Maryland lawmakers override two Hogan vetoes

By: Hassan Giordano

The first few days of the Maryland General Assembly’s 2018 legislative session has been a fast-paced boxing match that has Democrats winning the first two rounds of this heavyweight political bout scheduled for twelve rounds before this year’s gubernatorial elections.

On Day One, Republican Governor Larry Hogan pledged political cooperation from his office and asked for partisan civility amongst the two political parties during the three month session. But that message doesn’t seem to have been received by either of the party’s House and Senate leaders, as both Republicans and Democrats have been at each other’s throats in the two days that have followed.

It started yesterday on Day Two of #Session2018, when the House of Delegates took up two of Governor Hogan’s 2017 vetoes, unpaid sick leave and the so-called ‘Ban the Box’ bill on college applications. And in less than 48-hours, the first-term governor and his party have suffered two knockout blows, as both chambers have now successfully overridden both pieces of legislation.

Yesterday’s House session was filled with political tension, which caused advocates of both bills to take to social media in an attempt to voice their frustration from the level of political rhetoric they were hearing from the right side of the aisle. Caryn York, the Executive Director of the Job Opportunity Task Force, took to Facebook to express her disbelief with some of the ridiculous language being used by Republicans in the House chamber to discredit her group’s Ban the Box bill.

“Y’all. I can’t. Hot damn mess. And, how dare he irresponsibly tie this to the rise in campus sexual assaults? Studies actually show that most campus assaults are committed by those who do *not* have a criminal background. So, there’s that,” York posted on her FB page yesterday during the House debate, right before urging readers to contact their legislators to urge support of the override.

The young and talented lobbyist than turned her attention to the Senate proceedings earlier today, which wasn’t as heated and drawn out as the House debate, but partisanship reared its ugly head nonetheless. “Republican Senator Serafini from Washington County rises to say this in opposition to overriding veto of HB1 #paidsickdays saying "I'm from the old school. Back when the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats. This bill is a black hat on the state.

“Wait. What? #WordsMatter #TheUncheckedPowerOfWhiteMales #WhenApologiesGoLeft”

And despite a very organized and concerted email and social media campaign by the Governor and his Republican allies, it just wasn’t enough to stop the political winds the blew into this legislative session. The House voted to override the Governor’s veto on earned sick leave by a margin of 88-52, while the Senate overrode it with a 30-17 vote. And then if that wasn’t enough fireworks for each chamber, they followed that performance up with a veto override of the ‘Ban the Box’ bill in the House by a vote of 90-50, while the Senate easily overrode this bill 32-15.

Governor Hogan has put forth his own sick leave bill, emergency legislation aimed at addressing the issue with tax incentives included, which most political analysts and opinion pieces say is a better version of the legislation. However, now that last year’s legislation has been passed, and with this being an election year, it is highly unlikely the Governor’s bill will ever see the light of day during this session.

The sick leave legislation, which will now become law in 30-days, requires employers with more than 15 full-time employees to allow them to earn up to five days of earned sick pay a year. Most estimates say that as many as 700,000 Maryland workers could benefit from the new law, while the Governor’s Office has argued that number is far less than what’s being predicted. It also allows for the use of those days to be used by victims of sexual assault or domestic violence, for them to go to court or seeking counseling or medical treatment related to such circumstances.

This was a main issue of debate on the House floor, as Republican leaders contended that this bill was far too intrusive on the privacy rights of abuse victims. However, former victims of domestic violence, such as Baltimore City Delegate and Chairwoman of the Legislative Black Caucuc, Cheryl Glenn, rose to contend such accusations, stating that it’s time to stop letting the imperfection the legislation prevent its passage.

The Governor’s proposed legislation would give businesses with 25 or fewer workers incentives to provide sick leave, subsidized by $100 million in tax credits over five years, which would begin in 2020. However, whether or not the legislative body controlled by Democrats intends on taking up the Republican administration’s legislation this session is still anyone’s guess, though it is highly unlikely.

“Y’all. I can’t. Hot damn mess. And, how dare he irresponsibly tie this to the rise in campus sexual assaults? Studies actually show that most campus assaults are committed by those who do *not* have a criminal background. So, there’s that,”

The ‘Ban the Box’ legislation, would elim“Y’all. I can’t. Hot damn mess. And, how dare he irresponsibly tie this to the rise in campus sexual assaults? Studies actually show that most campus assaults are committed by those who do *not* have a criminal background. So, there’s that,” inate the question on college applications forcing applicants to reply to whether or not they have had a previous criminal conviction. This effort, which is a national movement that has been led by York and JOTF, including other local advocacy groups such as Out for Justice and Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, has been argued by the right as being a well-intended bill that goes too far in barring universities from seeing the background of future students.

However, advocates say that this bill doesn’t prevent them from screening college applicants at later stages in the admission process; it merely bars these colleges and universities from automatically excluding people with criminal backgrounds before ever giving the opportunity to prove themselves like any other applicant.

All this in the first three days of the legislative session, and we still have 87-days of political fireworks to look forward to – and that’s only a teaser to what we will see in this year’s election.