SICK LEAVE LAW TO TAKE EFFECT: Maryland on Friday became the ninth state in the country to require paid sick leave and the second to bar colleges from asking prospective students about their criminal histories after Democrats easily overrode two 2017 vetoes by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. Both bills were top priorities of progressive advocacy groups, Ovetta Wiggins of the Post is reporting.
- Gov. Larry Hogan (R) had tried to pick off one or more of the 29 senators who had voted last year for the bill, and there was some Democratic concern over slippage in recent days, but in the end, Sen. President Mike Miller Jr. (D) was able to hold onto the 29 members needed to override the veto – plus one, William Zorzi writes in Maryland Matters.
- Senate Minority Whip Stephen Hershey has a small business with 14 employees. This bill, he said, would make him think twice before hiring a 15th because he would haveto provide paid sick leave for all of them, Hannah Brockway and Alex Mann of Capital News Service are reporting.
- Amanda Yeager of the Baltimore Business Journal reports that Ruth Martin, vice president of workplace justice campaigns at MomsRising.org, said,“More than 700,000 Maryland workers have suffered without paid sick days for too long, forced to make the awful choice between taking time off work to recuperate – or to stay home with a sick child – and earning a paycheck.”
SPONSOR SEEKS IMPLEMENTATION DELAY: The Senate sponsor of a new law mandating paid sick leave called for a 90-day delay in its implementation, writes Bryan Sears for the Daily Record. Sen. Mac Middleton, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he plans to introduce legislation as early as next week that would push off implementation of the new law. Without the change, businesses would be required to follow the new law in 30 days, which he said is just too quick for most businesses to comply with.
TERM LIMITS? WON’T HAPPEN: Term limits for Maryland legislators are a great idea whose time will never come. That’s particularly true of Gov. Larry Hogan’s proposal for a two-term limit on Maryland lawmakers. That could actually make things worse at the State House, writes Len Lazarick in a news analysis for MarylandReporter. Even Republican legislators who repeatedly do the heavy lifting for their Republican governor think the idea stinks — off the record, of course.