Referendum

Howard County residents have tried four times in the past nine years to challenge local government decisions on taxes and land use by referendum and failed each time to get the questions on the ballot. They've been rebuffed by opinions of the county's law department and by the courts, getting hung up on legal technicalities and the details of how signatures are validated. As difficult as it is to put a question on the local ballot, the bar would rise a bit higher if voters on Election Day approve one particular county charter revision, one of five changes proposed this year.

Stop! Don't sign it! A petition drive secretly sponsored by developers Howard Brown and David Cordish has been circulating for the last few weeks in an effort to quash all of the zoning changes in Council Districts 2 and 6 that were approved in August by the Baltimore County Council. This vote took place after an exhaustive one-year process of community input meetings, Planning Board recommendations and staff reviews called the Comprehensive Zoning Map Process (CZMP). Finally, it was signed into law by County Executive Kevin Kamenetz.

Developers and shopping-center owners have contributed more than $225,000 to efforts to challenge zoning decisions in Baltimore County through referendums, financial disclosure forms show. Contributors to the drive include firms tied to developers Howard Brown and the Cordish Cos., as well as those that run the Garrison Forest Plaza in Owings Mills and Green Spring Station in Lutherville. The backers have paid political firms, lawyers and others in hopes of putting land-use issues in two districts on the 2014 ballot, according to the documents filed Friday with the county elections board.

The main group supporting same-sex marriage in Maryland has raised $3.2 million and still has $1.2 million in its war chest to defend the law in the Nov. 6 referendum, according to a disclosure filed last night with the State Board of Elections. Among the largest donors to Marylanders for Marriage Equality was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who endorsed the Maryland measure in a statement he released Friday. The mayor contributed $250,000. Meanwhile, the Maryland Marriage Alliance — leading the charge in opposition to the extension of civil marriage rights to gays and lesbians — reported that it has raised $838,000 and had a cash balance of $328,000.

Backers of a referendum drive to challenge Baltimore County zoning decisions say they have gathered enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot in 2014. The supporters say they have collected more than 70,000 signatures — far more than the number required — and filed them Friday with the county elections board. A referendum would put all zoning decisions in the districts of Council Chairwoman Vicki Almond and Councilwoman Cathy Bevins on the 2014 ballot. Each district's petition needed more than 28,000 signatures by mid-November.

"Would I lie?" This was the petitioner's answer when I asked questions about the petition she was anxious for me to sign. A brief sentence on the petition did state that any Baltimore County resident could sign even though the referendum would only affect land use decisions in two Baltimore county districts. Although this is true, when I asked if the purpose was to prevent land currently zoned for less dense growth from changing to higher density, she answered, "Yes," followed by, "Would I lie?"

A new round of spending by Penn National Gaming and MGM Resorts International has pushed the ad war in the referendum over expanded gambling into record territory, eclipsing the $34 million raised for the 2006 governor's race. In a filing posted Tuesday with the State Board of Elections, the ballot committee financed by Penn National reported that its outlay for the effort to defeat Question 7 has reached $21.6 million — $18 million of which has been spent. Meanwhile, a pro-expansion committee reported that it has spent $17.7 million.

Some community leaders in Baltimore County are fighting a referendum drive they say is backed by developers who are trying to "hijack" the county's zoning process because they didn't get their way. A coalition calling itself "Don't Sign It!" urged county residents Monday not to sign the petitions, which would put land-use decisions in Council Chairwoman Vicki Almond's and Councilwoman Cathy Bevins' districts on the 2014 ballot. The petition drive has ties to Howard Brown of David S. Brown Enterprises and to the Cordish Cos., two prominent development firms.

Bishop Willard E. Saunders Jr. quieted his Cherry Hill sanctuary Sunday morning, signaling for the music and the hallelujahs to stop so his words would come across clearly. "If something is perfect, it does not need changing," Saunders said, his image beaming from two screens on either side of the pulpit. "You can't redefine what God has already called perfect. "Marriage, the institution, is perfect," he continued. "It is the people who are imperfect. " The Hour of Power sermon was repeated in black churches across Maryland Sunday and will keep going all month, part of a coordinated effort by opponents of same-sex marriage to spread their message from the pulpit leading up to the referendum on Nov. 6. The Archdiocese of Baltimore, though technically not part of the "Marriage Sundays" effort, encouraged its priests to talk about the coming same-sex marriage referendum Sunday since the set scripture focused on marriage.

Baltimore County Council Chairwoman Vicki Almond is questioning why County Executive Kevin Kamenetz hasn't spoken out about a local referendum campaign linked to developers . The petition drive, which seeks to put zoning decisions in Almond's and Councilwoman Cathy Bevins' districts on the 2014 ballot, has ties to politically connected developers Howard Brown and the Cordish Cos.  Both developers are unhappy with decisions the councilwomen made...