Dear 42B friends and neighbors,

An End of Session Report from YOUR office in Annapolis!

What and honor it has been representing you for the past three years in the General Assembly! My favorite part of this job is having the opportunity to connect with you and hear your concerns and it is so gratifying when I can actually make things HAPPEN for you at the State level or through legislative contacts to help address them. Even though we were virtual this year and the issues before us were unique, I am so proud of the work that I was still able to do for you in District 42B. I hope that you trust that service to YOU is my top priority and that whether we always agree or not, I listen and respond to all of your comments with honesty and an open mind. I am happy to share my priorities and successes from the 2021 General Assembly with you and to take this opportunity to let you know how my office has been working for you in Annapolis this year!

This pandemic year has taught me so much about public service during a trying time. I am very proud of my amazing staff who have assisted me with helping so many of you. Corey Johns joined my team as Chief of Staff and has been terrific in the role. His calm manner and absolute responsiveness to our constituents makes him the perfect fit for my office. Not only does he never allow anything to fall through the cracks, sometimes he is so good at his job that I fear that he can read my mind! I also agreed to accept two high school students as interns this year for the first time. I could not have been more impressed with the work ethic, intellect and commitment of Nandika Mahesh and Vita Shats who will graduate from Dulaney High and Hereford High, respectively, next month. I know that they are both destined for great things!

You and I communicated - a LOT!

Over the past year I have received almost 46,000 emails and calls from constituents in 42B! I held open office hours each week during session and hosted quarterly Town Halls to hear your concerns. My staff, volunteers, and I called over 3,000 of our older constituents to check on them during COVID and to make sure that everyone understood how to vote this year! We also visited neighborhoods and left my contact information on 3,000 doors in case you had any needs. Other than requesting help with unemployment, the most popular emails were asking me to support the override of the Chlorpyrifos ban veto (which I did!) and to preserve access to telehealth services (which we also did!)

Direct Financial Support for D42B!

I am so happy to have been able to bring a considerable amount of funding home to 42B! My office secured $275,000 (with another $125,000 coming from the Senate) for First Fruits Farm in our district. FFF has been in the business of feeding those who are in need for many years but have really stepped up to care for the community during the Pandemic. I also worked hard for the past three years to provide sustainable funding for our wonderful Maryland State Fair. This year the Fair was awarded $2 million in direct funding and grants for improvements and was also named as a licensee in the Sports Wagering Legislation that I have worked on in my committee and subcommittee over the past few years. Shepherd Pratt, Baltimore County parks and playgrounds and our school construction fund were also winners in this year’s budget. Even more exciting, the State budget is healthy and balanced with deficits paid off for the next two years thanks to the influx of stimulus money from the Federal Administration. 

Broadband access was also a winner in the 2021 GAM! 

Broadband access in North County has been one of my top priorities in the House. In addition to working with Baltimore County, I worked with colleagues this year (and last) to expand internet access Statewide by passing the Digital Connectivity Act of 2021. This bill establishes an Office of Statewide Broadband to oversee $300 million of Federal grant funding from the American Rescue Plan with a goal of providing 520,000 Maryland families to broadband access!!! The status quo of slow expansion and limited resources was not sustainable, particularly in the virtual world that we were forced to inhabit this year and I am proud to have worked on and supported this important legislation with my colleagues Delegate Brooke Lierman and Senator Katie Hester.

I am also so proud to announce that I sponsored the Ending the Digital Divide Act (HB717) along with my colleague Senator Katie Hester that provides funding for internet access specifically related to educational programs. This bill was passed as a part of the Blueprint 2.0 and provides $80 million growing to $90 million in each of the next 5 years to make sure that all students are connected and Baltimore County Public Schools has the technology it needs to avoid some of the many problems we have seen this year.  

We passed the biggest small business and personal TAX CUTS in Maryland history! Tax relief and specific COVID relief bills were a large part of my Ways and Means committee work this Session. I am proud to have been a part of the biggest tax relief package ever passed and to have worked on significant supports for small businesses through direct funding and grant programs. The RELIEF Act was our first priority this session and authorized $1.5 billion of pandemic relief including $509 million in spending and $1 billion in tax relief. $175 million in stimulus payments have gone out directly to Maryland taxpayers! 

Closely related to this work was an impressive overhaul of the Unemployment Insurance System in Maryland that addressed many of the problems with inefficiency, understaffing and complicated technology that my constituents suffered this year. My office, alone, had over 1,500 contacts from you over the past year regarding problems with Unemployment system. My staff and I have worked tirelessly to resolve them and to keep on top of the Department of Labor on your behalf and it has been a grueling experience to say the least. I am proud to have cleared up all but a handful of those cases at this point, but even that number is unacceptable. 

Education is always important to me and as a member of the Education subcommittee, I had the honor of working on a companion bill to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future that we passed last year. The updates in this legislation increase accountability measures for educational funding, address learning loss after our virtual learning this year, and increase internet access. 

Police Reform definitely took center stage this session in response to events throughout the US. To be honest, these were some of the hardest votes that I took this session. Recognizing that law enforcement is one of our most dangerous and important occupations I feel strongly that we must support them. It is also necessary to make sure that there are significant consequences for the few “bad cops“ in the ranks. A compromise bill in all respects, HB670 left everyone feeling a little unhappy. More progressive Members were disappointed that it did not go far enough and more conservative Members were upset that it went too far. It was a difficult place to be for me as a moderate but I did the best I could to support the good and necessary reforms while resisting others.  In the end, I supported many minority amendments to improve the bill and voted on most, but not all, of the provisions. I did vote to override the veto of HB670 because the status quo is not acceptable. Even the Minority Leader agreed that is was a compromise bi-partisan effort and supported it. One of the proposed bills that I did resist was designed to remove SROs from our schools and it was not included in the final package of reform bills. I worked as a Member of the State Board of Education on school safety, as well as being a liaison from the Board to the Maryland Center for School Safety after the school shooting of Jaelynn Willey at Great Mills HS. I have also watched the role of SROs evolve to be an integral positive part of the school communities in Baltimore County.

Legislatively I was very successful this Session! My bills are often offshoots of conversations I have with constituents and which I believe will make life better for constituents in 42B. Eight of my 2021 bills passed the House and five of those passed both Chambers and headed to the Governor’s desk to become law! These were in addition to HB717 (Ending the Digital Divide Act) providing significant investment in Broadband expansion for all students which was accepted as an amendment to the Blueprint 2.0 education bill.

HB193 helps protect the privacy and dignity of sexual assault victims during the reporting process. Last year I was approached by a constituent who was horrified that her daughter had been made to report the specifics of a sexual assault in a public area of a local police precinct. I immediately drafted this legislation to require private areas for sensitive issues and appreciate the help of my crossfile Senator Shelley Hettleman who helped get it across the finish line in the Senate. This was one of the first bills that the Governor signed into law after session!

HB718 will be instrumental in jumpstarting the Statewide Coordinator of Autism Services that I enacted through HB847 in 2020. HB718 will ensure appropriate staffing and funding to finally start improving the lives of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families. Applications for both the Stakeholder Advisory Group and the Coordinator Position will be online soon! I am honored to have been able to lead this landmark legislation that I believe will change lives for the better for hundreds of thousands of Marylanders!

HB258 requires reporting on the educational experiences of children in our State Child Welfare system. Last year I was happy to have passed legislation that leveled the playing field for this group of students and I am certain that HB258 will provide transparency and accountability for the system and improve the long term outcomes for our homeless and foster youth. Thanks to Senator Craig Zucker for his work on this legislation as well!

HB714 is a bill to protect students with special education needs from experiencing a lapse of services in the case of a school shutdown for any reason. Too many families had to fight the school system to even get information about what services their children would be provided and when during this last year. Some students were without their mandated support services for weeks or even months and many parents had not input into the decision-making process. This bill required that the school determine (with input from parents) what methods of service delivery were effective or ineffective for students during this last year and use that information when planning for future interruptions. It also adds a deadline of 10 days for schools to notify and solicit required feedback from parents about delivery of services during a school closure. Many thanks to Senator Doug Peters for working this bill across the street!

HB401 turned out to be surprisingly controversial although the rhetoric surrounding it did not reflect what is actually written in the bill! The bill helps to provide support to parenting students that will help them stay in school by allowing space and excused time for lactation and providing information and assistance on securing appropriate transportation and safe child care. Currently the majority of parenting teens drop out of school and the cycle of poverty continues. I am hopeful that these changes will help these students towards a better future for themselves and their children. Many of you may have received inaccurate information about this bill and I am glad to have the opportunity to describe what it REALLY does! Senator Mary Washington worked on this one in the Senate.

Unfortunately, a few other really important initiatives did not pass and I will bring them back next year for another try. One of these, HB192 protects nonverbal special education students from abuse at school and another (HB1181) required that all digital tools used by schools need to be accessible to blind students. HB418 bans hate symbols from Maryland schools and inexplicably did not get a vote in the Senate. We were very happy to have gotten this policy change in Baltimore County and will decide whether or not to pursue it again at the state level. My favorite bill (HB713) to allow and set guidelines for therapy dogs in Maryland schools also stalled this year but I will certainly keep fighting for this low-cost, proven mental and behavioral support next year. Besides they are adorable! Two other bills that passed the House but not the Senate were HB247 to provide election help to those with disabilities and HB392 to screen children for developmental disabilities in preschool.

This may be my end-of-session report but I am NOT a 90 day legislator! I am here for you all year and am honored to work for you and our beautiful part of Baltimore County amplifying your voice in YOUR office in Annapolis!
 
Sincerely,
Delegate Michele Guyton