Assembly

Gov. Martin O'Malley descended the elegant marble staircase of Maryland's State House last week to repeat his administration's insistence that 83 percent of taxpayers will pay no more under his wide-raging tax reform plan than they do now. No one, he said during his eight-minute speech to the General Assembly, then convening in special session, had laid a glove on his claim. No one, in other words, had shown that his numbers were wrong, a snare and delusion to rally support. Of course, the governor and the legislators he addressed knew it would be a tough sell whatever the numbers show.

A year after ethics violations drove two legislators from office, the Senate and House of Delegates approved a sweeping reform of Maryland ethics laws yesterday, laying the groundwork for final General Assembly passage in the next few weeks.The bill, the first major revision of the ethics laws in 20 years, would for the first time prohibit senators and delegates from voting on legislation in which they have a direct financial interest and ban them from dining out on lobbyists' tabs.The measure would also restrict legislators' ability to take jobs with state or local government, prohibit them from hitting up lobbyists for contributions to their favorite charities and give the Assembly's ethics committee subpoena power to investigate complaints.

ON A STREET corner in the sleepy provincial capital of Guanare, a man tries to explain Venezuela by using a fresh pastry. From the outside, "it looks big and filled with promise," he says, before biting off a corner. "But look inside. It's less than half-filled." He pokes at the creamy cheese filling. "We expect more."The man whom Venezuelans expect to supply the missing cheese and everything else a country could want is President Hugo Chavez. Since he took office after running as an independent in December's elections, Chavez has promised to break the stranglehold of Venezuela's corrupt two-party system.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- In the sharpest clash of their three-week deployment in East Timor, Australian troops reported yesterday that they were ambushed and pinned down by armed men and that they killed three of their attackers before being rescued by helicopter.The firefight was a sign of increasing conflicts in the remote territory as the Indonesian National Assembly prepares to vote on whether to accept East Timor's decision six weeks ago to break away and become an independent nation.The mood in the assembly is defiant, defensive and sentimental about the loss of the former Portuguese colony, which Indonesia invaded in 1975 and annexed as its 27th province.

PIEDMONT, Calif. -- When fellow Green Party members persuaded Audie Bock to run for the state Assembly last December, they told her she had a choice. She could run a symbolic campaign by putting her name on the ballot -- or she could campaign seriously."

WHILE THE MARYLAND political world has focused on the aggressive early fund-raising by potential gubernatorial candidates in 2002, Gov. Parris N. Glendening has also been busy.Although barred from running for re-election, the governor has raised $400,000 this year, money he has said he needs to keep his political options open and advance his "progressive" agenda.So who would give to a lame-duck governor?Lots of people, it turns out, nearly all of them with a manifest reason for doing so.As is often the case in Maryland Democratic politics, the list begins with Baltimore attorney Peter G. Angelos, majority owner of the Orioles.

Maryland's cadre of highly skilled lobbyists has become a third legislative house, an unofficial branch of state government run by corporate gunslingers who offer cradle-to-grave political services to lawmakers.Lobbyists help to elect the men and women who vote on their clients' interests. They write legislation, prepare testimony and serve on unofficial committees formed by General Assembly leaders at moments of crisis to forge consensus.They facilitate all of that with a multitude of favors and legislative comforts: lavish receptions, expensive tickets to sporting events, ice cream socials and, most valuable of all, expert information.

The WinnersBaltimoreA bit of political engineering now allows former congressman and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume to run for mayor of the city. His supporters persuaded the Assembly to cut the residency requirement for mayoral candidates from a year to six months.Business and utilitiesThey had their way in a complex deregulation bill, including the benefit of the doubt about whether -- and how much -- market competition will help Maryland consumers. Legislators admitted they didn't know whether consumers would be helped.

CARACAS, Venezuela -- On the television screen in Jorge Navarro Diaz's small restaurant, a member of Venezuela's shuttered Congress was complaining that President Hugo Chavez had breached the rule of law and was leading the country into a dictatorship. But Navarro wasn't buying that argument."What those politicians need to do is shut their mouths, get the hell out of the way and let the constitutional assembly do its work," he snapped. "For 40 years, all they have done is rip off this country, and now that we finally have somebody trying to put things right, they are trying to block what needs to be done just to save their own skins."

BY VIRTUE of their talents and a well-tended synergy, lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano and legislator Larry Young rose to the top of their professions. Both became power centers, force fields of influence and action.Even as they progressed, though, friends and colleagues wondered if they weren't heading for calamity. They began to play along the edges -- confident they could avoid a fall.Bereano was the knowledgeable former staff man who had helped to pass important state laws -- the ethics law and the law providing for a special prosecutor, for example.

Leon Henry had previously preached to his 13-year-old nephew the importance of being a black man who gives back. Henry, the boy's legal guardian, has stressed for years how the city needs more male role models, ordinary men who work honest jobs and are willing to share time and energy to combat a rising violent element rampant in the streets. A citywide forum held yesterday gave Henry the chance to drive his point home. "He's got to see me do it, not just talk about it," said Henry, as his nephew, Dwayne Edwards, stood close by during an assembly aimed to attract 5,000 black men to volunteer and give back to the community.

NEW DELHI -- Defying nearly everyone's expectations but their own, Nepal's former Maoist rebels took a commanding lead yesterday in partial results from last week's election, a showing that could have profound effects on the Himalayan nation. With the votes tabulated in more than two-thirds of the 240 seats contested by direct election for an assembly charged with writing a new constitution, the Maoists have won 105 and are ahead in seven more districts, Nepal's Election Commission reported.

The idea, as explained to me by the 16-year-old, was this: We buy a pingpong table for some serious father-and-son bonding and when that goes south - say, about 10 minutes later - he and his friends can play. Fine. Anything for the youth of America. So we drive to the nearest mammoth sporting goods store and pick out a nifty mid-priced model. Naturally, it comes in a box that weighs as much as an elephant and has to be assembled. "Is it easy to put together?" I ask the sales guy. "Sure," he replies.

The whole point of last year's General Assembly special session was to address Maryland's budget problems by fixing the "structural deficit" - so that's something we no longer have to worry about, right? Wrong. Despite annual tax increases of more than $1 billion adopted in November, and a possible $500 million expected annually from slot machines, a transfer of $125 million from the state's rainy day fund is needed to balance the fiscal 2009 budget now being considered by the Assembly.

Gov. Martin O'Malley descended the elegant marble staircase of Maryland's State House last week to repeat his administration's insistence that 83 percent of taxpayers will pay no more under his wide-raging tax reform plan than they do now. No one, he said during his eight-minute speech to the General Assembly, then convening in special session, had laid a glove on his claim. No one, in other words, had shown that his numbers were wrong, a snare and delusion to rally support. Of course, the governor and the legislators he addressed knew it would be a tough sell whatever the numbers show.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has been calling for a special session of the General Assembly next month to deal with the state's $1.7 billion budget shortfall. This is a very bad idea. A special session removes the safeguards that were put in place to ensure open and transparent government. The state constitution provides for an Assembly meeting of 90 days each year. This allows complex issues to be fully explored through public hearings, discussion, deliberation and careful consideration. When large and complex issues are forced into special session, the volume of discourse - and therefore the level of public participation - is significantly reduced.

Howard County working mothers Brenda Bloom and Cheryl Post used to drive 90 minutes to New Jersey to prepare meals at Super Suppers, a meal-assembly franchise that began in Texas and hadn't yet come to Maryland. "I traveled quite a bit with my job, and we found meal assembly because we needed it," Bloom said. "It was a necessity for us." That was in 2005. Since then, four such businesses have opened in Howard County: Let's Dish, Let's Eat Dinner, Super Suppers, led by Bloom and Post, and Your Dinners.

Maryland's General Assembly convenes this week, hoping it won't have to disturb - or even acknowledge - the fiscal elephant in the room. Governor-elect Martin O'Malley and his team have no illusions about escaping difficult political decisions, some hard choices, but they are no doubt grateful that Democratic leaders in the Assembly want to give him a moment to catch his breath. Opponents are saying the new governor just can't wait to raise taxes. Others, with the fiscal health of the state in mind, are saying that something must be done to raise more revenue - the sooner, the better.

Maryland's brand-new General Assembly convenes soon to address an old problem. Several old problems, actually. You could think of them as chickens coming home to roost. Chicken No. 1: The state's tax structure doesn't match up well with the modern service economy. It dates to a time when manufacturing dominated. So even when the economy is doing well, the state's tax revenue stream doesn't flow as freely as it might. And, with billion-dollar deficits in prospect next year, more revenue is needed.

Court gave Assembly a decisive rebuke The Sun's editorial criticizing the Maryland Court of Appeals' decision on the Public Service Commission struck me as too kind to the General Assembly and unfair to the court ("Revenge of the PSC," Sept. 17). I did not encounter any of the problems The Sun had appreciating the logic of the four opinions, which are readily accessible on the court's Web site. On balance, they delivered a well-reasoned and decisive legal rebuke to the Assembly. The Sun cited the fact that the court issued four opinions to support its conclusion that the "exact reasoning of the court is muddled" in this case.