Legislators

Dennison Paolino gets $1,200 a year in scholarship money from three state legislators in Anne Arundel County. Her father, Thomas J. Paolino, happens to be president of the county teachers union, which endorsed the three lawmakers in the last election.Coincidence?Her benefactors -- Sen. Philip C. Jimeno and Dels. W. Ray Huff and Charles W. Kolodziejski -- say yes.Ms. Paolino, a junior at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, is a good student from a middle-income family. She's just the kind of person many lawmakers say they try to help with their controversial $7 million scholarship program.

SAN FRANCISCO -- From the instant the term-limit movement in California picked up momentum two years ago, state legislators were understandably nervous. Then came their disbelief when voters passed an initiative last year throwing out all 120 of them by the end of the decade and drastically cutting their operating budgets.Some legislators still clung to the hope of a legal reprieve. But last month the California Supreme Court upheld the law. Since then, the capital has been awash in a tide of anger and resentment.

With Maryland due to receive $4 billion from the tobacco industry over the next quarter-century, legislators, hospitals and a host of special interests are scrambling for a piece of the money. Lawmakers and interest groups have pressed Gov. Parris N. Glendening to use tobacco industry proceeds to pay for dozens of projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars, far exceeding the $150 million the state is supposed to divvy up this year. The jockeying -- which is breaking down in part along racial, geographic and partisan lines -- has grown so intense that legislative leaders are warning that the General Assembly might have to "park" much of the tobacco money for a year to build a consensus on its use. "It's getting ugly.

ANNAPOLIS -- He called the new ballpark a temple to false gods, but he'll be worshiping there tonight with the rest of the faithful.Baltimore Sen. Julian L. Lapides says he'll join his colleagues for something called Legislative Appreciation Night, another lavish coming-out party for Oriole Park at Camden Yards.The legislators each get four free tickets to tonight's game. They'll be wined. They'll be dined. They'll be thanked for all they did -- most notably for voting in favor of the project.

ANNAPOLIS -- Big money continued to flash its political power in Maryland over the last four years as PACs pumped money into the hands of incumbent lawmakers at a pace 71 percent higher than four years ago, according to a report released yesterday by Maryland Common Cause.Overall, Maryland's 250 political action committees contributed $3 million to General Assembly candidates during the 1990 election, with incumbents receiving $2.4 million of the total.The money always comes with strings attached, according to Phil Andrews, executive director of Common Cause in Maryland.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening is scrambling to salvage key parts of his legislative agenda as the General Assembly enters the final month of its 90-day session.The governor's proposed doubling of the state's 36-cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes faces an uncertain future. His HOPE scholarship program for middle-income Marylanders hangs by a thread. And his plan for redirecting state spending to curb suburban sprawl has run into major problems.To save all or some of them, the governor seems determined to bargain for as many votes as he can, using school construction funds, road projects and other state favors as currency.

Negotiators in Annapolis appeared to be nearing a deal on lowering electric rates for more than a million BGE customers yesterday as a Maryland judge blocked the legislature from ousting members of the state Public Service Commission, who have become a major sticking point in the talks. Participants in the discussions say that legislators have settled on a rate relief package for consumers with a structure that is nearly identical to the plan Constellation Energy executives offered last week and that lawmakers and company officials are $225 million apart in their proposed package.

Carroll County legislators promise to be tough on crime and wary of Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke in the General Assembly session that begins tomorrow.Legislators predict that the 1994 session will be a calm one, free of major budget cuts and controversies.Three of the county's four delegates and one of its senators said they will introduce measures to deal with escalating crime.Members of the Carroll delegation agreed that Mr. Cooke's plan to build a football stadium in Laurel will be a hot issue.

State legislators who helped create Baltimore's police Civilian Review Board said yesterday that they intend to amend the legislation to shorten the term of the board's first members from three years to six months. The change would counter City Council's approval Monday of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's seven nominations to the review board, created this year to monitor police misconduct.The state legislators who helped get the measure passed in Annapolis complained that Schmoke failed to open the appointment process to all residents and that three of his nominees were recommended by police.

The Maryland Senate gave preliminary approval yesterday to a major reform of state ethics laws, rejecting a half-dozen attempts to weaken the legislation.Both houses are poised to pass bills this week that would prohibit lawmakers from voting on legislation in which they have financial interest, bar them from accepting meals from lobbyists and make it tougher for legislators to get government jobs.The two chambers are expected to work out minor differences in their bills before the close of the 90-day session next month.