20071005 News Clips

News Clips

Oct. 5, 2007 – (finally posted) October 9^th, 2007

STATE NEWS

Maryland Republicans Imperil Passage of Slots Plan in Senate

GOP Won't Offer Support for Bill During Special Session

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/03/AR2007100302333.html

Maryland Senate Republicans said yesterday that they would not provide any votes for a bill legalizing slot-machine gambling if Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) calls a special legislative session this fall, a development that threatened to unravel the governor's efforts to win quick action on a plan to address a $1.7 billion budget deficit.

Minority Leader David R. Brinkley (R-Frederick) said that some of the chamber's 14 Republicans continue to support slots. But, Brinkley told reporters, Republicans are so disappointed with other aspects of O'Malley's plan that they want a longer debate when lawmakers return for their regular 90-day session in January.

"Senate Republicans are united in withholding their support for any new gaming initiatives during a special session," Brinkley said. "We cannot offer those votes in a special session devoted to an unnecessary massive tax increase on Maryland's citizens that would have long-range, negative repercussions on our economy."

House Republicans have not taken such a hard line on slots, but GOP leaders have also signaled in recent days that their votes should not be taken for granted in the 141-member chamber.

Henry Fawell, a former Ehrlich press aide who now works for his law firm, said GOP leaders sought Ehrlich's counsel but "this was solely their decision." "Obviously, though, he thinks anything that stops the largest tax increase in history is a good thing," Fawell said.

Franchot warns against slots

Comptroller says 'predatory' industry will expand through state

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.franchot05oct05,0,2837952.story

Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot warned yesterday that if the General Assembly legalizes slot machine gambling, casinos in downtown Baltimore and "slots in a neighborhood near you" will follow.

"This predatory gambling industry goes where the money is," Franchot said at a news conference at Harborplace in Baltimore. "Let's be honest. There is no such thing as limited slots. In state after state where slots have been legalized, the debate about expanding them begins before the first slot machine is turned on."

The shot from a fellow Democratic officeholder further complicates Gov. Martin O'Malley's push to legalize slots as a way of closing a $1.7 billion budget shortfall. House Speaker Michael E. Busch opposes slots, and Senate Republican leaders said this week they do not support holding a special session of the General Assembly to consider O'Malley's tax and slots plan. Republicans were key to Senate passage of a slots bill in 2005.

Slots threaten deficit plan

House, Senate Republicans withdraw their support, leaving O'Malley's proposal on potentially shaky ground

http://www.gazette.net/stories/100507/polinew53857_32356.shtml

The seams on Gov. Martin O'Malley's carefully constructed deficit-busting proposal may be starting to tear even before lawmakers are called to Annapolis for a widely presumed special session this fall. The issue of slot machines, as it has been in years past, remains divisive and is shaping up to be O'Malley's biggest obstacle in winning the legislature's support.

House and Senate Republicans this week backed off their support of expanded gambling, with the 14-member Senate GOP caucus pulling all of its votes for slots during a special session. House GOP leaders indicated their support should not be presupposed, which could doom passage of a slots plan similar to a 2005 bill that narrowly passed the chamber thanks to large Republican backing.

''I don't think any of us are running to Annapolis ready to vote yea or nay," said first-term Del. Nicholaus R. Kipke (R-Dist. 31) of Pasadena, who is likely to favor slots, despite his caucus' cooled support. ''... I just can't sleep at night knowing that our dollars are being used for vital projects in other states."

Regardless of how many Republicans back expanded gambling, O'Malley will have to sell his plan to some skeptical and undecided Democrats , House Speaker Michael E. Busch said. ''It's a whole new dynamic and in essence you're starting over," said Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis.

And if slots revenue won't be generated immediately, what's the need to address it in a special session, asked Senate Minority Leader David R. Brinkley (R-Dist. 4) of New Market.

House Minority Whip Christopher B. Shank (R-Dist. 2B) of Hagerstown agreed that a special session ''is not the appropriate venue to consider such a weighty proposal."

Pols and educators dig in on Thornton

Budget deficit has some provisions vulnerable

http://www.gazette.net/stories/100507/polinew53917_32357.shtml

Early this year some legislative leaders considered the state's landmark Thornton school funding law a sacred cow.

Now, it appears the funding could be a cash cow, or at least sacrificial calf, on the way to solving the state's $1.7 billion budget gap.

''Nothing is sacrosanct here except what is mandated," Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said on Wednesday.

Bealefeld picked as commissioner

Police veteran's first challenge: city homicide crisis

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-te.ci.police05oct05,0,4094257.story?coll=bal_tab01_layout

Choosing a well-respected local veteran over a prized out-of-town candidate, Mayor Sheila Dixon named Frederick H. Bealefeld III yesterday as police commissioner and charged him with tackling a homicide crisis that ranks Baltimore among the nation's most violent cities.

Despite the challenges, the 26-year Police Department veteran confidently vowed to reduce crime while simultaneously stabilizing a department still reeling from turnover in recent years. Early indications suggest Bealefeld is already making limited progress on both fronts, and many rank-and-file officers said yesterday that they are pleased he will be in charge.

Carroll wants police force

Commissioners approve creation of county department

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/carroll/bal-md.ca.policing05oct05,0,2496373.story

The Carroll County commissioners have voted to create a county police department with an appointed chief to replace a resident trooper program that has been based at the state police barracks in Westminster for 33 years. Carroll County is the last jurisdiction in Maryland to rely on the state police as its primary law enforcement agency.

Carroll Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning has pushed for the past few years for his department to assume primary control of policing, but all three commissioners said yesterday that they favor establishing their own department and selecting its chief.

"The best system for policing in the United States is with the sheriff's office," Tregoning said. "It's an elected office where the citizens determine who their leading law enforcement official is."

Funding BRAC growth at issue

State studies options for getting private developers on bases to share cost

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/brac/bal-md.ar.brac05oct05,0,2642267.story

The O'Malley administration is reviewing its options for getting private developers on military bases to share the costs of highway upgrades and other infrastructure needed to accommodate growth, Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown said yesterday.

Speaking at a base-realignment planning meeting in Annapolis, Brown said private developers winning long-term leases from the Army and other military services to build offices, laboratories, hotels, restaurants and stores on bases in Maryland need to "shoulder their responsibility" for handling the off-base traffic generated by their projects. The lieutenant governor said administration officials are reviewing the law to see if the state government can seek payments from private developers on military bases for such impacts on surrounding communities.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold told Brown and the O'Malley administration's base-realignment subcabinet that he and the commander of Fort Meade are talking now about whether the developer of a 2 million-square-foot office complex on one corner of the p ost will help pay for road widenings and signal upgrades to handle increased traffic from the project in the surrounding community.

"We welcome the jobs in Anne Arundel County," Leopold said, noting that many of the new jobs as a result of the federal Base Realignment and Closure effort carry high salaries. "The challenge is to provide the infrastructure."

Judge tells ex-staffers for Ehrlich to respond

2 refused to testify when questioned at legislative hearing

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.personnel05oct05,0,6698869.story

A Baltimore County Circuit judge said this week that two one-time staffers of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. must answer questions that they declined to respond to when they testified before a legislative committee investigating the then-governor’s personnel practices.

During a heated hearing last year, Craig B. Chesek and Gregory J. Maddalone refused to answer questions about the terminations of state workers in their departments.

The legislative committee, which has been disbanded, spent more than a year examining Ehrlich's hiring and firing practices, an attempt to determine if terminations in the Republican administration had been politically motivated.

It concluded that employees were fired "based on political considerations in violation of constitutional rights and state law" and called for stronger protections for state workers.

Republicans decried the effort as an election-year smear campaign. They said that the workers served at the governor's pleasure and could be fired at Ehrlich's discretion at any time.

Md. seeks affordable housing for military work force influx

http://www.examiner.com/a-972886~Md__seeks_affordable_housing_for_military_work_force_influx.html

While many of the incoming military work force expected to move into the Baltimore region because of base realignments will seek high-end housing, the state's housing secretary said Thursday that he plans to focus on making sure there is enough affordable housing to meet the regions' demands. Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold said there is a "workforce housing crisis" in his county. As the county is revamping its master plan, Leopold said he hopes to create more transit-oriented development that will include affordable housing.

"It's just not affordable to live in this county, especially when you have million dollar houses popping up like dandelions after a spring rain," Leopold said.

State gives county OK to pluck illegal signs

http://www.capitalonline.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/10_04-41/TOP

The sea of nuisance signs at intersections across Anne Arundel County may soon be a thing of the past.

County Executive John R. Leopold announced yesterday that the state granted him permission to pluck illegal signs from state medians and roadsides, and he has dedicated a team of weekend inmates to do the plucking.

Charles County Wins Largest Of Homeland Security Grants

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/03/AR2007100300009.html

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) announced this week that he has secured more than $1 million in federal homeland security grant funds for Southern Maryland. The funds, from three grant programs in the Department of Homeland Security, are to be used for several projects, including providing protective equipment to first responders, hardening critical infrastructure and building interoperable communications systems.

Charles County, the largest jurisdiction in Southern Maryland and home to the Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center, received $427,315, the largest grant in the tri-county region.

EDITORIALS/OPEDS

Getting it right

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.session05oct05,0,7405745.story

Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan for a special legislative session to address Maryland's projected $1.7 billion budget deficit suffered a major blow with the decision by Senate Republicans not to support a slots bill - at least not before the regular session next January.

That's welcome news.

As much as a special session offers the most expedient path for Mr. O'Malley's $2 billion deficit reduction package - and prolonging these decisions puts the state budget potentially $500 million deeper in the hole - it's still the wrong choice. The General Assembly has some difficult votes to make, particularly in regard to potential tax increases and expanded gambling, but members need a full range of alternatives to consider and adequate time to study and debate them.

The reasoning of the Republican senators may be convoluted even by State House standards - they're opposing an alternative to taxes as a way to oppose taxes - but the results are still beneficial.

But the process by which that legislation is adopted is important, too. It needs to be deliberative and open, not a backroom deal cut in the wee hours after a whirlwind week in Annapolis. That may prove inconvenient to the governor, but it's still the right thing to do.

Does SCHIP insure kids or subsidize savvy HMOs?

http://www.examiner.com/a-972917~Timothy_P__Carney__Does_SCHIP_insure_kids_or_subsidize_savvy_HMOs_.html

Democrats may never get enough votes to override President Bush's veto of their bill expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), but they hope to draw quite a bit of GOP blood in the process.

The Democrats' congressional campaign chairman, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., has promised that a vote to uphold the president's veto will be portrayed as a vote "in lockstep with the president and against children's health."

If SCHIP's opponents chose to employ the same sort of language, they could charge Van Hollen and his colleagues of voting "in lockstep with the HMOs."

Indeed, while the Democratic effort to expand SCHIP is spun as bein g "for the children," the chief beneficiaries of the bill - and the most prolific lobbyists for it - are private health insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry and other big businesses that would stand on the receiving end of the broadened pipeline of subsidies if Democrats get their way.

SCHIP is a federal program created by the Republican Congress in 1997 with the aim of guaranteeing health insurance for children of families too rich for Medicaid but possibly too poor to avoid health insurance on the free market.

It's got to be nice to be Van Hollen and the Democrats now. You get to do a favor for the HMOs, and everyone's convinced it's "for the children."

Nickel and dimed

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/10_04-39/COL

As he sold his new tax plan during a barnstorming tour of Maryland last month, Gov. Martin O'Malley repeatedly stressed its "fairness."

Fair," in this context, is code for: "You don't have to pay; the rich will take care of it."

"The vast majority of Maryland families will be paying less," Mr. O'Malley said during an event in Ellicott City, one of seven stops he made in nine days. But that's an assumption resting on some dubious and suspiciously precise numbers. And the truth is, a lot of us probably will be paying more.

On this scale, the numbers are so big - a $1.7 billion deficit, $800 million in new revenue from the sales tax hike - that they're hard to wrap your head around. So politicians naturally try to make the numbers accessible, telling us the average family of four making $50,000 will save $119 overall.

Are the numbers false? Not exactly, but the presentation is carefully calculated to show the poor and middle class saving money. If the chart showed average families paying, say, $50 or $100 more, it wouldn't be so effective.

But then, it's only October. There are plenty of lies, damned lies and statistics still to come.

Boo! 'The dead hand of Maryland horse racing has reached out from the grave and grabbed taxpayers by the throat'

http://www.gazette.net/stories/100507/policol32042_32357.shtml

As befitting the season of masquerade and scary events, Maryland taxpayers are about to experience a ''Carrie" moment.

Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to siphon off $l00 million each year from the treasury and hand it out to Maryland horse racing. The dead hand of Maryland horse racing has reached out from the grave and grabbed taxpayers by the throat.

Giving a bulging goody bag to Maryland horse racing is quite a trick when citizens are rightly being asked to pay higher taxes for education, transportation and health care.

The loss of Maryland horse racing isn't about the loss of an industry. Truth be told, it's about the loss of a venerable political and plantation class.

As it turns out, Maryland taxpayers have more to fear from Governor O'Malley's sleight of hand than they do from the dead hand of Maryland horse racing.

Luiz R.S. Simmons, a Democrat from Rockville, represents District 17 in the House of Delegates.

NATIONAL NEWS

Gilchrest To Travel To Iraq

http://wjz.com/topstories/local_story_274100436.html

A Maryland lawmaker is embarking on his third trip to Iraq. Congressman Wayne Gilchrest has been critical of President Bush's policies. Ron Matz reports Gilchrest leaves on his mission Thursday, seeki ng answers to a lot of unanswered questions.

"We've been in Iraq longer than World War II lasted. There are too many loose ends for too long in this war. We want to get answers to 34 specific questions," said Gilchrest. "I've been to Iraq twice before, I've met all the players. We're going now with a very specific agenda to create legislation to deal much more effectively with this conflict," said Gilchrest.

County residents rally against SCHIP veto

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=65951

By Meg Bernhardt , News-Post Staff

Middletown resident Bonita Currey remembers children who would be in her class for weeks with toothaches, but their parents couldn't do anything to help them.

Currey and roughly 30 others rallied Thursday night in downtown Frederick. They protested President Bush's decision to veto a bill that would reauthorize and expand SCHIP and urged U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-6, to support an override of the veto. Health care advocates have said Bartlett's vote is critical for a House override of the veto. Bartlett, a Republican, voted for the original SCHIP program, but voted against the expansion because it would be a step toward universal health care, he said.

"I support continuing SCHIP health insurance for all children of the working poor, but that is not what this debate is about," Bartlett said in a radio address Thursday. "Democrats are demanding that SCHIP be expanded because they want to force government-controlled, taxpayer-paid health coverage onto middle-class and upper-class families who already have private health care coverage that they themselves control."

Bartlett has thanked critics for drawing attention to his vote, saying it was the correct one.

"Only Democrat Congressional leaders could demand that a family earning $82,000 a year could qualify for their expanded SCHIP program and simultaneously call that same family rich enough to force them to pay the AMT, Alternative Minimum Tax," Bartlett said. "It just goes to show that what Democrats really want is to have the government control how to spend the money that American taxpayers earn."

Lawmakers respond to expansion of phone call eavesdropping in US

http://www.communitytimes.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=65&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=5369&wpage=1&sk eyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1049&hn=communitytimes&he=.com

A temporary wire-tapping measure that President Bush wants made permanent has some Maryland lawmakers concerned that the law is too expansive and could impinge on privacy rights. One of those is Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-2nd), who represents parts of Woodlawn, Randallstown, Granite and Reisterstown.

"I believe we must have court oversight in these situations,"

Ruppersberger, a former investigative prosecutor, said. "We must have checks and balances when it comes to protecting the civil liberties of Americans. We don't have to decide between civil liberties and national security."

Likewise, freshman Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin voted against the legislation.

Congressmen who represent the northwest area, including Ruppersberger, Elijah E. Cummings (D-7th) and John Sarbanes (D-3rd) voted against the bill, as did Cardin.

However, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski voted for the bill, insisting in a statement that the measure provided the administration with tools to fight terrorism while protecting privacy rights. "These proposals are time limited," she said. "A more comprehensive and permanent solution is necessary."