JOTF Legislative Session Recap
Kam Bridges is the new senior policy advocate for JOTF and Ioana Stoice is the policy advocate.
JOTF provided a legislative updates–5 legislative wins:
HB97/SB37: Criminal Procedure Expungement of Records of Waiting periods–allowed for nonviolent felonies and misdemeanors to be eligible for expungement after 7/5 years
HB455; Health Occupations Licenses–allowed for occupational licensing boards to allow for ITIN numbers when applying for occupational licenses
HB9: Equity and Transportation Section– equity needs to be considered in transit planning
HB988SB928: Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program– ensured equitable implementation of the Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program (establishes contribution split, expands implementation timeline, removed language requiring employer leave first, etc)
All bills are officially law.
Also blocked a bill that would have altered the MD Healthy Working Family Act which would have exempted seasonable workers from the requirement to provide paid sick leave.
Bills that hit speedbumps–Good Cause expungement power expanded to misdemeanors and felonies–both failed to obtain votes in Committees; Waiting period for expungements–would have shielded non convictions for three years until they can be automatically expunged also failed to obtain votes in Committees; also bill that would have eliminated license suspension for failure to pay child support for folks make under $41,000/year; three year pilot program to distribute subsidies for auto insurance for Baltimore City residents graduating from a workforce development program–unfavorable report in Committee due to fiscal impact and focus.
Kam will provide the names of any Baltimore City legislators who voted against any of the JOTF bills.
For the future–will have conversations with policy committee and staff to finalize the 2024 policy agenda.
Lisa: with the new governor, is JOTF looking at possibilities that may not have been possible in past years? Yes, looking at issues that have come out of various coalitions during the past administration, working with current administration and agencies on past ideas and policies, also benefiting from the federal infrastructure money.
As JOTF creates policies for 2024 want to engage with community members–will have a community meeting July 29th to forward to those interested.
Community Help Desk Update: NPower
NPower Community Help Desk came out of the pandemic and a need to address the digital divide. NPower provided the interns to staff the community health desk begun by the Baltimore Digital Equity Coalition, discontinuing the help desk. NPower has stepped up to launch the NPower Help Desk. Have launched in Baltimore and are also launching in St Louis and Dallas.
Interns on the help desk receive additional training and come out of the NPower IT training program. Also interested in partnering with community leaders and other organizations to increase the impact of services.
Help Desk operates Monday through Friday 10-6, folks can call 410-724-1101. Can help with PCs and Macs, have three people staffing at a time, will grow as call volume increases
Announcements
South Baltimore Learning Center: Graduation June 27th at BMI and summer registration for GED programs is June 26th-July 1st contact Antoinette Kennedy for more information: akennedy@southbaltimorelearns.org
St Agnes: Offering estate planning clinic for homeowners with Pro-Bono Resource Center
NPower: upcoming spring graduation on July 13th, will start August 7th, looking to recruit 100-110 students
Bon Secours Community Works; Expungement Clinic July 6th–limited spots, email Shawn directly
JOTF holding break light clinic July 19th in Park Heights
Phase 3: 2 positions, student support specialist and HVAC and electrical instructor, starting third cohort of elevator training in Montgomery County
UMB–if anyone is interested in working with UMB grant writer on responding to an RFP related to addressing deeply rooted causes of hunger.
