Chesapeake Bay Foundation To Open Easton Offices

May 22, 2012

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) has announced the opening of new offices in downtown Easton on June 11.  From a CBF email:

The office will be located in the historic Bullitt House at 102 East Dover Street directly across from the Tidewater Inn. The Mid-Shore Community Foundation owns the Bullitt House and has been very generous in helping make this new arrangement possible.

In recent years, CBF has been intensifying effort on the Eastern Shore, especially in the Mid-Shore area. The central location of the new office will help CBF continue to support clean water actions throughout the region, especially now with the recent addition of Bess Trout to CBF’s team as the new Eastern Shore Grassroots Field Specialist.

Our focus is to strengthen the work of Eastern Shore communities to implement the blueprint for clean water (Maryland’s Watershed Implementation Plan) and to defend the blueprint against attacks from those who want to see it fail. I look forward to continuing working with you on our common interest in the health of our local waterways in the months and years ahead.

Effective June 11th, contact information for CBF staff on the Shore is as follows:

CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION
102 East Dover Street
Easton, MD 21601
410-543-1999

 

Leave a Comment » | Environment | Permalink
Posted by Les Knapp

Senate President Miller Joins Radio “Politics Hour”

May 22, 2012

On Friday May 18, Senate President Thomas V Mike Miller joined WAMU radio’s Kojo Nnamdi Show, discussing the recent special session and policy issues still facing Maryland.

The audio stream of the conversation is available online here.

A transcript of the show is also available online here.

Leave a Comment » | County Budgets, Education, State Budget, Teacher Pension Shift | Permalink
Posted by Michael Sanderson

Prince George’s Budget Feeling Strains

May 22, 2012

The Prince George’s County budget is required to be passed by June 1, and the issues facing the County Executive and Council are even more challenging, with added costs from teacher pensions landing in the FY 2013 spending plan. From coverage in the Washington Examiner:

None of the latest round of adjustment proposals will affect county services, according to Tom Himler, the county’s deputy chief administrative officer for budget, administration and finance.

But county officials expect budget talks next spring to be worse than before now that they have used all the accounting tricks they can to close the gap, and with millions of dollars added each year to the county’s share of teacher pension costs.

“It’s getting very hard [to close the budget gap] without impacting services,” Himler said. “We’re getting down to the bare minimum at this point, and that’s the challenge we’re going to have in fiscal 2014.”

Leave a Comment » | County Budgets, Teacher Pension Shift | Permalink
Posted by Michael Sanderson

Free Cyber Security Courses

May 22, 2012

The Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center is offering free courses in cyber security to assist communities in improving their cyber security and to introduce cyber security issues to cities and communities across the nation. Students earn a TEEX, DHS/FEMA Certificate of Completion and Continuing Education Units (CEU) for the completion of each course.

For more information, please click here to download the training flyer or click here to go to the Training Center website.

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Posted by Virginia White

Pundits Debate Merits of Full-Time Maryland Legislature

May 22, 2012

With the conclusion of Maryland’s first 2012 special session still recent, several commentators have debated whether or not it makes sense to move Maryland from a 90-day “part-time” legislature to a “full-time” legislature that would meet throughout the year.

Todd Eberly made the proposal for a full-time legislature in an April 26 Free Stater Blog article, arguing that a full-time legislature would be more professional, better equipped to study and address Maryland’s budget and growth challenges, and more responsive to constituent concerns than a part-time legislature.

Every year the General Assembly convenes in January and embarks on a hectic 90 day legislative marathon that ends in early April. Every year there are hundreds of bills left unpassed and dozens of issues left unaddressed as the constraints of the 90 day session force everything into a position secondary to the budget. For 90 days, the voices of every day Marylanders are drowned out by a horde of lobbyists camped out in Annapolis.  …

What would a full-time legislature deliver to the states? Studies show that full-time legislatures spend more time responding to constituent demands and are more responsive to constituents. Full-time legislatures are more prone to enact governmental reforms, especially with regard to personnel. Full-time legislatures demonstrate more efficient legislating (as opposed to what we just witnessed) and a greater willingness to enact more complex measures.

MarylandReporter.com’s Len Lazarik countered the idea in a May 21 article, arguing that states with full-time or almost full-time legislatures are often worse off than Maryland.  He cites California, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey as prime examples.

The states that make lawmaking full-time don’t  really seem more wise or productive, despite higher pay and bigger staffs.  …

Some people have taken to calling Maryland “California East,” but we’ll take  Maryland’s budget problems over Sacramento’s $16 billion deficit any day. In  March, the New York Times reported, Albany had “one of the  smoothest state budget negotiations at the Capitol in years,” passing the budget  TWO DAYS before the start of the fiscal year. It was “the first time the  Legislature had approved a state spending plan with more than 24 hours to spare  since 1983,” said the Times.

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Posted by Les Knapp

Gambling Study Group Named, Possible Special Session July 9

May 22, 2012

Governor O’Malley, Senate President Miller and House Speaker Busch announced the names of an 11 member work group yesterday to study to expansion of gambling in Maryland.  If consensus is reached, a special session will be called for July 9 to discuss and vote on casino legislation. From the press release:

John Morton, III, has been selected to chair the Work Group. Mr. Morton, a senior business and financial services executive, brings extensive experience to the work group having served as CEO and President of three major financial institutions, as a board member for six public corporations and as a leader in business, professional, educational and civic organizations.

The other members of the Work Group are:

  • Governor’s Chief of Staff Matthew Gallagher
  • Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management T. Eloise Foster
  • Secretary of Appointments Jeanne Hitchcock
  • Senior Policy and Legislative Advisor Joseph Bryce
  • Senator Edward Kasemeyer
  • Senator Nathaniel McFadden
  • Senator Richard Madaleno
  • Delegate Sheila Hixson
  • Delegate Peter Hammen
  • Delegate Frank Turner

Alternate members of the group are Senator Douglas Peters, Senator George Edwards, Senator Robert Garagiola, Delegate Dereck Davis, Delegate Robert Costa, and Delegate Eric Luedtke.

The work group plans to hold its first meeting on June 1 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 101 of the House Office Building.  Two additional meetings have been tentatively scheduled for June 12 and June 20.

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Posted by Andrea Mansfield

Rural Jobs Summit to be Held on June 8

May 18, 2012

Join over 200 community leaders, business professionals, economic development folks, and farmers at the Rural Jobs Summit sponsored by the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy.

The Rural Jobs Summit will draw leaders from across the Mid-Atlantic to build a new agenda for rural prosperity.  Participants will be asked to contemplate how our region can build on our strengths to grow jobs in the context of complete, diverse and thriving towns in a beautiful, protected and productive landscape.  Featuring experts in agriculture, seafood, tourism, retail, and a range of other business sectors, participants will discover a concrete vision for rural enterprise and help craft a specific agenda for state, local, and business action.

The Summit will be held on June 8 at the Tidewater Inn in Easton, MD.  Registration information and the agenda can be found on the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy’s website.

Leave a Comment » | Calendar Corner | Permalink
Posted by Andrea Mansfield

State Fiscal Woes to Continue Despite Tax Increases

May 18, 2012

In an opinion piece for the Gazette, Barry Rascovar writes about the ongoing fiscal challenges facing the State.

Now that Maryland Democrats have raised state income taxes for the rich and upper middle class to balance the state budget for a year, does this solve our financial problems?

Nope.Their actions don’t come close to erasing Maryland’s structural deficit. There’s not even a respite: Come next year, the governor and state lawmakers still face a deficit of at least a half-billion dollars.

To make matters worse, the state’s transportation program is nearing the breaking point. There’s no money to build Baltimore’s mass-transit Red Line, the Washington area’s Purple Line or Montgomery County’s Corridor Cities Transitway — and no agreement on how to generate more revenue for the crippled department.

Next year also will see the state’s bond program woefully short of funds needed to make interest and principle payments. It will take an extra $247 million diverted from next year’s general fund to close this yawning gap.

Leave a Comment » | State Budget | Permalink
Posted by Andrea Mansfield

Baltimore County Council Set to Approve FY 2013 Budget

May 18, 2012

As reported by the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore County Council is set to approve a $1.65 billion operating budget for FY 2013.  The budget does not include furloughs, lay offs, or tax increases.

The budget represents a 2.8 percent increase over last year’s, in part because it absorbs $15.7 million in teacher pension costs from the state and $20 million in added employee benefit costs, Kamenetz said last month. If not for those additions, the budget would have decreased by about $1 million from fiscal year 2012, he said.

Kamenetz’s chief of staff, Don Mohler, said the county executive had simple goals for his budget: to focus on education, basic services and infrastructure while avoiding furloughs, layoffs and tax increases.

Leave a Comment » | County Budgets | Permalink
Posted by Andrea Mansfield

Garrett County’s FY 2013 Budget to Fully Fund Education, Maintain Tax Rates

May 18, 2012

Garrett County Commissioners have recommended a FY 2013 budget of $72. 8 million.  As reported by the Cumberland-Times News, tax rates will stay the same and a two-year plan will be put in place for funding education.

The fiscal year 2013 budget was balanced without having to borrow money or change the tax rate, Garrett County Administrator Monty Pagenhardt said during a review of the budget on Tuesday at Garrett College.

“We have been able to keep the tax rate the same and are able to appropriate monies toward the board of education.

The proposed budget includes an appropriation of $31.3 million to education for fiscal year 2013, with $25.3 million appropriated to the BOE.

“It is important to repeat that ($25.3 million appropriation) because that is the number the board of education has been told to count on for 2014,” said Pagenhardt. “The board of education knows their operating budget for 2013 and also 2014.”

The total appropriated to the BOE includes $500,000 the county put up to reduce the number of cuts to teachers from 40 to 28.

Leave a Comment » | County Budgets, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Andrea Mansfield

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