We got to the heart of the matter today – taxes.

        Education, elections, gambling, and transportation are in our jurisdiction on the Ways and Means Committee.  But taxes are the most important and politically difficult decisions we make. 

         Briefings like today’s are informative; bill hearings are decisive. 

         Nonetheless, we began the discussion about revenues, with the participation of Speaker Busch. 

         For some advocates, it’s a question of how much money their proposal will raise.  As policymakers, our question is how much revenue do we need to educate our children, enhance our economy, and, in the words of Hubert Humphrey, care for those in the twilight of life, the elderly, and in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.

      —- 

           My diary next week will be from Florida.  I’m off to visit my mother and steal some strikes behind the plate at a baseball fantasy camp. 

           An audio slideshow from my trip to Israel is now at delsandy.com, thanks to my niece, Rachel.   (Go to Featured Video)

January 27

              I can’t recall the last time an action by the government of Italy affected one of my bills.

              The regulations for state executions, now under review by the legislature, require that sodium thiopental be used.  The lone American manufacturer of this drug has stopped manufacturing it, according to Saturday’s New York Times. 

            The company has an Italian plant, but the authorities there will not permit shipment of the drug if it is to be used to carry out a death penalty.

             After reading about this, I did what I often do.  I asked the Attorney General’s Office to do some research:  “Does the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services have this drug on hand and, if so, what is the expiration date for the drug?” 

             I wasn’t the only person making such an inquiry.  Late this afternoon, John Wagner of the Washington Post wrote that “any supply still on hand in Maryland — which last executed a prisoner in 2005 — has since expired, according to a corrections department spokesperson.”

            However this issue is resolved, I said to myself when I finished the Times story, it demonstrates yet again that the days of the death penalty are numbered.

               It’s good to be the person who spreads good news. 

               At a budget briefing, I sat next to a staffer who made very few such calls this week.  He did share some good news with me before the Governor told the rest of the group.  There’s $12.4 million in the budget for stem cell research, a $2 million increase.

                I later told the advocates who were our likely supporters on the budget subcommittees that will vote on this funding.   

               Now that I’m on the Ways and Means Committee, my focus won’t be the budget but the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act, fondly known as the BRFA.

               It contains the changes in funding formulas for state aid to Baltimore City and the 23 counties, as well as subsidies  for the horseracing industry. 

 January 21, 2011

            Today’s Peace Corps is Teach For America.

            I’m prompted to write about the Peace Corps because of the passing of Sargent Shriver.  Under his leadership, idealistic Americans went to foreign countries to teach in classrooms and everywhere else in the communities where they lived.

            For the last 20 years, idealistic recent college grads have taught in the classrooms of underperforming schools in both urban and rural America.  There are currently 320 in Baltimore City. 

            One TFA alumnus took my Legislation class at the University of Maryland Law School two years ago.  This past summer, Bill Ferguson was elected to the State Senate from South Baltimore. 

            Bill and I decided that his policy knowledge and my political skills could produce some important education reforms.  We asked a group of advocates to offer their ideas.   Despite their years of advocacy, it was the first time they sat around the same table to strategize. 

            We’ve begun to show our bill drafts to the key players on K-12 education in Annapolis.  Better to address their concerns and gain their support now than to offer a host of amendments after our legislation is introduced. 

            I’m sure that Sargent Shriver saw Teach For America as a worthy offspring of the Peace Corps and the War on Poverty, which he also headed. 

            I’d like to think that he’d also find favor with what we’re trying to do on education.

 January 19

            If you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, don’t. 

            I brought the draft legislation to our power breakfast.  It would encourage the hiring of low-income individuals for certain construction projects.

            Every word in the bill was new because it would add a section to the law.

            And then the light went on.  (Perhaps it was the cholesterol intake.)

            I remembered that I had passed a law encouraging people doing business with the state to hire current and former welfare recipients.  With a little help from a friend, I found the language. 

            Now I’ll compare the existing law and how it’s been implemented to what we’re trying to accomplish

            I may be one of the most liberal members of the General Assembly, but when it comes to bill drafting, I’m very conservative. 

            If I can say that my proposal modifies existing law and builds on what is already state policy, that’s a big plus.

            One could also see this episode as evidence that after 28 years, I’m recycling the same ideas.  But let’s not go there.

January 17