There are always familiar faces at the holiday party of Davis, Agnor, Rappaport & Skalny, the lakeside Columbia law firm that represents MarylandReporter.com. Delegates, senators, County Council members, old friends, new acquaintances. But who was that couple at...
Day: December 8, 2009
State Roundup, December 8, 2009
Slots soap opera: license approved, but zoning delayed again, and O’Malley proposes tax credit for creating jobs.
State retirees facing pension cut
Pension payments to retired state employees could go down next year for the first time ever as benefit calculations reflect a shrinking economy in 2009, and some lawmakers are looking at whether the state should step in to prevent it.
Though the year is not yet over, the Consumer Price Index that measures the cost of household goods and services is trending downward, and under current law that would cause payments to decline. Typically, increases in the CPI drive cost of living benefit increases, but the mechanism cuts both ways. The U.S. CPI was down 0.2 percent during the 12 months that ended in October.
Legislators to review audits critical of Medicaid, disabilities payments
Substantial problems with payments, controls and other monitoring by the state’s huge Medicaid health insurance program will get an airing Tuesday by the General Assembly’s Joint Audit Committee.
Legislative auditors found major issues with the use of an outdated computer system at the Medical Care Programs Administration. The system is set to be replaced within the next two years, but is not equipped to handle the huge loads of claims that now come before the agency.
Emergency state mobility contract overdue for review
A new, $4.6 million paratransit contract between the Maryland Transit Administration and a vendor has not yet made it before the Board of Public Works that oversees such transactions, though nearly twice the allowed amount of time has passed since the emergency contract went into effect.
On Sept. 21, the MTA gave the two-year contract to Transcare Maryland Inc., which will serve as the state’s third provider of mobility service. The agency had declared an emergency four days earlier, said spokeswoman Cheron Wicker, in anticipation of a possible a strike by workers at one of the state’s other paratransit contractors, California-based MV Transportation Inc.
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