20070711 News Clips

News Clips

July 11, 2007

STATE NEWS

O'Malley Rolls Out Cuts in Spending
$153 Million Plan Does Not Satisfy Unions or GOP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/10/AR2007071001766.html

A proposed $153 million in spending cuts formally unveiled yesterday by Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley drew barbs both from a state employees union, which said the reductions went too far, and from Republican lawmakers, who said they did not go far enough. Republicans, meanwhile, said that O'Malley had not cut enough and that he and other Democrats seem likely to turn to tax increases to close most of the shortfall.

The cuts, which the Democratic governor plans to present for approval today to the state Board of Public Works, are spread am ong about 40 state agencies and would be achieved largely by holding open vacant positions, delaying some initiatives and adjusting caseload projections for health and social services programs.

"I think it's a step, but it's only a baby step," House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Calvert) said of the budget reductions. The agency that would take the largest cut is the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which stands to lose nearly $47 million this year.

Md. budget may pinch counties

State leaders say $1.5 billion shortfall likely to mean less local aid

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.cuts11jul11,0,1982437.story?coll=bal-mdpolitics-headlines

Despite Gov. Martin O'Malley's pledge to spare local governments, legislative leaders say cuts in aid to counties and cities will likely have to be part of the state's effort to resolve its $1.5 billion budget shortfall. The governor, a former mayor, managed to avoid such cuts in the $213 million worth of proposed spending reductions he publicly unveiled yesterday, and he reiterated his desire to preserve the money the state passes on to local governments for education, public safety and other services. But the leaders in the state Senate and House of Delegates indicated yesterday that they won't be so quick to set aside those billions from scrutiny.

O'Malley: More pain still to come

http://www.examiner.com/a-822677~O_Malley__More_pain_still_to_come.html

Gov. Martin O'Malley announced a total of $280 million in budget cuts Tuesday, but he acknowledged this was just "one of the first steps. The real pain is going to come." The Board of Public Works, made up of O'Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp, is scheduled to vote on the reductions today. They have the authority to reduce state spending without legislative approval.

Senate Republican Leader David Brinkley, Frederick-Carroll, called it "a drop in the bucket. In the scope of a $30 billion budget this is not a whole heck of a lot.""Some of it is the easy fruit to pick, but there is still along way to go," Brinkley said.

Union frustrated at the $280 million budget cuts

http://www.examiner.com/a-822678~Union_frustrated_at_the__280_million_budget_cuts.html

Howls of pain were coming from the state union employees reacting to $280 million in budget cuts Gov. Martin O'Malley proposed Tuesday, while hoots of derision were coming fro m Republican legislators. Del. Gail Bates, R-Howard, one of the GOP's budget hawks on the Appropriations Committee, derided the O'Malley cuts as "chump change - a pittance - form over substance"

"It's nothing more than a dance," Bates said. "It's the dance that you have to do to convince the public that they need to raise taxes."

State Sen. E.J. Pipkin, R-Queen Anne's County, called the cuts "fiscal magic at its clumsiest," describing them as "window dressing" because they included actions such holding vacant positions open and replacing state funds with federal dollars.

Home prices on the rise in majority of the region

http://www.examiner.com/a-822641~Home_prices_on_the_rise_in_majority_of_the_region.html

June was a comeback month for the housi ng market. Excluding Carroll County, the Baltimore region saw average home prices shoot up by more than $10,000 compared with last year, the June housing numbers from Metropolitan Regional Information Statistics Inc. indicated.

Hospital Officials Sue Pr. George's for Funding

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/10/AR2007071001765.html

The nonprofit company that runs the Prince George's hospital system has gone to court to pry loose public dollars that hospital officials say are needed to keep the system open. In a legal motion filed late Monday, attorneys for the Dimensions Healthcare System argue that county officials have broken a promise to keep the hospitals' doors open without attaching strings to the money. County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) has said he will release no money to the financially troubled system, which runs Prince George's Hospital Center and several other county facilities, until four members of its board of directors resign.

Closing a door on history

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.museum11jul11,0,6316890.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines

Small history museums across the country are struggling to stay open; two in Baltimore are now slated to close Sept. 1. They're just not generating enough traffic. The Civil War Museum and the Fells Point Maritime Museum are run by the Maryland Historical Society - and are victims of the parent organization's budget woes. We hope that financial angels will step up to keep these assets to Baltimore culture in business - but a solution to their problems will require some creative thinking and a little deep-pocketed nurturing.

Delegation expresses doubts on cuts

Members of Carroll County's legislative delegation expressed doubts over how effective the budget cuts proposed Tuesday by Gov. Martin O'Malley will be.

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2007/07/11/news/local_news/newsstory3.txt

"They're going through a good exercise. Let's see what they can adopt," said Sen. David Brinkley, R-District 4.

Brinkley described the announcement of the proposed cuts as an effort to scare people into supporting tax increases.

Del. Tanya Shewell, R-District 5A, said the cuts were a good start, but there was still lots of work to be done.

Del. Susan Krebs, R-District 9B, said the cuts didn't look very substantial to her. Most of the 147 government positions O'Malley suggested cutting are already empty, Krebs said.

Sen. Larry Haines, R-District 5, said Democrats could be setting the stage for an interim session in September or October to address spending issues.

Carroll's delegates fare better on environment scorecard

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2007/07/11/features/in_focus/focus995.txt

For those who don't remember middle school grammar, oxymoron means combining two words with opposite meanings, like "awfully good" or "deafening silence."

Many people would say "Republican environmentalist" is an oxymoron. But some Carroll County Republicans have helped improve the party's environmental reputation. Just as national environmental groups score our federal elected officials, Environment Maryland, in conjunction with the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, has scored our state elected officials for the 2007 legislative session.

According to its Web site, "Environment Maryland is a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization." This year, all but one member of Carroll County's state delegation substantially improved upon their lifetime scores.

Nancy Stocksdale had the highest score and made the biggest improvement.

NATIONAL NEWS

Md. caucus does well with own funds

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.hancock11jul11,0,7081363.column?coll=bal-home-columnists

Which Maryland congressman owed more than $10,000 in credit-card debt last year? Which one lost tens of thousands of dollars investing in his brother-in-law's company? Which Maryland senator gave the old portfolio a political face-lift? The answers, in the forms that senators and representatives just filed showing the previous year's financial activity, are worth a peek. If the measure of a man is revealed first in his friendships and second in what he reads, where he puts his money can't be far behind. Maryland congressmen managed their own finances better last year than they managed the nation's.

Party Unity Less of a Sure Thing for House GOP Minority

http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/07/10/cq_3048.html

One of the ironies of the sea-change 2006 elections is that House Democrats made significant gains at the expense of the segment of the Republican Party most likely to compromise with them: the GOP's already dwindling faction of moderate lawmakers.

But a CQPolitics.com "party unity" study for the first half-year of the Democratic-majority 110th Congress shows that there still are a number of House Republicans seeking to strike independent postures - which contrast with the still-strongly conservative demeanor of their overall caucus. And the analysis shows that these members appear more and more willing to distance themselves from President George W. Bush and other Republican leaders who are suffering from very low public approval ratings.

For example, the leading House Republican dissident over the year's first six months, Wayne T. Gilchrest of Maryland, voted with most of his fellow Republicans against most House Democrats on just over half of the votes that broke mainly along party lines (the measure used in CQ's long-running party unity studies).

Dixon wants end to limits on sharing of gun trace data

http://www.wmdt.com/wires/displaystory.asp?id= 63552035

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon wants federal law enforcement officials to share more data on other guns owned by individuals or dealers who own guns found at crime scenes. Opponents -- including Maryland Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger -- say the restrictions on so-called gun trace data would handcuff police.