Joe Vogel is a new young face in the Maryland General Assembly, and since taking office in January he’s already introduced ten bills targeting issues that range from school staffing shortages to hate crime prevention to ticket price gouging.
Vogel, a Democrat from Rockville, represents District 17 in Montgomery County. He told MoCo360 he considers being a state delegate a job more than a title.
“At any job that I’ve ever had in my life or any job that my constituents have, you’re expected to show up and get to work,” Vogel said. “Me and my team showed up here a month ago and we hit the ground running.”
Vogel, 26, is one of Maryland’s first Gen Z delegates, alongside Jeffrie Long, Jr. (D-Dist. 27B). Long represents portions of Prince George’s and Calvert counties.
Vogel said it’s not a coincidence that the scope of the bills he’s introduced is so eclectic. He said he believes it’s important for legislators to address the wide variety of challenges currently facing his generation and future generations.
“I ran because this is a once-in-a-generation moment. The challenges we face are going to have profound implications, profound consequences for the rest of my life, and this is a window in time when so many challenges must be addressed,” he said.
Forgiving student debt for school mental health workers
Amid a nationwide teacher shortage, the first bill Vogel introduced in office aims to improve recruitment and retention in school mental health-related careers. If passed, HB0488 would forgive up to $30,000 in student debt for mental health professionals employed in Maryland public schools.
“We have an aggressive mental health crisis right now among young people, and we just aren’t providing them with the professionals they need to cope with the issues they’re facing,” Vogel said.
The bipartisan bill has over 30 co-sponsors and is being cross-filed in the senate by Sen. Karen Lewis Young (D-Dist. 3) of Frederick County.
“If I had a wish list for what would be my top bills I’d like to see move, this is really up there,” Young said.
The bill would expand upon an existing state-run program — the Janet L. Hoffman Loan Assistance Repayment Program (LARP) — which provides loan repayment assistance to employees in a variety of fields serving low-income and underserved residents.
Lawyers, nurses, therapists, social workers and teachers are currently eligible to receive financial help through the LARP program. Vogel’s bill would add school psychologists and social workers to the list.
Vogel said the law wouldn’t cost the state any more money than what’s already appropriated to LARP — which totaled $1.4 million last year. Of that, he said over $500,000 was left unused.
“It’s a bill with no real downsides,” he said. “The program we’re seeking to expand eligibility for has underused funds in it. By expanding eligibility, we should be able to use more of that without having to increase the appropriation for LARP.”
Republican co-sponsor Del. Teresa Reilly (Dist. 35A) said she was impressed that Vogel thought to utilize a program already in place instead of starting from scratch.
“If funding is underutilized, certainly this is the best thing to expand it into mental health,” she said.
Janice Campbell is a psychologist at Silver Spring’s Montgomery Blair High, the largest high school in the state, where she’s responsible for serving over 2,600 students. Her colleague, Ciara Caprara, is the only school psychologist serving around 1,500 students across Bradley Hills, Chevy Chase and Rock Creek Forest elementary schools.
National guidelines recommend a ratio of one school psychologist for every 500 students. Campbell and Caprara’s heavy caseloads mirror statewide shortages in the field. The average ratio of school psychologists in Maryland for the 2021-2022 school year was 1 to 1,198, according to data cited by Vogel.
The minimum entry requirement for a school psychologist is a three-year graduate degree, Campbell said — which means many of her colleagues are saddled with student debt often running into six figures. She and Caprara said they know several school psychologists currently at the age of retirement who can’t afford to leave the workforce due to outstanding student loans.
“This could really make a difference. We’re excited,” Caprara said. “Anything that can incentivize school psychologists to choose Maryland is helpful.”
If enacted, the bill would take effect July 1, 2023.
Informing government decisions on hate crime prevention
Last week, Vogel introduced HB1066, which would establish a commission on hate crime response and prevention. It’s received bipartisan support from over 50 co-sponsors, including 19 from Montgomery County.
The bill is timely given a recent uptick in hateful acts across the county, to include antisemitic graffiti, flyers, phone calls and even a recent physical attack. Last month, a church’s LGBTQ+ pride flag was found slashed in half. There’s also been a slew of hate-based incidents in public schools, including more antisemitic flyers, transphobic threats, homophobic documents, and drawings of Nazi symbols and racial slurs.
“We really have a problem when it comes to the hate and violence that we’re seeing in our community,” Vogel said, “We can try legislative remedy after legislative remedy and try to figure out what the best approach is here, or we can listen to the stakeholders that are on the ground doing this work.”
The bill would codify the Attorney General’s task force on hate crimes by making it a permanent state commission. It would also allocate funding for a full-time assistant attorney general to staff the commission. The task force has been primarily funded by Department of Justice grants, which are now running out.
The task force is composed of members from organizations serving underrepresented communities like racial and ethnic groups, the LGBTQ+ community, religious minority groups and people with disabilities. Together, members will be tasked with creating a report for the General Assembly over the next year and a half to help guide legislative decisions related to hate crimes.
Vogel said the idea behind the commission is to amplify the voices of marginalized people instead of getting bogged down by bureaucracy. He said the work of the task force can address the problem of hate-based incidents in a holistic way, driven by “what’s happening on the ground and what these communities really need.”
The commission would also be required to produce a report to the Maryland State Department of Education to address hate-based incidents in schools. Vogel said it’s important to look at the issue at the school level given how many of these incidents have taken place in public schools, even just in the past week.
“This will allow all these groups to come together with one unified voice and say, ‘Look, this is what we think needs to happen. This is how we think we should be addressing and responding to hate crimes,’” Vogel said. “And then it’ll be on us in the legislature and the agencies to make those recommendations.”
He said he also sees the commission collaborating with county- and city-specific hate crime task forces like the one County Council President Evan Glass (D-At-Large) has proposed.
“I’ll be very honest — this commission is not going to immediately fix the problem of hate crimes in our country. What it will do though, is provide an opportunity for these groups that are directly impacted by hate … to have a seat at the table,” Vogel said.
Preventing ticket price gouging
Legislators nationwide are reacting to concerns about a Ticketmaster monopoly after thousands of fans experienced difficulty purchasing tickets to Taylor Swift’s 2023 concert tour due to dynamic pricing, a system that sets prices based on consumer demand. Vogel is no exception when it comes to addressing this issue in the legislature.
Last week, he introduced a consumer protection bill called the Event-Goer Rights and Accountable Sales Act — or the ERAS Act, a cheeky reference to Swift’s concert tour.
“When you allow companies like Ticketmaster to get to this point without serious regulations, consumers are the ones that are hurt,” Vogel said. “The Taylor Swift concert might feel a little trivial, but tickets that were priced between $50 and $500 are now going for upwards of $10,000. This is an issue of consumer protection.”
Specifically, the bill would require all primary and secondary ticket issuers and platforms to enforce a ticket refund policy. It would also ban restrictions on ticket resales and transfers. In addition to concerts, it would also apply to sporting events and other ticketed entertainment.
“It’s a broken system,” Vogel said. “We’re going to do our part here in Maryland to make sure that we’re shifting the playing field in favor of consumers and … concert goers [instead] of a billion-dollar ticketing tycoon.”
The ERAS Act is mirrored in the Senate by SB0852, sponsored by Sen. Dawn Gile (D-Dist. 33 -Anne Arundel).
Encouraging support for local journalism
Another bill from Vogel aims to support local news media by providing a tax credit to businesses with fewer than 50 employees for advertising costs paid to Maryland-based news media outlets.
“This is really a moment unlike any other in the history of our country when it comes to these grave threats that are facing our democracy. From the earliest days of the formation of this country, there’s been an understanding of how important a free, fair and open press is to the sustainability of our democratic system of government,” Vogel said.
He said the legislation’s creation was inspired by recent concern over the closing of local newspapers and outlets across the country. The idea behind the bill is to encourage businesses to place ads with local news outlets instead of relying on social media for advertisement. He says it would be a “win-win” for businesses and news outlets.
“In Maryland, you can look anecdotally at important newspapers that have closed here, and the consequences of that in our democracy are really significant,” he said. “You have less reporters covering the government at all levels. You have less reporters here in the statehouse.”