Economic Matters Committee

The Annapolis City Council wanted to know what residents think about the city's Market House by the City Dock.Residents gave their answer at a public hearing last night: "Don't fix what ain't broke."That comment from resident David Lasher was representative of the views of about 20 people who testified at the City Hall hearing.With the leases of the current nine merchants in the 126-year-old Market House expiring at the end of the year, the council's Economic Matters Committee decided to find out if citizens wanted any changes.

ANNAPOLIS -- A Senate committee yesterday passed its own version of Gov. William Donald Schaefer's proposed reorganization of the insurance division, setting up a possible confrontation with the House committee that has approved a vastly different bill.The House version would create an Insurance Administration, independent of the Department of Licensing and Regulation and funded partly by a new surtax on all Maryland insurers.Part of that surtax would go to finance a new anti-fraud bureau within the administration.

ANNAPOLIS -- A Senate committee yesterday passed its own version of Gov. William Donald Schaefer's proposed reorganization of the insurance division, setting up a possible confrontation with the House committee that has approved a vastly different bill.The House version would create an Insurance Administration, independent of the Department of Licensing and Regulation and funded partly by a new surtax on all Maryland insurers.Part of that surtax would go to finance a new anti-fraud bureau within the administration.

A committee of the House of Delegates yesterday gave the green light to a bill that supporters say would clear the way for a used car "super-store" on the site of the former Freestate harness track in North Laurel.The 18-4 vote by the House Economic Matters Committee paves the way for action by the full House on the bill, which would let car dealerships in Howard County open on Sundays. Currently, only Montgomery and Prince George's counties allow Sunday car sales.The measure, already passed by the state Senate and the target of intense lobbying, was read on the floor of the House after the committee action.

A bill that would ban liquor advertising from billboards and posters in city neighborhoods ran into sharp opposition from liquor and billboard industry lobbyists during a House of Delegates committee hearing yesterday.Bruce C. Bereano, one of Annapolis' most powerful lobbyists, told the House Economic Matters Committee, "Liquor is a legal product entitled to be advertised . . . the precedence of this legislation would be profound."Mr. Bereano represents Penn Advertising of Baltimore, which has 820 billboards in the city -- 76 with liquor ads. The company said it would lose $2 million in advertising revenue if the bill becomes law.Mr.

ANNAPOLIS -- A group of Schaefer administration bills that would give the state authority to regulate currently untouchable segments of the insurance industry, and allow it to rehabilitate companies on the brink of collapse, passed a House committee yesterday, a clear sign of victory in the full House.The action by the House Economic Matters Committee sends to the House this week almost the entire package of insurance legislation submitted by Gov. William Donald Schaefer. Only a bill addressing consumer fraud against insurers has yet to clear the committee.

ANNAPOLIS -- A package of bills intended to protect Maryland citizens against insurance insolvencies eased through a Senate committee yesterday with hardly a hitch.HTC But because the bills, submitted on behalf of Gov. William Donald Schaefer, were amended slightly by the Senate Finance Committee before they were passed, the differences will have to be worked out with the committee's counterpart in the House, the Economic Matters Committee.The bills would:* Give Maryland's insurance commissioner broader authority to take control of a company threatened with insolvency and increase the examinations of insurers from at least one every five years to once every three years.

An article in yesterday's MBW section incorrectly named the committee that passed a bill to create an affordable housing trust funded by title company escrow interest. The state Senate Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee passed the bill.ANNAPOLIS -- Bits and pieces:Title companies. Having lost the fight in the Senate to hang onto their escrow interest, title companies now are focusing their battle on the House Ways and Means Committee.The bill that passed the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee last week would require title companies to give the interest they earn on client escrow accounts to a newly created Maryland Affordable Housing Trust.

The Carroll County edition of the Sunday Sun incorrectly reported the status of a bill sponsored by Del. Richard N. Dixon, a District 5A Democrat.The Economic Matters Committee killed House Bill 514, which would have required an insurance company to provide written notice to a third-party claimant if a payment is made to the claimant's attorney.The Sun regrets the error.ANNAPOLIS -- Carroll Del. Richard N. Dixon's effort to make Maryland's judges campaign for their offices has been defeated for the second straight year.

A bill that would allow Sunday car sales in Howard County continues to gain support in the General Assembly and is expected to pass the House of Delegates its final hurdle before going to the governor's desk.The House Economic Matters Committee held the final public hearing on the bill yesterday in Annapolis, where lobbyists, politicians and others made their last, at times passionate pleas for and against the legislation.The bill a significant economic development issue for the county and of particular interest to the North Laurel area passed the state Senate earlier this month and is headed for a House vote in about a week.