delsandy – Page 63 – Sandy Rosenberg

Guiding principles

February 12, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Two of my guiding principles for the legislative process:

Co-sponsorship is the biggest waste of time in Annapolis.

2. You always want an advocate in the room when decisions are being made about your bill.

The number of cosponsors on a bill has little impact on a committee’s decision making.

But if your only co-sponsor is the chair of the subcommittee that will consider your legislation, that individual will most definitely be present when your legislation is debated and voted on.

I introduced two bills today with the relevant subcommittee chair as my only co-sponsor.

They did so after reading a two-page summary of the bill in one instance and discussing the issue at a 20-minute meeting in the other case.

Co-sponsorship too often results from a 15-second conversation on the House floor.

The subjects of my two bills: a plan to train pre-k teachers and protections for tenants when their public housing rental unit is transferred to a for-profit developer.

Favorable action is not guaranteed, but I will have eyes and ears and a voice – where and when it matters.

Counting all votes

February 11, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I don’t take anything for granted.

My reporter’s shield bill is on the agenda for the Criminal Law Subcommittee meeting tomorrow.

Today I was counting votes.

I asked a colleague if he would vote for the bill.

“Yes,” he replied. “I voted for it last year when it failed.”

“I knew that,” I responded, since I had looked at that roll call yesterday. “I don’t take anything for granted.”

This year’s deficit, next year’s bill

February 10, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I knew my bill was doomed.

House Bill 148 would reduce the interest rate on unpaid taxes from 13% to 3 points above the prime rate.

The problem: its cost. As introduced, $41 million in the next fiscal year; under the amendment that I offered to phase in the change, $9 million.

Given the state’s fiscal problems and the legislature’s intent to restore funding for K-12 education, we are not going to pass a bill with either price tag.

But there’s always next year.

After the hearing ended, I turned to a business lobbyist who had testified alongside me.

I asked him to put this issue on his agenda for Hogan Administration bills next year.

He agreed to do so.

I will follow up with him this summer.

A reply they can’t refuse

February 9, 2015February 9, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

You don’t want to leave this session without a supportive document in your hand, I advised the advocate.

(If the analogy to “The Godfather” is unclear, please Google.)

It can be a bill, language in the budget, or a letter from a committee chairman.

What it does is put the legislature’s position on the record.

Our power to influence policy diminishes after we adjourn in April.

But what we put in writing during the 90-day session obligates the executive branch while we’re gone.

Passage of a bill is legally binding. A letter from a legislator must be answered.

In fact, I’m following this advice on another issue this session.

I don’t know what form the written obligation should take, but I know I need it.

The numbers that really matter

February 5, 2015February 5, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The number of co-sponsors you have on the charter school bill will mean nothing compared to the amount of money the Governor ultimately commits to public education in his budget.

I said that to advocates for his charter bill.

I could have told the same thing to supporters of the tax credit for donations to parochial and public schools.

The reason why: the Governor’s budget would have a negative effect on every school system in the state. It would reduce the number of teachers in classrooms.

The number one priority of the Democrats in Annapolis is to restore funding for public schools by making cuts elsewhere in the budget.

Then the Governor could increase education spending and keep the budget balanced.

If that happens, then other education issues can be considered.

From Greatest hits to a simple test

February 4, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

At some point, the campaign will end and the governing will begin.

Not today, however.

Governor Hogan’s State of the State speech began with his greatest hits from the election.

“40 consecutive tax hikes have taken an additional $10 billion out of the pockets of struggling Maryland families and small businesses. We’ve lost more than 8,000 businesses, and Maryland’s unemployment nearly doubled.”

He also stated that he would introduce legislation cutting taxes by an estimated $30 million.

What he would cut from his budget if these reductions are made, he did not say.

The Governor further said, “We have universities and schools that are among the best in the nation.”

How that jibes with the increase in K-12 class size that his budget would bring about, he did not say.

However, the Governor did give an indication as to how he will deal with the realities of governing:

“And every decision I make as governor will be put to a simple test.

“Will this law or action make it easier for families and small businesses to stay in Maryland?

“And – will it make more families and small businesses want to come to Maryland?”

Before we complete our work in April, the Governor and the legislature will have countless opportunities to answer those questions.

At the witness table for the first time all over again

February 3, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I was at the witness table for more than two hours.

My first two bill hearings of the session.

I was joined by two journalists, a lawyer, and a lobbyist for the bill that would extend Maryland’s reporter’s shield law to subpoenas issued by another state.

Many questions – the most important by the vice chair of the committee: How is the judge to decide whether our law would be violated by enforcing the subpoena?

The vice chair will be in the room with the committee chair at the first discussion of whether House Bill 8 should get a favorable report.

I hope to draft an amendment that will address her concerns.

A more supportive reception for my second bill.

The No Wrong Door Act would increase the circumstances when applicants for public benefits – housing, health care, disability benefits, could find out if they were eligible at one computer site.

I was joined by advocates for the poor and a woman whose homelessness was addressed with state help..

Management and labor opposed the bill – the Hogan administration and AFSCME, the state employees union.

They told me in advance of their opposition. I acknowledged it when I testified and said I was looking forward to working with them on a solution.

The committee chair vocally shared my concern.

My printing adviser

February 2, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | 1 Comment

When I first ran for the House of Delegates in 1982, there was no Facebook or Twitter.

Not even Kinko’s.

There was and still is, however, the union bug.

Kogan Printing, a union shop, had one.

Kogan also had Mary Barban.

Mary’s official title was sales manager.

More importantly, she was the source of great insight into political campaigns – yours and others.

No one paid a short visit to Mary. She would fill you in on her political gossip and you would return the favor.

There were always mock-ups of many candidates’ literature on her desk. If you had good eyes (and the ability to read upside down), you could learn a lot.

After Mary retired, I would call her occasionally to consult with my printing adviser.

Frank DeFilippo sent me to see Mary in 1982. He arranged for her collection of “printed political campaign material, ephemera, and photographs” to be donated to the Maryland State Archives.

http://speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us/pages/speccol/collection.aspx?speccol=5916

Mary died on Saturday.

Her obituary concludes, “In lieu of flowers, please donate to any charity that helps working women with fair opportunity, advancement and justice.”

As always, I will follow Mary’s advice.

The cost of cuts

January 27, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

A headline today reads: Fewer gimmicks in Hogan’s $40B budget; solves deficits for 3 years by capping spending hikes

But at what cost?

Does a $157 million cut to K-12 classes and community colleges put our education system at risk?

Would that diminish our attractiveness to businesses that need an educated work force? Affect their employees want a quality education for their children?

The Hogan budget makes that cut.

There is no Democratic alternative yet that would make the spending reductions elsewhere, but there will be.

The decisions we will make on spending priorities and public education policy are what governing is about.

The new bipartisan fair and balanced?

January 26, 2015January 28, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

A former Fox News reporter will be testifying for my bill.

An example of the new bipartisan Annapolis?

Not quite.

Jana Winter reported on the mass shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado.

A trial court judge ordered her to reveal the source for her story about a notebook that the gunman sent to his psychiatrist before the shooting.

However, since Winter was based in Manhattan, New York’s highest court ruled that the state’s reporter’s shield law would be violated if Winter was forced to reveal her source.

My bill would adopt that same standard. A Maryland-based reporter could not be subpoenaed to testify in another state if that testimony could not be required under our shield law.

The reporter, a press lawyer, and I will also meet with the committee chair before the hearing.

It’s not bipartisan. It’s not fair and balanced.

It’s personalizing what would otherwise be an abstract protection of the free press.

My Key Issues:

Author: delsandy