Today Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed off on several new bills that passed yesterday on the final day of the legislative session. It was nice to hear folks in Annapolis use terms like “bipartisanship,” and “compromise”…some ideas that seem to have been largely lost on elected leaders in recent years.
From what I have heard of the bills, I agree with them for the most part. When it comes to school safety, the legislature wants schools to begin to make things safer for students. They (each of the schools) will be required to designate a person responsible for school safety…a “Point Person” if you will…who will (presumably) make it their mission in life to make their school as safe as possible. So many of us get caught up in the daily rat-race of just keeping our head above water…that it will be nice for schools to have someone appointed to focus on this. Schools will also be asked to begin watching out for and identifying students or persons that could pose a threat to safety.
One of the other main topics of concern during the 2018 session was crime. Lawmakers passed a bill that will take away the possibility of parole for repeated violent felons (something that most of us would agree should never have been possible to begin with). Hopefully they will also work on simply enforcing the penalties already on the books…rather than giving violent criminals a “slap on the wrist” and putting them back on the street.
One bill I’d like to suggest for the future: a Bill Collector Phone Law. If ____ company calls me because my bill is late, they should be required to identify themselves and leave a voicemail (maximum 1 per day), rather than calling me 11 times in one day and not leaving a message. This infuriates me. Perhaps our lawmakers can work on this during the next session. Meanwhile, I guess after the grueling 90 day work session, they need several months off after all that hard work. See you next year.
Matt