slots money – Sandy Rosenberg

The Work Back Home

November 8, 2013 | by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

I sweat the details.

Four schools in the 41^st District will be renovated in the first year of the $1 billion plan that will eventually transform every school in the City.

Senator Lisa Gladden, Delegates Jill Carter, Nathaniel Oaks, and I have attended planning meetings with students, their family members, and neighbors at Arlington and Pimlico Elementary/Middle Schools, Lyndhurst Elementary, and Forest Park Senior High. 3,000 square feet in each facility will be designed for community use.

A certain portion of slots revenue is allocated for economic and community development in the neighborhoods surrounding Pimlico Race Track.

In Northwest Baltimore, we’ve worked with neighborhood leaders to help them determine how $1.5 million will be spent. Parking for patrons of the Reisterstown Road Enoch Pratt Library branch, improvements to Luckman and Northwest Parks, and construction of the Hatzalah Community Center are some of the uses to which this money will be put.

Major renovation of Park Heights has also begun with this money, and Liberty Heights neighborhoods will benefit when the Baltimore City facility opens next year.

Our economy and our environment require a 21^st Century mass transit system. On its way from Social Security in Woodlawn to Bayview Hospital in East Baltimore, the Red Line will run through the Edmondson Avenue corridor.

Where stops are located and the safety of pedestrians crossing Edmondson Avenue are crucial details. So are jobs. At our urging, a job forum will be held at the Westside Skills Center on Saturday.

After the bill passes in Annapolis, there’s a lot of work to do back home.

July 26 – Protections in the workplace and shovels in the ground

July 26, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Public policy and public improvements were both on my plate this week.

I got my first bill draft for next year’s session, and I received the Mayor’s letter announcing her approval of the $8 million spending plan for slots revenue in the Pimlico Race Track neighborhoods.

Two Supreme Court decisions that narrowed the protections against workplace discrimination in the federal civil rights law prompted me to request this bill.

The prohibitions against illegal actions by supervisors and retaliation against an employee for objecting to an unlawful employment practice were significantly limited by these 5-4 decisions. Justice Ginsburg read from her dissents in open court.

My bill would ensure that Maryland’s fair employment law would not be limited by our courts in the same manner.

Since this legislation would likely be the first in response to these cases, I have asked civil rights lawyers to review the draft language.

A percentage of slots revenues is dedicated to the neighborhoods surrounding Pimlico Race Track. This was first proposed by Speaker Busch; enacted and amended by the efforts of Delegate Oaks, myself, and Senator Gladden and Delegate Carter; and implemented by neighborhood presidents sitting around a table to decide how these funds could benefit their communities.

Among the projects that will be funded with the $8 million generated in Fiscal Years 2013 and 2014:

* Acquisition, relocation, and demolition within the Major Redevelopment Area of the Park Heights Master Plan;

* Improvements to Northwest Park, the former University of Baltimore property on Rogers Av.;

* Building of a Community Center for Hatzalah, a volunteer emergency medical service; and

* Identifying and implementing a parking solution for the Reisterstown Road branch of the Pratt Library.

Next step: getting shovels in the ground.

Reading testimony after a meeting beforehand

April 4, 2013April 4, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Don’t read your testimony.

Know what you’re talking about (Why we need this bill) and don’t worry if you pause or stumble occasionally.

That’s better than not making eye contact with the committee members because you’re reading what’s below you on the witness table.

I preach that to my law students and follow that rule myself.

Except when I get an email that my bill on the allocation of slots revenues among the neighborhoods near Pimlico Race Track is about to be heard in 10 minutes in the Budget and Taxation Committee and we’re nowhere near the end of the floor debate on the gun bill.

“You’re going to testify for the bill,” I told my staffer, “and you can read the testimony.”

An hour later, he responded, “I didn’t read it verbatim. I had enough time to prepare oral remarks. No question. A few nods.”

“I will talk to committee members when I can,” I responded.

There was no need to do so, he informed me. “Senator Jones asked for them to move it quickly after the hearing.” It got a favorable report.

Before the hearing, I had met with the senator, who represents Baltimore City, and gained her support.

—-

My floor speech about the 2^nd Amendment on Tuesday is discussed in The Free State Press, with a link to my remarks.

http://thefreestatepress.com/bullying-partisanship-assault-on-the-bill-of-rights-dominate-house-gun-debate/

After the bill passes, the work continues

February 14, 2011 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2011 Legislative Diary | No Comments

My work doesn’t end when a bill becomes law.

Significant economic and community development projects will be funded with slots money in the neighborhoods surrounding Pimlico Race Track.

My 41^st District colleagues and I worked with Speaker Busch and Governor O’Malley at the 2007 special session to keep that allocation in the bill.

But many of our constituents didn’t believe us when we told them about it. The urban myth that the lottery proceeds would be spent on education still prevails.

So we organized a tour of the areas where this money would be spent, and we urged the leaders of these communities to work together so that every eligible neighborhood would receive its fair share.

We met with the appropriate City government officials, and we put some shovels in the ground. The renovated outdoor track at Northwestern Senior High School is the kind of improvement that can be funded with slots money. We got it done with other funding sources last summer.

This morning, the City Planning Department met with elected officials to discuss its plan for implementing the law. Each neighborhood will be consulted with a timeline of final decisions by mid-June.

The projected revenue in Fiscal Year 2012 is nearly $900,000 for the Park Heights Master Plan and almost $300,000 for the other communities within one mile of the race track. Three years from now, those numbers are projected to increase nearly eightfold

Now it’s my job to help make this process work to the benefit of these neighborhoods.

February 14