State Roundup, January 7, 2015

O’MALLEY TO CUT BUDGET: Gov. Martin O’Malley is poised to make budget cuts and take other steps to eliminate this year’s revenue shortfall of more than $400 million before Gov.-elect Larry Hogan takes over, the administration said Tuesday. Michael Dresser of the Sun reports that O’Malley, who leaves office Jan. 21, will use his last opportunity to address Maryland’s immediate budget woes by taking $211 million in cuts to the Board of Public Works, which is expected to approve them.

• The outgoing governor plans to offer $199 million more in fund transfers and budget cuts after the General Assembly convenes next week for the start of its three-month legislative session, writes John Wagner for the Post. Those actions would require legislative approval.
• The proposed cuts are likely to include some of the same budgetary moves used in July when O’Malley and the board cut $84 million just two days into the fiscal year, writes Bryan Sears for the Daily Record. O’Malley said that political opponents have criticized his budgetary moves, which he said will edge toward $10 billion over his two terms, “not being real.”

MORE CABINET APPOINTMENTS: Gov.-elect Larry Hogan will name additional members of his Cabinet this week as he continues to lay the groundwork for taking over the State House Jan. 21. Hogan was slated to hold a press conference Tuesday in Annapolis, but canceled the event due to weather. Michael Dresser of the Sun reports that top jobs at several of the state’s largest departments remain unfilled, including the secretaries of budget, transportation, business and economic development, human resources and state police.

• John Wagner of the Post is reporting that Hogan is expected to pick a transportation secretary from out of state and name one of his Republican primary rivals as secretary of planning. According to several people familiar with the picks, Hogan will soon name Pete Rahn, who has held transportation posts in New Mexico and Missouri, as Maryland’s next transportation secretary, and name David R. Craig, the former Harford County executive, as planning secretary.

FROSH SWORN IN: In his first moments in office, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh warned that budget cuts would impair the ability of state lawyers to do their jobs and reduce their ranks, writes Erin Cox for the Sun as she reports on Frosh being sworn in.

• Ovetta Wiggins of the Post writes that, referring to budget reductions absorbed by the attorney general’s office in recent years and a shortfall that Hogan says will lead to more, Frosh said: “Every year we say bravely that we will do more with less. The truth is that we will do less with less.”
• Steve Lash of the Daily Record quotes Frosh as saying of Gov.-elect Larry Hogan: “He’s my client and we will work well together. We might not always agree but I am confident we can work together.”

Gov. Martin O’Malley swears in Brian Frosh as Maryland attorney general as his wife and daughters look on. (From Wendy Frosh’s Facebook page)

SAY NO TO RED & PURPLE: Annapolis Capital columnist Michael Collins offers Gov.-elect Larry Hogan a different approach to solving the state’s mass transit problems than investing in the costly Red and Purple Lines and instead looks to new technologies like self-driving cars.

KEEP FILM INCENTIVES: Sun media columnist David Zurawik, in encouraging the continuation of tax incentives for film companies, writes that the awards season starts Sunday with the Golden Globes, and the buzz is that Kevin Spacey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus could win as best actor in a drama and best actress in a comedy or musical, respectively. But the bigger story here is the way both of their Maryland-made productions, “House of Cards” and “Veep,” continue to pile up nominations for excellence — even as the number of voices calling for the state to end incentives to them grows.

WHY NOT PETERS? The editorial board for the Frederick News Post writes that members of the Frederick Republican Central Committee ignored more than 5,000 District 4 voters when they did not select Wendi Peters as one of three possible candidates to fill Del. Kelly Schulz’s shoes after Schulz was appointed secretary of labor, licensing and regulation. Instead, the nine members apparently unanimously choose three white men, only one of whom had appeared on the primary ballot, netting fewer votes than Peters in the final primary tally.

• Greg Kline of Red Maryland, on the other hand, sees choosing Peters as a divisive action.

REINSTATE DEATH PENALTY: State’s attorney Scott Shellenberger and rhetorician Richard Vatz team up to tell Maryland to reinstate the death penalty in this op-ed in the Sun.

DOMA REPEAL: Kevin Rector of the Sun reports that Maryland legislators who voted for the federal Defense of Marriage Act are now part of the effort to repeal it since, like many others, they have had a change of heart.

KIRBY DELAUTER: The Kirby Delauter spectacle that went viral yesterday has made Kirby Delauter a household name worldwide. (He is the Frederick County councilman who wishes not to be named without permission especially by the Frederick News Post.) But we missed linking to this editorial by the FNP that also includes an acrostic that should delight. To read the rest of the delightful Kirby Delauter pieces, view the videos — including Rachel Maddow — for brevity’s sake, Google his name.

• For a quick roundup of the Kirby Delauter show, read Michael Dresser’s piece in the Sun.
• And Red Maryland calls Delauter “a clown.”

O’MALLEY IN CHICAGO: Gov. Martin O’Malley, who continues to weigh a 2016 presidential bid, is booked Thursday to deliver a speech in Chicago on “progressive politics in a post-Obama world.” O’Malley (D), whose tenure as governor ends in about two weeks, is scheduled to appear as part of a speaker’s series sponsored by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, writes John Wagner for the Post.