Eight days to go in the 90-day session.
Nerves get a little frayed and tempers flare in the waning days, as final differences must get ironed out between House and Senate.
Work is virtually complete on the budget, and the haggling over minor differences ? a couple million dollars here and few million there ? is supposed to be resolved by today, a constitutional mandate.
After the House and Senate refused to “recede” on their clashing amendments, a conference committee ? five delegates and five senators ? have been hashing out the details in the past week, largely out of public view.
A smaller group of conferees will meet on the statewide smoking ban, where different versions passed each chamber.
The Clean Car Act, regulating emission standards, has not quite gone to conference, but differences must still be resolved.
The devil is in the details, they say, and there are lots of little wind devils blowing around in the final days.
O?Malley scorecard
If you simply count the items passed from Gov. Martin O?Malley?s legislative agenda, the score looks pretty good.
His budget is mostly unscathed, and nine of 13 issues he promoted have moved forward.
But most are not earth-shaking initiatives and those that cost real money, are in trouble, particularly the Geographic Cost of Education Index and expanded health insurance.
The freeze on university tuition was widely popular, but many of the other initiatives are administrative:
» A Base Realignment and Closure subcabinet
» A life science advisory board
» A task force on vaccines
» A task force on physician Medicaid reimbursement
» The adoption of StateStat, the performance accountability program.
In other cases, he signed onto legislative initiatives, such as the package of ground rent bills and the Clean Cars Act.
O?Malley didn?t tackle electric rates head on.
He is leaving it up to his new and improved Public Service Commission.
“Go forth and regulate,” he told the four new commissioners Tuesday.
Any new program that costs real money, such as the geographic index, is being killed by the Senate as an unsubtle hammer on the alarm bell about next year?s $1.5 billion budget shortfall.
Not a day goes by that Senate President Thomas Mike Miller does not harangue reporters about the need for new revenues, including slot machines.
He?s also pressing his case with O?Malley?s aides.
Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch disagree on slots and the need for the special late-summer session of the legislature Miller is pressing for.
However, both agree O?Malley must take the lead.
Road to Rockville
Opponents of the Intercounty Connector, the toll road from Rockville to Beltsville, have brought out economic studies to challenge yet again the road detested by environmentalists and its neighbors.
Legislators this week pressed the governor to take a breather on the highway that?s only been studied for about 40 years.
O?Malley is sticking to his promise to build the highway.
This week the administration selected the contractor to construct the first seven miles for about $500 million.
Open space
In the campaign and again as governor, O?Malley has been fond of saying that “open space money will be used for open space.”
His predecessor, Robert Ehrlich Jr., had used it to fund other programs.
But the truth is money in the pot from the real estate transfer tax doesn?t just go to buy fields and forests.
Much of the money is spent to develop recreation facilities ? part of the compromise that helped get the program passed decades ago.
The agenda for Wednesday?s Board of Public Works session is no exception:
» $3.7 million to buy 150 acres to be added to two parks
» $1.4 million to renovate the 27-year-old Wheaton Tennis Bubble
» $400,000 to restore the Matapeake terminal, a remnant of the Chesapeake Bay ferry days
» $400,000 for ballfields and restrooms in White Marsh Park.
Len Lazarick is the State House bureau chief of The Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected]
