Tag: Gail Bates
Montgomery Democrat proposes automatic voter registration
Maryland Sen. Roger Manno wants to eliminate voter registration, and instead automatically enroll every Marylander of voting age with a state-issued ID card or receives benefits from social services. On Thursday, Manno, D-Montgomery told the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee that it is time for Maryland to modernize its voter registration system and join states like Oregon and California that have already enacted similar legislation.
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Some Democrats say they ‘got the message’ from Hogan’s election
New Democratic legislators from Howard County said they “got the message” on spending and taxes from the election of Republican Larry Hogan Jr. as governor.
“I think we got the message,” Del.-elect Clarence Lam told a Howard County Chamber of Commerce breakfast Tuesday. “We understand folks want to move in a different direction.”
Read MoreSenate prez calls Kittleman seat ‘winnable’ for Democrat
Senate President Mike Miller traveled over an hour to Ellicott City from his Chesapeake Beach home for breakfast Monday to introduce a Democratic candidate for Senate in District 9, Dan Medinger. Even though the district appears solidly Republican, “It’s a winnable race for a Democrat,” Miller said, always looking to expand his Senate super-majority of 35 seats out of 47.
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Massive turnover in legislature expected, with Howard County a prime example
Massive turnover in the legislature is expected in the 2014 election, with at least a third of the 188 Maryland General Assembly seats changing. Nowhere is the upheaval more dramatic than in Howard County, where two-thirds of its seats are up for grabs: two of three Senate seats and six of nine delegate seats.
These changes have already led to the announcement or filing of more candidates for Howard County legislative districts by non-incumbents than any other area in the state.
Newspaper interests help block advertising cut
For the fifth year in a row, the comptroller has tried to save taxpayers more than $500,000 in advertising costs, and representatives of the newspaper industry have managed to block the cut.
Read MoreProposed law would force school boards to heed parents’ petitions for school reform
National education reform advocates support a Maryland bill that would mandate reform for failing schools whenever a majority of parents petition for intervention, but the state superintendent and the state teachers union oppose the idea.
Read MoreAgencies threatened with budget cuts for repeat audit problems
Legislators hope to put more teeth into repeat audit findings of problems in state agencies. The General Assembly’s Joint Audit Committee agreed Tuesday to recommend that budget committees consider cuts to administrative funding for agencies that have four or more repeat findings in consecutive audits.
Read MoreBates proposes to cut budgets of agencies with repeat audit problems
Cutting the budgets of agencies that have problems with waste, poor policies, and lack of adequate controls will spur them to fix the problems more quickly, said Del. Gail Bates, R-Howard.
Bates, a new member of the Joint Audit Committee, has proposed a bill that would allow budget committees to withhold up to 5% of an agency’s funds if there are at least three repeated findings on the regular audit reports done every three years by the Office of Legislative Audits.
Read MoreDelegates show scarce sympathy for judges seeking $29,000 pay raise
A proposal to raise judges’ salaries by $29,000 got a cool response from members of the House Appropriations Committee, who must vote on it or let the raises take effect automatically in 50 days.
Read MoreLawmaker questions staffing and work of Governor’s Delivery Unit
By Erich Wagner Erich@MarylandReporter.com A little-known part of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s office is facing legislative scrutiny, as a Republican lawmaker on Wednesday criticized the Governor’s Delivery...
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