Legislation that aims to reduce Maryland’s prison populations, corrections spending and recidivism rates is expected to return to the state Senate Wednesday, after concerns were raised Monday over committee amendments to the bill. The Justice Reinvestment Act would alter criminal penalties and provisions on sentencing, corrections, parole and supervision in an effort to focus correctional resources on “serious and violent offenders,” according to a legislative analysis.
The Maryland Board of Revenue Estimates on Wednesday decided to write down state revenue estimates for fiscal 2016 and 2017 by approximately $51 million from estimates made last December. State Comptroller Peter Franchot said the new estimates reflected weak sales throughout Maryland during the recent holiday season. Economic growth has continued to be stagnant in the last few months.
Legislators, environmental activists and renewable-energy workers congregated outside the Maryland State House Thursday, trumpeting statewide polling results that found a majority of respondents — across ideological and geographical lines — in favor of a bill that sets new goals for renewable energy consumption and puts $40 million aside for more clean-energy jobs training.
Deer season may be over in Maryland, but lobbying season is well underway in Annapolis. Hunters and gun enthusiasts have held signs this week around the State House, protesting two bills that were debated in the House of Delegates Judiciary Committee Friday.
The Maryland Senate debated Thursday over an emergency bill that would give them greater influence over the Board of Education’s next superintendent appointee. The bill, which Republican senators characterized as politically motivated, would require the Democrat-controlled Senate to authorize the Maryland Board of Education’s appointee for state superintendent.
Complaining that decisions about Maryland’s congested transportation system are made with no accountability or public input, Maryland Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday announced legislation that would create an Oversight and Planning Board for the Maryland Transit Authority. Legislators said Marylanders also need more insight into how and why some projects are funded over others. Another bill announced Tuesday would create a scoring system for transportation projects to determine which get funding.
The comptroller’s office would be able to withhold tax refunds from individuals who have outstanding arrest warrants throughout the state, under a pair of Maryland bills designed to provide criminal suspects with a financial incentive to turn themselves in.
After a 29-18 vote in the Senate, the bill passed and expanded the voting rights of nearly 40,000 ex-felons in the state, according to supporters of the bill.
Instead of conducting a physical property inspection, the state would use satellite imagery and other technologies to assess home values, under a bill presented to the Maryland Senate’s Budget and Tax committee on Wednesday. Senate President Mike Miller also testified in favor of a bill that would allocate state and county funding for a new local hospital in Prince George’s County.
Maryland’s new paper ballot system will be available statewide for April’s elections, but officials said Friday they are worried that voters won’t know how to use them in time, adding to election day-wait times.
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