$150 Cash Refunds for Instacart Workers that made deliveries in DC

My name is Emily Barth. I am an attorney at the DC Office of the Attorney General (OAG) in the Office of Consumer Protection. The OAG is requesting help from all DMV community partners in returning $1.5 million dollars to eligible Instacart workers that made deliveries in DC and were not properly paid by Instacart – we believe that over 10,000 individuals in the DMV region are eligible, and we need help getting the word out. Instacart workers who made deliveries in DC may be eligible for a minimum cash refund of $150 as the result of an OAG lawsuit—but workers need to file an online claim form by March 25, 2023 to get their money. The claims website is https://instacartworkerrefundsdc.com/

Would you please consider promoting the following information on your various channels? We’ve included some social media options below and in the attachments.

Please let us know if you have any questions, and thank you in advance for helping us reach more eligible workers. You can email me directly at Emily.barth@dc.gov with any questions. We want to return this money to the workers that earned it! Thank you for your support.

OAG Social Media Post & Handles

If you’d like to amplify OAG’s tweet about the Instacart worker claim process, it is available here: https://twitter.com/DCAttorneyGen/status/1620460589247242240?s=20&t=AmnGdRBlHBPSU4RsTGXaJA

If you post on social media about this, we’d appreciate if you could tag us. Here are our official handles:

Suggested Newsletter Item

Headline: $150 Cash Refunds for Instacart Workers that made deliveries in DC

Instacart workers who made deliveries in DC may be eligible for a cash refund of $150 or more—but workers need to file an online claim form by March 25 to get their money.  You do not need to be a DC resident to be eligible.

Because of a lawsuit filed by the Office of the Attorney General, Instacart workers who made at least one delivery in DC between October 1, 2016 and April 30, 2018 can receive cash payments of at least $150. As many as 10,000 workers across the DC region could be eligible to receive these payments.

Workers must fill out an online claim form by March 25, 2023, to qualify for payment. More information and the online claim form are available at: instacartworkerrefundsdc.com

Best,

Emily Barth

Emily Barth

Assistant Attorney General

202.741.0764

Office of Consumer Protection

Public Advocacy Division

D.C. Office of the Attorney General

400 6th Street NW, Washington D.C. 20001

Later High School Start Time for HCPSS

HCPSS High school will start at 8:00 a.m. for 2023-2024 academic year. I am very glad to see this progress.

  • Schools in Tier 1 will begin at 8:00 a.m. and dismiss at 2:45 p.m. These include all 13 high schools, several middle schools, Cedar Lane School and Homewood Center. 
  • Schools in Tier 2 will begin at 8:40 a.m. These include a combination of middle and elementary schools with middle schools dismissing at 3:25 p.m. and elementary schools dismissing at 3:10 p.m. 
  • Schools in Tier 3 will begin at 9:15 a.m. and dismiss at 3:45 p.m. These include the remainder of elementary schools.

HS 13 has an official name Guilford Park High School

Finally, HS 13 has an official name: Guilford Park High School. During the last four years on the school board, we had many discussions about the school, from construction to redistricting. The board even had a tour in the middle of last year.

I am very glad to see the opening of Guilford Park High School this fall, and appreciate the support from many stakeholders. Sometimes, we don’t see from the same perspective and disagree. But eventually we do see a new high school for our high students.

I believe this school will provide excellent education for our students and it will create a new and dynamic school community here.

$20K Grant Opportunity for MD-Based Businesses

I wanted to share an exciting opportunity for Maryland-based small businesses to apply for $20,000 grants launching on Monday, Feb. 13th, that I am hoping you will help share with your audience as well. 

I’ve included a longer description below, as well as an attached one-pager in English for sharing and for your reference. Here is a link to our marketing toolkit.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to let me know!

———-

Through the BGE Energizing Small Business Grants Program, eligible businesses located in BGE’s service area will have the opportunity this year to apply for grants of $20,000: 

  • Grant opens on Monday, February 13th, 2023 at 9 a.m. ET and closes March 24th, 2023, at 6 p.m. ET. Recipients will be announced in June.

Applicants must be an existing BGE electric and/or gas customer with positive BGE credit history. Other eligibility criteria include:

  • Be a business founded in 2020 or prior
  • In good standing (or on the way to) with the State of Maryland
  • A maximum of twenty-five (25) employees
  • Annual gross revenues in 2021 of less than $7 million USD
  • Demonstrated need for funding to support business and serve customers

Since the launch of the BGE Energizing Small Business Grants program in 2021, BGE, Hello Alice, and the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) engaged over 400 partner organizations and 10,000 small businesses, dispersed over $7.98M in funds to 397 diverse small business owners across a variety of industries in the state of Maryland and provided continued support to non-recipients through access to unlimited tools, resources and step-by-step guides within the Hello Alice platform. 

Thank you for your help to enable us to reach even more Maryland-based small businesses in the third year of the program.

We appreciate your help and support for small businesses!

Best Regards,


Adriana Williams
Partner Success Manager, Hello Alice 
helloalice.com 
@helloalice

Montgomery County Food Assistance Resources

We are writing from the Montgomery County Food Council to provide you with food assistance resources to share with your constituents who may be experiencing food insecurity.  As you may well be aware, SNAP Emergency Allotments (EAs) that have been in place since 2020 will come to a close at the end of February due to the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. Individuals who had been receiving up to $281 a month during the pandemic could see their benefits reduced to as little as $23. SNAP recipients in Montgomery County will lose an average of $82 a month in SNAP benefits.

We anticipate this loss of benefits will result in more calls to your office from concerned residents wondering how they will be able to feed their families. They may have questions about their SNAP benefits or how they can access emergency food resources. Attached to this email are flyers detailing information about SNAP and food assistance resources in Montgomery County that you can share with constituents.

We also invite you to refer Montgomery County residents directly to the Montgomery County Food Council’s SNAP Outreach Team for assistance. As a Community Based Organization funded by the Maryland Department of Human Services’s SNAP Outreach Program, we are able to file SNAP applications for residents and assist in updating their expense deductions. We provide these services virtually, in both English and Spanish, and you may refer constituents to us by simply emailing us their name and number, or by filling out our referral form. For those constituents living outside Montgomery County, Maryland Hunger Solutions can provide the same services and can be reached at 866.821.555.

We thank you for your attention to this important issue.  If you or anyone from your office would like to speak further about SNAP, food access, or any other food systems issues, we would be happy to set up a time to talk.

Food-Assistance-in-Montgomery-CountyDownload

REAL PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS AND APPEALS

REAL PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS AND APPEALS

On 1/31/2023, Delegate Wu’s office invited three people from SDAT, Property Assessment of Howard County and Montgomery County to explain the property tax, appeal process and contact info. Thanks to those 60 people who attended the seminar and hopefully it will be helpful. Attached is the whole slide including contact information for tax departments. In the past, around 3% people appealed and around 40% appeals succeeded.

The whole presentation is here:

2023-SDAT-Real-Property-Assessment-Appeal-ProcessDownload

Contact:

Howard County
District Court Multi‐Service Center
3451 Court House Drive
Ellicott City, Maryland 21043
(410) 480‐7940
E‐mail: sdat.how@maryland.gov

Montgomery County
30 W. Gude Drive, Suite 400
Rockville, Maryland 20850
(240) 314‐4510
E‐mail: sdat.mont@maryland.gov

Ranked–Choice Voting for Howard County – Board of Education Elections –

Howard County – Board of Education Elections – Ranked–Choice Voting

Here is the bill:

HoCo16.23Download

Primer of Ranked Choice Voting

Our team created a four-page PowerPoint slides to explain ranked choice voting.

HoCo-BOE_-Ranked-Choice-VotingDownload

Here is an article by Frank Hecker which talks about RCV.

A better way to elect the Howard County Board of Education – FrankHecker.com

HB0598-Maryland Education Funding Reform-Enrollment Calculation

HB0598-Maryland Education Funding Reform-Enrollment Calculation

Here is my bill: HB0598. The link is here: Legislation – HB0598 (maryland.gov)

The key idea

is that instead using the previous-year enrollment number as next-year’s funding basis, we should use a projected enrollment for the new fiscal year which is more closely aligned with reality and need.

Simple Analogy:

If your company has two employee and your total budget for them is 200k this year. For next year’s budget, if you know you will hire another employee, will you budget for two people (current student enrollment calculation) or three people (the proposed enrollment calculation in my bill HB0598)?

HB0598-PosterDownload

Majority of school systems will receive more money using this new formula.

Special Virtual Info Session on Property Assessment & Taxation

Special Virtual Info Session on Property Assessment & Taxation, Hosted by Delegate Chao Wu and Delegate Natalie Ziegler, District 9A

Time: Tuesday 7-8 PM, 1/31/2023

How: Register at the following link and you we receive the meeting details:

Special Virtual Info Session on Property Assessment & Taxation, Hosted by Delegate Chao Wu and Delegate Natalie Ziegler, District 9A (google.com)