Week 4: Field Notes
Observations and Reflections on Legislative Activities
By Delegate Michael A. McDermott
Week 4 January 27-31, 2014
Monday Evening Session:
There were some of the first bills crossing over from the Senate on First Reader in the House. One of particular interest for farmers dealing with manure transport issues is SB-127. The bill appears to give greater latitude to the Dept.of Agriculture in determining price caps.
Tuesday Morning Session:
I offered the Morning Prayer to begin session. I recited the prayer offered by President George Washington as his first act upon taking office. Whenever I have the opportunity, I try and remind the members of our rich history and our country’s focus on God. It is always a good reminder.
There were no bills on First Reader.
was on Third Reader. This bill would require the state to cover all of the medical expenses for individuals who tried, or say they tried, to sign up for Maryland-Obamacare if they were unable to actually receive coverage under any plan. The O’Malley-Brown administration made this request but can provide no budget number or even identify the number of persons that we may need to cover. Essentially, the democrats want to provide a blank check to cover the failures of Maryland-Obamacare that could easily exceed $100 million. This concern was expressed by many delegates from the floor. In spite of these concerns and the failure of the democrats to provide answers, the bill was passed along a party line vote. Here’s what I said on the House Floor.
Tuesday Afternoon Judiciary Hearings:
HB-17 seeks to make the use of an interactive computer service to bully or harass people a misdemeanor. This bill would expand the provisions provided in the cyber bullying bill that was adopted last year (Grace’s Law) and make it apply to adults as well. There was quite a bit of debate over the expansion and the impact on the 1st Amendment rights of individuals.
HB-21 would make it a crime to disobey an order given by a 911 operator. This was, perhaps, a well intended bill, but it has so many pitfalls so as to render it misguided at best.
HB-27 seeks to place certain requirements and protocols in place for incarcerated prisoners who are pregnant. It specifically seeks to mandate the method and form in the use of shackles, and other physical restraints often utilized when transporting pregnant prisoners.
HB-33 referred to as “Lynette’s Law”, this bill seeks to make it a crime for a licensed therapist to have sexual contact with a patient within two years of the victim being a patient of the therapist.
HB-43 would make it a misdemeanor for a person to disclose sexual images, etc. of another person without the consent of that person. This is one of the so called, “Revenge Porn” bills that the committee is hearing this year. This bill would make it a misdemeanor. This bill does not address the extortion issues that I seek to address in HB-204.
HB-64 is a very similar bill to HB-43 except that it makes the crime a felony as opposed to a misdemeanor.
HB-65 would increase the penalty for Harassment and specifically names members of any Neighborhood Watch group as being persons who can be charged with Harassment. It has been crafted in response to the Martin case in Florida. I do not believe that singling out Neighborhood Watch folks is appropriate and it would probably make people reluctant to get involved in protecting their own neighborhoods.
HB-116 would require police officers throughout the state to wear an active video camera on their person to record all of their activities. The bill would have a significant fiscal impact on local agencies.
Hearing on HB-204:
The hearing in Judiciary went well. It was easy to use the other “Revenge Porn” bills that others had testified to earlier as a segway for HB-204. This bill simply expands the current Extortion law to include using sexually explicit images, video, etc. as a means of blackmail against an individual. Currently the law seems unclear that this would be applicable. Click here to listen to the hearing.
Hearing on HB-32:
I had a hearing in Environmental Matters Committee on my Tinted Window exception for law enforcement. It was well received and there was no opposition. The bill simply would allow law enforcement vehicles to use window tinting on their vehicles to provide some degree of temperature protection for equipment, K-9’s, etc. It would also provide some protection for victims who are transported to the scene of an apprehension for a potential identification. Click here to listen to the hearing.
Hearing on HB-34:
This bill was heard in Ways and Means and seeks to eliminate the Statute of Limitations on the crime of Income Tax Preparation Fraud. Often these cases are not uncovered until well after the current 3-year time that is in place. The Maryland State’s Attorney’s Association weighed in on the bill in full support. Click here to listen to the hearing.
Hearing on HB-199:
This bill was also heard in Ways and Means. If passed, it would lower the Corporate Tax Rate in Maryland from the current 8.25% to 6% in a graduated step down over the next 5-years. There was an interesting dialogue with some of the democrats on the committee who alluded to a work group formed by the committee to make recommendations on making Maryland better for business. It appeared quite clear that they are not considering our tax code as an area that needs to be lowered. In fact, it seems their approach will be to cherry pick certain businesses that they wish to bless while not doing anything unilaterally. I testified that the Corporate Rate is simply one part of what should be a holistic approach to solving our decline in the area of business revenues. While I believe cutting the rate would create jobs and increase revenues over time, the democrats on the committee do not make that connection and only see the lost revenue from the tax cut. I told them they needed to first consider why Maryland has lost 7 of 11 Fortune 500 companies over the past 7-years and move to fix this breach. Click here to listen to the hearing.
Wednesday Morning Session: Bills presented on First Reader.
Judiciary Committee Budget Briefing
Judiciary Committee Afternoon Hearings:
HB-181 seeks to increase the fees charged to lawyers for docketing the appearance of Council in the Circuit Court for Carroll County. In a committee of many trial lawyers…what odds would you give this bill?
HB-183 seeks to limit the liability of the Industrial Development Authority of Carroll County by including them under the definition of “local government”. This is a local bill and these types of para-governmental agencies are often provided this type of protection.
HB-201 would add to the costs of our District Court fees $5.00 designated to a fund to provide for defray the costs of law enforcement agencies utilizing electronic citations and their equipment needs. This bill has been introduced previously and there is reluctance to increase these costs.
HB-211 is a Delegation Bill from Carroll County that would raise the salaries of the Orphans Court Judges from $10,000 to $15,000 per year. It would also provide the Chief Judge with an additional stipend of $1500.
HB-239 this bill would simply allow an applicant to the Bar or any lawyer to simply use a credit or debit card to pay certain fees of the of the court. It was hard to understand why this is not already being done.
HB-243 the bill would make the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle a civil matter as opposed to a criminal act. This would significantly impact the rental car folks. It was said that many who rent vehicles allow others to drive them without the permission of the rental company which violates their contracts. When these folks are stopped, they are often issued a citation for Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle. This process allows for the immediate recovery of the vehicle by the rental carrier as the unlawful operator is generally detained by police and charged with a misdemeanor. I am afraid that if this law is decriminalized, there will be very limited recovery of these rental vehicles.
Hearing on HB-213:
This bill will simply require local county permit offices to specify the reasons why they are denying permits to contractors, electricians, etc. Right now, when a permit is denied, current law doesn’t mandate that a permit office specify why they are denying a permit. Click here to listen to the hearing.
Thursday Afternoon Judiciary Committee Hearing:
HB-242 would allow Kent County to conduct a Truancy Reduction Program which has already been implemented in several other counties in the state. The program seeks to provide alternatives to curb truancy and has been used successfully in other areas of the state.
HB-178 expands the services provided by the Department of Human Resources allowing them to make contact with relatives in “out of home” placement situations. It was said this bill would help with placement of juveniles in the least restrictive environment.
HB-179 would change the make-up of the Adult Public Guardianship Review Boards currently in place within every county. It would require that one of the members be a member of the medical community other than a psychiatrist. It would also allow a Registered Nurse be allowed to serve in place of one of the Doctor assigned positions.
HB-222 would place the crimes of 1st Degree Burglary and Animal Cruelty on the list of crimes that must be reported by law enforcement to local school boards.
HB-236 This bill is titled the Maryland Collaborative Reproduction Act. It seeks to address surrogate legal contracts and agreements made between individuals for the purpose of a woman providing gestation services to another person seeking to have a child through this process. This is really an area that needs some study before any action is taken. There seems to be a desire to move this through quickly and I cannot help but think the LGBT community is driving it.
Friday Morning Eastern Shore Delegation Meeting:
We heard from Secretary Murray from the Dept. of Business and Economic Development. He is always very enthusiastic (which I appreciate). He pointed out what he believed to be good progress by the administration in the area of business development while always avoiding the elephant in the room. I asked him about Beretta leaving Maryland for Tennessee and he said that was true. He said the company was expanding and was choosing to do so in another state. He also alluded to statements made by the company when the Gun Bill (SB-281) was passed last year indicating they were simply following through with what they had stated at that time. I’m sure Charles County would have appreciated the jobs and money of a major plant expansion. How long before Beretta moves out entirely we do not know. There is a smaller Benelli (part of the Beretta family) operation in Pocomoke City and we will have to wait and see how any future plans impact their Maryland operations.
I pointed out to Sec. Murray that I had asked him for the past two years to get more involved with the poultry and agricultural businesses in the state to insure that they had a business advocate at the table when these new regulations and proposals come forward. He indicated that he tried to always remind his fellow cabinet members of the importance of these farming interests as business entities. Based upon the current state of affairs, it seems his voice does not carry very far in the room.
We heard a brief presentation from Secretary Hall of Planning. He spoke about trying to utilize additional funds from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to address additional septic concerns on the shore. I told him perhaps he could ask the governor to stop transferring tens of millions out of the trust fund to cover his General Fund expenditures. I also told him that it was beginning to look as though we did not need to double the Flush Tax since they keep taking so much money out of the fund for other expenses. He said he would pass that along (yeah, right). I also asked about the number of counties that had complied with the Tier Mapping. He stated that 14 counties had submitted maps. He said they were going back and forth with one particular county (probably Cecil) regarding issues with their proposal. Needless to say, it would seem many of our counties had opted to not comply or submit their plans. It was clear that the state is heavily embedded in local planning decisions based upon some of the discussions that took place between Sec. Hall and Delegate Arentz (R-Queen Anne) regarding a county growth area designation.
We heard from the Tourism Advisory Council and there were representatives from all of the local departments of tourism on the Eastern Shore. They were advocating to keep the governor’s proposed budget numbers for tourism in tact at $8.5 million as opposed to the budget review recommendations of the minimum mandated number of $6.5 million. The vast majority of this revenue is utilized for advertising and this is one area where the numbers can be seen in a very positive light when it comes to direct state revenues. This area of state spending is a big help to the Eastern Shore as we are quite dependant upon tourism to pay the bills.
Several Senate bills crossed over and were also on First Reader. Most were local bills. A couple of them were filed by Senator Colburn and would specifically impact Dorchester County(SB-76) and Cambridge (SB-152).
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