Senate Budget

A provision of a Senate budget bill that passed Thursday would -- if accepted by the House -- require the Maryland Transit Administration to raise fares on its core services in Baltimore to keep pace with inflation. The clause in the annual budget reconciliation bill would end the transit fare freeze on MTA bus, subway and light rail services that has prevailed for almost a decade. The base one-way fare for those services is $1.60. A provision the Senate inserted into Gov. Martin O'Malley's original bill would require the MTA to adjust fares every other year, starting in the budget year beginning July 1, to account for increases in the Consumer Price Index over the previous two calendar years.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan to allocate $300,000 in taxpayer money to save Towson University's baseball team came under fire Wednesday from some legislators and key fiscal policymakers for being unprecedented and unfair to other college sports programs. Comptroller Peter Franchot said the money, recently included in the governor's 2014 budget, is a "bailout" that rewards bad financial decisions by a university. Towson President Maravene Loeschke decided last month to eliminate the university's baseball and men's soccer programs because of insufficient funding and a lack of gender equity in the university's sports.

ANNAPOLIS -- Two Senate budget subcommittees yesterday began the thankless task of hacking millions of dollars from the $12.6 billion spending plan Gov. William Donald Schaefer submitted for the fiscal year that begins July 1.The jobs of bureaucrats at the Department of Education, midlevel brass in the state police, public information officers in a variety of agencies and money for out-of-state travel, car phones and programs large and small were slashed the...

Dozens of Baltimore teens and young adults packed a state Senate hearing Wednesday, urging lawmakers not to build a new Baltimore jail for juvenile offenders charged as adults and instead shift efforts to keeping youths from being locked up in the first place. The comments came as the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee met to take testimony on the $70 million, 120-bed proposal being pushed by the state as a way to improve conditions for youthful prisoners in the city. Opponents, such as 21-year-old activist Nicole Cheatom, told senators that the state should repurpose a women's prerelease unit closed three years ago instead of building a new facility.

The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee put the finishing touches on its version of the state budget yesterday, cutting slightly less than the House of Delegates did from the proposal by Gov. William Donald Schaefer.The Senate committee called for $208 million in cuts from the administration's $12.7 billion budget, while the House, in the spending plan it approved on Thursday, asks for a $220 million reduction.Though there are some significant differences between the two proposals, there is much more similarity, setting the stage for a smooth resolution after three years of often heated budget-balancing battles.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said last night that the Ocean Downs harness track will come out of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s proposal to legalize slot machines in Maryland. The announcement came after the governor spent more than an hour meeting with eight senators late last night, arguing - on the eve of a crucial Senate committee vote this afternoon - against allowing expanded gambling near Ocean City. "I think in light of the governor's proposal and the fact it is an administration bill, and he indicated very strongly he would like to keep his commitments, I think the recommendation of the committee will be for Ocean Downs to come out of the bill," Miller said.

Buried in freshly forged U.S. Senate budget language is a $400,000 federal grant for the Woman's Industrial Exchange, the quaint crafts shop and tearoom that has graced downtown for more than a century. If passed into law this fall, the money would pay for a major restoration of the exchange's public rooms: an antiquated kitchen that runs a dumbwaiter, a retail shop with handmade arts, crafts and cloths, and the dining room with faded wall murals and period fireplaces at 333 N. Charles St. In addition, seven newly designed market-rate one-bedroom apartments, priced from $700 to $900 a month, are being constructed in four upper levels once used as a boardinghouse, to generate more income.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday that his plan to legalize slot machine gambling would generate almost $900 million a year for the state within four years, providing nearly 70 percent of the money needed to pay for a landmark public schools funding plan. "It's not the entire answer, but it's a significant part of the answer," Ehrlich said during a rare gubernatorial appearance before a legislative committee. But legislative analysts questioned some of his projections, estimating the state might take in as much as $200 million less annually, in part because of potential declines in lottery sales.

Today1 p.m. Senate Budget and Taxation subcommittee on transportation matters considers budget of the secretary's office, Department of Transportation. Room 400, Senate Office Building.1 p.m. Senate Budget and Taxation subcommittee on human resources considers budget for office of Child SupportEnforcement. Room 100, Senate Office Building.8 p.m. House and Senate convene, State House.There are 49 days remaining in the 1991 General Assembly session.@

10 a.m.: Senate convenes, State House.11 a.m.: House convenes, State House.1 p.m.: Senate Budget and Taxation Committee hears testimony on legislation to extend the current income tax checkoff for endangered species and the Chesapeake Bay Trust, Room 100, Senate Office Building.There are 74 days remaining in the 1992 General Assembly session.

Key senators on the committee that handles casino-related matters rejected the notion of taking up the issue of Internet gambling during next week's special session, saying there isn't enough time to weigh the implications of a step that could, in effect, put slot machines in Maryland homes. Four Democratic members of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, each a supporter of other forms of gambling expansion, said Friday that they are not prepared to sort through the complex issues surrounding online gambling in a session that is expected to last less than a week.

A provision of a Senate budget bill that passed Thursday would -- if accepted by the House -- require the Maryland Transit Administration to raise fares on its core services in Baltimore to keep pace with inflation. The clause in the annual budget reconciliation bill would end the transit fare freeze on MTA bus, subway and light rail services that has prevailed for almost a decade. The base one-way fare for those services is $1.60. A provision the Senate inserted into Gov. Martin O'Malley's original bill would require the MTA to adjust fares every other year, starting in the budget year beginning July 1, to account for increases in the Consumer Price Index over the previous two calendar years.

The Maryland Senate launches what is expected to be at least a three-day marathon today as it takes up the state budget for next year -- including its response to Gov. Martin O'Malley's call for an increase in income taxes. Senators will begin debating amendments today to a four-bill package including the budget itself, a tax bill, an annual budget companion bill that includes a much-debated shift of teacher pension costs to the counties and a measure requiring counties to maintain their level of spending on schools to match recent increases in state education aid. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller expects to call two sessions today and will likely do so again Thursday and Friday.

Senators from Baltimore and the state's largest counties reacted with dismay Tuesday as the General Assembly's chief policy analyst laid out the details of what has been dubbed "the doomsday budget. " Warren Deschenaux walked the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee through a list of deep cuts to state and local programs that would be necessary if legislators don't vote to raise taxes and shift some teacher pension costs to the counties - measures proposed by Gov.Martin O'Malley.

State aid to public schools and universities could be slashed, 500 state jobs abolished and local law enforcement grants eliminated under a "doomsday" budget prepared for the Maryland Senate to show the impact of a budget balanced without tax increases. The budget cutting would especially be hard on Baltimore, which would lose almost $75 million in state aid — including $34 million for education and $10 million for law enforcement. The $720 million in cuts are part of what Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller has called a doomsday budget, prepared for the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee as an alternative to Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to raise about $300 million in additional revenue, largely through an increase in the income taxes paid by Marylanders earning $100,000 or more.

A whopping budget battle is shaping up in Annapolis, where the leaders of the House of Delegates and Senate floated widely divergent proposals Friday to raise income taxes as part of a plan to close a $1 billion shortfall. The Senate is considering a measure that would raise the income tax for almost every Marylander by a quarter of a percent, effectively rolling back a tax cut made 15 years ago, key senators said. The House is looking at a plan that would hit the top 7 percent to 10 percent of earners with a steep increase but leave everyone else alone, said House SpeakerMichael E. Busch.

The General Assembly's joint ethics committee has recommended unanimously that the Senate censure Sen. Ulysses Currie, once a powerful committee chairman, for failing to disclose that he was being paid to represent a grocery chain before state agencies. In what would be the harshest action taken against a legislator since 1998, the ethics panel also urged senators to strip Currie "immediately and permanently" of all but one committee assignment and to bar him from any role in House-Senate negotiations to resolve differences over bills.

What I struggle to understand about state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie is how someone who is described by his confederates as being "not the brightest" and "disorganized" could have chaired the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. This fact seems to be overlooked in all the hubbub. How many other powerful government positions are filled with people who could be described the same way? Mr. Currie was at the very least lining his own pockets through the auspices of his elected position.