End of Summer Update

By William C. Smith, Jr.  |  September 15, 2017

Today we celebrate all of the women and men who labored throughout the decades to provide our generation with the many opportunities we have today. As your state Senator I have endeavored to that very same thing – to provide more Marylanders with more opportunity. And while it seems as though the Trump Administration in Washington has been intent on doing just the opposite, I have been working alongside my Democratic colleagues to move our state forward this summer.

I hope you enjoy this end of summer update. As always, please feel free to reach out with ideas or inquiries – I want to hear from you.

Fighting Jared Kushner and the use of debtors’ prisons, right here in Maryland: 

Working with the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, I sponsored a bill to end a little-known practice which is devastating our most vulnerable communities: de facto debtors’ prisons by a court order. This bill would significantly limit the issuing of arrest warrants for people who have unpaid debt by 1) ensuring the debtor was actually served a show cause notice, and 2) there are exceptional circumstances that require its issuance. Over the course of the last few years thousands of Marylanders have had body attachments issued for their arrest because they had a default judgment entered against them in court. Even more shocking is many of these debtors find themselves in handcuffs after missing a court date they were never made aware of in the first place.

In May I was shocked to learn of a vast, 12,000 unit real estate empire owned by none other than President Trump’s advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. As The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, and others exposed, Kushner Companies is landlord to over 20,000 tenants in Maryland. The articles expose a money-making operation based on squeezing every penny out of struggling families by garnishing their wages and bank accounts, and by using a powerful and intimidating legal operation to win judgment after judgment in court.

Two weeks ago The Baltimore Sun (and then Architectural Digest) linked these two issues together: “Since 2013, the first full year in which the Kushner Cos. operated in Maryland, corporate entities affiliated with the firm’s 17 apartment complexes in the state have sought the civil arrest of 105 former tenants for failing to appear in court to face allegations of unpaid debt”, more than any other landlord in the state, and “court records show that 20 former Kushner tenants have been detained”.

Last session I was honored to appointed Chair or the Maryland Senate Veterans caucus. One of my goals in this new role was to develop and push a robust, bipartisan veteran’s agenda aimed at improving the lives of veterans and their families here in Maryland. On November 7th, the Caucus has invited over 100 veteran service organizations to help the Caucus in identifying top priorities for veterans in five issue areas: health, education, jobs, taxes, and quality of life. The Caucus will take the product of our work to Annapolis when the General Assembly reconvenes in January as our Veteran’s Agenda. This agenda will help the Caucus in fighting to improve the lives of veterans, including active duty members, reservists, National Guard, and their families. If you are or know someone who is interested in joining us at the summit, give our office a call at 301-858-3634.

Most laws passed in the 2017 session go into effect on either July 1st or October 1st. Among the many laws that go into effect on July 1st are the raising of the minimum wage to $9.25, a prohibition on pre-k suspensions and expulsions, and tax relief for retired first responders. On October 1st a ban on hydraulic fracturing goes into effect among many other changes to the law.

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What we have been up to:

This summer the Maryland Democratic Party launched the Summer of Resistance and Renewal. The effort is a major call-to-action for Democrats across the state to knock on doors, connect with local organizations, build broader coalitions, and band together to resist the Trump agenda and build a better future for our party and our state. In July party activists took a break from their non-stop organizing to rally together at Denizen’s Brewing Company. Click here to listen to my remarks to the more than 100 “do-something” Democrats in attendance.

This interim the Legislative Black Caucus is holding town halls across the state to discuss upcoming issues of interest in the 2018 session. In June I sat on a panel focused on criminal justice reform at the Montgomery County/Howard County town hall at Burtonsville Elementary School with my colleague, Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary. In August I headed down to Cambridge, childhood home of the titanic and fearless American hero, Harriet Tubman, for the Legislative Black Caucus town hall on the Eastern Shore. At the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Center, I led a discussion about the state of bail reform and our success in ending early childhood suspensions and expulsions in our state.

In early August I presented the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition with a summary of the 2017 session and a preview of what next session will look like. Click here to read the write-up. The Coalition’s next meeting is September 6th at 7pm at Einstein High School.

Our website is live! Go to www.SmithforMaryland.com to read more about my vision for a better Maryland and keep up to date with big news from Annapolis and the campaign trail.

This year we distributed more than $30,000 in scholarships to dozens of District 20 residents seeking higher education at Maryland’s many first-rate public colleges and universities. As a first-generation college student myself, I would like to thank all the applications for the inspiration you provided our team. I also want to thank our scholarship committee for their fantastic work and dedication to the process.

• Back to school! Montgomery County Public Schools open on Tuesday, September 5th. The whole 2017/2018 calendar can be viewed here.
• Make sure you stop by Silver Spring Jazz Festival, which is one of my favorite end-of-summer traditions in Silver Spring! #SSJazzFest
• Stop by and find us at the Takoma Park Folk Festival will be held on September 10th at Takoma Park Middle School.
• Get ready for Silver Spring Restaurant Week hosted by Councilmember Tom Hucker: September 5th-10th.
• The first-ever Montgomery County Friendship Picnic is being hosted by the Office of Human Rights on Sunday, September 17th. Click here for more info about this great opportunity to come together.
• After years of work by thousands of advocates, the Purple Line broke ground on Monday morning. You can read more about the construction this exciting project will require here.