2001 General Assembly Session Newsletter

Delegate Samuel I. "Sandy" Rosenberg
42nd District, Baltimore City and County

I write to discuss with you the issues I dealt with at this year's General Assembly.

GAY RIGHTS We enacted legislation extending Maryland's civil rights law to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment, housing, and public accommodation. This sends a strong and unequivocal statement that individuals will be judged on their merit and character, not on the basis of irrelevant personal factors.

The executive and legislative branches of our state government already prohibit discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation. I was instrumental in persuading Governor William Donald Schaefer and the presiding officers of the General Assembly to adopt this policy in 1993.

I was one of the House leaders on this legislation. I will be adding it to the five bills that I list in my biography as my most significant legislative accomplishments. The others are writing the holding of Roe v. Wade into Maryland law, creation of the program which repays a portion of the educational debt of people who have lower-paying public interest jobs, lead paint abatement legislation, welfare reform, and establishing the public health priorities for use of the state's share of the settlement of the tobacco litigation.

PUBLIC HEALTH Governor Parris Glendening's original budget inadequately funded programs for the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled. As chair of the Appropriations subcommittee which oversees the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, I worked with many others to make the Governor aware of the urgent need to include additional funds in his supplemental budget. He did, providing $30 million for mental health treatment providers across the State.

We also passed legislation that will increase the salary for community providers of services to individuals with disabilities. McDonald's currently pays people more to flip burgers. The impact on the quality of care is self evident.

After a mentally ill man shot a stranger in broad daylight in downtown Baltimore several years ago, my budget subcommittee had the Mental Hygiene Administration study how to promote the use of medications and other services by people with long-term mental illness who are living in the community. The result: an advance directive that allows someone with a history of mental illness to authorize family or mental health service providers to administer care, most often medicine, if that person becomes incapable of giving consent.

This session, I successfully introduced a bill requiring that an inpatient psychiatric facility advise an individual, prior to release, on the merit of developing an advance directive. To assess this counseling, a quality survey will be conducted under language I had added to the budget.

DRUG TREATMENT 200,000 people are in need of drug treatment across the state. Of these, 60,000 live in Baltimore City, plus another 60,000 in the region. There are currently 45,000 treatment slots funded with tax dollars; another 3,000 will be provided with the $22 million increase we approved in next year's budget. To ensure the effective use of these dollars, long-term outcome measures for various treatment methods will be developed as part of a report that my subcommittee has required.

Someone who is off drugs can get a job. Someone who is literate can get a better job. Over the last seven years, 723 people have graduated from the Baltimore City drug court program by successfully completing all recommended treatment without being returned to prison for parole violations. Seeking to build on this successful effort, I sponsored House Bill 860, which states that a judge can require participation in a literacy or GED program as a condition of probation.

An Arizona program offers probationers literacy and other adult education classes. Its graduates have significantly higher probation completion rates, followed by longer periods of being arrest-free. My bill did not pass, but I had an amendment put on legislation that did. The Task Force to Study Adult Education Services will examine services for adults who are incarcerated or on probation.

HEALTH CARE Reducing the number of children who smoke has been one of my priorities for several years. In 1997, I put in legislation to allow the state to conduct sting operations to see if retailers are selling cigarettes to minors. Despite the fact that we already do this to deter the sale of liquor to underage teens, the bill failed. Enforcement of the laws regarding tobacco sales is one of the spending priorities for Maryland's share of the tobacco settlement, under the law that I sponsored.

This year, I again testified on behalf of a bill that would authorize under-age stings, but it did not pass. However, the chairman of the committee that hears this legislation has pledged to work with me and others this summer to draft a bill that would pass his panel next year.

What to do with a frozen embryo should not be the subject of a custody battle in a divorce hearing, but it has been. Instead, before two people undergo in vitro fertilization, they should be introduced to the ethical and legal issues associated with the procedure. That's why I introduced House Bill 723. It would have required that both individuals sign an advance directive governing the disposition of any cryopreserved eggs, sperm, or embryos in the event of death, divorce, or a decision by either individual to discontinue participation.

The bill died in committee, in large measure because of concerns that an abortion-related floor fight might occur if it reached the House floor. Thus, despite being in the minority, the pro-lifers were able to veto favorable action on this legislation. Despite this setback, I plan to ask that regulations be issued, requiring that such forms be provided to couples. This would not give a hospital immunity for acting in compliance with the parties' written directive in disposing of the embryos. The bill would have.

A positive note on reproductive health: at my initiative, the budget committees have asked for a report on the impact of inadequate federal funding family planning and other services. This could be the vehicle for increased state funding next year. With the Congress and an anti-choice President poised to adopt restrictions on abortion and family planning, I expect that we will attempt to reverse some of those actions next year.

WELFARE REFORM Our guiding principle in welfare reform has been to give people the opportunity to move from dependency to self sufficiency but with a consequence if they fail to do so. Over the last six years, our caseload has declined by 2/3. For those who have found their first job, we must now provide them with the skills for a better paying second job. For those fathers absent from their child's upbringing, we must provide incentives for them to get involved. A fatherless child is five times more likely to be living in poverty than one who lives with both parents.

I'm the lead sponsor of The Welfare Innovation Act of 2001. With its enactment, businesses participating in the job skills enhancement pilot program for former welfare recipients will now be required to offer benefits in a job with a defined career path and to determine what training is provided. This legislation also creates a Commission on Responsible Fatherhood, that will study the effects of absent fathers upon the lives of Maryland's children and develop a comprehensive strategy for increasing a father's participation in raising his children. Several other states have taken this important first step in encouraging more involvement by absent fathers.

GREEN BUILDINGS Using ecologically sound systems and materials in the construction or rehabilitation of a building is costly. Some of the additional expenses can be recouped in the long term through lower utility bills and in some cases, higher rents, but the benefits to the building owner or tenant do not, with the existing technology, equal the costs. I was the lead sponsor of House Bill 8, which creates a tax credit to fill that gap and make the development of a green building or the "greening" of an existing building financially meritorious.

Beginning January 1, 2002, tax credits will be awarded for specified construction or rehabilitation costs that meet applicable energy efficiency, air quality and other environmental standards. We enacted a similar credit last year for the use of energy efficient products, such as fuel cells and certain heating and cooling equipment.

DNA Last year, I introduced legislation that would have broadened the circumstances in which newly discovered DNA evidence would entitle someone to a new trial. Since the bill did not pass, I turned to the Rules Committee of the judiciary.

That panel has recommended that a motion for a new trial may be filed at any time, if based upon DNA testing or other generally accepted scientific techniques that would, if proven, show the innocence of a person who had been convicted. Currently, newly discovered evidence must be presented within one year of the imposition of sentence, unless the defendant has been sentenced to death, when such evidence can be offered at any time. This new rule awaits approval from the Court of Appeals.

Post-conviction testing of DNA evidence for certain violent crimes was authorized under legislation we passed this session. Even though the bill is narrower in scope than the pending rule change, both would provide complementary avenues for an individual to prove his innocence.

ABANDONED BABIES An unwanted newborn is better left at a hospital than in a dumpster. I worked with pro-choice and pro-life advocates before introducing a bill to provide immunity from prosecution for a parent, or someone authorized by a parent, who leaves an unharmed baby, three days old or less, at a hospital, fire station, or police station. The Senate felt that newborns should be left only at a hospital. The bill died when a compromise could not be reached on this issue.

PRIVACY As the sharing of sensitive information over the Internet grows exponentially, so does the probability of misuse of medical records, financial data, and consumer transactions. In the near future, an electronic payment card will provide access to several public transportation systems in the state, including the Baltimore subway and light rail. With the passage of my legislation, access to the personal information stored in these cards, as well as in the computer chip used for paying tolls, will be limited to the individual named in the record and that individual's attorney.

I also proposed that a task force study existing state laws and policies concerning the collection, distribution and privacy of personal information by technological means, by both state government and private entities. This review is likely to be done instead by the General Assembly's Joint Technology Oversight Committee.

HOUSING The replacement of the public housing high rises in Baltimore with garden apartments and home ownership units was made possible by a unique combination of federal, state, and city dollars. Since the State will fulfill its seven-year $65 million commitment next year, I will begin strategizing this summer on how to secure a comparable commitment in the future.

New tax incentives to encourage private investment in communities plagued by poverty and disinvestment were enacted by the Congress last year. I introduced legislation to create complementary benefits in state law. Although my bill did not pass, two cabinet departments will study this matter and recommend whether such legislation should be introduced next year.

Many first-time home buyers in Baltimore City are being swindled by flippers, who buy houses at a low price, make very modest improvements, and then flip them to unsophisticated purchasers at a much higher price. My subcommittee ensured that $200,000 would go for housing counseling to avert this problem.

42nd DISTRICT NEIGHBORHOODS The Calvert School's expansion plans would displace more than 100 elderly tenants and more than double the size of the school's campus, with a significant impact on the residential nature of the adjoining Tuscany-Canterbury neighborhood.

Last November, the 42nd District delegation, Senator Barbara Hoffman, Delegates Jim Campbell, Maggie McIntosh and myself, wrote the president of the Calvert Board of Trustees, expressing our hope that a compromise could be reached that met the academic and athletic needs of the Calvert School, without disrupting the lives of these seniors and drastically altering the fabric of the neighborhood. When that failed to generate a response, we introduced legislation that would prohibit the demolition of the apartment buildings. A Sun article about that bill was the catalyst for the School to begin serious discussions with both the renters and the neighborhood association.

The Bolton Hill synagogue has purchased a property that has been unused for over forty years. The Evergreen Association is concerned about the effect this would have upon the nearby residences. Preserving an undeveloped buffer between the synagogue and the Stony Run stream serves everybody's interests. The four of us have secured a commitment for the public dollars to buy this land and preserve it as open space.

The Concord House Apartments in Northwest Baltimore and the Roosevelt Recreation Center in Hampden will receive $750,000 and $200,000, respectively, in capital grants under legislation sponsored by the four of us. I was the lead sponsor for bond bills for the Walters Art Museum and Loyola College. Both institutions were voted state funds.

BALTIMORE REGION Baltimore City will receive $7 million for a variety of purposes, including West Side revitalization, Healthy Neighborhoods, Main Streets, demolition, Carroll Camden Industrial Area, and a Land Bank. Twelve school construction projects in Baltimore City totaling $18.4 million and a like number in Baltimore County totaling $5.3 million have been funded.

I helped bring about two initiatives intended to encourage regional cooperation. Proposals that would overcome significant barriers that may exist between employers and employees within a local or regional job market will be given consideration in the Skills-Based Training for Employment Promotion Pilot Program. To get a better picture of local governments' funding for substance abuse treatment, the State will develop an annual survey.

GOVERNMENT REFORM Making government work better is a longstanding interest. Both of my bills in this area were enacted. One will streamline the State's procurement process for information technology, cutting in half the time it takes to make certain purchases. The second allows state agencies to carry over money into the next fiscal year if consistent with their "managing for results" plan. This is designed to avoid having money spent ill advisedly at the end of the fiscal year.

PUBLIC SERVICE Many law students can't accept lower paying public service positions without help in repaying their academic debt. My bill allowing people to become eligible for assistance in their final year of school so that they could accept such jobs, knowing they would be getting this aid, did not pass. My bill renaming the program after Janet L. Hoffman was enacted.

EMINENT DOMAIN Senate Bill 509 of the 2000 session authorized Baltimore County to exercise eminent domain and undertake redevelopment projects. The renewal of Howard Street will force many businesses to move. Consequently, I introduced House Bill 314, which would have compensated business owners who suffer a loss of good will because the government's condemnation of their building forced them to move. Despite the fact that my legislation was based on a model statute, we failed to convince the committee that there was an objective way to quantify good will. This summer, I plan to discuss with an accountant the best way to quantify an entrepreneur's loss of business.

During the coming months, I will continue to work on many of the issues I've discussed in this newsletter. I welcome your comments on these matters or any other areas of concern to you.

Yours truly,


Samuel I. Rosenberg

P.S. I wrote a diary over the 90 days of the legislative session.

Not Printed At Government Expense