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The Cat in the Hat was a tough act to follow in the House of Delegates this morning.
Later in the session, Speaker Michael E. Busch introduced Thelma B. Thompson, president of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
"Dr. Thompson, it's Cat in the Hat Day," Busch told her. "We're happy to have you, too."
A little rat-a-tat over a fundraiser provided a few guffaws on the Senate floor and even a line from Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller that could have tangled with the rhetoric of one Vito Corleone.
Miller was reprimanding Senators for planning a fundraiser in the Senate office building, which was written about in this morning's Gazette, when he offered this quip:
"You have to be aware of your enemies, but you have to be more aware of what your friends are doing without your knowledge," he said, offering a word of consolation to some of the Baltimore County folks who had planned it.
A dispute broke out about whether it was actually a fundraiser or if the money would just be enough to cover costs. Senate Minority Leader David R. Brinkley, sensing a good one-liner, stood:
"If you all want to have a caucus meeting, we'll be happy to vacate the room," he said, as laughter broke out and a few oohs.
Going a little below the belt with a line that fell flat, Miller said that whatever Democrats have done, they would never resort to "your tactics," mentioning a movie being made and super-lobbyist/felon Jack Abramoff. Thanks a lot, Mike.
Still, before they adjourned, he brought in someone they could all welcome: The Cat in the Hat. Monday is Dr. Seuss's birthday, and the state teachers' association had brought him in to take some pix with lawmakers. Sen. Ulysses Currie was particularly charmed.
Let's face it: proposals in the General Assembly don't always seem like the best fodder for a party.
And among all of them, it's possible that one of the least likely to inspire great revelry is public campaign financing, a subject many voters know little to nothing about and one that requires more than a little explanation about the arcana of campaign finance law.
Yet advocates for the measure are betting they will prove that supposition wrong with a "Dance For Democracy" event March 7, complete with not only several musical acts, but with, wait for it, presentations on why public financing is a good idea.
FULL RELEASE BELOW
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThe House unanimously approved a a bill today stiffening the penalty for attending a dogfight or cockfight. HB 719, sponsored by Del. James Malone, a Baltimore County Democrat, makes being a spectator at an illegal animal fight punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine up to $2,500, or both. The current penalty is up to 90 days in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.
The Senate last week passed an identical bill, SB 44, sponsored by Sen. Norman Stone, also a Baltimore County Democrat. Both bills originally proposed to make attending a dog- or cockfight a felony, with maximum penalties of three years' prison and $5,000 fine, but the punishment was downgraded before final passage.
The Human Socity of the United States issued a statement saying it was disappointed that Maryland lawmakers wouldn't match the dogfighting penalty already on the books in 19 other states, including neighboring Pennsylvania, but thanking lawmakers nonetheless for toughening the law.
More than a dozen state lawmakers testified today in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland, an unusual show of legislative support even as it is unclear if proponents will be able to muster the votes for passage this year.
The House Judiciary Committee also heard bills that would establish civil unions or domestic partnerships and a bill to put a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage on the November ballot. A Senate panel heard similar legislation two weeks ago.
"You don't have to like us. You don't have to invite us to dinner with your family. You don't even have to respect us and our relationship," Del. Heather R. Mizeur, who is openly gay, testified. "But we do expect you treat us equally under the law."
Opponents noted that while lawmakers might be more vocal this year, that doesn't necessarily mean that momentum is on their side.
"A constituency has increased their visibility and advocacy, and people who agree with them in the General Assembly have been more overt," said Richard J. Dowling, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference.
Slot machine gambling backers have organized an advocacy group and named a chairman to lead their efforts to support November's referendum on expanding gambling.
Frederick W. Puddester, a senior finance and administration dean at The Johns Hopkins University and former state budget secretary, will head "For Maryland, For Our Future." Gov. Martin O'Malley called him within the "last couple days" to ask him to do it, an indicator that the governor will play some role in urging the measure's passage.
"To me, what's important is that people understand the implications of this referendum not passing," said Puddester, who also serves as the chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority and a committee that advises the state legislature on the budget.
"We have to think about the need to have resources for education in this state, and at how much tax revenue flows into Delaware and West Virginia that could be captured for residents of this state. It's important to have a calm, deliberate, rational discourse about what’s at stake here."
In November, voters will decide whether to approve more than 15,000 slot machines at five locations around the state, which would provide between $600 and $800 million a year for education, health care and environmental programs.
The choice of Puddester is interesting less for what it is than what it is not. Instead of a high-priced political operative (although several have already been tapped by both sides), slots supporters have picked a low-key budget guru who formerly ran all of Johns Hopkins' finances.
Although he said many of the details have yet to be ironed out, his comments are an early indication that the campaign will focus significantly more on what the state will do with money from slot machines than it will promote gambling, a likelihood The Sun wrote about in November.
O'Malley's personal involvement in Puddester's selection has also put to rest any question about what role he will play in the effort.
"The governor will be active in the campaign, but expects teachers, nurses, educators, advocates, to be just as active, if not more active, considering what's at stake with this referendum," said Rick Abbruzzese, a spokesman for O'Malley.
Responding to Sen. Ed DeGrange's earlier protest of his release of (publicly available) information about top-paid state employees, Comptroller Peter Franchot sent out his own statement this afternoon. Via his spokesman, Joe Shapiro, Franchot says:
The Comptroller respects Senator DeGrange and has enjoyed a productive working relationship with him through the years. However, with respect to the issue of public records, the Senator unfortunately misunderstands State law and the importance of transparency in government.
Section 10-611(g)(2) of the State Government Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland, a part of the State Public Information Act, very clearly states that "‘Public record’ includes a document that lists the salary of an employee of a unit or instrumentality of the State government or of a political subdivision."
It is under this legal authority that Senator DeGrange and his colleagues engaged in very thorough public scrutiny of specific state employees’ salaries when his Committee reviewed the Comptroller’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget request last week.
The Comptroller takes very seriously his obligation under the law to keep confidential records out of the public domain. This agency deals with millions of taxpayer records every year, and enforces a strict policy of absolute confidentiality. However, the Comptroller also believes very strongly in the open conduct of government and in the public’s right to have access to public information. Tax records are confidential; State employees’ salaries are not.
Add this to our ongoing list of bills that are good for a water cooler gabfest (previous discussion here and here): Senate Bill 348, which passed unanimously this morning, officially puts incinerated chicken excrement in the same renewable energy category as wind and solar power under Maryland law.
Believe it or not, the stuff is quite good at generating electricity and falls into the "renewable" category. There's even a whole plant for it in Minnesota and several in the UK.
Advocates for using public money to finance political campaigns in Maryland (our coverage here and here) released poll data yesterday which they said definitively shows support for this measure among the general public and among many top campaign contributors.
The data, part of a larger poll from Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies of more than 800 registered voters across the state conducted in October, indicate strong public support for the measure, according to folks at Progressive Maryland, who commissioned the poll and strongly support public financing.
Advocates also believe the bill has the support of frequent campaign contributors. A poll of more than 100 frequent donors to Democrats in Maryland conducted for the Public Campaign Action Fund, a national organization that promotes campaign finance reform, found that nearly two thirds said they would support the bill.
While the poll does not have enough respondents to comprise a solid statistical sample, David Donnelly, national campaigns director for the Fund, said it was enough to show that at least many would prefer not to give if public financing were available.
Parents receiving child support payments through the state agency that enforces the arrangements would have to pay a $25 annual fee under a bill that passed the Maryland Senate today.
The measure drew sharp criticism from some lawmakers, who said it would be wrong to burden mostly single mothers with the fee. Sen. Brian E. Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat and chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, said the state faces the loss of millions of dollars in federal funding if it doesn’t charge the fee. He also noted that the fee doesn’t nearly cover the expenses incurred by the Child Support Enforcement Administration in going after deadbeat dads, including paternity tests, lawsuit filings and wage withholdings.
“This isn’t a fee that anyone feels good about,” Frosh said. But, he added, the alternative would be to cut other services such as foster care or social workers to make up for lost federal dollars.
The chamber voted 34-11 to approve the bill. The House of Delegates has not acted on such a measure.
The Maryland Senate unanimously approved a measure to put a constitutional amendment to voters that would further cement recent court rulings that 17-year-olds may vote in nonpartisan primary elections, as long as they will turn 18 before a general election.
While the matter has been settled in the courts, with a ruling this month from Maryland’s highest court, proponents of a constitutional amendment said the measure, if approved, would codify that policy. Voters would cast ballots on the constitutional change in November. The House of Delegates has not yet acted on a similar measure.
Sen. Roy P. Dyson, a Southern Maryland Democrat, said proposed constitutional amendments might turn out to be the big draw at polling places this fall, even with the hotly contested presidential election. In addition to the 17-year-old amendment, voters will decide on amendments that would legalize slot machine gambling in the state and that would give Marylanders extra days to vote at a limited number of polling places in each county.
Some interesting stuff that didn't make it into this morning's story:
Yesterday's tense in the House on financial mismanagement at Morgan State University followed a heated one last week in a Senate committee. But the delegates appeared to be better versed in the complexities of the auditors' findings than were the senators, and perhaps even more familiar with some of the details than were Morgan officials.
In a tense back-and-forth with Morgan President Earl S. Richardson toward the end of the hearing, Del. John Bohanan tried to discover precisely what had happened to the money in a $945,000 contract with Whiting Turner that was supposed to be used to renovate a track and field stadium. The auditors discovered that Whiting Turner had actually been paid about $500,000 to repave the track, but out of an entirely unrelated contract.
"The actual cost to pave the track was $525,000. That got paid out of the wrong account, which you just admitted," Bohanan told Richardson. "But the full $945,000 was used."
Richardson said he believed Bohanan was mistaken, but asked for more time to be able to come up with a clear answer. Bohanan persisted.
"What did the $945,000 go toward?" he asked.
Eventually, Richardson leaned forward into his microphone and said quietly, "Mr. Chairman, let us just come to you and give you the particular figures." Bohanan said he would take Richardson up on his offer.
Stay tuned.
The feud between the Maryland State Senate and Comptroller Peter Franchot heated up again today when Sen. James E. DeGrange Sr. asked the State Ethics Commission to investigate Franchot's release of salary information of more than 4,600 state employees earning more than $100,000.
Earlier this month, in response to what Franchot called "rumors" that Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller was targeting two high-paid aides in the tax collector's office, Franchot offered to supply the media with names of other state employees who make more than $150,000. The Baltimore Examiner's Len Lazarick took Franchot up on his offer on Feb. 14, writing in an e-mail to Franchot's spokesman: "The Examiner formally requests such a list of people paid $150,000 or more under the Public Information Act. Actually we'd like to see all state employees who make more than $100,000 if that is possible."
Here's the story that Lazarick subsequently wrote. The Sun ran a similar story last July.
The names and salaries of state employees are considered public record and are routinely provided to the news media when requests are made.
Franchot, a Montgomery County Democrat, complied with Lazarick's request and provided him with 98 pages of computer printouts with 4,678 names and salaries. DeGrange, an Anne Arundel County Democrat, said yesterday he believed that was "an abuse of the prestige of that office," and that Franchot's offer was made "for politicial gain."
"I feel that Mr. Franchot has committed an ethical violation and inappropriately used the power of his office," DeGrange wrote in his letter to the State Ethics Commission. "By using and poublicly releasing the names and salaries of 4,678 employees to justify the salaries of individuals working in the Comptroller's office, the Comptroller has committed not only an ethical breach, but has violated the public trust."
Joseph Shapiro, Franchot's spokesman, said today that DeGrange's letter "is proving that the rumors we heard are true. The Comptroller welcomes any investigation, as his personal ethical standards are much higher than what is required by the state."
In a statement, Miller called the revelation of salary information "troubling" and called on Franchot to apologize.
Del. Curt Anderson and others in the Maryland for Obama crew are taking a swanky weekend trip to Youngstown this weekend to stump for the Illinois senator. According to an e-mail from the group, a bus is leaving from the Poly/Western High School Parking lot at 4:30 on Friday afternoon.
No word on whether Maryland for Hillary is headed to Ohio, but then again, as the Obama e-mail notes, "Senator Obama won the February 12 Maryland primary with over 60 percent of the vote."
State lawmakers have shelved a bill that would require private health insurance companies to cover the cost of prosthetic devices, such as an artificial leg or eye.
Del. Heather R. Mizeur, a Montgomery County Democrat, said she withdrew the bill so that the Maryland Health Care Commission could study the issue. She plans to reintroduce the legislation again next year.
Proponents say that amputees often have to pay thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses for prosthetics or can't afford them because insurers cap benefits or deny coverage.
Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene came out in support of a bill that would extend to domestic partners the same rights to participate in health care decisions as currently afforded to spouses under state law.
The bill, championed by the gay-rights community, would confer to domestic partners the right to privacy during visits, the right to make surrogate health-care decisions and to final disposition of a partner’s body. The bill also would provide clarity to staff in health care facilities, the agency argued.
“There have been too many occasions where individuals in long-standing committed relationships are denied basic rights to visit their partners in health care facilities and to participate in health care treatment decisions,” the agency wrote in a position paper.
The agency said a nursing home administrator in a rural jurisdiction recently contacted state officials about a couple who had lived together in a common-law arrangement for many years and who requested to share a room. The administrator wanted to ensure the nursing home wouldn’t be cited for granting the "simple request," the agency said.
