Payments

A bill authorizing a tax subsidy for developers of a west side revitalization project is expected to be introduced during Monday's Baltimore City Council meeting. The subsidy, in the form of a Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, would go to Lexington Square Partners LLC, developers of the proposed $150 million Lexington Square apartment and retail project in an area known as the Superblock, which has long been targeted for renewal. The tax break is being proposed to help offset the cost of building a 296-unit apartment tower and a 650-space garage.

The city's spending panel on Wednesday approved a $95,000 payout to a 90-year-old Baltimore woman who said she was roughed up by police. The sum was the result of a deal brokered between city lawyers and Venus Green, who alleged that her shoulder was separated during a scuffle with officers in her home on Poplar Grove Street in west Baltimore's Walbrook neighborhood in July 2009. According to documents the city's legal department filed with the Board of Estimates, three officers — Officer Kimberly Hanline, Det. Mark Spila and Sgt. Darryl T. Collins — entered Green's home against her objections while investigating a shooting at K&K Carryout, which is on Green's street.

Medicare is in desperate need of reform. Program costs are spiraling out of control and threatening to bankrupt the country. Here in Maryland, on average, each Medicare enrollee costs about $11,400 per year - that's a thousand dollars higher than the national average. Policymakers need to determine how to cut the program's costs. However, during that process, they need to be wary of compromising the care of beneficiaries. Some 800,000 Maryland seniors depend on Medicare to survive.

Every week for nearly a year, Sonnie Jones visited the Baltimore Police Academy to help put on a demonstration about how officers could better interact with residents in the city's crime-ridden neighborhoods. Though the demonstrations could become heated, officers often ended up thanking him for his perspective. But while his participation in the in-service training was always on a volunteer basis, he now wonders whether the city took advantage of his good will, in light of reports that guest speakers and non-law enforcement consultants were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to participate in other police training.

The founder of a payment processing firm in Rockville has filed a $300 million lawsuit against Baltimore-based private equity firm Sterling Partners, alleging that he was fraudulently induced into selling SecureNet Payment Systems. The lawsuit, filed last week in Baltimore City Circuit Court, alleges that SecureNet's founder and chief executive, Marc Potash, was duped into selling a 52 percent interest of his company to Sterling Partners for $56 million in September 2010. The lawsuit says the deal stipulated that Potash was to remain CEO and have day-to-day control but was wrongly fired a year later and was unable to collect millions in installment payments.

Baltimore City Community College received a $200,000 payment under "potentially questionable" circumstances from a company that was leasing it space, according to a state legislative audit released Wednesday. The matter has been referred to the attorney general's office for further review. The inquiry is the latest trouble for an institution that is battling to keep its accreditation and to build healthier relations between faculty and top administrators. The college says the $200,000 payment was a "contribution" from its landlord at the Maryland BioPark in West Baltimore.

The Maryland State Police have agreed to pay a $385,000 settlement to nine anti-abortion protesters arrested by Maryland State Troopers four years ago in Harford County. The 18 protesters, two of whom were minors, aged 14 and 17, at the time, were arrested and processed. While the minors were released, the others spent a night in the Harford County Detention Center. The state's Board of Public Works approved the payment Wednesday without discussion. The settlement means "the Maryland State Police cannot restrict speech, including speech employing images of aborted human babies, based on reactions of viewers or motorists to that speech," said Jack Ames, director of Defend Life, a Baltimore-based group.

The new St. John's Commons in Havre de Grace will be giving Harford County a payment in lieu of taxes. The Harford County Council approved the PILOT agreement with the 40-unit affordable housing project for seniors Tuesday, with minimal objections. St. John's Commons, on Stokes Street, would pay $175 per unit in lieu of taxes in the first year, $200 per unit the second year, $225 per unit the third year, $250 per unit the fourth year and $275 per unit the fifth year. In the sixth year, the amount will increase annually at 3 percent per unit, starting July 1, 2016.

Though just two Baltimore officers accused of taking kickbacks from Majestic Auto Repair are on trial this week in federal court, witnesses, prosecutors and attorneys have broadly described police behaving badly. One of the defendants falsified police reports to curry favor with a woman, and he let a drunken driver who had just crashed his car stumble into a liquor store, according to witnesses. Another officer, who previously pleaded guilty, falsely reported his personal vehicle stolen because he couldn't make the payments, according to one witness, while another officer used the Rosedale body shop for on-duty rendezvous with women, a defense attorney alleged.

A state proposal to raise boat registration fees for the first time in nearly three decades has dismayed many boat owners. A bill filed Thursday morning in Annapolis would replace the flat $24 boat registration fee paid every two years with fees ranging from $50 to $700, depending on the size of the boat. The increases would be phased in over four years, beginning in October, for Maryland's 191,000 registered boat owners. "What's the benefit? Or is it just one more way to raise revenue for the state?