Analysis: Appropriations Chairman defends earmark for firehouse

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Norm Conway drove up from Salisbury on Wednesday to advocate for Board of Public Works approval of a firehouse project in his lower Eastern Shore district.

While the Democrat was in Annapolis, though, Conway took the opportunity to score a few points for the House on bond bills, the legislative set-asides for nonprofits that became a bone of contention during budget negotiations this year.

The Senate voted to cut bond bills for the next two years, while the House fought to maintain them and ultimately won the battle.

But if the Senate still targets the measures, which will amount to $15 million this coming fiscal year, Conway’s ready to defend them. The bond bills are the closest thing Maryland has to congressional earmarks, but they only go to nonprofit organizations and require matching contributions.

“These are small contributions that the state makes for worthy needs that have been identified,” he said.

He was talking specifically about the BPW’s approval of a $250,000 grant for the Parsonburg Volunteer Fire Company to help build a new $2 million facility. The BPW rarely denies such a request.

“We hear a lot about earmarks,” said BPW member and State Treasurer Nancy Kopp. “We hear a lot about pork projects, and I think it’s important to point out that we’re talking about projects like this.”
–Andy Rosen
Andy@MarylandReporter.com

About The Author

Len Lazarick

len@marylandreporter.com

Len Lazarick was the founding editor and publisher of MarylandReporter.com and is currently the president of its nonprofit corporation and chairman of its board He was formerly the State House bureau chief of the daily Baltimore Examiner from its start in April 2006 to its demise in February 2009. He was a copy editor on the national desk of the Washington Post for eight years before that, and has spent decades covering Maryland politics and government.