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Down To The Wire For Maryland's General Assembly |
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Apr 4, 2006 (AP) ANNAPOLIS, Md. Pension improvements for teachers
and state employees, tougher laws for sex offenders and a proposal to
scuttle Maryland's electronic voting machine system for the 2006
elections were among top issues still unsettled as lawmakers gathered
Monday for the final eight days of the General Assembly session.
But the run-up to the April 10 adjournment will be overshadowed by a
potential high-stakes battle over Gov. Robert Ehrlich's expected vetoes
of several bills passed by the legislature last week.
Ehrlich has until midnight Friday to veto or sign high-profile bills
that lawmakers hope will hold the line on a proposed 72 percent
increase in electricity for 1.1 million customers of Baltimore Gas
& Electric. He also is considering vetoing bills that would
prohibit the state from taking control of 11 Baltimore schools,
establish new voting procedures for the week leading up to the 2006
election, require cabinet secretaries to face Senate scrutiny a second
time if Ehrlich is re-elected in November, toughen air pollution laws
and prohibit University of Maryland regents from raising money for
political campaigns.
"I would not see a lot of these bills having a bright future, but I
don't know that he's used the veto word," Shareese DeLeaver, a
spokeswoman for Ehrlich, said.
"There are a lot of bills that have the potential of overrides," Sen. Roy Dyson, D-St. Mary's, said. "I guess if
there's any excitement in the final stretch, it's there."
Several bills remain unsettled because of differences between the
Senate version and that of the House of Delegates, including tax
exemptions for military pensions and a better pension system.
Both sides have proposed substantial improvements in the pension system
for teachers and state employees, and the bills have similar price tags
of between $120 million and $130 million a year. But the Senate wants
to use part of the money to improve benefits for earlier years because
the retirement plan has been rated the worst in the nation, while the
House wants to put all the money into future improvements. Leaders in
both houses say they expect to settle their differences before next
Monday.
Prospects are not so bright in the stalemate over what type of voting
system to use in the September primary and general elections.
The House of Delegates voted unanimously earlier in the session to
scrap the Diebold touchscreen computer voting machines, considered
unreliable by many people because they are believed to be subject to
manipulation and leave no trail of paper ballots that can be hand
counted if there is a disputed election.
Ehrlich provided money in his budget to replace the system, using paper
ballots that would be counted by optical scanning machines. But the
Senate is expected to approve legislation this week that would retain
the electronic machines this year and require that a system with a
paper trail that can be used to verify vote counts be in place for the
2008 elections.
Ehrlich is expected to veto the bill that would forestall the State
Board of Education's plan, announced last week, to hire an outside
organization to run four Baltimore high schools and require independent
management of seven middle schools.
Democrats believe the announcement was a politically motivated ploy to
hurt the gubernatorial candidacy of Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley,
considered Ehrlich's strongest challenger in November. But Republicans
say the takeover is justified because of dismal performances on state
assessment tests.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.) |
