NORTHROP COMPROMISE REACHED: Gov. Larry Hogan and the Democratic leaders of the General Assembly unveiled a compromise Tuesday that will provide $20 million to Northrop Grumman Corp. and an equal amount to alleviate the cost of teacher pensions for local school systems, Michael Dresser reports for the Sun. Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch announced the agreement in a joint statement.
- In the compromise, a key legislative committee would allow the Northrop loan to take effect in exchange for Hogan supporting legislation next year that would provide equivalent funds to help local school districts pay for teacher pensions, writes the Post’s Josh Hicks. “This is a win-win for the state,” Busch said in a statement.
- Tuesday’s agreement ends a roughly six-month standoff between the legislature, which refused to give final approval to the funding from the state’s so-called Sunny Day economic development fund, and the governor, who had steadfastly refused to release $80 million in funding fenced off by lawmakers earlier this year that included money earmarked to help counties offset gaps in teacher pensions, Bryan Sears writes in the Daily Record.
- Miller confirmed the deal in a phone call Tuesday evening, explaining Northrop will receive the $20 million loan and Marriott International Inc. will receive a $22 million loan for its new headquarters in Bethesda in return for Hogan agreeing to allocate $20 million to teacher pensions in the 2017 budget, Holden Wilen reports in the Baltimore Business Journal.
CURRIE WITHDRAWS RESIGNATION: State Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince George’s) said in a letter Tuesday to Senate President Mike Miller that he is withdrawing his resignation, effective Dec. 1, because he wants to end the political fighting over the selection of his replacement, Ovetta Wiggins writes in the Post.
- Bryan Sears of the Daily Record reports that Currie’s Nov. 29 letter, obtained by The Daily Record moments after a brief interview with him, cites growing dissatisfaction over a process to name his wife as his successor — a process Currie said was becoming unduly political. “Since my announcement, it has been nothing but petty political jockeying and deal-making, with only the 2018 election in mind,” he wrote.
SOME AFSCME WORKERS UNDERPAID: Dozens of employees who are part of the state’s largest government employee union have not received the right amount of base pay or overtime in two months, union officials said Tuesday. Bryan Sears reports in the Daily Record that officials for AFSCME said Tuesday that more than 85 people have either not received checks or not been paid the correct base salaries over the last eight weeks.
STATE AUDIT FINDS OVERCHARGES: The state agency that oversees services for people with disabilities has for years directed health care providers to overcharge patients, according to a state audit released Tuesday. Residents may have lost millions to the error, and they may not be able to get the money back, Rachel Baye reports for WYPR-FM.
KAMENETZ GETS PUSH-BACK: One day after Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz declared his county’s police officers wouldn’t get involved in removing undocumented immigrants from college campuses, a neighboring sheriff called on him to do more toward immigration law enforcement, Pamela Wood of the Sun reports.
- Pamela Wood and John Fritze report for the Sun that, calling the effort to shield immigrants who have entered the country illegally a “risky gambit,” Rep. Andy Harris criticized Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz on Tuesday for supporting the so-called sanctuary campus movement and threatened that Congress could withhold federal funding over the issue.
TUBMAN, DOUGLASS STATUES: A proposal to place statues of anti-slavery heroes Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass in the Maryland State House would add a new chapter to the history of Maryland as told through its iconic capitol building, writes Michael Dresser in the Sun. The plan would help educate future generations of visitors about they key roles in U.S. history played by the two 19th century Marylanders who were born into bondage on the Eastern Shore.
PURPLE LINE GROUNDBREAKING DELAY: As each day passes, it appears more unlikely that Maryland officials will celebrate the groundbreaking for construction of the Purple Line later this year as originally planned, Andrew Metcalf reports in Bethesda Beat. Ryan Nawrocki, a spokesman for the Maryland Transit Administration, said Monday that the groundbreaking won’t happen until the project’s federal Record of Decision is reinstated by a federal judge who revoked it in August.
HOWARD LAUNCHES INCLUSIVENESS INITIATIVE: Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman is launching a series of community conversations to push community dialogue and reinforce the county’s commitment to inclusiveness. Coming in the wake of the presidential election and reports of racially charged incidents at county schools, Kittleman said the forum is not a direct response to the election of President-elect Donald Trump, Fatimah Waseem writes in the Howard County Times.
MINIMUM WAGE HIKE IN CITY? With eight new Democrats joining Baltimore’s City Council in December, proponents of a $15 hourly minimum wage relaunched their campaign to hike wages for the city’s low-income workers. Luke Broadwater of the Sun reports that, after failing by one vote in August, advocates for a higher minimum wage feel more confident now that three council members who opposed the measure are being replaced by new members who’ve pledged to support the increase.
- Amid the Fight for $15 movement, which today prompted a rally for a $15 minimum wage bill in Baltimore City and demonstrations in Detroit and elsewhere that led to scores of arrests, Baltimore City government is making this small change: It will raise the pay floor for contracts it issues to private vendors from $11.65 to $11.66 an hour, Mark Reutter reports in Baltimore Brew.
HOGAN TO ATTEND SHELTER OPENING: Gov. Larry Hogan will help celebrate the opening of a new women’s-only emergency shelter in Frederick on Saturday, Nancy Lavin of the Frederick News Post reports. The opening marks the culmination of a five-year effort by the Frederick Rescue Mission to open an emergency shelter for women and children, the release stated.
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