for job training programs based on the Israeli model.

As I prepared for the bill hearing, I realized that more work needs to be done on this concept.  Instead of a poor bill hearing this week, I’ll discuss this idea with more people this summer.

Next year in Annapolis.

All the bills fit to print

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

I have been accused of introducing bills after reading an article in the New York Times.

“Don’t Look to States for New Ideas” is the headline for an op-ed in today’s paper.

Justice Brandeis called the states the laboratories of democracy.  The minimum wage and welfare reform are prominent examples.

Ideas grown in the petri dish of a state legislature will no longer survive in the partisan hot house of Capitol Hill, contends the op-ed’s author, an economist with the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2010 to 2011.

I must confess, however.  I’m already working on a bill prompted by a Times op-ed.

When welfare reform was enacted by the Congress in 1996, Ron Haskins was the Republican staff expert in the House Ways and Means Committee.

I met him then, when I served on a task force on welfare reform.  He’s now at the Brookings Institution.

I read his Times op-ed, “Social Programs That Work,” two weeks ago.  It discusses how several evidence-based policy initiatives were created and implemented by the Obama administration.

I’m working with Ron on legislation that would do the same for a pilot program in Maryland.

We will seek bipartisan support.

 

 

I'm sticking with the union

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2011 Legislative Diary | No Comments

 “Strong, responsible unions are essential to industrial fair play. Without them the labor bargain is wholly one-sided,” declared Justice Brandeis.

 Organized labor does need to adjust to changed circumstances.  The auto industry bailouts, for example, forced changes that were clearly overdue. 

 However, when labor unions set decent working conditions and benefit levels for their members, there is a ripple effect for non-unionized workers

 Consequently, eliminating or weakening collective bargaining rights for state employees in Wisconsin will have a deleterious effect for many other working men and women.

 “’Middle class’ is more than an income category,” Prof. Jacob Hacker writes.  “It’s an image of a certain kind of society–a nation in which the gains of prosperity are broadly shared and those who work hard have a good shot at upward mobility and the security of a basic safety net. “

 Brandeis also said, “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” 

 February 27

  • My Key Issues:

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