Surcharge

A bill that would allow a surcharge of up to $2 a month on residential utility bills to pay for new gas pipelines appears to be advancing on a fast track in the General Assembly. The legislation would let the Maryland Public Service Commission grant the surcharge so utilities such as BGE could speed up replacement of aging pipelines. The state Senate gave preliminary approval to the measure Tuesday after a lively debate; the House of Delegates approved it Monday. Final votes on the measure, which appears likely to pass, are expected by the end of the week.

Maryland companies must pay $68 per worker next year to subsidize the state's unemployment insurance trust fund -- less than the $93.50 they paid this year and in line with projections, labor officials said yesterday. The 0.8 percent tax surcharge for 2005 is what state officials predicted this summer was needed to bolster the fund that pays benefits to laid-off workers. It is below this year's 1.1 percent that employers are paying. A state task force is working on a long-term solution to the shortfall in an effort to eliminate the fee, which businesses argue is unfair.

Starting today, the Mexican government is imposing a surcharge of at least 14 cents a minute to complete international calls to cell phones, doubling or tripling rates callers pay. "It's going to hurt the average consumer significantly," said Jeff Compton, an executive at Telscape Communications Inc., a Monrovia, Calif., phone company catering to Hispanics. Gabriel Lasco, 27, a waiter at Maria's Pescado Frito at the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles, knows how to get around the surcharges to call his father in Mexico City.

An article in yesterday's Sun incorrectly stated that drivers over the age of 50 pay a surcharge on insurance rates charged by GEICO General Insurance Co.GEICO adjusts its rates using a range of factors including age and annual driving mileage, although policyholders now face higher rates when they turn 65 and again at 75, typical policyholdrs receive rate reductions when they turn 50.A table accompanying the story was also incorrect. the figures it presented should have been stated in hundreds of dollars rather than in dollars and represented the total cost of a policy and not the amount of a surcharge.

Baltimore and Baltimore County have agreed that each will pursue a collection surcharge for non-residential solid waste pickup as a way to generate new revenue.The City Council is expected to act on the city surcharge as early as Monday night. But Baltimore County is expected to delay any such move for at least three months.Preliminary revenue estimates given by city Budget Director Edward J. Gallagher indicate the waste generator surcharge, as it is being called, would bring in about $4.5 million annually.

Store owners and city residents united Tuesday against a proposed 25-cent surcharge on plastic and paper bags used in Baltimore, saying the plan would burden small businesses and city residents struggling through difficult economic times. "It would put us in the position of being the bad cop," said Melvin Thompson of the Restaurant Association of Maryland. "We'd be nickel-and-diming our customers for a service that we used to provide free of charge." Thompson and other business owners and residents gathered for a City Council hearing on an initiative that would make Baltimore's fees for plastic bags among the costliest in the nation.

Maryland employers will have to pay an extra $93.50 per worker next year to shore up the state's unemployment insurance trust fund as increased jobless claims continue to outstrip contributions, state officials said yesterday. The 1.1 percent surcharge will kick in automatically in January because the trust fund fell below the state-required threshold of $822.6 million. As of Sept. 30, the fund had a balance of $646.1 million. The state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation will soon send employers formal notices about the surcharge, which is likely to continue for the next several years.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. may propose a surcharge on Marylanders' water and sewer bills next year to help pay for hundreds of millions of dollars in needed upgrades at sewage filtration plants, an aide told legislators yesterday. Kenneth H. Masters, Ehrlich's chief legislative officer, said the administration is considering a possible charge of $2 to $3 a month as part of its strategy for protecting the Chesapeake Bay. He said the administration expects it to apply statewide -- not just in areas where upgrades are needed.

Prince George's County Executive Wayne K. Curry proposed yesterday adding a $2 to $3 surcharge on tickets at the Redskins stadium to help defray the state's cost in the project.The surcharge represents Mr. Curry's first counterproposal to legislators demanding that Prince George's absorb some of the state's infrastructure costs for the Redskins stadium.Under Mr. Curry's proposal, the county still escapes paying anything for the stadium, while fans would end up paying more.By imposing a new fee on tickets, "infrastructure costs would be shifted from taxpayers to users of the facility, thus allocating responsibility where it belongs," Mr. Curry said in a letter sent yesterday to Gov. Parris N. Glendening and Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke.

A drop in jobless-benefit claims means employers will likely pay a lower tax surcharge next year to bolster Maryland's unemployment insurance trust fund, state officials said yesterday. Thanks to the pickup in the economy, the state is now projecting a 0.8 percent surcharge for 2005, which would cost companies an extra $68 per worker for the year. That's significantly below both the 1.1 percent - or $93.50 per worker - that employers are currently paying and the 1.2 percent the state had expected for 2005.