INTERVIEW – MARYLAND GOVERNOR LARRY HOGAN
- Hogan touts legislative agenda in late-session push. Gov. Larry Hogan is pleased with the passage of some items from his 2017 legislative agenda but, at a press conference Wednesday, offered scathing rebukes to some of his political opponents, whom he accused of playing politics at the expense of Marylanders. Hogan commended the passage of several bills as examples of bipartisanship, including the Victims of Sex Trafficking Act, the Clean Water Commerce Act, and the More Jobs for Marylanders Act, which would provide a tax break to manufacturing companies in high-unemployment areas. In contrast, he slammed Democrats in the legislature for pressing forward with a bill that expands paid sick leave after effectively defeating his bill on the same subject. Hogan said the Democrats’ sick leave bill would be “dead on arrival” if passed and sent to his desk. He said Democrats were trying to manipulate the issue to “put points on the board” that could be used against him in the 2018 election.
- Hogan Criticizes Worker Sick Leave Bills, House Budget. With 26 days left in this year’s Maryland General Assembly session, Gov. Larry Hogan told reporters that he is pleased some of his agenda is moving forward, However, Hogan criticized the mandatory worker sick leave bills now being considered by lawmakers. Both the House of Delegates and state Senate are considering bills that require businesses provide paid sick leave for companies with at least 15 employees. “If either of these job-killing bills reaches my desk, I will veto them immediately, because they will simply kill business and jobs,” Hogan said at an afternoon news conference.
- Hogan criticized a $2.4-million cut in the State Police budget, which cuts one class of 50 cadets at the Maryland State Police Academy. “It’s simply wrong to cut the State Police at a time when there is such violence, and a heroin epidemic. It is simply unconscionable,” Hogan said
- REDISTRICTING: Hogan pushes for redistricting reform. ANNAPOLIS, Maryland — At a press conference Friday, Gov. Larry Hogan sought to rally support for a bill that would set up an independent, non-partisan committee to handle the redistricting process. Hogan called the state’s current partisan redistricting process “disgraceful” and lambasted the legislature for not acting to implement reforms. Hogan has made passage of the Redistricting Reform Act of 2017 one of his primary goals ahead of the 2018 gubernatorial election. The governor wants to remove lawmakers’ power over redistricting and hand the process over to an independent commission. Such reforms are strongly opposed by Democrats, who owe some of their dominance in state politics to the party’s power to favor itself when drawing legislative districts.
- HEROIN, OPIOID CRISIS: Md. Gov. Hogan declares state of emergency in heroin, opioid crisis
- FRACKING: – Fracking ban moves forward in Maryland House, fate in Senate unclear
- AG POWERS: Larry Hogan, Maryland governor, blasts attorney general powers expansion.
- Second federal judge blocks Trump’s new travel ban. ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A federal judge in Maryland on Thursday morning temporarily blocked the 90-day ban on immigration for citizens of six countries in President Donald Trump’s executive order, dealing another blow to the president’s revised travel ban. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, who filed the motion in his state to challenge the order, argued that it is instead a “great example of executive overreach.”
- ST PATTYS DAY: Friday is St. Patrick’s Day – Will Governor Hogan be celebrating?
