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Pressing matters in days ahead |
Lawmakers to consider tax breaks, state pensions, curbs on sex offenders
By David Nitkin and Andrew A. Green
Sun reporters
Originally published April 3, 2006
The Maryland General Assembly enters its final full week today with
major issues unresolved despite an unprecedented rush to pass
legislation in time to override expected vetoes by Gov. Robert L.
Ehrlich Jr.
Lawmakers shoved important tasks to the back burner over the past
several weeks as they scrambled to confront rising electric rates and
push through a moratorium on a state takeover of 11 failing Baltimore
schools.
As a result, work remains on several of the issues that appeared most
pressing when the Assembly convened in early January. The Assembly is
set to adjourn at midnight next Monday, and lawmakers and Ehrlich have
little desire to go into overtime; a prohibition on state officeholders
collecting campaign contributions for the fall election ends when the
session does.
Over the next several days, lawmakers will resume debate on improving
pension benefits for teachers and other state employees, imposing
tougher restrictions on sex offenders and granting tax breaks to
retired veterans.
They will also finish work on whether the state needs a paper-producing
alternative to its electronic touch-screen voting machines for this
year's election, and whether the power of local governments to seize
private property for economic development should be restricted after a
Supreme Court decision last year upheld the practice.
"The final seven or eight days of the session, we're going to be
sending up significant pieces of legislation, which we hope the
governor would sign," House Speaker Michael E. Busch said. "We still
have major pieces of legislation that still have to be passed."
Divided State House
The pace and partisan bickering of this year's session is like nothing
State House veterans say they have seen before, thanks to divided
government in an election year.
A Democrat-controlled Assembly started the session by overriding vetoes
of 17 bills rejected in 2005 by Ehrlich, a Republican, and then set
about to prevent the governor from achieving major victories.
The Democrats have largely been dismissive of bills that he has
introduced, preferring to work instead on similar measures sponsored by
fellow party members. They have worked to wrest control from the
governor on major issues, such as the Baltimore Gas and Electric rate
increases.
Electric rates for the utility's 1.2 million customers are set to rise
72 percent July 1 with the expiration of rate caps instituted six years
ago as part of the state's deregulation of the industry.
"The one bit of genuineness is they told us they would be
uncooperative," Ehrlich communications director Paul E. Schurick said
last week. "They told us they would be partisan. They told us they
would kill everything from the governor. That may be the only way they
kept their word this session."
The governor's slot machine proposal died for the fourth consecutive
year, this time killed by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, who
had been the governor's ally on expanded gambling for the three
previous years.
At this time of year, lawmakers are typically completing work on the
state budget. But the state's $29.4 billion spending plan for the
fiscal year beginning July 1 was completed days ago, thanks in part to
a healthy economy that is producing enough tax revenue to meet almost
all priorities while saving money.
Instead, Democrats in the Assembly turned to legislation they predicted
the governor would veto and scrambled to pass it by last Friday. That
timetable gives lawmakers a chance to override vetoes before
adjournment.
Overrides are an important consideration this year because of a wrinkle
in state law. The Assembly that meets in 2007 will be elected this
fall, and those members won't be able to overturn this year's veto
decisions by the governor.. So unless lawmakers want to call a special
session - an unlikely prospect in an election year - the Assembly must
complete its overrides in the next several days.
Delegates and senators left Annapolis on Friday night exhausted, saying
that they are ready for a calming of the intense partisan tensions that
gripped the capital last week. But Schurick said he's not betting on it.
"I can't imagine what next week brings," Schurick said Friday. "I am
certain this group has the potential for even more shenanigans and
chaos."
Undecided issues
Some of the major remaining issues include:
• Pensions: The Maryland State Teachers Association has pushed this
year to secure improved pensions for Maryland educators, which union
officials say are among the worst in the nation. Any improvement in
teacher pensions, by law, also improves benefits for other retired
state employees.
The teachers proposed a plan that would be applied retroactively and
cost nearly $500 million a year. But it came as concern unfolded over
unfunded liabilities for state retiree health care - estimated at about
$1.4 billion a year - and fiscal projections of billions of dollars in
deficits over the next several years.
Legislators set aside $40 million in the budget as a down payment on
improved benefits, which would begin July 1, 2007. But no consensus has
been reached on how generous the expended benefit should be or whether
it should apply retroactively.
• Voting machines: Amid questions about the security of the state's
Diebold touch-screen voting machines, Ehrlich included money in his
budget to rent devices that scan paper ballots for this year's
elections.
Legislators have questioned whether elections officials could implement
a new system in time. Some senators are pushing an all-mail voting
system for the fall.
• Eminent domain: After the Supreme Court ruling that a cash-strapped
Connecticut city could seize property and give it to a private
developer, states rushed to limit condemnation powers.
But in Maryland, lawmakers have had a tough time agreeing on what
restrictions to impose. The strongest option is a change in the state
constitution to prohibit seizing property for economic development.
Other ideas include bolstering compensation packages for property
owners and redefining what constitutes a blighted property.
Legislation in the House and Senate was sent back to committees two weeks ago, indicating that a consensus isn't near.
Two of Ehrlich's priorities, tougher restrictions on sex offenders and
a tax break for veterans, are being debated in the General Assembly. In
both cases, differences between the houses need to be resolved this
week.
Inquiry extension
However, some lawmakers will have to return to Annapolis after the end of the session.
A panel of legislators examining the hiring and firing practices of the
Ehrlich administration voted Friday to extend its inquiry into the
spring, a development that could widen partisan divisions. The counsel
hired by the panel said he needed more time to subpoena documents from
the state Public Service Commission and other agencies.
The panel - created after the disclosure of the activities of Joseph F.
Steffen Jr., the longtime gubernatorial aide dubbed the "Prince of
Darkness" by Ehrlich - is investigating whether lower-level state
employees were fired for partisan reasons after the governor took
office.
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