E98: Maryland Legislative Outlook

Dive into the complexities of Maryland's legislative session with Rebecca Snyder and special guest Lorenzo Bellamy of Bellamy Genn Group. From navigating a looming $2.7 billion budget deficit to discussing the evolution of public notices and news media in the digital age, this episode unpacks the key issues shaping Maryland's future. Plus, gain practical advice on advocacy and staying engaged in the legislative process.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Lorenzo Bellamy
• 2:10 Maryland’s budget crisis
• 9:15 Legislative leadership changes
• 14:56 Advocacy in action
• 18:09 The role of news media in policy

Transcript

0:37

Welcome to Lorenzo Bellamy of Bellamy Gen, who is joining us today to talk all things in the Maryland legislature. So welcome, Lorenzo. Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca. Glad to be here. Oh, it's exciting times. We're recording this in the first week of session. And so we've got, gosh, guess, 87 more crazy days ahead of us. exactly, you know, it's just all technicalities. So you've been working in Maryland politics and on the legislative side for decades now. Tell us a little bit about what Bellamy-Gem does and your role. Sure, no, thank you. So Bellamy Jen Group is a government relations firm based in Annapolis, Maryland. We have been in business in Annapolis since 2017. My partner, Gil Jen, and I formed a firm in September of 2017. So I guess now we're almost in our, I guess we're seven years in, into formation of this organization, this company. We are a government relations firm. Both of us are attorneys and we're a government relations firm representing clients. On a host of matters, including the issues of newspaper and media, before Maryland General Assembly, we also work before counties and county councils, the county executives. We also do work in Washington, D.C., with the Washington, D.C. Council and the mayor's office. And we also do little bit of work on the Hill, on Capitol Hill, on federal side. So. There's a range of issues. It's a range of issues, a range of spaces, but we've been doing this for so long. And so it is not nerve wracking to us. no year or no session is the same. So it's never boring. So we are excited about that. And 2025 from Maryland is probably going to be one of the more exciting sessions that I've seen in quite some time. Well, let's jump into that because, you know, certainly we have sort of the federal level creates a little bit of uncertainty at the state level about what's happening. But then Maryland also has its issues, big one being the budget deficit and just sort of the general, there's been a lot of change. So for our listeners, can you kind of sketch out what that sort of tone and tenor is? What are those big issues kind of floating out there? Well, thank you, Rebecca. You mentioned the budget and I would have to lead with that. Okay, that is one of the big issues and everyone is concerned about that. Maryland is facing a 2.7, depending on the numbers, 2.7 to 2.9 billion dollar deficit for FY26. If nothing is done, it can mushroom to potentially 6 billion by the next four to five years if nothing is done. Obviously, things will be done between now and then and things are going to be done during this session. The governor has already announced $2 billion worth of cuts. He did that at the eye on Annapolis. We heard that event. And so, you know, that still leaves about $700 million to $900 million. And there are no necessarily revenue projections to close that gap. One area that could close the gap that no one really likes to talk about, at least the governor doesn't wanna talk about that, is raising taxes, right? And 75 % of Marylanders have already said that they would oppose raising taxes. Of course, it depends on how you ask the question. If you raise taxes, but you're actually improving services and there are different ways you could ask that question, potentially get a different type of result. And also, who are you gonna tax? Are you gonna tax? What bracket of folks would you tax and businesses would you tax? And so it depends on how you ask the question. But it is the issue still remains that we are facing a deficit, which is going to impact services and the request that clients have that businesses and organizations have for funding from the governor, whether it's operating an operating budget or the capital budget. So the budget is the big looming, the looming issue for this legislative session. It doesn't mean that other issues won't be addressed. Of course, they're in business to represent the people and there are many issues besides the budget, but the budget will be driving a major driving force behind a lot of the decisions that we'll see. So revenue, where are they going to find the revenue if they're not going to raise taxes? You know, they can come up with fees. and fines, there's legislation to deal with attacks potentially on ammunition. Maryland Department of Environment is increasing fees on certain permits, but these are just sort of, these are small, small opportunities. at a $2.9 billion deficit, those are all sort of like rearranging the chairs. yeah. So, you know, and last year, the General Assembly members, at least on the House side, to have a conversation, a more robust conversation about raising taxes. The governor did not want to talk about this, was adamant about it. House Democrats are saying, hey, we should have this discussion. I have to say, think everything is on the table. The governor is saying, no, I'm not going to do this, but I think everything's on the table. And it would be interesting to see how things pan out, where the revenue enhancements are going to come. And let me tell you this. Given what happened at the national level with the elections and the impact that this could have on Maryland, President-elect Trump has said through his Doge program that there's a possibility of reducing federal employees. looking at, you know, wasting government, et cetera, however you want to characterize it. Well, Maryland, 10 to 12 % of Maryland residents work for the federal government. And who knows how many more actually support those agencies through private sector vendors, et cetera. And so it's probably even bigger than that in terms of the impact that it could have. I would say the governor has a good excuse to talk about raising taxes based on what's happened at the national level and the direct impact it's going to have on Maryland. Maryland residents. It'll be, and actually I think, you know, all those conversations that bubbled up at the end of last session around like professional services taxes and whether there was, there should be a tax on advertising and things like that, that really comes home to roost at what sort of our focus, which is news media. And we'll get to that in just a second, but. Don't ask the lawyers. Don't ask the lobbyists, right? right. Well, don't tax the news media. And there's a lot of good policy reasons not to tax advertising. yeah, think those are all nobody wants to have the lens trained on them in terms of revenue generation. But we do need growth for sure. And so just, you you were talking about, you know, what are, what's going on, you know, sort of, I want to talk about the administration and then we can move into, I guess, the legislature and what's happening and the changes there and the impact that that's potentially going to have. But one of the, when I talked about revenue, in addition to taxes, the governor has also talked about, even though he said it's not a priority bill for him, but he is looking at this as a potential revenue enhancer in business development. program and that is to allow for beer and wine sales in grocery stores, which could expand. I'm rooting for, that's been a long, long time coming. long time coming. going to be a fierce battle. It's not a priority, major priority, I don't think, of his. He said it isn't. But I can see that it's something that's worth having a discussion because it could. And I don't know what the numbers would look like in terms of revenue for the state if it increases sales tax or not. I know that there are some legislators who are looking at increasing the sales tax on alcohol with the funding, the difference going towards an equity fund that would be encourage developers to build grocery stores, pharmacies, or gas stations, and food deserts. So it's like an equity tax on alcohol. So we'll see. And then there's also cannabis we know is at 9 % tax on cannabis. so there's potentially a potentially they could look at cannabis and increase the taxes on that as well. there are other, like I said, the governor said and legislators have said, a lot of things are on the table. We don't know what all those things are, but what I just mentioned to you probably are some of them. So I feel like the budget is really going to suck a lot of air out of the room and anything that's not sort of revenue neutral at the very least is going to have a hard uphill climb. But then I think also in the backdrop of sort of what's going on in the session is this idea of there's like right now in the beginning of the session, there's always a lot of ambiguity because people are moving and changing. And we've had a fair number of people leave the legislature for various reasons, which means that all those seats are kind of are changing. So how does that sort of affect your strategy in moving your clients interests forward? Because like you don't even know who's on all the committees necessarily. So talk about change. Yes, no, that's a good point. And we knew some of this was going to happen early on because of the folks who were running for these various offices. For example, Sarah Elfrid, who was a state senator, was running for Congress and she was a front runner. And so we should have been planning and thinking that if she won, that seat would become vacant. And so there were names that were circulating as potential replacements for her. I'll get to that in a minute. But you're absolutely right. It does make for interesting political discussions around the table about who's going to go where and what roles are they going to play and what kind of relationship will folks have, what are their politics, et cetera, et cetera. So very quickly, on budget and tax, Sarah Elfrith was the senator on budget and tax. And there was, when she became the Congresswoman-elect, that seat became vacant in district, I want to say district 30 in Adirondack County. so the central committee had to pick someone to replace her. And so there were several names, but two surfaced as front runners. And that was delegate Dana Jones and delegate Shanika Henson. In the end, a couple of days ago, Shanika Henson won the nine. And she was governor put her, sorry, not the governor, but the Senate president placed her on the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. So for some, our clients who were thinking, you know, was it going to be Dana who was going to win or is it going to be Shanika? Where would they go? There was speculation that if Dana had won, would be, she would go to budget and tax. If Shanika won, not sure, but JPR, maybe another committee. So it ended up being JPR. So we've had to have clients just be prepared. to engage with her as a new person, a new senator on that committee. And that committee actually has two new senators because Arianna Kelly got a job with the governor's office. And so now Sarah Love, who was a delegate from Montgomery County, took her place. And so then you had to have someone replace Sarah Love. And so I think that was Teresa Worman who replaced and I need to get my... Yep, so it's a constant shift. There is a opening. There's possibly openings in the Education, Energy and Environment Committee. We're thinking that there's a possibility that Delegate Malcolm Ruff, who's from Baltimore, since Senator Jill Carter resigned. off of JPR and off the Senate is now the Board of Contract Appeals, that slot has opened up in that district. And so my understanding is that Malcolm Ruff is the leading candidate for that. And most likely he will go to that committee, the Education, Energy and Environment Committee. So we are having to, and there's a lot more going on. Kathy Klossmeyer, was a former county exec, so then who's gonna be county exec, right? Vice Chair of that committee was her, Nick, sorry, Hayes, Antonio Hayes is now the Vice Chair of that committee from Baltimore City. Who's going to replace Kathy Klossmeyer? There's going to be, you know, it could be a lot. their names? Their names are circulating for, I heard Carl Jackson's name being Delegate Carl Jackson, potentially we'll take that seat possibly. On the Malcolm Ruff situation, I think Delegate Attar from Baltimore as well, I think are the two, but the Baltimore City Central Committee for District 40 won't make the decision until January 21st. So right now, that District 40 has no representation, sorry District 41 has no representation at the moment. Right, which is, you know, as a resident of District 41, that saddens me. And this whole idea of the central committee sort of appointing legislators, I know is one of the sort of hot button issues. And just because I I've read reports that about 40 % of all current sitting legislators were started off by being appointed. And then of course you have the incumbency advantage in your next election. you It is, it definitely is something that you need to understand and think through. from an at, go ahead. I'm sorry, that also plays a role in where these legislators that are appointed get assigned, right? I mean, so you may have your choice committee that you want to go to, but if you haven't been elected necessarily and you're appointed, you know, it plays a different role versus when you're elected now, the people have said, we definitely support this decision. And so now that gives that person a little bit more. credibility to sort of ask and lobby for a particular committee. So we're seeing that playing out right now. Mm-hmm. And so I think actually I would love to take a little detour just into advocacy because from what, you know, as we've talked, it occurs to me that, you know, sort of the casual listener is like, my gosh, how could I ever insert myself into this process? you know, if I care about an issue, how do I ever make my wishes known? you know, when I talk to people about it, it really is as simple as like start with your own elected representative. get to know that person, make sure they understand where they are, where you stand on certain issues, but then also kind of understanding where bills go. Like if you're interested in an issue, like an environment issue, those bills usually go to environment and transportation and sort of get to know the people in that committee. But do you just as a, before we get to news media, which I really want to get to, I want to, I want you to give a little ray of hope to people who are casually listening and thinking, I feel shut out of this process. No, look, obviously as a lobbyist, we love when organizations reach out to us to engage and help them navigate the myriad of situations in the Maryland General Assembly. But to the Maryland General Assembly's credit, they are a transparent body. And thank goodness for electronics and for social media and for the internet, where you have access to the hearings, you have access to the list of bills. Now this is like There's inside baseball, right? And then there's sort of the transparent overall public opportunity to participate. You can sign up for hearings. You can submit written testimony. I mean, there's this art and science to some of that, but you know. you have the opportunity to present sometimes on Zoom or in person, depending on what the bill is and the number of individuals that they will allow to testify. But it's pretty open. and reading the bills can be technical. And so sometimes you may need help with that. They do provide some kind of summary sometimes right at the bill hearing, the day of the bill hearing, you may get a summary of the bill. So it's kind of late at that point. But that's when you have people on the ground. it is unfortunate to say that It's important to have boots on the ground, so to speak, engaging on your behalf, whether it's grassroots or advocacy before the legislature or the executive. It is important. We've been doing this for a long time and have established relationships. New people are coming, so we have to establish relationships with new people as well. And we do that through engaging in their events that they have during the interim or also meeting with them during session and engaging with them, identifying what their passions are and... making sure our clients line up. if they know, and maybe not always line up, but certainly try to engage with them where there's common ground. So don't lose hope. There are plenty of opportunities out there to engage with your legislators. You should know who they are in your district. They respond because you are voters in their district. respond to us as lobbyists because we bring the information and sort of the technical know-how, cetera. But they respond to you differently because you are a voter and they're blistering. There is no stronger catnip to a legislator than a constituent, for sure. And so let's jump in to news media, near and dear to my heart. And of course, for everyone listening, you may or may not know, but the Press Association lobbies on behalf of news media and our members. I'm in the session every spring. That's my focus in Maryland and Delaware. to make sure that the interests and the perspective, honestly, when people ask me like, well, what do lobbyists do? I always feel like I carry the perspective of my members to a legislature so that a reporter who's off doing their own job or a publisher can go about their way. But I feel like we're conduits. news media, think overall, who our portfolio has gotten. so much larger than it has in the past. And I know you know this because you've been working on these issues for a good long time. I remember working with you back when I first started about 10 years ago on these issues. I know, gosh. But we're still young and vibrant, don't worry. And so it used to be that news media was really focused on things like the Public Information Act, public notice, protecting the public's right to know and things of that nature. And I've seen over the years, our portfolio expand. We've had to deal with digital advertising tax, stronger business issues around contracting or contractors. have some like subscription renewal things that come in, online privacy. even in my mind, sort of looking at big tech, Maryland's legislature is, and I think legislatures across the country are looking at how we can get big tech, so to speak, to pay their fair share. And so oftentimes because news media has websites and we're information platforms, although in different ways, we sometimes get lumped into that sort of big tech smackdown. And so, I wanted to ask you, how are you seeing that portfolio expand and how are you, why do you think that is? Is it just things are more interconnected or how do you see it playing out? Well, I think with the internet and digital media now, I think it's more interconnected with big tech. think once you start dealing with the internet and digital print, and we can talk a bit more about that, right, because that's been a big issue, then you can see the intersection between big tech, high tech, and digital media, and even to an extent print media as they have digital media components to it. I have to say that What I'm, what we, and know, Rebecca, you and I have been doing this for a long time. I'm, you know, I represent daily record, just full disclosure. And, you know, we've been, we've been engaging with legislators from in the last, you know, let's say last 15, 20 years, who many of them grew up on, you know, print newspaper, print media. And, and, you know, now there's like a new generation of legislators and new generation of folks who are who are more used to reading their newspapers and magazines, et cetera, online. And so you're starting to see movement. And we dealt with this last session, and I have a feeling we'll be dealing with it again in this session, where folks are trying to move some of the notices and other requirements away from print, at least the mandatory requirement from that, to digital. I am both a digital and a print person. like the actual tech, you know, to feel the newspaper and read it. and just like that, but I'm also also have digital as well. And so I think it's, you're starting to see sort of that transformation, I think. And I think. Probably in the next five, know, 10 years, you can talk about this with our respective members and clients, where is this going to, where is it going? And if you talk to 20 and 30 year olds and maybe 40 year olds, saying, look, we, you know, we want to be more environmentally sensitive. And so we don't want to, know, we look at paper as, my gosh, is that we're taking trees versus digital, which the footprint may not necessarily be as damaging in their minds. I think we have to navigate that. think that's something that we don't really want to talk about too much, but I think it's in the back of the minds of many legislators. When I have conversations with them, know, bill that we had to deal with last year, that was one of the reasons. Yeah, well, and I think it's really that that shift to digital. I think, you know, we would all be naive to think that that's not that that not that that's going away. mean, certainly there's print, I think will always be there in some way, or form. People do. There's more gravitas in print. There's a whole host of reasons that people read it differently and interact differently. digital. Not everyone has access to digital. I mean, even the state of Maryland is as sophisticated and as wealthy as the state is, there are many communities that don't have necessarily the broadband. That's been an issue that's been talked about for a long time. not everyone has. People have cell phones. A lot of people do have cell phones. But not everyone actually has access on a daily basis to digital, to a clear, strong signal for digital. And some people are very maybe uncomfortable using it, may not necessarily have the know-how, especially, you know, I'm not going to put anyone in a particular category, but not everyone has access. And so it does present an access issue as well. 100%. And we see that in reporter access issues as well, that of that shift to digital because we're looking at sort of data sets being publicly available under the PIA and how government information can be ingested and used. So, you know, we're seeing it certainly in the ways we get information. And so as the Press Association Press Association, as we look at where reporter access issues go, how we're getting information, the business issues and so forth, those really, the digital landscape kind of blankets that entire piece. And so I think, you know, just to close the loop on public notice, think one of the really interesting policy things is to make sure that notices and public information stays sort of inaccessible and operated independently. You know, we think very clearly that, you know, if a government entity needs to, is required to publish something, they shouldn't be doing the publishing themselves. Because a lot of it is about that independence. a conflict of interest potentially you think? Absolutely. mean, just a smidge, just a smidge. So there's policy benefits to making sure that the independence of information is important. And so we're seeing a couple bills, since we were on public notice, let's stay there for a second. One of the major bills, and everything has a past, that we're working on is something that Delegate Linda Foley is putting forward. that's based on a local bill that we had last year, where for public notices, the ad could be, could appear in the web version of the newspaper of record or the print version and whatever version it gets into first starts the clock running. Cause very often notices have to run, you know, three successive weeks once a week, which is a very print. sort of paradigm. And so as we navigate these different spaces, it really has called into not question, but takes a little bit more thought as to, what is a news media outlet? Like, what does local news mean? How does that follow through? Like, when we try not to personally, I try not to get hung up on the format. We need to make sure that the news is is still present, that it's focused on local, and that it's that independence and notice. So I don't know what you're seeing in terms of those issues. I think, you know, given what and I appreciate the, you know, delegate folder producing introducing her bill, thanks. House bill 74. For your, for your members that want to track that bill, I'm sure you'll provide that to them, but they can pull it up on the MGA Maryland General Assembly website as well. But, you know, given what we were dealing with last year with the public notice bill requirement that it would be print only. Yeah, you're starting to see more and more the pushback that came after that from legislators who once became fully aware what was going on, realized, wait a minute, there needs to be that independence that you're talking about. There needs to be that access that you were talking about. And I think they realized, wait a minute. And this had a potential detrimental impact in potentially eliminating and destroying several newspapers, local newspapers. And so And I don't think that I think that was the unintended consequence of that legislation. So I think I think it's important for you know, for both digital and print to remain viable, to remain independent and to have both accessibility for for for those that can that prefer or can access it by digital or by print. And the bill that you're talking about, Foley's bill does both right. And then I think and if there's no print available, but then it's whatever digital right. it has some good guardrails. As an association, we think long and hard, and we do it through our sort of membership criteria, like, okay, how can we make sure that it's a legitimate news organization, that there's original reporting, that there's, so we have our little litmus test for membership. And I'm glad to see that the legislature is really taking that seriously. And I feel good that in general, the Maryland legislators really do value their news media. We have another bill that's coming up that's based on, that hasn't been dropped yet, but is going to try for a payroll tax credit for newsrooms. And that's based on a bill, an amended version of a bill that was passed in New York last year. Delegate Vogel, again, out of Montgomery County is taking the lead on that. And it's really... I think it's important for us all to recognize that the news media industry needs that kind of economic help. We are independent, we do our news gathering, we don't really have a content issue. Our problems really are in that shift from print to digital. It's of print dollars and digital dimes. And so the economics truly don't work in the same way, but the cost of producing news. which is critical to inform the public and preserve democracy and all the things that we fight for, for truth and justice. Like the model is just different. Yeah, I agree 100%. And I think that message needs to be shared with legislators, policymakers over and over and over again. think the executive branch, think the governor to his credit, I think fully understands that. And I think the more and more we can explain that to those who are concerned about where print and digital are going, I think the arguments and the comments you just made, as long as we can keep that in front of folks, even the folks who are more adamant. one way or the other to let them know the value that both sides and both mediums provide. Yeah, absolutely. And then there's other, we always lobby on government transparency and again, reporter access. there's not, and I would note also that we're still seeing bills coming in. Like right now, I think we're at 270 on the Senate side and about the same on the House side. There will be thousands of bills introduced before we're done. So it's still super early in the session, but. We monitor all the bills that come through for things of interest to news media. But looking at the Public Information Act, there's stronger and larger coalitions coming up because the Public Information Act is super important to journalists. We're the professional users of that kind of information, but it's accessible to everyone. And so there's, and I always like to say that, Everyone loves transparency until it applies to them. And that can be some difficult hurdles when we're looking through how we get to transparency. But are you seeing anything out there that I know it's great buzzword, but are you seeing anything that's changing around transparency this session? OK. yet. know that when you talk about Public Information Act, know for police accountability and police records, I think that that has been challenged and challenging. But the transparency behind that and the police accountability boards and access to information, that is going to be a continuous and constant fight, I believe. But in terms of what you were talking about specifically, I've not seen that. Again, you know, only 300 something bills have been dropped so far. We expect another 1,000 to 1,200 to come between now and January 17th, which is the deadline for bill requests. Right, gosh, so still so many things to go. then regarding, I think it all goes back to revenue is in terms of like, if they're looking at an advertising or marketing tax again, things like professional, in that professional services taxes, there are, know, newspapers do have business components. And so we have to be really mindful about that, you know, that we exist in that. advertising space. That's one of the pillars of news media in terms of how we gain revenue to produce content. So more to come on that. And then another issue that we're working on, and luckily you don't have to go to the mat on it all the time, is anti-SLAP, which is a bill that we've been working on with Delegate Rosenberg and Senator Shelley Hettleman. for years now, which would strengthen the anti-SLAP statute in Maryland. And it takes on a little bit more of an urgency or a little different lens this year in that Pennsylvania has just enhanced their statute to protect against SLAP suits, which are strategic lawsuits against public participation. And we're seeing even, you know, that used to be such a sort of a journalist issue that deep pocket individuals would threaten lawsuits for things that were published or written about. And we're seeing those deep pockets kind of diversify and now sort of lash out sometimes at abusers or wielding the court systems against domestic violence of survivors or developers against citizens who are speaking out against different actions in their communities. So we're seeing that be a much broader issue, but still relevant to the journalism community. So lots going on. With your permission, Lorenzo, I'd love to invite you back and talk through. think we'll know in a few more weeks with what's going on. We'll know probably on the 15th of this month where things stand with the budget. That's when the governor has to release his budget to the public. So we'd to come back and talk more about that and the impact that that's going to have and any legislation that will have dropped by then or certainly after the 17th of this month. this is great. Rebecca, it's been always a pleasure working with you and. these issues and looking forward to, you know, 2025 session. think we're going to be doing some good things again. And so I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you a little bit more about the legislative process and what's happening for our members, your members. Terrific. Well, thank you, Lorenzo. I appreciate you coming out. We will have you back. Maybe we'll do something around crossover, which will be the mid part of March where that's where we see a lot of bills sort of fall by the wayside and we know what horses are running. That's the deadline where bills have to cross different chambers, opposite chambers. And if they don't meet that deadline, a lot of them end up going to rules where sometimes the bills die. Yeah, it's a number to date. It can be artificial sometimes, but it is something that people take seriously because sometimes their bills will die if they don't make it to the opposite chamber and end up in rules. yeah. So more to come. It was great to talk to you and I really appreciate you taking the time. My pleasure. Thank you, Rebecca, and thank you to all your members.