News clips 2.23.07
H/t: GOPCharlie and AM
Opponents say Bay fee would drive up costs
Measure targets rural Maryland, hurts affordable housing, they argue
http://www.gazette.net/stories/022307/polinew193750_32335.shtml
Rural lawmakers, particularly Republicans, are bristling at a proposal to levy a surcharge on new development that they believe will lead to increased housing costs in areas that already have too few affordable homes.
The bill would force developers who build outside high-growth areas to pay a $2-per-square-foot fee on impervious surfaces that carry pollutants into the waterways. The charge within Smart Growth zones would be only 25 cents per square foot.
Rural lawmakers applaud the effort to clean the Bay but say their constituents would be forced to bear the brunt of restoration programs because developers would likely pass the costs on to prospective homebuyers.
I’m all for cleaning up the Bay, but this may be a bit premature right now, said Del. Paul S. Stull (R-Dist. 4A) of Walkersville. This will be a new tax and another fee that will drive up the cost of housing.
Existing fees on new development already makes it difficult for Stulls constituents to purchase or build new homes, he said, and the new proposal will only worsen the problem.
This bill is nothing more than a shameless environmental money grab, Sen. E.J. Pipkin (R-Dist. 36) of Stevensville said in a statement. Make no mistake about it, the bill imposes a statewide impact fee on the few to pay for the many.
Enactment of this misguided bill will be tantamount to declaring war on the rural counties, Pipkin added. ... Crazy as it may be, what this proposal attempts to do is tax our way into more affordable housing. Its like Alice in Wonderland: Whats up is down and whats down is up.
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O'Malley gets transition report
1,000-plus pages contain hints of tax-rise pressure, detail problems
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.transition23feb23,0,7530063.story?coll=bal-local-headlines
Gov. Martin O'Malley released more than 1,000 pages of documents from his transition team yesterday, reports that paint a stark picture of some troubled agencies and foreshadow pressure for tax increases to pay for schools, transportation and other priorities.
Others cut straight to contentious issues. The transportation work group, for example, said O'Malley will need to find a major new revenue source as early as next year to pay for roads, mass transit and other projects. The group suggested that the governor consider raising the gasoline tax - which has been unchanged since 1994 - by as much as a nickel a gallon.
The elections committee recommended against adopting new voting machines until 2010. That would disappoint reform advocates who worry that Maryland's touch-screen voting machines are vulnerable to errors and manipulation.
Given that the state is facing a gap between projected spending and revenues - a $1.3 billion "structural deficit" starting with the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2008 - that's not possible in the short run, O'Malley said. He didn't prescribe a solution but suggested that it will probably involve increasing taxes or other revenue sources.
"We are faced with a situation where the state is spending at a faster rate than it is taking in, and to face that we have to do two different things," O'Malley said. "We have to make government more effective and efficient so we can reduce the rate of spending, and we have to look at the diversity and sustainability of different revenue streams."
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So Little Time in Office, So Much Advice: O'Malley Counseled to Push for Gas Tax Increase
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022202026.html
A group that reviewed the state's transportation needs suggested that O'Malley (D) consider proposing a gas tax increase and other measures to boost funding for road and mass transit projects.
Other options include raising the state sales tax and dedicating the proceeds to transportation and allocating a larger share of the state's corporate income tax revenue to transportation.
O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said the governor is aware of the state's looming transportation needs but has taken no position on the revenue ideas. "Right now, these are simply recommendations that will be reviewed by the administration," Abbruzzese said.
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Flack farewell
Another familiar Republican face and voice is leaving Annapolis.
State GOP spokeswoman Audra Miller is ditching the state capital for the nations capital, where shell work as communications director for Jeff Fortenberry, a second-term Republican congressman from Nebraska.
Miller, a Penn State alum, came to the GOP in March 2005 from the Diocese of Trenton and served as the partys mouthpiece since then.
It has been one of the greatest experiences of my life to work at the Maryland Republican Party and with Gov. Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Steele, she said. It has been a rewarding experience and Im so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had here.
Her last day at the state GOP is March 2. No successor has been hired.
Even Millers adversary at the state Democratic Party, who has sparred with her through the media, offered kind parting words
I really like her. Weve had spirited and fun debates in the past and Im going to miss her, said Democratic talking head David Paulson. The Maryland Republican Party is losing a lot by her departure.
Who says there cant be peace and harmony between the two political parties?
Alan Brody
http://www.gazette.net/stories/022307/polinew193715_32328.shtml
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O’Malley’s reality check: Power has limits
http://www.gazette.net/stories/022307/poliras185604_32323.shtml
Remember all that fiery invective hurled by candidate Martin OMalley at the Public Service Commission in his campaign for governor? It was a major theme in his drive to oust incumbent Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich.
He said hed fire the five commissioners for allowing giant electric rate increases. He sued to block PSC actions. He vowed to appoint gung-ho consumer activists.
What a difference an election victory makes. Now OMalley is singing a slightly modified tune. Hes still inveighing against powerful, wealthy, special interests and standing up to protect the interests of consumers. But hes not exactly holding to his campaign promises.
He didnt fire anyone on the PSC. In fact, he doesnt have the power. Instead, he named two commissioners (to fill vacant slots) who lack a history of zealous consumer activism.
OMalleys choice for PSC chairman, Steve Larsen, has no background in utility regulation, which mocks the governors pledge to select commissioners with expertise in this arcane and complex field.
His other new commissioner, Suzanne Brogan, is actually a retread and was one of the members who approved electric rate deregulation in 1999 a move OMalley and other Democrats loudly denounced as anti-consumer.
To top off his PSC moves, the governor reappointed Harold Williams to another five-year term, even though he worked nearly 20 years for the Evil Empire of state utilities, Constellation Energy.
The other two commissioners, Chuck Boutin, an ex-Republican delegate and lawyer from Harford County, and Phillip Freifeld, a 24-year veteran of the PSC staff who put in time for another of those powerful, wealthy special interests (MCI), remain in place, untouched by OMalley saber-rattling.
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Three mass transit projects delayed
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/traffic/bal-md.porcari23feb23,0,2321477.story?coll=bal-local-headlines
Maryland's acting transportation secretary, John D. Porcari, told lawmakers yesterday that three big mass transit projects - including an east-west Red Line through Baltimore - will not go forward to public hearings this year as previously planned.
Porcari said the projects, including two in suburban Washington, will be delayed about a year so that officials can develop more accurate and specific projections of ridership when the state seeks federal funding for the transit lines.
The three projects are:
The Red Line from Woodlawn to the Fells Point-Canton area. The state has been studying rapid bus and light rail alternatives, but transit activists are urging the O'Malley administration to include heavy rail in the study.
The 14-mile Purple Line connecting New Carrollton with Bethesda. Light rail and rapid bus alternatives are being studied.
The Corridor Cities Transitway in Montgomery County's Interstate 270 corridor. It would extend transit service past the Shady Grove Metro station into northern Montgomery, near the Frederick County line. Light rail and rapid bus service are under study.
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Living wage supporters pack House economic hearing
http://www.gazette.net/stories/022307/polinew193703_32323.shtml
Family advocates, economists, union representatives and state Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez called for the General Assembly to pass a living wage bill during a hearing Tuesday in the House Economic Matters Committee.
We have a governor who’s for it, who campaigned on it and put it in his State of the State speech, Del. Tom Hucker (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring said after the hearing. Hucker has testified on the bill since 1998 in his role as executive director of Progressive Maryland.
The bill would require businesses holding state contracts of more than $100,000 to pay employees at least $11.95 per hour beginning in fiscal 2008, which begins July 1.
The basic premise of this is the state government is not subsidizing poverty, said Del. Herman L. Taylor Jr. (D-Dist. 14) of Ashton, the bills lead sponsor.
We know that people making a substandard wage cannot make it in the state of Maryland.
Bill opponents cite its unknown costs to the state.
Eleven-ninety-five an hour for any business owner is not a low benchmark, said Ellen Valentino, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.
What I heard, even from the Secretary of Labor ... is I dont think we know what are the $100,000 contracts. Who holds them? Where are the geographic areas? And what are the wages being paid in those areas? Valentino said.
Dennis C. McCoy, a lobbyist who represents the Association of Builders and Contractors, said the increased labor costs won’t come out of my client’s pocket. It comes right out of state taxpayers pockets if you decide to do it.
The organization’s 600 members, some of whom built recent additions to the House and Senate office buildings in Annapolis, also oppose a provision of the bill that would increase the wage annually according to the consumer price index for all urban customers in the Baltimore-Washington region.
This simply means that for construction of this building, there would be an increase in what was bid by every constructor, McCoy said.
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Hogan cool to Montgomery gun control bill
House delegation wants tighter rules for county, but opponents fear a legal patchwork
http://www.gazette.net/stories/022307/polinew193751_32336.shtml
bill that would allow Montgomery County to enact gun control laws that are stricter than state gun laws received support from the countys House delegation last week, but its future in the Senate is murky.
The measure has been pushed as a local bill to improve its chances: Montgomery County is seen as more receptive to gun control than other parts of Maryland. This week, however, it appeared that the strategy might backfire.
Sen. Patrick J. Hogan, who chairs the Montgomery County Senate delegation, does not support the legislation.
If were going to do something on gun control legislation, personally I think we need to do it statewide, not county by county, said Hogan (D-Dist. 39) of Montgomery Village. Next thing you know, were going to be doing it municipality by municipality.
Del. Roger P. Manno introduced the bill Feb. 8. Manno (D-Dist. 19), a freshman lawmaker from Silver Spring, said he drafted two versions of the bill one for Montgomery County only, another for the state but prefers to keep the focus on Montgomery.
At the end of the day, this is a gun control bill and Montgomery County has spoken on innumerable occasions and instances in their support for gun control, he said.
Manno said he would not want to draft legislation that would apply to others, such as Charles County sportsmen who are more concerned about Second Amendment rights.
Opponents say giving Montgomery County the authority to enact its own gun laws would create a patchwork of laws across Maryland.
It could create a situation where a hunter is arrested because he is pulled over for a broken taillight and has in his vehicle a firearm that is not legal in that particular jurisdiction, said Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.
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Officials consider ban on political automated calls
Regional Digest
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.sbriefs23feb23,0,4795937.story?coll=bal-local-headlines
Maryland lawmakers are considering getting rid of political candidates' exemption from the do-not-call registry.
Politicians are exempt from the rules that govern businesses when it comes to automated calls. Such calls have increased in recent campaign seasons because they cost less than placing phone calls in person.
Some voters felt bombarded by the calls last fall or wondered why they were getting them when they had put their home numbers on a do-not-call list. Bills being considered in both chambers of the Maryland legislature this term would end the exemption for political calls.
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opinion
Restoring rights
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.vote23feb23,0,2168463.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines
It comes down to this: Anyone who has served his or her time for a criminal conviction ought to then be allowed to be a full participant in society. Isn't that how the criminal justice system is supposed to work? It's a safe bet that there never has been a crime deterred by the threat of losing one's voting rights. ("Halt or you won't be able to vote in 2008" won't stop many criminals in their tracks.) Disenfranchising a well-meaning ex-offender who is trying to return to a normal and productive life, however, sends exactly the wrong message.
No politician likes to be seen as soft on crime or criminals, but many states are beginning to reconsider this issue. Voters in Rhode Island chose to restore the voting rights of convicted felons on parole and probation through a ballot initiative last November. Denying voting rights only to those in prison is the approach also taken in the District of Columbia and 12 states, including Ohio, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
Fundamentally, it's a matter of fairness. Nationwide, an estimated 5.3 million Americans have currently or permanently lost their voting rights, including 1.4 million African-American men. It's gotten to be far too large a portion of the electorate to be ignored any longer.
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Reporters Notebook: In case you were worried, ex-guv has a job now
http://www.gazette.net/stories/022307/polinew193715_32328.shtml
But Keith W. Vaughan, chairman of the firm’s management committee, said the company did not recruit Ehrlich simply to boost its name recognition.
In our situation, we don’t view it as how many governors can you add to your team, he said. We want the skill sets that come with [having served in public office].
Ehrlich declined to say whether the new job will impact his decision to seek public office again. Today is about Womble and a very exciting chapter for the firms history, he said.
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Scholarship scud
One bill proposes to eliminate nepotism in the awarding of scholarships; another would get rid of the program completely.
Its a concern over the perception that the scholarships are some sort of incumbent protection, said Sen. Allan Kittleman, who is the lead sponsor of the Robert Kittleman Scholarship Reform Act that seeks to terminate the subsidies. He is planning to offer an amendment that would transfer the $11.5 million used for legislative scholarships to the Maryland Higher Education Commission for it to distribute.
The legislature shouldn’t be giving it out. It should be in the hands of the professional educators who are best equipped to determine the needs of students, he said. A similar proposal to ax the scholarship program in 2005 failed.
Named after his late father, a former state legislator who championed the issue for two decades, Allan Kittleman said his bill would prevent lawmakers from using the scholarships to buy votes.
Currently, state senators can award $138,000 in scholarship money each year. Delegates may give the equivalent of four, four-year full-time scholarships per term. The proposed fiscal 2008 budget includes $6.5 million for senatorial and $4.9 million for delegate scholarships.
The other, less-dramatic measure would keep the scholarships intact, but prohibit lawmakers from awarding them to their relatives or family members of other legislators within the same district.
Such a restriction would preserve the ethical integrity of the General Assembly and put the scholarship guidelines in step with staff hiring protocols, said Sen. Bryan Simonaire, the bills lead sponsor. It is clear to me that the people of Maryland want to have a government that is open, honest and transparent.
A majority of senators have signed onto the bill, while Kittlemans proposal has only one co-sponsor.
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Greater stadium scrutiny is urged
Audit will be basis for agency change, O'Malley says
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-te.md.stadium23feb23,0,7964611.story?coll=bal-local-headlines
Gov. Martin O'Malley and legislators said yesterday that stronger oversight and new management are needed at the Maryland Stadium Authority, but officials at the agency said reports of hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance packages paid to former employees without proper oversight were "salacious" and overblown.
General Assembly auditors presented a report to legislators yesterday showing the authority had paid $42,000 to a former executive director for less than an hour of work and $282,000 in severance packages without any guidelines for how they would be awarded or any oversight by the agency's board.
Although authority Chairman Robert L. McKinney defended the arrangements as "the cost of doing business," legislative leaders said they will likely take a much stronger hand in managing the state agency.
McKinney, appearing before an Appropriations subcommittee hearing, said that the problems identified by the audit largely occurred under a previous chairman and executive director and that the severance packages were necessary in some cases to guard against lawsuits.
"The Maryland Stadium Authority, despite the press reports, is being very well managed, very well run," McKinney said. "The auditors' report, unfortunately, has been made salacious in the press reports."
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Senate panel airs public campaign finance proposal
In effort to curb sway of special interests, measure would cover legislative contests
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.campaigns23feb23,0,6066454.story?coll=bal-local-headlines
A proposal aimed at reducing the influence of special interests in legislative campaigns by having Maryland taxpayers pay for them was debated in a state Senate committee yesterday.
The bill's primary Senate sponsor, Prince George's County Democrat Paul G. Pinsky, said the bill would reduce the appearance of favoritism among legislators and enable candidates to focus on issues, not fundraisers.
To be eligible for "public financing," candidates would have to raise seed money in sums of $5 or more from about 350 registered voters in their districts in addition to $6,750 in other contributions.
Once the public money was deposited in a candidate's account, he or she would be limited to spending a total of $100,000 for a primary and general election for the Senate, and to $80,000 for the House. The candidate would have to reject private contributions, except for a small amount from the candidate's political party.
If a competitor opted out of the system, a candidate could spend up to twice that amount.
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Fake Private Parts Are No Joke, Myers Says
Delegate Wants to Ban Vehicle Displays of Plastic Genitals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201426.html
Maryland Del. LeRoy E. Myers Jr. to truckers: If you've got 'em, you don't need to flaunt 'em.
As the General Assembly debates global warming and the death penalty, Myers (R-Washington) has something else on his mind: the outsized plastic testicles that truckers dangle from the trailer hitches of their pickups.
To some truckers, they are manly expressions of rural chic. But Myers, who says his Western Maryland district is brimming with giant fakes on the roadways, calls them vulgar and immoral -- and filed legislation this week to outlaw them.
"People are making a joke out of it," Myers said yesterday. "But I think it's a pretty serious problem. You have body parts hanging from the hitches of cars. We've crossed a line."
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Lobbyist causing strife in chamber
Del. Stull says he would 'rather not' work with Murphy, cites controversial history
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=57187
Delegate Paul Stull doesn't like Don Murphy, the newly hired lobbyist for the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce.
In fact, based on interviews with members of the delegation, it's fair to say "detests" would be a better word.
"It's pretty clear I would rather not have to work with him personally on Frederick County business," Stull said Wednesday.
On Thursday, Murphy, a Republican, acknowledged the rocky relationship.
"It's politics, you can't make everybody happy," he said. "This is about, or should be about issues related to the Frederick County chamber, not personal animosity between legislators and lobbyists in Annapolis."
Stull said he would have liked the chamber to have talked to the delegation before making the hire, especially as the lobbyist will be expected to work so closely with the delegation.
Richard Adams, chamber president and CEO, said that was never considered.
"How were we to know there were issues? I'm not a mind-reader, there's no way I would know that. I don't think we need to make more of it than it is, and that's what I sense that you're trying to do."
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Md. Lawmakers Push to Allow Import of Less Expensive Drugs from Canada
http://somd.com/news/headlines/2007/5462.shtml
Comparing his effort to acts of civil disobedience during the Civil Rights era, a Maryland senator is proposing legislation that would defy federal law by allowing the state to set up a program to import less expensive prescription drugs from Canada.
In the bill called the "Canadian Mail Order Plan," the state would negotiate directly with Canadian pharmacies on behalf of residents for low-cost drugs. The prescription drugs, which would have to be priced below their American counterparts to qualify under the program, would be purchased directly from Canadian companies over a state-operated Web site, according to David F. Kahn, a legislative aide working on the bill.
At a hearing on the bill Wednesday, chief sponsor Sen. Paul G. Pinsky, D-Prince George's, said consumers could save as much as 25 to 50 percent by purchasing lower-priced drugs from Canada.
The importation of foreign prescription drugs would fly in the face of federal law since the drugs would be unapproved by the Food and Drug Administration.
But Pinsky said that circumventing federal law is justified because the government hasn't done enough to make prescription drugs less expensive.
"Sometimes you have to break the law," Pinsky said in an interview outside the Senate committee room. " ... When Rosa Parks sat down in the bus, it was against the law. She did it because it was the right thing to do. I think this is the right thing to do."
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City takes, then sells woman’s truck
http://www.examiner.com/a-581119~City_takes__then_sells_woman_s_truck.html
Three unpaid parking tickets cost Kelly Watson her Ford truck. When Watson, 32, of Columbia, went to retrieve her 1999 Ford F-250, the city had auctioned it off. A vehicle, with an estimated Kelly Blue Book value of $6,700, sold for $2,500. Somebody got a great steal. And it sure wasnt Watson.
I’m still in shock, she told The Examiner. I cant believe I lost my car for a couple of parking tickets.
Watson parked her car in front of a friends house in West Baltimore on Sept. 26, 2006. Four hours later, she said, it vanished.
Believing the F-250 was stolen, Watson called Baltimore Police Department. After filling out a report and checking the impound lots, police promised to call if the car turned up.
After a month of checking with the city, Watson finally received a call, but not from the police.
Someone called on my cell phone and asked me if I wanted to buy my car back for $3,000, she said. I was like, how did you get my cell phone number?
It gets worse. Watson found out that, despite the stolen-car report, the city had towed her truck to its impound lot on Pulaski Highway for three unpaid parking tickets that totaled $574 in fines.
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Councilman demands BACVA accountability
http://www.examiner.com/a-581081~Councilman_demands_BACVA_accountability.html
Presently, 85 percent of BACVA’s budget comes from the citys hotel/motel tax, which accounts for about $8 million. The rest comes from its members and marketing partners for a total operating budget of $9.9 million.
However, across the country many convention centers are operating at a loss, and the new head of BACVA has projected a 60 percent drop in bookings for 2008.
Conventions are booked five to seven years in advance, and I dont know what happened with my predecessor; they did good in 2004-2005, but bookings for 2006-2008 have a gap, and thats the drop we are seeing currently, said Tom Noonan, president and chief executive officer of BACVA.
We are trying to close that gap with more corporate and pharmaceutical bookings, but there is a dip. However, we will have a strong showing for 2009 through [the coming years], he added.
Noonan hopes to open a New York office, launch a new ad campaign for the 757-room downtown Hilton Hotel, and increase his sales and marketing staff.
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Gaithersburg bans day laborers from solicitation on streets, parking lots
Measure will not take effect until the county opens new employment center next month
http://www.gazette.net/stories/022307/polinew193724_32331.shtml
The city became the first in Montgomery County on Tuesday to ban day laborers and contractors from conducting hires on city streets, driveways and parking lots.
The controversial anti-solicitation ordinance, passed 4-1 by the City Council, would apply to any worker or employer, but was crafted with day laborers specifically in mind.
The council stipulated that the measure not take effect until after Montgomery County opens a new employment center for day laborers off Shady Grove Road in Derwood, likely in early March.
First introduced in October a month before Gaithersburg abandoned its six-month search for a center site within city limits the proposed law raised the ire of religious leaders, laborer advocates and civic groups such as the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union, which has challenged similar laws around the country.
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