Sandy’s 2012 Legislative Diary – Page 2

Rooting for the Home Team

The last time the Orioles played a post season game at Camden Yards, the first baseman for the Cleveland Indians was Jim Thome.

I did not page through my scorebook for the 1997 season to recall that baseball trivia, even though the book is somewhere in my condo. I googled.

Two nights ago, Thome hit a home run in the 5th inning that tied the game. Three batters later, Manny Machado’s four-bagger put the Orioles in front to stay.

During a game two months ago, when the Orioles announced that they had traded for Thome, the crowd roared.

“The front office is trying to get this team into the postseason,” I said to the friend sitting next to me. “The fans haven’t felt that was the case in the recent past.”

The response to Machado’s call-up from the minors was similar.

Sports Illustrated reports that the Orioles had him taking grounders at 3rd before the gates opened at Bowie all summer. His natural position is shortstop.

The play this season that Machado will be remembered for, however, was not one that he practiced during his clandestine infield drills.

His fake throw to first caught a runner off the third base bag.

Great instincts for a veteran, much less a rookie.

But that out isn’t made if the shortstop, JJ Hardy, isn’t covering third to take Machado’s throw.

Played right, baseball is a ballet. Every player has something to do on every play. (Cal Senior would call it the Oriole Way, not ballet.)

Mindful of the Machado-Hardy play, I hustled down to third from behind the plate when we had a player in a rundown between second and third in my senior baseball game this past Sunday.

A few weeks ago, when Taylor Teagarden got his second extra-inning game-winning hit of the season (only his 3rd hit overall at that point), I decided to stop trying to figure out whether and why the Orioles would make the postseason.

“Just enjoy the ride,” I said to myself.

Yet, I have still pondered why adults still cheer for the home team, look forward to reading about a win the next morning, but skip the sports section if we lost.

Perhaps it’s the joy of seeing people perform well and sharing that with friends and family.

Especially in October.

Exercising First Amendment Rights

September 21, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote that in Whitney v. California.

Jay Bernstein emailed me two weeks ago, disturbed that John Mearsheimer would be speaking at the World Trade Center in the Inner Harbor. Professor Mearsheimer, Jay wrote, is the co-author of a book that “accuses Jews who support Israel of damaging American interests and serving the interests of the Jewish State.”

Three state agencies are corporate members of the group hosting Mearsheimer, the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs. Their support of the Council was very troubling to Jay.

I responded by quoting Brandeis and suggesting that Jay attend the lecture and ask questions about the book or demonstrate outside, instead of having pressure applied to the state agencies.

Jay chose to demonstrate.

Not the end of story.

In the plaza outside the World Trade Center, there is a memorial dedicated to the sixty-nine citizens of Maryland who died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. “All demonstrations and special events are prohibited” in this area, stated the Assistant Attorney General for the Maryland Port Administration, because MPA “has a reasonable and overriding interest in maintaining an atmosphere of calm, tranquility, and reverence on the WTC Plaza.”

The court ruling cited to support this restriction on free speech: the National Park Service can prohibit any demonstrations or special events from being held inside the Jefferson Memorial.

Jefferson must be rolling over in his memorial, I mused.

Negotiations began between the lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and the Port Administration.

The day before the planned demonstration, I wrote the ACLU lawyer:

“Are you measuring lines in front of the World Trade Center? :-)”

“Almost!” he replied. “They’re proposing a limited area for this demo. We’re negotiating how large and where.”

Prof. Mearsheimer and Jay Bernstein exercised their 1^st Amendment rights last night.

“We gave out 125 leaflets to attendees, engaged many of them in conversation, and definitely made our presence known, which was the whole point,” Jay wrote me.

Still not the end of story.

The Port Administration contends that it can prohibit future demonstrations.

That may result in litigation – or legislation.

Identifying and Protecting the Fundamental Right to Vote

September 14, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Florida has a lot of snowbirds.

They spend winters there and summers up north.

Wendy Rosen is one of them. The Democratic “candidate” in Maryland’s 1^st Congressional District lives in Cockeysville and St. Petersburg, Florida.

She has voted in both places.

When this story broke, I knew that my Republican friends would use this incident to try to make the case for their voter ID laws.

But those statutes aren’t directed at snowbirds. They’re targeted at individuals who don’t have government-issued IDs.

They’re overwhelmingly elderly, students, or people of color. They can’t afford two residences.

“What steps can be taken, by statutory, administrative, or software change, to prevent an individual from voting in state or federal elections in Maryland and another state, as Ms. Rosen did?” I emailed the Maryland State Administrative Board of Election Laws, on the morning that the story broke about Ms. Rosen’s dual voting.

There is a database that matches information from voter registration files, motor vehicle administrations, and vital statistics from participating state, I was told. Maryland participates, but Florida does not.

If Florida did share its records, both states would have been alerted to Ms. Rosen’s dual registration. If Maryland deemed her active registration to be Florida, her registration in Maryland would have been cancelled.

This wasn’t my only encounter with voting rights this week.

Former Governor Robert Ehrlich supported voter-ID laws in his Baltimore Sun op-ed column on Sunday.

“For anyone interested in visiting Washington to discuss this highly controversial issue with the Attorney General Holder,” wrote Mr. Ehrlich, “be aware. You will need to produce proper photo identification in order to board the plane, secure your room at the hotel, rent a car, and enter the Justice Department.”

How have we addressed this issue in Maryland?

If your right to vote is challenged, you can use the following forms of identification:

* your voter’s card, Social Security card, or Maryland driver’s license;

* any identification card issued by the federal, state, or local government; and

* an employer-issued photo-ID; or a copy of a current bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name or current address.

Where did we come up with this list? It’s copied from the Help America Vote Act, passed with bipartisan support by the Congress in the wake of the Florida election debacle in 2000.

Our law strikes the proper balance between preventing voter fraud and denying people their fundamental right to vote.

September 7 – A very powerful statement, not a talking point

September 7, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

An op-ed and a tweet prompted me to put fingers to keyboard this week.

Former Governor Ehrlich’s weekly column in the Sun was about how President Obama would do in the Jewish community this November.

Here’s my letter to the editor:

Relations between the United States and Israel remain “as strong as they ever have been.”

That’s not a Democratic talking point.

That’s the view of the Israeli Finance Minister, Yuval Steinitz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

He expressed it Sunday morning before the weekly Cabinet meeting.

His words echo those of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, President Shimon Peres, and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who have all stated that the security relationship between Israel and U.S. has never been closer.

Former Governor Ehrlich offered a far different and misleading view of that relationship in his op-ed this past Sunday.

He did not acknowledge that the Obama administration has blocked every U.N. Security Council resolution that criticizes Israel. He did not recognize the unprecedented American support for Israel’s defense through funding of the Iron Dome anti-missile system and joint military exercises. He did not mention that the President is committed to preventing Iran from producing nuclear weapons, rejecting containment after the fact.

On the domestic front, Governor Ehrlich is far more perceptive. Jewish Americans, he wrote, have “a distrust of conservative Republicans on a wide variety of social issues, including abortion, school prayer, social welfare and gun control.”

The operating budget is a government’s principal policy document. Leaders of many faiths have condemned the budget authored by Congressman Paul Ryan and praised as “bold and exciting” and “marvelous” by Mr. Romney.

“Justice for the poor and economic fairness are core elements of our church’s social teaching,” declared Father Thomas Kelly, a Catholic priest and constituent of Rep. Paul Ryan.

“We should not balance the federal budget on the backs of the most vulnerable; instead, we should be offering them support to help them get back on their feet and get our economy back on track,” echoed Rabbi Steve Gutow, President of The Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

Governor Romney is a flip-flopper, transforming himself from a candidate to the left of Sen. Edward Kennedy in 1994 to a candidate whose party platform would outlaw abortion in any circumstance.

The Romney/Ryan ticket can try to run from their records on the issues, but they cannot hide from the truth.

People of all faiths can agree on that.

My letter was published.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-israel-20120906,0,915339.story

—-

I didn’t make it home from the Orioles game in time to hear the President’s acceptance speech. But I did hear former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt say that the Charlotte convention was a home run for the Democrats.

This morning, I read a tweet from David Nitkin, a top aide to Howard County Executive Ken Ullman. “Asking for your [support] was a classy, important touch, and felt necessary. You gotta ask. Rule 1 in elections.”

I responded, “I’ve done it as well when knocking on doors. ‘I’m here to ask for your vote.’ A very powerful statement about democracy.”

After making the sausage, on the road again

August 22, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

There is legislation after slots.

Since I returned from Annapolis —

Repeal of the death penalty will be my number one issue next winter. I met with Archbishop William Lori and participated in a conference call on how to increase our majorities in both houses of the legislature.

Innovative ways to refinance underwater mortgages, provide social services, and build public schools are on the agenda for my meeting tomorrow with Treasurer Nancy Kopp. (A mortage is underwater if it exceeds the price that a residence could get on the market today.)

When we learned the ballot order for the legislation petitioned to referendum, I tweeted: Question 6 for marriage equality good omen. Abortion referendum also Question 6 in 1992. Maryland voters preserved woman’s right to choose 68-32%.

The students in my law school class on Legislation know how to tweet, but none of them knew that the protections of Roe V. Wade were written into Maryland law by that vote.

The slots bill remains on my agenda.

Senator Ferguson and I will make the case for increased funding for early childhood education to the new State Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Lillian Lowery. Thanks to the Senator’s amendment, that’s an authorized use of the slots dollars in the Education Trust Fund.

And to show that there’s life after the last out of the World Series – even for those over 60, I made my plane reservations for the Orioles Dream Week in Florida.

Slots and Sausage

August 15, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

When the Governor, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the House support a bill, it will pass.

I learned that a long time ago.

Consequently, when Speaker Busch decided to support expanded gaming at a special session, I chose to work on amending the legislation, instead of opposing it, despite my concerns about the state’s growing reliance on slots and table games for revenue.

The Speaker’s support became apparent to me last month when he, the Governor, and the Mayor met with Baltimore City delegates at City Hall.

After the formal meeting ended, Delegate Nathaniel Oaks and I agreed that this was an opportune time to secure additional funding for redevelopment in the neighborhoods surrounding Pimlico Race Track.

Under existing law, slots money will benefit these communities for 15 years. We suggested to a member of Governor O’Malley’s staff that this be increased to 25 years.

Senate Bill 1, as introduced by the Governor and enacted by the General Assembly, makes it 20 years.

When I first saw “Fiscal Year 2032” in the bill, I said to myself, “I don’t think that even I will still be in the House of Delegates then.”

I also sought to guarantee that additional gaming money in the Education Trust Fund would result in additional spending on public education. The legislature’s focus instead was on protecting the Anne Arundel and Baltimore City licensees from the impact of the new Prince George’s facility on their bottom line. I drafted an amendment but did not offer it.

We did, however, authorize spending on early childhood education from the Fund. Senator Bill Ferguson had this added to the legislation in his chamber. I worked with him as we preserved that language during my committee’s review of the Senate bill.

Last Friday, I wrote Senator Ferguson, “We will need to lobby gov to include money for pre-k expansion in his budget next year.”

He replied, “I thought that was our plan all along. Isn’t everything we do fully planned out? :)”

We now have a tentative date for a meeting with the State Superintendent of Schools.

Another provision in the bill will benefit the 41^st District.

The Maryland Jockey Club must submit a preliminary capital improvement plan for Pimlico Race Track to the Racing Commission by February 1, 2013. It will include planned capital improvements, a preliminary project schedule, and an estimate of funding to be requested from the State.

This will give the surrounding communities an opportunity to meet with Pimlico officials about their plans.

I voted for the slots bill in 2007 because I had concluded that the political will did not exist to raise revenue by making our income tax more progressive. That remains the case today.

I welcome your thoughts.

—-

Here’s how one piece of the sausage got made.

The only question about the increase in funding for the Pimlico neighborhoods came from a Republican member of the Ways and Means Committee at a hearing last Friday.

An unfriendly amendment from a member of the minority party won’t get many Democratic votes, I reassured myself.

However, at Tuesday morning’s Democratic caucus, Delegate Dave Rudolph complained that money generated at the Perryville casino in his district was benefiting Baltimore City instead.

Our floor session was scheduled for 2:00. Not surprisingly, the Speaker was not present, busy elsewhere pursuing crucial votes.

For the next 2 ¼ hours, I buttonholed my colleagues on the House floor and made the case for the benefits to the Pimlico neighborhoods from this revenue.

In the early evening, I was given Del. Rudolph’s amendment. It would create a $6 million annual cap on the allocation – a very significant reduction.

Then he offered a compromise: no cap but no revenue from the three smaller gaming sites. I responded, “No change until the Baltimore City casino is up and running. That revenue will compensate for the loss from the other sites.”

Then I sought the support of Delegate Oaks, my other colleagues from the 40^th and 41^st districts, the Speaker, my committee chair, and the City delegation.

The compromise was adopted by the House as a friendly amendment.

August 2 – Maximizing our return for education

August 2, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

People don’t believe us.

At neighborhood meetings, when my 41^st District colleagues and I discuss how the money from slots will be spent, our constituents don’t believe us.

Blame it on the advertising for the referendum when the lottery was authorized 40+ years ago, which said that the money would be used for education, or a general distrust of government. It’s there.

Which brings us to next week’s special session of the General Assembly.

Add table games and make some other changes, but leave a decision on a sixth site to a later time when there’s more data on the operation of the five original sites, advises the Sun editorial board.

That bill won’t pass the Senate.

Only a bill authorizing a new license in Prince George’s County will.

Those are the political realities.

So where will my efforts be focused?

Speaker Busch has said that we should maximize the return from slots to the Education Trust Fund.

That fund receives 48.5% of the money from the tax on gambling at the five – or six, licensed facilities. It’s the biggest piece of the pie chart of how that revenue is distributed.

The money can be used for public education – operating and capital costs for kindergarten through 12^th grade, and capital costs for community colleges and higher ed.

My goal: when gambling revenues in the Education Trust Fund increase, so should the state’s overall spending on education.

Putting the studying behind us

July 27, 2012July 27, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Summer study.

The three months since the General Assembly adjourned on April 9 have given that term new meaning.

Our deliberations on gambling seem endless.

In fact, one of the arguments for holding a special session in August is to put the matter behind us, freeing up the 2013 legislature’s time, focus, and horsetrading.

Summer study often means that a bill’s demise has been postponed until a between-session work group has made meaningless recommendations that won’t see the light of implementation.

But not always.

When I introduced House Bill 991 this past session, it created a work group to study how to assist seniors aging in place, in the homes that they own. The bill passed without amendments. Its report is due by the end of this year.

At yesterday’s first meeting, I made the point that the group could recommend to the Governor that he put money in the budget to implement our recommendations.

“Funding next year won’t solve the problem for the long term,” responded one of the citizen members of the group.

I decided to save my “the budget bill is the policy document of the State” response for this fall.

Lilly and You

July 20, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

A lawsuit brought by a Goodyear worker in Alabama will benefit some of my constituents and countless others across the country.

That was the theme of my remarks below, after receiving the Community Leadership Award last night from Shalom USA, a weekly radio program produced by two Baltimoreans, Jay Bernstein and Larry Cohen.

—-

Several weeks ago, Jay emailed me, “Could you give a few lines on some of the things you’ve worked on recently of particular interest to the Jewish community?”

I sent him summaries of the legislation that he included in his very kind introduction, but I forgot to mention Lilly Ledbetter.

Who is she?

Lilly Ledbetter was a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber’s plant in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1979 until her retirement in 1998. She went to court because she was being paid $3,727 per month while her lowest paid male counterpart was receiving $4,286 and the highest, $5,236.

The trial court ruled that she had been discriminated against. The Supreme Court, however, found that she had waited too long. Because she had not filed a claim within 180 days of the first illegal act, she lost her case and could not recover any damages.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took the unusual step of reading from her dissent in open court. She concluded, “Once again, the ball is in Congress’ court. As in 1991, the Legislature may act to correct this Court’s parsimonious reading of Title VII.”

In Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an “unlawful employment practice” means discrimination “against any individual with respect to his compensation … because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act amended Title VII to give a day in court for employees like her, who become aware that they have been denied fair pay months or years after the initial discriminatory pay check.

It was the first bill passed by the Congress and signed into law by President Obama. To guarantee that a Maryland court could not interpret our civil rights law to deny someone a day in court, I successfully sponsored our Ledbetter bill.

A Jew who has been denied fair pay will benefit from these laws. So will a member of another minority faith, as well as an individual in one of the law’s other protected categories.

Fortunately, we live in a country that recognizes the ongoing need to protect those who have been historically discriminated against – in the workplace, in the housing market, and in the voting booth.

We don’t always prevail – in the legislature or in the courts. Lilly Ledbetter was not compensated but others will because of her – people in our community and others like us.

—-

Jay Bernstein and I were thinking along similar lines. In introducing me, he did not limit himself to my legislation of particular interest to the Jewish community.

He concluded by discussing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the law that Lilly Ledbetter changed and Lyndon Johnson was advised he shouldn’t waste his political capital on because he couldn’t pass it.

“What the hell is the presidency for?” Johnson replied.

Going to Bat

July 11, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

It’s the time of year when I’m working on my legislative agenda for next winter and my Legislation Class syllabus for this fall.

My interest in welfare was piqued by a discussion in the American Prospect. Peter Edelman, who has been working on poverty issues since he was on Robert Kennedy’s Senate staff, spoke of America’s inability to have an objective, non-pejorative discussion of the intersection between the structural issues bearing on poverty and the question of individual responsibility.

I agree, but how do you translate those ideas into policy? So I emailed Professor Edelman: “Do you have any suggestions on what policies a state government could consider that address both aspects of this problem?”

He replied: We need to convince the conservatives that their calls for individual responsibility are appropriate but woefully inadequate if not accompanied by public policy and vice versa – liberals need to add individual responsibility to their agenda. Push the structural agenda – minimum wage, earned income tax credit, school reform, and affordable housing, but also push initiatives that will help build personal responsibility – home visiting by health care and social workers and programs that work with young people to help get them to go in the right direction.

My next step will be discussions with liberal coalitions – the Maryland Alliance for the Poor, Welfare Advocates, and the Maryland Interfaith Legislative Coalition.

I will keep you updated.

—

Some of my bills I don’t expect to pass. I introduce them to draw attention to an issue – to bring about progress on a neighborhood concern, in most instances, without my legislation becoming the law.

But none has had an impact as profound as the one I learned about from Barry Steelman’s lecture on “The Jewish Influence on Major League Baseball” at the Jewish Museum of Maryland this past Sunday.

The Red Sox needed the unanimous approval of the Boston City Council to play on Sundays in the 1940’s. Councilman Isadore Muchnick said he would oppose this exception to the Blue Laws unless the team had a tryout for Negro players.

One of the three prospects at Fenway Park on April 16, 1945 was Jackie Robinson. The Red Sox did not sign him, but Branch Rickey learned about the tryout and did.

I’ve added a book excerpt about the tryout to my Legislation Class syllabus at UB and UMd Law Schools, along with a bill of mine that did not pass but achieved its purpose.

My Key Issues:

Category: Sandy’s 2012 Legislative Diary