After the General Assembly failed to pass a bill dictating state policy on public-private partnerships, plaintiffs in the State Center lawsuit are moving forward with their case. An attorney for the group of Baltimore business owners who have been suing the state since December 2010 said the amended bill’s failure to gain passage was further validation for their case. [...more]
With the final day left of this year’s legislative session, the Senate gave preliminary approval to its own version of a public-private partnership bill on Saturday that scraps two contentious amendments adopted by the House of Delegates and supported by the O’Malley administration. [...more]
The O’Malley administration affirmed its support on Wednesday for a controversial public-private partnership bill that threatens pending litigation against the State Center development in downtown Baltimore. [...more]
The House of Delegates approved a controversial bill backed by Gov. Martin O’Malley that would better define the state’s policy on public-private partnerships for major construction projects after a spirited debate on Monday. [...more]
The state fired back at the Baltimore property owners who have sued to stop the $1.5 billion State Center project, filing a countersuit on Friday demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars that delays in the project are costing the state. The countersuit states that the group of property owners – who collectively call themselves the Coalition to Save Downtown Baltimore – filed their initial lawsuit in December because they “cannot compete” with the State Center project. [...more]
Maryland could be within $43 million of hitting its debt ceiling in fiscal year 2017, according to projections presented to the Capital Debt Affordability Committee on Friday. Maryland has a self-imposed limit on debt service of 8% of all revenues received. This means that only 8% of revenues in a given year can go toward principal and interest on state bonds.Currently, the state’s debt service payment is 6.9% of its revenues. By 2017, debt service is projected to be 7.8% of revenues. (By comparison, the interest on the federal debt this year is about 10% of total revenues.) [...more]
A coalition of Baltimore community groups has written to Comptroller Peter Franchot “to express our dismay and disappointment” that he has yanked his support from the $1.5 billion State Center project, despite his votes for the project in the past. [...more]
Questioning the practicality of “undertaking a commercial real estate venture of this magnitude in the midst of the worst economic climate since the Great Depression,” Comptroller Peter Franchot has joined the chorus of voices objecting to the $1.5 billion State Center project in midtown Baltimore. Franchot wrote a letter to General Services Secretary Alvin Collins and Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley saying he’s concerned about the economic impact – both on the government’s coffers and on taxpayers – of moving forward with the project right now. [...more]
A Baltimore judge has ruled that a lawsuit challenging the award of contracts to build State Center in midtown Baltimore will go forward, stopping construction of the $1.5 billion project until it is resolved. [...more]
The first part of the public-private partnership State Center project in Baltimore represents a $127 million giveaway of taxpayer dollars with more on the way, according to a new report from the Maryland Public Policy Institute and the Maryland Tax Education Foundation. [...more]
