Another Year of Recovery and Progress
The pandemic brought out the best of all levels of state government that worked so hard to help those most in need. Continued recovery in the days, months, and even years ahead depends more than ever on cities and counties working together to solve the many pressing problems that remain. As 2022 begins, two things still are clear: Rising up “together” has been a divisive endeavor and this pandemic—even if the number of fully vaccinated people increases—could be far from over.
Recap of the 2021 Legislative Session
The “RELIEF” Act supplemented federal stimulus checks with $300/$500 payments to qualifying individuals/families, repealed all state and local unemployment income taxes from 2020–21, provided up to $3,000 per month for 90 days in sales tax credits to small businesses, and allocated half a billion dollars to both companies and nonprofits for assistance with human services-related programs. This included everything from energy use to health and housing needs.
Because the pandemic created the highest level of joblessness since the Great Depression, several components of the entire unemployment benefits system were targeted, including allowing higher earned amounts before benefit reductions. The legislature also passed and then overrode Governor Larry Hogan’s veto of a second version of the “Blueprint for Maryland’s Future” Act, a multi-billion-dollar education reform bill that increases teacher salaries, extends tutoring programs through high school, provides support for technology-related equipment and behavioral health, and offers college and career preparation.
Another $577 million was distributed to Maryland’s four historically black universities, sports betting was legalized, juvenile life sentences without parole was banned, and “Maryland, My Maryland” as the state song was shelved.
Finally, the legislature passed several bills expanding early voting, reforming immigration policies—such as allowing non-citizen low and moderate-income workers, even some living in Maryland without documentation, to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit—and enhancing police accountability, including repealing the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, which will impact disciplinary proceedings, investigations of officer-related fatalities, and the extended use of body cameras. The Maryland Fiscal Year 2022 Budget of $52.4 billion represented a $4 billion increase from 2021, which compelled the legislature to override many Hogan vetoes of revenue-raising tax bills.
To discuss the 2022 session’s priorities, we spoke to Bonnie Cullison, House Deputy Speaker Pro Tem (D-District 19); Jason Buckel, House Minority Leader (R-District 1B); Delegate Shaneka Henson (D-District 30A); Delegate Steve Johnson (D-District 34A); Delegate Dana Jones (D-District 30A); Bill Ferguson, President of the Senate (D-District 46); Arthur Ellis, Senate Assistant Deputy Majority Leader (D-District 28); Senator Sarah Elfreth (D-District 30); and Senator Adelaide Eckardt (R-District 37).
Cullen sits on the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, and, with Johnson, on the House Health and Government Operations Committee; Buckel sits on Joint committees on Children, Youth & Families and Administrative, Executive & Legislative Review; House committees on Legislative Policy and Spending Affordability, and, with Jones, on the House Ways & Means Committee; Henson sits on the House Appropriations Committee; Ferguson is Co-Chair of the Senate’s Legislative Policy Committee and a member of the Joint Covid-19 Response Legislative Work Group; Ellis sits on the Senate’s Education, Health & Environmental Affairs Committee; the Joint Subcommittee on Program Open Space & Agricultural Land Preservation, and, with Elfreth, on the Joint Committee on Ending Homelessness; Elfreth also sits on Joint committees on the Chesapeake & Atlantic Coastal Bays Critical Areas and Pensions, and, with Eckardt, on two more committees—the Senate’s Budget & Taxation Committee and the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive & Legislative Review; Eckardt also sits on Joint committees on Children, Youth & Families, and Audit & Evaluation as well as the Senate’s Vaccine Oversight Work Group.
Issues That the 2022 Legislative Session Will Focus On
Law Enforcement Issues
Recreational Marijuana: “I’d like to see a thoughtful implementation plan for legalization, in order to do it the right way, Ferguson said. “Speaker Adrienne Jones is willing to have a public referendum on legalizing marijuana,” Henson added. “Passage may impact how marijuana laws were enforced in the past. We’ll have to see if restorative justice will be addressed and how far it would extend.” Johnson wants to see data from other legalized states. “Have there been more car accidents; harder drug use; higher crime rates? How do we regulate it? It’s not a controlled drug so there isn’t a lot of available research yet.” Elfreth has some ideas. “We will view this through an equity lens for marginalized communities of color and address driving under the influence. We’ve tried to learn from other states; we know we’ll see significant revenues but there are many unknown variables. Will Black and Latinx-owned businesses be able to participate? That’s not the case now for medical marijuana.” Del. Buckel has concerns. “You can’t just legalize it. It’s federally illegal and it’s an entire industry whose many components must be considered before putting it to a referendum,” he cautioned. “There’s no legal standard to measure impairment behind the wheel like for alcohol, just ‘positive’ or ‘negative,’ but previous marijuana use can stay in your system for days. There are no real legal problems with medical cannabis so how will recreational use impact those entrepreneurs and their employees?”
Police Reform: “The 2021 Police Reform package included five bills with an implementation date of 2023, so in 2022, we’ll be monitoring that process,” Elfreth said. Johnson is reintroducing a bill on the interrogation of minors. “Currently, they can be asked questions without parental permission or notification that they’re in custody,” he noted. “We have to make sure minors know that like adults, they don’t have to talk without legal representation. Kids deserve the same protections as anyone else.” Buckel is looking for balance. “So far, reform seems to be 100 percent on the police side but there’s also the criminal side. There’s more to it than how we arrest people; do we let them back on the streets without considering their arrest history?”
Guns: Buckel also wants higher penalties like automatic felonies and longer sentences “when there is a proven connection between a crime and the theft of a handgun, which is a very high percentage. In Maryland, it’s not automatically a felony; charges are based on the value of what was stolen. The felony threshold was lifted to a theft of $1,500 but most guns don’t cost anywhere near that. Let’s make the consequences much higher even if they take years to permeate career criminals’ consciousness and create a measurable deterrent.” Henson announced that she’ll “continue to push for not being able to bring guns into the polls” during voting. “Ghost guns will also come up again,” Jones predicted.
Health and Legal Issues
Marriage age: Over 3,500 minors have been married in Maryland since 2000, an average of roughly 200 a year—85 percent of them female, according to Elfreth. The vast majority marry other teens, but many have married older men in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Since 2016, almost half of the female minors married here were from elsewhere after 21 other states prohibited or restricted children getting married (Delaware and Virginia don’t allow marriage under 18). Because the age of consent in Maryland is 16, minors that age and 17 can marry with parental consent or physician certification that a female is pregnant or has given birth; however; females can marry as early as 15—below the age of consent—if they have both parental permission and physician certification of pregnancy or childbirth, even if their partner may have committed statutory rape. For several years now, bills to raise the marriage age in Maryland have not passed. Elfreth would like to see the minimum age set at 17 with no exceptions. “Child marriages lead to significantly harmful outcomes,” she wrote in a letter to Senate leaders. “The vast majority of girls who marry before the age of 18 face significant lifelong challenges” such as dropping out of high school, encountering domestic violence, getting divorced, and living in poverty. “I personally agree with increasing the age to marry,” Ferguson says. “But there are very intense feelings on all sides of this issue and so we it’ll be up to the committee that hears the bill to decide if it should move forward.”
Pregnant mothers: “We need greater access to overall health care for our most vulnerable,” Eckardt urged. “We expanded Medicaid to cover pregnancies through childbirth for qualified individuals who pay taxes in Maryland, but minority populations still have higher infant mortality rates.” Ellis wants to authorize Medicaid to provide for doula services in a three-county pilot program. “It works really well in New York and is ready for expansion there. Critics think it’s related to abortion but it isn’t,” he clarified. While Governor Larry Hogan provided $12 million last year to assist pregnant women, “Passing this bill will provide permanent support,” Ellis said. “This is a growing issue of importance and thus a top priority of mine because minorities have a more adverse birth outcome for both mother and child during labor and delivery. [Some hospitals] put a limit on doulas; they have to be certified by certain organizations. My bill puts in the certifying organizations.”
Forever Chemicals: “They’re everywhere; in our water, food such as popcorn, and household materials like carpet,” Elfreth warned. “They stay in your body and accumulate so they must be thoroughly studied. Firefighters, the biggest advocacy group, are the most exposed; when they enter a house, everything that contains these ‘forever chemicals’ is burning and consequently inhaled. We’re testing 180 drinking water sites statewide, but I want to ban all products that contain them, including food. Maine passed a similar bill.”
Financial burdens: Medical debt is an increasingly common problem in the Covid-19 era. “It requires an income-based repayment plan,” Cullison said. “Folks below the poverty line shouldn’t be paying for medical care and those above it shouldn’t have it taken away.” She wants to maximize the benefits of telehealth. “Before the pandemic, it wasn’t being widely used, but that’s changed. However, reimbursement is the same as for in-person care. While telehealth works surprisingly well in some situations, in others, it may not be the best option, so the question is, should in-person care be a greater reimbursement? We want our providers to be fairly reimbursed no matter what modality they use.”
The Environment
Climate Change: “This issue will be front and center,” Cullison declared. “We must monitor and even change our environmental impact. The House is not willing to give up on this.” According to Ferguson, “Last year, we passed pieces of the Climate Solutions Now Act separately; now we’ll need to focus on the pieces that didn’t make it while also recognizing the context of the overall marketplace.” Ellis has unfinished business: “My bill last year planted three million trees—500,000 of them in concrete cities—to help with soil erosion and Bay runoff, but electrified buses to reduce our carbon footprint didn’t pass.”
Wastewater Treatment: “We have inadequate wastewater systems, especially on the Eastern Shore,” lamented Eckardt. “We need a master wastewater treatment system instead of failing individual systems like filtration ponds that malfunction. Keeping pollutants out of the Bay will protect our critical areas.”
Oysters: “I have about 15 environment-related bills that would address public water access, outdoor green spaces such as state parks, and oysters,” Elfreth announced. “The Oyster Advisory Committee should have a report for us by then. One issue we’ll address is running out of shell, which needs to be planted in the oyster sanctuaries to stimulate oyster reproduction.”
Covid-19
Having departed prematurely in March 2020 as most Americans transitioned to working and attending school from home, tackling Covid-19 was the legislature’s mission in 2021, even as the House of Delegates met in different rooms to maintain social distancing while the State Senate operated from behind plastic enclosures. “I called them ‘penalty boxes’ like in hockey,” Del. Jones said. “This is our #1 ongoing issue,” Sen. Ferguson vowed. “Sadly, we are still managing the Covid crisis as it continues to unfold.” Some see a new normal. “We made incredible adjustments last year and had a very productive, session, so what did we learn operationally that will help us this year?” Del. Cullison asks. “What can be virtual vs. on the floor?” Others long for a more familiar setting. “We’re hoping for a normal, quiet year and a boring, traditional session,” Sen. Ellis mused. Either way, “The focus will be on how to make this session work for the public,” Del. Cullison vowed.
Combating the pandemic and promoting economic recovery will again top the agenda. “If we don’t get people vaccinated, we could see a Covid-19 resurgence from the different variants,” Sen. Eckardt warned. “There’s a lot of misinformation on the Internet; more outreach efforts are needed to get adequate information to the public and provide greater vaccine access, and then we can get the economics right.”
Unemployment benefits: “Many businesses, especially in the hotel and restaurant industry, still limit their hours of operation because of workforce reductions,” Eckardt continued. “The Labor Department is implementing reforms passed last year so we’ll have to see what the results are before we decide what comes next; in the meantime, we’ll meet the needs of those who have been hit the hardest,” Jones promised.
Senior issues: “Adequate care for seniors has been challenging. Nursing and retirement homes were among those the pandemic hit hardest,” Eckardt said. “Their residents still don’t have enough caregivers. We need a consistent, qualified workforce in our medical fields and we’ve been working with our medical boards on this.” Del. Johnson is concerned about retirees’ financial well-being. “Almost every nearby state is more retirement-friendly on Social Security taxes or pension withdrawals because retiree incomes don’t keep up with inflation costs. People shouldn’t have to leave their kids and grandkids behind to retire elsewhere. We need to look at what other states are doing.” Elfreth sees a trade-off. “Social Security taxes is a tough issue but we have some of the best hospitals and schools in the country compared to lower-tax states. Every tax credit that we give, we’ll have to pay for.”
Housing: “Stability in the rental markets, including landlord-tenant relations, is a top priority. Property repairs are needed more than ever,” Del. Henson stated. “I’m reintroducing a bill to establish statewide standards for mold remediation like we have for lead, radon, and other biohazards.” Elfreth added, “When a house sells, we also must be open and honest about its flood zone status.”
Mental health: “The trauma impacted by Covid-19 must be addressed, including mental illness, substance abuse, unresolved family conflicts, and increased gun violence,” Eckardt said. Cullison intends to reintroduce mental health-related bills “to learn more about suicides and become prevention-oriented.”
Recovery Tools: “Last year we passed a law providing a tax benefit to those who donated food and other necessities and who provided a variety of assistance programs for help with evictions and other legal services,” Jones said. “The result: Many resources are available at every level of government for those who need them.” Her office has put together a master list: https://bit.ly/DelDJResources
The 2022 Elections
Redistricting: Legislators will have completed a December special session for congressional redistricting; in the 2022 session’s first weeks, they’ll tackle state redistricting, according to Ellis. “It’s the biggest issue so it’ll be very time consuming,” he said. “After the Governor goes first, our goal is to create a map that will withstand the courts, which have full authority to make adjustments.” The nine Eastern Shore counties want their boundaries intact, Eckardt said. “We don’t want their redrawn districts to spill over to the other side and we don’t want their numerical compositions to change because that would reduce the size of our overall delegation. We should emphasize single-member districts to be fair to our minority communities.”
Voting: Buckel wants to review all voting records “to catch any potential discrepancies, just to be efficient,” he said. “We need an auditing process capability to verify voter eligibility, both who can vote and how. What names need to be scrubbed from the voter rolls? People die or move out of state but they’re still there. The State Board of Elections works hard but local governments administer local elections. Allocating more resources to expand state oversight could be difficult but also productive. We need neutral criteria like not having voted in three straight elections from the same address. Someone could contact the person to verify residency so that the potential for partisan abuse is eliminated.” He’d also like more data on voting without a photo ID. “Most voters don’t have an issue with obtaining a valid, government-issued identification. Does not requiring one impact the integrity of a mailed ballot?”
Conclusion
Other funding bills will cover a range of topics such as adding summer programs to offset the “lost learning” from Covid-19 (Henson); expanding permanent mail-in voting drop boxes (Elfreth); broadening bandwidth to support continued telecommuting (Eckardt); protecting student data from intrusive marketing (Jones); providing greater access to dental care and paid family leave (Cullison); and rebuilding Southern Maryland’s roads (Ellis). Fortunately, according to Ferguson, “We now have a significant budget surplus.”
Mark Croatti, who teaches courses on American Government, Public Policy, and Comparative Politics at the United States Naval Academy, the University of Maryland, and the George Washington University, has covered Maryland’s Legislative Session since 2004.
