Finance Committee

A divided Baltimore school board debated yesterday the significance of errors in the budget it recently approved, with some members acknowledging that they had not read it line by line and others demanding to know how administrators will fix the problems. At the same time, school system officials said that all six staff members in the office responsible for preparing the budget are new to their jobs, with the most senior employee having been there for about seven months. The board's chairman and the head of its finance committee have played down the significance of a Sun report that the $1.2 billion budget for next school year is filled with mistakes, arguing that the problems were only a matter of presentation.

The NFL announced publicly for the first time yesterday that it has problems with the financing of Edward Milstein's bid to buy the Washington Redskins, raising the specter that the league may risk a lawsuit by rejecting his $800 million bid.Responding to reports that Milstein has altered his financing plan to satisfy NFL requirements at a Monday meeting with commissioner Paul Tagliabue, the league said in a statement: "Despite media reports to the contrary,...

PHOENIX -- Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said last night that progress has been made in talks with Howard Milstein on his proposal to buy the Washington Redskins, but there is still no deal to present to the owners.After the powerful finance committee delayed making a recommendation, Tagliabue said: "We really have made some substantial progress in the last 72 hours. We'll see if we can get something nailed down that we can present to the membership [at the annual owners' meeting this week]

WASHINGTON -- For a moment it seemed as if Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski had joined the other side.During a roll call on whether to dismiss impeachment charges against President Clinton, the Maryland Democrat prompted gasps in the gallery when she voted with Republicans and against the motion that had been offered by her Senate mentor, West Virginia Democrat Robert C. Byrd.After an exchange of glances with Byrd, she quickly rose and changed her vote, saying, "I made an error -- I vote yes."Turning to Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, she rubbed her brow in embarrassment and said, "That shows you how sick I am."

Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo Bills, likes Ravens owner Art Modell, but he's not sympathetic to the idea of the NFL's waiving the Ravens' $29 million relocation fee or giving Modell a loan to solve his financial problems."

Howard Milstein has agreed in a letter to split a $400 million loan to buy the Washington Redskins with his brother, Edward, but has provided no documentation to back up the proposal, a league spokesman said yesterday.The loan is part of an $800 million package put together by the Milsteins and Daniel Snyder that won the bidding war to buy the Redskins from the estate of the late Jack Kent Cooke.Howard Milstein was originally going to borrow the $400 million himself, which would violate the NFL's debt rules, so the league asked that the loan be split between the brothers.

PHOENIX -- The NFL had a simple message for Howard Milstein and the city of Los Angeles yesterday: Show Us the Money.As commissioner Paul Tagliabue prepared to officially open the league meetings today with an upbeat report on the state of the league, two thorny issues -- the Washington Redskins' sale and expansion -- continue to remain unresolved.As usually happens in the NFL, money is at the root of both problems. The league failed to get a committee recommendation on either issue over the weekend, much less a consensus of the owners.

A committee of the Board of Regents recommended yesterday that Coppin State College use private funds to build a dormitory, despite objections from Coppin President Calvin W. Burnett, who said the higher costs would be passed on to students.A report presented to the finance committee of the regents, who govern the University System of Maryland, showed that a 300-bed residence hall constructed with state bonds would cost students $3,168 to live there for nine months, compared with the $3,557 cost from a privately constructed facility.

PHOENIX -- The last time the NFL had an expansion derby, in 1995, it selected two small markets -- Carolina and Jacksonville -- with good stadium deals.Now it wants to expand to a big market -- Los Angeles -- with no stadium deal.Nobody ever accused the NFL of being consistent, but NFL officials have yet to get 24 votes for their Los Angeles plan at the annual March meetings this week.The problem is that Los Angeles doesn't have a stadium financing plan and a single site or owner.Houston has all three, but it's the 11th largest TV market and Los Angeles is the second largest market.

Drawing heavily on the generosity of the industries his powerful committee oversees, Baltimore County Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell has raised an eye-popping $437,896 for his re-election campaign.Medical care providers, HMOs, insurance companies, banks, racetracks and casino operators are just a few of the well-heeled interests that have poured hefty sums into the Senate Finance Committee chairman's campaign treasury, according to a campaign finance disclosure statement filed this month.Roughly 70 percent of his contributions have come from companies and political action committees, while 30 percent have come from individuals, including many lobbyists.

In Annapolis, when the going gets tough, it's time to make it appear like you're suffering, too. Let us not shed too many tears for Maryland lawmakers for surrendering their free E-Pass transponders and their days of toll-free driving. House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller announced the sacrifice Wednesday and justified it as a way to "find efficiencies and reduce unnecessary spending." Well, that may produce savings running into the tens of dollars - or none at all since lawmakers receive $500-a-year expense accounts for business travel costs that could be applied to tolls.

Health care must become the civil rights movement of our time. And it is becoming clear that achieving guaranteed health care for every American will require all the tools that helped win earlier civil rights fights. Earlier this month, eight health care advocates, including me and two other Maryland physicians, stood up to Sen. Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and the Senate Finance Committee during a "public roundtable discussion" with a simple question: Will you allow an advocate for a single-payer national health plan to have a seat at the table?

State regulators say they want to bar Maryland hospitals from adding interest on unpaid bills at twice the rate allowed for other types of debts under the state constitution. Stephen Ports, principal deputy director of the Health Services Cost Review Commission, told the Senate Finance Committee that the agency's power to regulate hospitals could extend to how much the debt-collections firms they hire can charge in interest before a court judgment is entered against a patient who doesn't pay a bill.

The City Council finance committee is proposing nearly $1 million in additional expenditures to the city's $81 million operating budget, including the restoration of nonprofit grant money and the hiring of new employees. The increased funding is contingent on the passage of a proposal before the Anne Arundel County Council for an increase from 7 percent to 10 percent in the hotel tax. But the City Council and Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer have discussed the possibility of a 1 percent budget cut across all departments to fund the recommendations.

The Senate voted yesterday to strengthen pending restrictions on products that contain lead, matching a bill that has passed the House of Delegates. Sens. Bobby A. Zirkin and Lisa A. Gladden, both Democrats from the Baltimore area, persuaded their colleagues to reject a version of the bill Zirkin said had been weakened in the Finance Committee at the "11th hour" at the urging of toy industry lobbyists. "It's incomprehensible to me at a time of millions of recalls" of lead-containing toys "why we would want to water down this legislation," Zirkin said before the 30-16 vote accepting his amendments.

The Maryland Senate voted down a major piece of Gov. Martin O'Malley's environmental agenda yesterday amid a squabble among Democrats over how much money should be dedicated to rate relief for consumers coping with rising utility bills. The Senate voted 25-21 to reject the bill setting out how money from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative would be used. Lawmakers say the initiative could generate about $140 million every year through fees on industry, which will have to buy pollution credits through auctions beginning this year, but some estimates put the figure much higher.

WASHINGTON -- An alternative economic stimulus package picked up momentum in the Senate yesterday with new Republican support, potentially complicating the bid to pass legislation quickly to pump billions of dollars into the ailing economy. The Senate economic package - which would offer lower rebates than the House version but send them to many more Americans - won a 14-7 bipartisan nod in the Finance Committee. Three Republicans joined 11 Democrats in supporting the measure after Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking member, endorsed it. The proposal could come up for debate in the Senate as soon as today as an alternative to a House plan that passed with overwhelming Republican support Tuesday.

A divided Baltimore school board debated yesterday the significance of errors in the budget it recently approved, with some members acknowledging that they had not read it line by line and others demanding to know how administrators will fix the problems. At the same time, school system officials said that all six staff members in the office responsible for preparing the budget are new to their jobs, with the most senior employee having been there for about seven months. The board's chairman and the head of its finance committee have played down the significance of a Sun report that the $1.2 billion budget for next school year is filled with mistakes, arguing that the problems were only a matter of presentation.

A state Senate committee endorsed a "living wage" bill yesterday that would require higher pay for government contractors, advancing a top priority of Gov. Martin O'Malley in the final days of the General Assembly session. The Finance Committee voted 7-4 to back the measure, which would require wages of $11.30 an hour in urban areas and $8.50 an hour in rural areas. The state's minimum wage is $6.15 an hour. If it is enacted, Maryland would be the first state with such a measure, which is championed by liberal groups and labor unions but opposed by business groups.

Gov. Martin O'Malley pledged yesterday to sign legislation banning smoking at Maryland restaurants and bars if it reaches his desk, setting the stage for debate in the General Assembly, where intense lobbying campaigns are under way. Legislators in Annapolis will take up a statewide smoking ban after the Baltimore City Council approved a ban Monday, joining several other jurisdictions around the state that have passed similar measures prohibiting smoking...