Lawmakers

Four trucks laden with 100 slot machines arrived early Wednesday morning at the nearly completed casino at Arundel Mills mall. For the next two hours, workers wheeled banks of the gleaming new machines, one by one, inside on hand trucks. Installation of the first set of slots moved Maryland Live! Casino, the state's largest, another step closer to its scheduled opening in three months. That's progress for Maryland's lackluster gambling program, which has yet to be fully implemented more than three years after voters approved five slots locations statewide.

Greenberg potato skins, Greenberg potato skins, Greenberg potato skins ... jackpot! The Prime Rib is coming to the Maryland Live Casino — Greenberg potato skins, leopard-skin carpeting, baby grand piano and all. Established in Baltimore in 1965 by brothers Buzz and Nick Beler, the Prime Rib has is now a bona fide dining institution, with additional locations in Washington and Philadelphia. Attracting the Prime Rib to Maryland Live is a coup for the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos., which had originally announced that the casino's premier steak house would be Ruth's Chris . "The Prime Rib kept coming up in internal conversations and on surveys," said Cordish managing partner Joe Weinberg, who is overseeing the casino's design, construction and operations.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Both the Maryland House of Delegates and the Senate are working this weekend to prepare for adjournment. Both chambers are gathering Saturday to catch up with unfinished business. The House will be debating a bill backed by Gov. Martin O'Malley to make utilities generate more of their power by solar energy. Supporters say it's important to grow the use of solar energy to help drive down energy prices. But opponents contend it will pass on costs to ratepayers and small businesses.

The House of Delegates voted 77 to 60 this afternoon to increase income taxes on the top 14 percent of Marylanders, finishing up business left undone when lawmakers gridlocked at the end of the regular session in April. It still needs to be signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, who introduced the legislation. The measure completes a spending package that will undo a so-called Doomsday budget that would have cut into Democratic priorities like education and health care. The tax increase will hit roughly 300,000 taxpayers -- individuals who make more than $100,000 and joint filers who earn over $150,000.

State Sen. Andrew P. Harris has drafted a pair of amendments that make changes to lawmaker pension plans and planned to offer them Monday night. The first would make state lawmakers who are convicted of crimes related to their office ineligible for state pension benefits. Harris, a Republican representing Baltimore and Harford counties, pointed to voter outrage that former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon will collect her $83,000 pension despite a jury conviction on a theft charge as a reason for his legislation.

Neither the governor, lieutenant governor nor any of the state's 188 lawmakers will see a pay raise anytime soon. A House of Delegates committee unanimously rejected Thursday the recommendations of a pair of independent commissions that called for moderate pay raises in about three years. Most state lawmakers make $43,500 yearly; the House speaker and Senate president earn $56,500 each. The governor's salary is $150,000, and the lieutenant governor's is $125,000. The commissions meet once every four years, meaning that the salaries of those elected officials are to remain the same until 2015.

Maryland's state senators and delegates have their work cut out for them if they are to stop Gov. Martin O'Malley, Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch and their henchmen from raising taxes to pay for increased state spending ("Protest targets planned tax rise," May 14). As Del. Herb McMillan reminded voters in a recent letter to The Sun, the budget they are proposing would increase total state spending from $34.7 billion to $35.3 billion — a $600 million (or 2 percent)

As a professional in the Maryland home building business, I urge members of the Maryland General Assembly to oppose Gov.Martin O'Malley's proposal to limit new residential subdivisions served by septic systems (SB 236/ HB 445 - The Governor's Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act). If approved, the bill would have negative effects on our industry and would kill jobs. It takes planning authority away from local governments by requiring counties to add "growth tiers" into their comprehensive plans by the end of this year or else many of their septic subdivisions will be denied.

While diners in Washington, D.C. and Virginia are free to bring their own bottle of wine into a licensed restaurant, the practice, known as "corkage," is prohibited in Maryland. But changes could be on the way. New legislation to allow corkage is scheduled for its first hearing before the Economics Matters Committee in the state House of Delegates Monday, and an identical bill was heard in a state Senate committee last week. The legislation's outlook is much more promising than last year, when proposed corkage bills sank in committees.

When I saw the article on the front page of your newspaper about Negro Mountain ( "Controversy over 'Negro Mountain' reveals urban-rural divide," Feb. 21), I thought it was a joke! Are you kidding me? Enough is enough! You can't change history, only learn from it. And hopefully you don't let the bad things repeat themselves. We need to stop using the race card. I can't believe that anyone can find the name offensive especially when you know the meaning behind it! What an honor!

Maryland's state senators and delegates have their work cut out for them if they are to stop Gov. Martin O'Malley, Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch and their henchmen from raising taxes to pay for increased state spending ("Protest targets planned tax rise," May 14). As Del. Herb McMillan reminded voters in a recent letter to The Sun, the budget they are proposing would increase total state spending from $34.7 billion to $35.3 billion — a $600 million (or 2 percent)

Not long after the Maryland General Assembly last adjourned back in mid-April, gasoline prices were approaching $4 a gallon. Currently, a price-conscious shopper can purchase a gallon of regular unleaded in the Baltimore area for as little as $3.50. That's a 50-cent swing in prices, essentially a 12.5 percent discount from just one month ago. So, Mr. and Mrs. Average Maryland Consumer, has this drop in prices had a huge impact on your life? Has it revived the economy? Put the unemployed back to work?

  In theory, a special session of the General Assembly could be an opportunity raise any issue a legislator wanted to attempt to put on the agenda. In reality, there seems to be virtually no desire on the part of lawmakers to deal with anything but the state  budget in the session set to begin May 14. Democratic lawmakers interviewed at the party's annual gala Monday night in Greenbelt were unanimous in rejecting the idea of dealing with non-budget items during the special session -- whether it be pet bills that died on the final day of the regular session or the pit bulls that came up on the losing end of a Court of Appeals decision.

Three Maryland superintendents whose school systems stand to take the biggest hit from Maryland's 'Doomsday' budget pleaded with state legislators Monday to reverse an estimated $129 million cut to public education that they said would have devastating effects on their districts. In an open letter to the state's top leadership, Baltimore city schools CEO Andres Alonso, Prince George's County Schools Superintendent William R. Hite, and Montgomery County Superintendent Joshua P. Starr asked state lawmakers to make it a priority to restore funding to schools as legislators prepare to head back into a special session of the Maryland General Assembly on May 14. The letter, which you can read here, i s addressed to Gov. Martin O'Malley, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and House Speaker Michael E. Busch.  The three superintendents write from the largest school systems in the state.

The news that Governor O'Malley and the top leaders of the General Assembly are now considering two special legislative sessions is unheard of and preposterous ("Annapolis leaders considering two special sessions," April 24). It's bad enough that even one special session is being considered. Passing a balanced budget should have been the highest priority during the three-month regular session. Since the legislature didn't manage to do that, taxpayers are now faced with paying $20,000 a day for every day of the special sessions.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and top leaders of the General Assembly are considering the possibility of holding two special legislative sessions — one in May to deal with the state budget and another in summer to consider an expansion of casino gambling in Maryland. O'Malley disclosed the possible plan Tuesday in Baltimore, shortly after he met in Annapolis with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch to discuss the prospect of calling senators and delegates back to the capital to raise taxes and avert about $500 million in cuts to popular programs.

After months of fierce resistance, Cadbury's about-face to accept a sweetened $19.5 billion takeover from Kraft Foods Inc. - forming the world's biggest candy company - has alarmed British unions, lawmakers and chocolate lovers. With Cadbury shareholders expected to agree to the deal, opponents fear the U.S. multinational's impact on one of Britain's oldest and best-loved brands. - From Sun news services

Closely divided Baltimore County lawmakers decided this morning not to back a plan to add elected members to the local school board, likely dooming the legislative effort this year. The county's delegates had narrowly endorsed a similar proposal earlier this month, though County Executive James T. Smith opposed it. Sen. Bobby A. Zirkin had sought a "hybrid" school board of eight appointed and seven elected members as a way to add new voices to a board that is now selected by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Key senators reached a tentative agreement Tuesday to save a mail processing center considered significant to the Eastern Shore economy but left the fate of more than a dozen post offices in the Baltimore region uncertain as they considered a sweeping bill to overhaul theU.S. Postal Service. The underlying bipartisan legislation, which is poised for a vote in the Senate Wednesday, would allow the cash-strapped mail service to inch closer to ending Saturday delivery after a two-year waiting period and also restructure the way it pays retiree health benefits - potentially saving the agency billions of dollars a year.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III and several labor groups are calling on the governor and legislative leaders to consider legislation to allow an expansion of gambling if the General Assembly returns for a special session. In a letter sent to state leaders on Monday, Baker said, a Democrat, said a casino in his county would help Maryland address its budget shortfall without burdening taxpayers. Consideration of gambling appears to have been at the center of the state's budget meltdown this month.