Senate Floor

The General Assembly deadlocked Tuesday night over legislation that would have overruled a widely criticized court decision labeling pit bulls as inherently dangerous, apparently killing the bill in this summer's special session. Senate PresidentThomas V. Mike Millersaid he did not believe there would be any action on the legislation because "the difference is very stark" between House and Senate versions of the bill. Miller, a Calvert County Democrat, spoke on the Senate floor just before 9 p.m. as the chamber gathered to consider a bill on gambling expansion, the main purpose for a special session that was expected to continue long into the night.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Banking Committee approved yesterday a wide-ranging reform of the nation's Depression-era financial laws, approving interstate branching, giving banks expanded powers to affiliate with securities firms and ordering a basic, low-cost bank account for people earning less than $20,000 a year.The bill was approved by a 12-9 vote and will go to the floor of the Senate -- where it faces an uncertain future -- when the body convenes next month after a summer recess. The House Banking Committee adopted a different version of the bill that would allow big industrial and commercial firms to buy banks.

WASHINGTON -- Carter Glass was the dean of the U.S. Senate and chairman of the Appropriations Committee when he became incapacitated with heart trouble in the 1940s. The feeble octogenarian was absent from the Capitol for four years, unable to answer a roll call on the Senate floor, cut off from all visitors by his wife. Newspapers began to clamor for his resignation, but the Virginia Democrat refused. His Senate colleagues allowed Glass to keep his seat, and even his powerful chairmanship.

The budget package passed by the Maryland state Senate has many good elements -- investments in local schools, a cap on tuition hikes at public colleges, more money for road repairs and cuts in nonessential spending. However, it also includes a provision making it easier for county councils to override voter-imposed property tax limits. Five counties - Prince George's, Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Talbot, and Wicomico - currently have such limits. Whether or not you think your local property tax rate is high enough to support good schools, we should all be able to agree that the voters' will ought to be respected.

The Senate Budget & Taxation Committee has rejected a controversial amendment the House attached to an administration bill creating a new framework for public-private partnerships before sending its own version of the the legislation to the Senate floor. Sen. Edward Kasemeyer, the committee chairman, said his panel did not adopt language from the House  bill that would have allowed expedited appeals in a pending case involving a $1.5 billion partnership for the redevelopment of the State Center office complex in Baltimore.

On its third try in three years, Gov. Martin O'Malley's bill to spur development of an offshore wind farm off the coast of Ocean City won the approval of a key committee Tuesday night, setting the stage for what is expected to be easy passage on the Senate floor. The Senate Finance Committee, which spurned the bill the past two years, voted 7-4 for this year's version of one of O'Malley's  top environmental priorities. The governor was helped by a change in the composition of the committee, which previously has six members who were committed to voting it down.

The General Assembly took an important step toward repealing Maryland's death penalty Thursday night when a key committee, for the first time in decades, approved a bill to end capital punishment. The Senate Judicial Proceedings committee voted 6-5 to send Gov. Martin O'Malley's death penalty bill to the Senate floor, with Sen. Robert A. Zirkin, a Baltimore County Democrat, dropping his long-held opposition to repeal of capital punishment and providing the decisive vote.

From: Bill D. BurlisonCroftonMuch play has been given to the proposal by the governor to reduce the welfare for the poor by 5 percent. It is said the purpose of this suggestion was to coerce the legislature into a tax increase. Thistheory is given legitimacy by the fact that the governor withdrew his plan when the alleged coercion did not work.The fact is that the proposal was a good one, but for a different reason. It was sound public policy to reduce government spending at a time of state fiscal shortfalls.

C "An overwhelming number of Marylanders want tougher gun laws," Gov. William Donald Schaefer said in his State of the State address earlier this month. "Gun legislation can't be bottled up in a committee." Yet that is exactly what Cecil County's Sen. Walter M. Baker has in mind.Senator Baker is chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. As far as he's concerned, the only good handgun bill is a dead handgun bill. The fact that public opinion polls indicate overwhelming sentiment in favor of tougher handgun restrictions doesn't faze him. The fact that nearly as many Marylanders die from handgun wounds as from auto accidents doesn't seem to matter a bit. Nor does the Cecil County chairman seem upset that his stance is viewed by a growing number of his Senate colleagues as outdated and damaging to them politically.

Committee passes bill on pension programsA bill requiring the Carroll County Board of Commissioners to contribute to the county's volunteer fire department pension programs was passed by a select Senate committee earlier this week.Sen. Larry E. Haines, who introduced the bill for the commissioners, said the bill is scheduled for a second reading on the Senate floor today. Bills must pass three readings in the Senate before they are sent to the House of Delegates."This is local legislation, so I don't think there will be any problems concerning the bill," said Mr. Haines, a Republican from Westminster.