Month: May 2011

State Roundup, May 31, 2011

First deadline to bring DREAM Act to ballot is today; petitioners say they were turned away from Frederick County spots; despite disappointments, environmentalists stick with O’Malley; overall government jobs grow in Maryland, but decline begins; Palin visits Fort McHenry on Memorial Day; shareholders blast Shattuck’s paycheck; and Calvert commissioners appoint redistricting panel.

Maryland advocates eye Missouri model as juvenile justice solution

Ask some Maryland leaders interested in juvenile justice what they think of the state’s system, and they say it’s not working. Ask them how they’d reform it, and many point to the model used in Missouri. In Missouri, less than 10% of delinquents return to the Division of Youth Services within three years after release from a treatment facility. In Maryland, 56% are rearrested within three years.

State Roundup, May 27, 2011

State pushes ahead with health care reform with appointments; state tax revenues up; state furlough day today; no team yet for planned city sports arena; protests in Montgomery over budget; and no higher taxes under Prince George’s budget.

Maryland pushes ahead on implementing health care reform

Maryland continues to press ahead with aggressive implementation of federal health care reform. Gov. Martin O’Malley appointed the members of the board of the new Health Benefit Exchange, a key component of the Affordable Care Act, and named the head of the new Office of Health Care Reform on the governor’s staff.

State Roundup, May 26, 2011

State gets $23 million to help boost small, startup business; state board of ed addresses school funding levels as several counties get ready to make cuts; Franchot suggests suspending gas tax hike over holiday weekends; state hopes to stop lone Baltimore slots bidder; GBC offers major renovations to some harbor attractions; two Montgomery Council members owe state, federal back taxes; and Arundel, Carroll, Prince George’s, Howard and Montgomery pass fiscal 2012 budgets.

New Baltimore arena could be privately built if state kicks in $400 million for convention center

The Greater Baltimore Committee Wednesday unveiled a grand, $900 million plan for Baltimore’s Inner Harbor that will include a new, privately financed 18,500-seat arena topped by a 500-room hotel, both attached to an expanded Baltimore Convention Center. The $325 million arena and $175 million hotel would be built on the site of the Sheraton Hotel at Conway and Charles streets owned by Willard Hackerman of Whiting Turner Contracting Inc. and would be privately financed. But the project is dependent on being attached to a convention center that would double in size if the state will kick in bonds for the $400 million expansion.

Proposal for pension funding change draws criticism

A proposal to change the funding method for state pensions that will reduce state contributions to the system and delay reducing the state’s unfunded liabilities was criticized by two private sector representatives on the special commission studying retirement benefits. “The pension plan will never get to 100% funding,” said George Roche, former chairman and president of mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price, at a hearing Monday. “The workers are really exposed to a lot of risk and I don’t like it.”

O’Malley’s Asian trip can build important relationships, experts say

Marylanders familiar with Asian cultural dynamics all agree: Gov. Martin O’Malley’s 10-day trade mission to China, South Korea and Vietnam that begins next Tuesday will be worth the time, effort and money spent, because the trip will reap both economic rewards and “guan-xi.” “In simple terms, ‘guan-xi’ means relationships, but it’s more than that,” TowsonGlobal Business Incubator Director Clay HicksonHickson said. “It means reciprocal relationships. Not relationships made on the fly, but made over time. That’s what it’s all about.”

State Roundup, May 24, 2011

Number of homeless students rises as state grapples with ensuring education; 1,346 state employees beat or meet O’Malley’s salary; O’Malley touts space-business incubator program; state sees lack of entrepreneurs, not innovation, a problem for high-tech progress; Michael Steele becomes MSNBC commentator; federal on-line gambling sting hits Baltimore; Ruppersberger reaches out to family of son missing in Libya; and Carroll County expecting influx of businesses with changes in development process.

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