{"id":1805,"date":"2020-04-02T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/?p=1805"},"modified":"2020-04-03T02:57:33","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T21:57:33","slug":"the-dirty-politics-of-the-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/?p=1805","title":{"rendered":"The Dirty Politics of the Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It took about three weeks for the entire world to be turned upside down. Those three weeks ended with the most morally bankrupt legislative session I have witnessed since my time in public office. After having had time to catch up on family needs, I write today to speak about how the 2020 legislative session ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our priorities for this session were similar to previous\nsessions. We were back to work on crime, tax reform and community blight. By\nlate February, I had seven bills that were either moving through the legislature\nor were actively discussed. It was at that time that the COVID-19 became,\nincreasingly, the topic of discussion in every meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We discussed policy less and discussed the impacts of the\nexpanding global COVID-19 outbreak more and more. Although assembly leaders\ndownplayed the story in official news sources, rumors began to circulate that session\nwould adjourn early due to the risk of COVID-19. Around March 9th<\/sup>,\nthe public was cut off from accessing the legislative complex and bill\ntestimony was limited to the sponsor. Then staffers were sent home. Then\nlobbyists and advocates were prohibited from the complex and public protests\nwere banned. That week, military vehicles were stationed at the state house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of banishing lobbyists may sound nice to the layman.\nHowever, public and professional access of our state capital is what keeps the\nsystem in check. The legislature cannot act in secret with rooms full of people\ntestifying, taking notes and recording discussions and hearings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For about ten days, the only people walking the halls of\nAnnapolis were lawmakers and security. The only access the public had to the\nprocess was the video streaming, which was intermittently failing because so\nmany members of the public were accessing it at the same time. It was a\nterrible feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day after the complex was locked down a member of the\nspeaker\u2019s staff joined the Republican caucus to discuss, for the first time,\nthe possibility of adjourning session early. At this point, several of the\nmembers of the House of Delegates \u2013 older members and those who had compromised\nimmune systems \u2013 had already gone home for good due to personal health risks of\nbeing exposed to COVID-19. There was a palpable irritation that there was no\nactual date of adjournment being offered. We were advised that the issue was so\nthreatening that we had to clear the entire complex but the legislature had to\nsit less than 12 inches away from each other in a room of 150 people. In fact,\nsome members of the majority party wanted to see the session through to the\nnormal adjournment day of April 6th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stood up and spoke to my disagreement with the whole\nscenario. It seemed to me at that point that we were wrong for operating in\ncomplete secrecy. By cutting the public out of the process, we created a\nsituation that was rife for abuse. I suggested that if the threat of COVID-19\nwere significant enough to shut down public access, we should just pass the\nbudget \u2013 which is our only constitutional mandate \u2013 and go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was assured that everything would be fine, that people had\naccess and that both parties would get a fair shake in the remaining days. It\nwas at that point where everything fell apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We worked for ten days straight. During that time, the\nwindow of opportunity closed and good bills died. The Governor\u2019s crime package\nhad been quietly parsed onto smaller bills and moved through the Senate. Those\nbills failed. I worked with Delegate Cox on House Bill 802, which gave civil\nprotections to teachers acting in to control disruptive students. That bill\nfailed. After years of work, I had a bill moving through the legislature to\ndeal with the midge infestations in communities adjacent to the wastewater\ntreatment plant. That bill failed in the Senate. During that time, the focus\nwas on the worst capers I have witnessed in my six years in the legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of committee came House Bill 650, which essentially gave\nthe state full powers of martial law. The bill empowered the state to push\npeople out of their property, empowered the state to forcefully coerce the\ndisclosure of personal health information and empowered the state to seize all\nforms of private property, including fuel, food, medicine and housing. A\nhandful of us voted no. Some members walked off of the floor in protest. At a subsequent\nmeeting after the passage of the bill through the full House of Delegates, a\nmeeting was called with the states emergency management liaisons who had\nrequested the bill. It was clear that nobody had read it. Fortunately, we were\nable to kill it in the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passage of the \u201cKirwin\u201d bill, which purportedly\nredesigned public education for the better, had a price tag of more than $30\nbillion dollars. When asked what revenue stream would pay this new <\/em>$30 billion mandate, nobody had an\nanswer. However, multiple tax proposals were floating through the legislature\nthe entire session. With the public absent and the media consumed by COVID-19,\nout of committee came House Bill 932, which has become known as the \u201cDisney\nTax.\u201d This bill applies a 6% tax to commonly used streaming services like\nDisney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Steam. This is another regressive tax\nhefted onto the backs of working families, passed by the Democrats when the\nentire world was focused on COVID-19 and the public was banned from Annapolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe the worst of the Annapolis scams is Senate Bill 1028.\nIn Maryland, the Governor has special budgetary authorities as the legislature\nhas a history for bankrupting the state. The legislature can remove money from\nthe budget and in a limited capacity can shift dollars within the budget.\nHowever, the legislature cannot add money to the budget. Senate Bill 1028\nsteals the authority to add money the budget from the office of the Governor\nand puts it back into the hands of the legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last sixteen hours of the session, Senate Bill 1028\nmoved completely through both chambers and was passed. The legislature is a\nbicameral body, meaning that it has two parts. Each chamber is bound by rules\nspecifying that a bill must be read on three different legislative days. For\nthe purpose of public transparency, this means that any bill that would be\npassed has a lifetime of at least six days. Those six days were crammed into\nthe last sixteen hours of this \u201cCOVID-19\u201d legislative session, passing Senate\nBill 1028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an act of masterful deception, Senate Bill will put this\nlanguage on a referendum on your ballot when you vote this year: \u201cAuthorizing\nthe General Assembly to increase, diminish, or add items in the annual budget\nbill in order to enact a balanced State operating budget for each fiscal year\n2024 and each fiscal year thereafter.\u201d Voters will vote on this item this year.\nThey will think they are voting for a law requiring a balanced budget. If they\nvote yes, they will be voting to empower the legislature to bankrupt the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impacts of COVID-19 may very well push us into a\nrecession and our economy is already seeing a major impact. We should not raise\ntaxes with an economic downturn! We should not be piling on additional economic\nburdens when working Marylanders may be dealing with the biggest economic\nhardship of their entire life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did make progress on many positive goals this session and\nI hesitate to deliver such a dramatic report but I wanted to give the people an\nhonest account of the final days of this legislative session and the impact\nthat the actions of the Maryland General Assembly will have on you and your\nfamily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The COVID-19 virus already has made a real impact on people and our economy. I plan to follow up on with information and resources that may be helpful to you and your family. If you have any questions or need help, please treat my office as a resource. The best way to reach me is via email at robin.grammer@house.state.md.us or via phone at 410.841.3298.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delegate Robin Grammer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took about three weeks for the entire world to be turned upside down. Those three weeks ended with the most morally bankrupt legislative session I have witnessed since my time in public office. After having had time to catch up on family needs, I write today to speak about how the 2020 legislative session […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Dirty Politics of the Coronavirus - Delegate Robin Grammer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It ended with the most morally bankrupt legislative session I have ever witnessed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/?p=1805\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dirty Politics of the Coronavirus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It ended with the most morally bankrupt legislative session I have ever witnessed.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/?p=1805\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Delegate Robin Grammer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-02T12:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-02T21:57:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/State-House.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"581\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robin Grammer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Dirty Politics of the Coronavirus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Robin Grammer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/?p=1805#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/?p=1805\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Robin Grammer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d40bbea7b9d297de7aee62f6483ce1e\"},\"headline\":\"The Dirty Politics of the Coronavirus\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-02T12:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-02T21:57:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/?p=1805\"},\"wordCount\":1359,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d40bbea7b9d297de7aee62f6483ce1e\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/?p=1805#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/State-House.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"In the News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/?p=1805\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.grammer2014.com\/?p=1805\",\"name\":\"The Dirty Politics of the Coronavirus - 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