At the Freestate Gun Range in Middle River, for a contribution to Jennings’ campaign you can have your picture taken with National Rifle Association President David Keene and then pick up your weapon of choice for shooting practice.

A $50 ticket includes the “opportunity to shoot 25 rounds from a variety of handguns, including .22, 9mm, .40 and .45 calibers,” says the invitation. Sorry, no photo with the NRA prez.

A $100 ticket gets you the picture plus the chance “to shoot a rare .30 carbine mini anti-aircraft Gatling gun”; $250 gives you a “choice to shoot a Desert Eagle .50 caliber or a Taurus Raging Bull 454 Casull.” And a $500 sponsorship entitles you to the photo and the “opportunity to shoot a selection of fully automatic rifles.”

And there’s lunch before you hit the shooting range.

Desert Eagle .50 semi-automatic pistol. (Photo by DWissman/Flickr)

(The Desert Eagle is one of the most powerful semi-automatics around, as this video shows.)

The gun-toting fundraiser may not stir up as much controversy as the Beretta pistol raffled by the Carroll County Republican Central Committee 12 years ago, including a rebuke from then-Congressman Bob Ehrlich. But it may provide a bit of distraction from the pot stirred this week by the racial remarks on Baltimore City gangs by fellow District 7 lawmaker, Del. Pat McDonough.

–Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com

Bob Ehrlich (Photo by bcostin/flickr)

Former Gov. Bob Ehrlich was in professor mode Tuesday afternoon as he made his annual visit to a political persuasion class at Towson University taught by his friend, Professor Rick Vatz.

With the semester winding down, students and faculty filled a lecture hall to hear the former governor speak about the 2012 presidential election. Ehrlich, Mitt Romney’s Maryland campaign chair, prodded students on how they would sell their candidate — faults and all — no matter which side they supported.

A quick poll of the class showed students evenly divided among supporters of President Barack Obama, supporters of Romney, and those who are still undecided.

“This is symbolic of what’s going to happen in the next six months,” Ehrlich said in response to answers articulated by pro-Obama and pro-Romney students on why they’ll be voting for their candidate.

Students who expressed support for Obama tended to focus more on the president’s personality and background, which Ehrlich admitted was hard to beat, whereas Romney-supporters voiced concerns about the economy as graduation nears.

Ehrlich said in politics it was just as crucial to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your own candidate as your opponent. Ehrlich came prepared with lists of the strengths and weaknesses he perceives in both Obama and Romney.

The Towson University campus is familiar territory for Ehrlich, who donated his congressional papers to the university in 2003. He has been making an appearance before Vatz’s class most of his political life — it was the 19th year Ehrlich has spoken to students.

State politics ‘in my past now’

Despite the local setting, Ehrlich steered clear of local politics during his appearance. Asked after the lecture his thoughts on next week’s special session to pass the remainder of the budget package, Ehrlich declined to comment. “That’s in my past now,” he stated.

Ehrlich’s focus has shifted largely to the national stage since his failed bid for another term as governor in 2010. In November, he published a book on national politics, entitled “Turn This Car Around: The Road Map to Restoring America,” and says he is at work on another book focused on national politics. He is also a weekly columnist for the Baltimore Sun.

Ehrlich also did not comment and the students did not ask about the ongoing trial of political consultant Julius Henson for a robocall on election night 2010. Ehrlich’s top campaign aide, Paul Schurick, has already been convicted of campaign fraud for the call that was not identified as coming from the Ehrlich campaign.

—Justin Snow
Justin@MarylandReporter.com

“Our audit did not disclose any significant deficiencies in the design or operation of the department’s internal control,” said the auditors report. “Nor did our audit disclose any significant instances of noncompliance with applicable laws, rules or regulations.” The financial management information system supports the department’s purchasing, accounting and payment functions.

Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley at opening of Intercounty Connector November 2011. (Photo by govpics)

The good news comes as Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley announced she’s leaving the post July 1, after almost three years in the job. Transportation is one of largest departments in state government with 9,000 employees in five modal agencies with an annual budget of $3.8 million.

Swaim-Staley has had her share of critical audits of agencies including the Mass Transit Administration and the State Highway Administration, but she’s had her share of successes, including the opening of the Intercounty Connector last year.

Comptroller Peter Franchot praised her effusively for several minutes at Wednesday’s Board of Public Works meeting. “For my money, there’s never been anyone better than Bev Staley,” said Franchot, who as a delegate chaired the transportation appropriations subcommittee. “She was always looking for ways to save taxpayer dollars” and had “unassailable integrity.”

Treasurer Nancy Kopp chimed in to “endorse everything the comptroller said,” and Gov. Martin O’Malley joined the chorus of praise.

O’Malley singled out “one very momentous, final accomplishment” for Swaim-Staley – getting “the treasurer and governor to applaud unanimously every word of something the comptroller has said.”

The room burst into laughter and Franchot grinned. The comptroller is often the lone voice of dissent on O’Malley administration contracts, as he would be later that morning at the same meeting.

“That [unanimity] has never happened before and I will be preparing a proclamation to honor the occasion,” O’Malley joked. Franchot actually sides with O’Malley 95% of the time.

Swaim-Staley accepted the praise on a realistic note, pointing out she still had several board meetings to go. “I’m sure we’ll have problems to resolve in the next couple of months,” she said.

“I’ve worked for the state since I was 20 years old and I wouldn’t change a thing,” Swaim-Staley said. “Some of you raised me, let’s be honest.”

–Len Lazarick
Len@MarylandReporter.com 

Lou Panos, who covered 40 sessions of the Maryland General Assembly during his 60 years as a working journalist, was inducted in the Hall of Fame of the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association Thursday night.

Bruce Hotchkiss and Lou Panos, right, were inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association.

Panos, 86, a Timonium resident, started his career in high school as a teletype attendant for the Associated Press. He spent 20 years at AP, mostly in Baltimore Washington, but he also covered federal agencies in Washington including the White House and the Justice Department when Bobby Kennedy was attorney general.

He later moved on to the Evening Sun – “the late, lamented, sweet and precious” Evening Sun, as he called it Thursday. There he was a reporter, columnist and eventually deputy editorial page editor.

He then spent five years as press secretary to Gov. Harry Hughes and public affairs director at Shock Trauma, then returned to journalism as political editor and columnist for Patuxent Publishing.

Panos was born in Baltimore and attended Baltimore City College before attending the University of Iowa. During World War II, he drove a truck on the Burma road from India and China, and served as a cryptographic technician in Kunming, China.

Nominating Lou for the honor

The previous four graphs were written in the standard just-the-facts style — with a little color — that Panos probably used thousands of his time in his career. But in truth, I am hardly an objective observer of the Panos honor, having written one of the letters nominating him for the Hall of Fame. Here is some of what I said in that letter:

“Lou’s regular columns on Maryland politics (and other topics) were a must read for anyone interested in things political. Not only did he have an insider’s grasp of what was going on, but he relayed his analysis in a style that was smooth, deft and easy to understand. These were traits he maintained in his writing throughout his career. As a young political reporter with new publications that took style seriously, I was an admirer from afar.”

“In the 1980s, I got to know Lou personally as Gov. Harry Hughes press secretary. He was a friend of reporters, young and old – perhaps too much, some pols would argue — and a far cry from the political operatives that would come to occupy those positions for governors in later years. I remember once in particular when he invited me into his State House office to share a drink with the secretary of transportation. Those were the good old days indeed.”

Later that decade I became managing editor of Patuxent Publishing in Towson, and at his request, brought Panos back into journalism.

“Lou became the core of what I consider exceptionally astute coverage of state and local politics for a group of community newspapers then considered among the best in the country,” I said in the letter.

Lou retired from Patuxent in 2007, ten years after I left.

Big names weighed in

I was hardly the most distinguished writer nominating Panos to the hall of fame. They included former attorney general and lieutenant governor Joe Curran, former congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley — a former journalist herself — and former senator Jack Lapides – a longtime member of the State Ethics Commission and Panos’ former poker buddy.

Here’s what former U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes, longest serving senator in Maryland history, said about Lou in his letter:

“Those of us in public life have always regarded Lou as a wise and fair commentator on the issues,” said Sarbanes. “A firm, tough questioner, you always knew that Lou would adhere to the highest ethical standards. His work and character significantly enhanced our community and brought great credit to the journalism profession.”

In his acceptance speech, Panos typically talked little about himself or his career, but he waxed nostalgic about newspapers as an alternative to being hunched over a computer screen in search of the truth. He talked about the social role of newspapers and their capacity to challenge “the insanity of war” and other social ills.

Surprise citation at the end

Panos got a bit of a surprise at the end of the ceremony from his “baby” son Chris, a district court judge in Baltimore. Chris said he was at an Annapolis training session Thursday morning when he mentioned to one of his colleagues from the Wabash Avenue court that his father was being honored that night.

Chris’s colleague, feeling the honor deserved some further recognition, left the room to use the phone. Chris said about two hours later a state trooper arrived with a framed citation from Judge Catherine Curran O’Malley’s husband, Gov. Martin O’Malley, acknowledging Lou for his “fair reporting of the truth.”

Hotchkiss also honored

Bruce Hotchkiss, former editor of the Delmarva Farmer, was also inducted into the MDDC Hall of Fame. He saluted the value of farmers and decried “the dispiriting anti-agricultural policies at all levels of government.”

“If they falter, if they fail, we will fail as a nation,” Hotchkiss said.

Moody’s Investors Service says Maryland counties could face a downgrade of their bond ratings due the state cuts in education aid and the new maintenance of effort law “limiting the ability of local governments to cut their own spending.”

The new law allows the state to redirect local income tax revenues directly to the school system if the county does not meet its requirement to give the schools the same amount of money per pupil as it did in the previous year.

In its “Weekly Credit Outlook” (page 8), Moody’s, one of the big three bond rating agencies, says “the combined measures would be credit negative for local governments, which would face more difficulty balancing their budgets.”

(The rating agency incorrectly reports that the governor needs to sign the budget bill. The budget bill, SB 150, automatically goes into effect when enacted by the legislators, since it is the governor’s own spending plan that can only be cut by the General Assembly.)

Says Moody’s: “Maryland’s 23 counties and the city of Baltimore (Aa2 stable) would lose approximately $262 million in state aid payments, including a $129 million cut to K-12 education funding through the elimination of a program that provided extra support for municipalities with a high cost of living. Twelve counties and the city of Baltimore had previously qualified for the program. The new budget reduces the state’s per-pupil funding to $6,650 from $6,761, resulting in a $71 million spending cut.”

–Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com

]]> http://marylandreporter.com/2012/04/17/moodys-says-budget-cuts-school-aid-mandate-could-lead-to-downgrade-of-local-bonds/feed/ 0 http://marylandreporter.com/2012/04/08/new-website-baltimore-post-examiner-launches/ http://marylandreporter.com/2012/04/08/new-website-baltimore-post-examiner-launches/#comments Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:00:10 +0000 Len Lazarick http://marylandreporter.com/?p=11406 Blogs and websites come and go these days, but Maryland got itself a new comprehensive news website on Friday with the launch of the Baltimore Post-Examiner.

The Post-Examiner is being run by Tim Maier, former managing editor of the Baltimore Examiner, and other news veterans from the Washington Post, the Examiner, the Frederick News-Post and others.  “It’s called the Post-Examiner because we love the play on the word “Post” but we also are hoping to answer that question: What’s next after newspapers?” said the editors in the article introducing the site.

The site offers an eclectic mix of news, sports, entertainment, commentary and blogs. It plans on using all the original content from MarylandReporter.com, and even has a tab for our stories at the top of the homepage.

Unusual for a website, the Post-Examiner also is presenting fiction, poetry and lyrics. The first edition had the beginning of a new serial novel by Rafael Alvarez, and a short story by Tim Maier.

For those interested in Maryland politics and government, Maier has also begun a four-part series on his days covering Jack Johnson in Prince George’s County. The first installment, 2,700 words worth, covers Johnson’s tenure as state’s attorney. It contains a lot of insider information never reported before.

–Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com

The House voting board for the same-sex marriage bill.

Tally sheets from roll call votes in the House of Delegates have not been quickly posted on the General Assembly’s website, with clerks citing technical difficulties and an end-of-session pile up of votes.

The clerk’s office and the IT staff apparently caught up with the backlog by Wednesday evening, with all but votes from Wednesday morning’s brief session now posted. The daily proceedings pages for the sessions since last Thursday were all modified after 8 p.m., according to internal coding on the pages. MarylandReporter.com had asked about the absence of online roll calls votes earlier in the day.

Without posting these tally sheets online, the yeas or nays on contentious bills are only available to those in Annapolis who can obtain a printout in the State House. Although members of the public can view the number of delegates that voted for or against a bill, without the tally sheet they are unable to see how specific representatives voted.

The House met for nearly five hours during a special Saturday session, passing a long list of bills. Of the 70 bills approved then, only one roll call  — for a bill that was approved unanimously — had been uploaded by early Wednesday afternoon.

Those in the clerk’s office said the delay was due to the sheer number of bills the House has considered over the past week, as well as the number of delegates who changed their votes on various bills.

Indeed, last Thursday the House met for nearly 11 hours without breaking. Throughout this 90-day legislative session, the voting board in the House chamber has been plagued with technical difficulties, forcing many delegates to correct improperly recorded votes.

MarylandReporter.com has received multiple requests from frustrated readers about missing vote breakdowns for more controversial legislation.

– Justin Snow
Justin@MarylandReporter.com

Len Lazarick contributed to this story.

Delegates announce petition drive to overturn congressional districting map.

Republicans and minority groups upset with new lines drawn for congressional districts are starting a petition drive to put the maps on the ballot in November.

“This map is patently unfair,” said Del. Neil Parrott, R-Washington, who developed the website MdPetitions.com, an online tool to gather petition signatures that was used last year to put the immigrant tuition bill on the November ballot.

Parrott said the map drawn by Gov. Martin O’Malley and advisers splits minority communities and rural communities.
MdPetitions.com is also supporting the drive to put the same-sex marriage law on the ballot for voters to decide.

GOP State Chairman Alex Mooney pointed out that in 1962, the League of Women Voters successfully petitioned a Maryland redistricting plan. It was rejected by the voters and eventually redrawn by the courts.

Newt in Annapolis

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, made a brief stop in Annapolis Tuesday.
Gingrich insisted he was in the presidential race to stay.

“Gov. Romney is the front runner, but is a long way from the nomination,” he said.

If Romney does not clinch the nomination by the end of the primaries June 26, Gingrich said the Republican convention in Tampa in August will be “one of the most interesting open conventions in American history.”

Gingrich promised to support whoever is the eventual Republican nominee, including Romney.

Gingrich also took a shot at Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed gas tax increase.
“It shows as much political insensitivity as you can imagine,” Gingrich said. He has a plan for gasoline to get down to $2.50 a gallon.

Newt Gingrick talks to reporters outside the State House.

No study of third bay bridge

The Maryland Senate Tuesday rejected a bill that would force the state to perform an environmental impact study on building a third Chesapeake Bay bridge span. The vote on the bill was 20-27.

The bill was backed by all three of the senators from the Eastern Shore.

“This bill is vital,” said Sen. Jim Mathias, the Lower Shore Democrat who had been mayor of Ocean City.

“I’m voting for this ‘cause it’s going to eventually settle the argument,” said Sen. John Astle, D-Anne Arundel, one of the sponsors of the bill. Not building a third span would be one of the options in the environmental impact study.

Opponents said the Maryland Transportation Authority, which runs the current bridges, has not requested the environmental impact study and was not equipped to perform it. Others objected to the estimated $30 million cost of the study over the next five to seven years.

“It is tied to a dedicated source of revenue,” the tolls on the bridges and tunnels, said Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin, lead sponsor of the bill. He said there was more available funding for the bridge study than there was to study construction of the Purple Line in suburban Washington and the Red Line in Baltimore.

–Len Lazarick
Len@MarylandReporter.com

Treasury building in Annapolis.

About 1,800 Maryland seniors have received erroneous notices from the comptroller’s office saying they owe money for improperly overstating pension exclusions or claiming pension exclusions they were not entitled to on their 2008 e-filed tax returns.

The March 1 letter stated, “You either overstated the allowable pension exclusion amount, or claimed a pension exclusion that you were not entitled to, pursuant to Maryland Law.”

The notices were in error, said Joseph Shapiro, the comptroller’s communications director in an email to the MarylandReporter.com on Friday.

New letters have been sent out to to assure seniors they do not owe any additional taxes, Shapiro said. Incorrect information received from the IRS was updated into the state’s system, which generated the notices.

“Once we got the full information, our compliance folks went back and adjusted all the accounts to clear up the error,” Shapiro said. “All 1,800 seniors have been sent letters explaining there was a glitch and that they do not owe any money. In fact, in some cases we sent some refunds that were owed. If anyone hasn’t gotten that letter, they should in the next day or two.”

“We regret the inconvenience and anxiety that the original notices caused, but the comptroller is happy that once the error was discovered, his staff was able to correct it quickly,” Shapiro said.

Dan Graham, a volunteer tax preparer at the Pascal Senior Center in Glen Burnie, said they have had to be vigilant with the comptroller’s office to correct the returns. In one instance he said they had to make several phone calls and faxes to get a senior a refund.

Graham said problems with the comptroller’s office occurred when calculating refunds of overpayments because of the letter.

“The comptroller wanted to withhold another $85 that [was owed] to a senior,” Graham said.

The problem became known Monday when tax volunteers at senior centers in Anne Arundel County learned of the letters.

A controversial bill that would ban smoking in any vehicle with a passenger younger than 8 passed the state Senate 27-19 on Wednesday after debate that centered largely over the role of government.

Photo by Raul Lieberwerth

Supporters argued that the bill was about protecting children from the toxins of secondhand smoke and cited a range of studies showing the negative effects tobacco products have on children. They said the age requirement was for enforcement reasons, noting that children younger than 8 are required to use a car seat, making it easier for police to spot.

“If we do nothing we are condoning threatening the life of young people who have no voice,” said Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George’s. Pinsky said the bill raised questions about what role government should play in light of science.

Although opponents did not disagree that scientific evidence affirms secondhand smoke is harmful, they warned of government intrusion into private life and the bill’s broader repercussions.

“Cheeseburgers are next,” cautioned Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin, arguing that government instructing citizens about unhealthy behavior was a slippery slope.

Sen. John Astle, D-Anne Arundel, who proposed a killer amendment last week that was later stripped from the bill in a rare parliamentary procedure, invoked George Orwell as he voiced his opposition to the bill. Opponents, however, said such warnings were overblown.

“This isn’t about big brother,” said Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery. “It’s about little brother in the back seat, in the car seat.”

The ban must still be approved by the House of Delegates.

SLAPP reform defeated

By a narrow 21-25 vote, the Senate defeated a bill that would have revised statutes concerning strategic lawsuits against public participation.

Commonly called SLAPP suits, these lawsuits concern a deliberate attempt to stifle critics by burdening them with overwhelming legal costs until they abandon their criticism. Typically such lawsuits concern a small publication being sued by a wealthy person or organization.

Sen. Brian Frosh, D-Montgomery, sponsored the bill and said it was ultimately about balancing the scales and defending those who cannot afford to fight for themselves. Frosh added that Maryland has the weakest SLAPP suit statutes in the country.

Opponents, however, argued that the bill would give protection to those who ruin reputations. Speaking passionately against the bill was Sen. Robert Zirkin, D-Baltimore County, who said the bill would only protect defamers and liars.

Other senators worried about a changing media landscape. Citing a declining Annapolis press corps and the rise of some “unscrupulous blog sites,” Sen. Joseph Getty, R-Baltimore County, said he had grave concerns that the bill would embolden such sites.

“We’re going to see a distinct change in the way things are covered,” Getty warned.