April 1998

Dear Friend:

Ethics dominated the first half of the session. Among the issues to be studied by a 15-member commission are the relationship of legislators to outside entities and the disclosure of conflicts of interests. The commission must issue a report of its findings by February 1, 1999.

We enacted a budget that implements several important policy decisions. There have been serious problems with the implementation of managed care for the state's Medicaid population. The Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Resources, which I chair, required the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to outline how it will ensure that managed care organizations reimburse health care providers in a timely manner.

The average length of stay for children in foster care has increased by more than 65% over the last decade. We instructed the Department of Human Resources to develop a comprehensive plan to improve the qualifications of caseworkers and reduce the caseload to staff ratio.

Implementing Welfare Reform

For the last four years, I have been the leader in the House of Delegates on this issue. The Welfare Innovation Act of 1998, which I introduced, continues our reform efforts.

Hiring of welfare recipients will be encouraged when the state awards contracts to the private sector. Successful bidders must now give priority to filling entry-level jobs with people who have received benefits.

Skills are essential for people to advance beyond entry-level jobs. Under the jobs skills enhancement pilot program, individuals will receive private sector training that meets their specific needs. Workers will upgrade both their skills and their earning potential.

Drug screening of benefit applicants was an important, but controversial, element of last year's welfare bill. This year's budget increases addiction treatment by $4 million for those applicants or recipients who screen positive for drug use.

Maryland will lose $501 million in federal food stamps between 1997-2000. To offset this, the Maryland Food Bank would have to provide ten times the amount of food it currently does. There are over 500,000 Marylanders, including the elderly and families with children, who go hungry each year. Many of these people are the working poor, who are no longer eligible for food stamps.

In response, I sponsored House Bill 350. As enacted, it enables emergency food providers to purchase food for needy individuals. Governor Glendening budgeted $500,000 for this program.

Religious Freedom

Well meaning state actions can have the unintended effect of substantially burdening someone who is practicing his or her religious beliefs. Sabbath observance and the location or expansion of a house of worship are but two examples of religious practices that have been affected.

When a person was harmed in this way, the Supreme Court, for nearly three decades, applied the compelling state interest test: government can burden an individual's religious exercise only if it is furthering a compelling state interest by the least restrictive means. The 5-4 majority in Smith said the state needed to have merely a rational basis for actions that burdened religious practices.

With the support of an extraordinarily broad coalition of religious groups, I introduced House Bill 1041, to restore the compelling state interest test as the standard of review for such cases.

Local governments were concerned that our bill's definition of the compelling state interest gave more protection for religious exercise than the court cases applying that test. The religious community and the Maryland Association of Counties did agree, in principle, that the compelling state interest test should be the statutory standard for free exercise cases in Maryland. However, we were unable to achieve consensus on how to provide for this in legislation. I withdrew my bill but will continue to seek agreement with MACO in the coming months. If an Orthodox Jewish couple is seeking a divorce and the man withholds a get from his wife, then she is unable to remarry, according to Jewish law. Under House Bill 415, if a person was wed in a religious ceremony and subsequently sought an annulment or a divorce, that individual would have to submit a sworn statement to the court that he or she had taken all steps in his or her power to remove all barriers to the other person's remarriage. For the second straight year, this proposal fell one vote short in committee of the number needed for it to be sent to the House floor, despite an Assistant Attorney General's letter of advice that it was consistent with the constitutional separation of church and state.

Public Health and the Environment

A 13-member advisory panel would have recommended how much of these dollars should be spent for such purposes as reduction of tobacco use by minors, public education campaigns to discourage tobacco use, smoking cessation programs, enforcement of the laws regarding tobacco sales, and alternative crop uses for agricultural land now devoted to tobacco.

Stronger enforcement tactics are essential to deter teenage smoking. The law penalizing the sale of tobacco products to minors is not enforced by the Comptroller's Office. No retailer was cited for violating the law in fiscal year 1997. In stark contrast, the Department of Juvenile Justice handled 1,498 cases over that same period for violation of the law criminalizing a minor's possessing, obtaining, or attempting to obtain tobacco products or cigarette rolling papers.

HB 568 passed the House of Delegates, but it was not acted upon the Senate committee to which it was referred. However, I did have the budget bill amended to provide that any tobacco settlement money received in Fiscal Year 1999 can't be spent until the General Assembly approves its disbursement in next year's budget.

To encourage the use of alternative fueled vehicles, I sponsored legislation in 1995 that created income tax credits to defray the additional costs per vehicle, which are between $3,500 and $4,000. Since that law sunsets this year, House Bill 705 will continue the tax credits until 2000.

The AFV market has made tremendous technological and environmental strides in recent years. Several auto makers expect to offer natural gas vehicles to the public this year. HB 705 will give consumers an incentive to purchase these environmentally sound vehicles.

As our senior citizen population grows, so does the need for senior centers. House Bill 381 will benefit the Edward A. Myerberg Northwest Senior Center, as well as other centers across the state, by raising the ceiling on state capital grants from $300,000 to $600,000.

The Community Services Trust Fund supports community services for those with mental and developmental disabilities. House Bill 550 closes the loophole in existing law by which the State has bypassed the Trust Fund by selling off a portion of the land on state facilities for these individuals. Proceeds from such sales will now go to the Trust Fund.

Crime Prevention

Instead of spending several hours off the street booking a perpetrator, an officer issues a citation to the person. The penalty for the offense remains the same, but the officer stays on patrol, able to deter other criminal activity. HB 14 would have increased the minor offenses enforceable by citation to include assault, battery, indecent exposure, trespassing, waste or refuse disposal offenses, and several other violations. It passed the House but died in a Senate committee.

Delay in obtaining a search warrant can allow evidence of a crime to be secreted or destroyed. Two important law enforcement tools that are used in the federal courts would have been made available in Maryland under House Bill 706.

An oral warrant is issued if an officer persuades a federal judge or magistrate that circumstances of time and place make reliance on oral testimony reasonable. Anticipatory warrants are issued when the police have probable cause to believe that a crime will be committed or that evidence, such as drugs, will be located at a certain place.

Despite support from the Attorney General, several police departments and State's Attorneys, HB 706 was not enacted.

Regional Cooperation and Neighborhood Revitalization

Representing people in both Baltimore City and County over the last four years has made me more aware of the need for and benefits from regional cooperation. House Bill 1089 would have created a regional economic competitiveness fund to address such issues as economic development, housing, and transportation.

Modeled on a highly successful Virginia program, this law was designed to encourage local jurisdictions to work together in addressing economic competitiveness issues. Although HB 1089 did not pass, the Department of Business and Economic Development has agreed to study how the State can do more to encourage regional cooperation.

Finding jobs for welfare recipients is another issue that should be addressed regionally. People may live in one county, while a suitable job may be available in another. To address this situation, counties will be encouraged to submit joint proposals for demonstration projects and welfare-to-work grant funds under the provisions of this year's welfare reform bill.

To rejuvenate older neighborhoods, House Bill 447, as enacted, authorizes local governments to grant a 10% property tax credit to owners who modernize a building for residential use by installing state-of-the-art computer, communications, and utility systems. That credit already exists for the cost of such improvements in commercial buildings under a law that I sponsored in 1996.

The property must be located in an area eligible for designation under the Neighborhood Business Development Program, and the tax credit may not extend beyond 10 years. Nine conversion projects, with an estimated 670 units, are under study in downtown Baltimore.

Money for capital improvements affecting our district was obtained through the efforts of the 42nd District delegation - Senator Barbara Hoffman, Delegates Jim Campbell, Maggie McIntosh, and myself. State funds will be used to build a Police Athletic League facility behind Reisterstown Road Plaza, streetscape Reisterstown Road between Glengyle and Slade Avenues, and demolish Memorial Stadium.

The Internet

High speed computer networks will be the phone lines of the 21st Century. Thus, Maryland's capability to convey information is crucial to spurring academic research, economic development, advances in medical care, and citizen interaction with government.

To maximize our benefit from technological developments, we must understand these changes and coordinate our response. House Bill 847, which was enacted, creates a task force to study what the public and private sectors should do to increase our capacity to carry information on the Internet.

Like every other means of communication, the Internet can be used for both good and ill. For example, e-mail messages may harass or defame someone. I introduced legislation to address both of these situations.

For many years, it has been a crime in Maryland to harass someone over the telephone. House Bill 140 makes it illegal to communicate over the Internet with the intent to harass someone.

Libel on the Internet is an uncharted area of the law. House Bill 947 would have established standards governing defamatory statements for both on-line services and users of these services. Although this bill did not pass, the Interactive Services Association, a trade association representing companies developing consumer-based interactive services for the Internet, will work with me on this and other issues affecting consumers and the Internet on-line industry in the coming months.

Reforming Government

The State of Maryland has implemented this widely heralded reform, but Baltimore City has not. House Bill 1046 would have denied Baltimore City a $5 million grant it now receives from the State unless it adopted competitive re- engineering. After Mayor Schmoke wrote me of the City's commitment to evaluate services that could be privatized and to study the private sector's interest in refuse collection in two areas of the City, I withdrew the bill.

More than 2,000 developmentally disabled people will receive services under the Governor's waiting list initiative. Under my amendment, which was adopted, money budgeted for this purpose can be carried over to the next fiscal year to avoid having it spent in an ill advised manner.

I also introduced House Bill 324, which would have allowed managers throughout state government to keep up to 50% of unspent funds at year's end to reinvest in their department. Three years ago, I sponsored legislation that created a pilot program of expenditure control budgeting. HB 324 would have made this a permanent program, but it was not enacted.

I trust that this newsletter has given you an insight into the issues I worked on this past session. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.

This summer, I will be running for reelection with my 42nd District colleagues, Barbara Hoffman, Jim Campbell, and Maggie McIntosh. I hope that you will find that the four of us have earned the honor of continuing to serve you in the Maryland General Assembly.

Yours truly,