Sex Offenders, Judges, Unions & Inmates
The 2010 legislative session has entered its final two-week stretch and bills will be passed, killed and amended in such a flurry of activity that it will be hard for anyone to keep up. Here are a few updates on topics of interest:
Sex Offenders: At a voting session Tuesday afternoon, the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee passed out Senate Bill 622 which would require a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years for a second degree sex offense against a child. The House passed a similar bill (House Bill 254) with a 15 year mandatory minimum sentence. If Senate Bill 622 passes without amendments on the Senate floor, the two bills will go to a conference committee to reconcile their differences. If resolved, the conference committee report must pass both chambers by Sine Die (midnight on April 12th).
Judicial Elections: Republican and African American legislators have formed a strong alliance to rebuff the legislation offered by Attorney General Douglas Gansler for a Constitutional Amendment to eliminate contested elections for Circuit Court judges. Barring unforeseen intervention, both the Senate and House bills are expected to be held in their respective committee because of this opposition. For a discussion of the issues concerning contested judicial elections, see our prior post - click here.
Election Year Union Pay-offs: As expected, Democrats wholeheartedly supported two bills to help grow the presence of unions in Maryland. It is widely known in Annapolis that legislative paybacks to unions for their ongoing campaign support is a high priority during election-year sessions. Nick DiMarco of MarylandReporter.com reports on efforts of Republican Senators to derail the unionization of home day care operators (see our prior post - click here) and the creation of an educator “labor relations board” with the authority to over-rule elected and appointed school boards. For the full article, click here
Inmate Address Relocation for Legislative Redistricting: Just how desperate is Baltimore City to not lose House and Senate seats in the 2012 redistricting? Pretty desperate - City legislators sponsored companion bills to require correctional system inmates be allocated to their last known address for legislative redistricting purposes. The new law will shift about 22,000 population from mostly rural locations to mostly urban centers. It will have great obstacles in being properly administered for revising census figures for only redistricting purposes. Once reallocated, the overall effect is likely marginal – a single-member House of Delegates district will be about 40,000 population – but the law could impact the location of single-member Delegate district boundaries in Western Maryland and the lower Eastern Shore. See article by Kevin Spradlin in the Cumberland Times-News – click here