Surcharge

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. has proposed a "smart grid" program using energy meters and other devices to inform consumers when they could gain the most by conserving electricity and gas, but consumer advocates question the savings the company said it could achieve. If approved by state regulators, BGE's plan, announced Monday, would replace meters for all of its residential and business customers, costing $500 million that would be recovered over five years through bill surcharges. The price tag could be lower, because BGE plans to apply for $200 million in federal stimulus grants for smart grid technology.

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.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to re-regulate the state's electricity markets could short-circuit in the final days of the General Assembly session as some lawmakers say they don't have enough time to fully vet the legislation. The Senate has scheduled a vote Wednesday that many predict will be close, and key members of the House of Delegates have raised concerns that the legislature is moving too fast on a plan that represents a significant policy reversal from the state's decade-long foray into deregulation.

For a winter cruising forecast, we tapped the expertise of Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of Cruise Critic.com, the Web's largest interactive guide to cruising. The site covers nearly 300 cruise ships and more than 60 cruise lines. Here is an edited version of our discussion. What will cruise pricing look like for this winter and into 2009? What we are going to see ... in fact, what we are already seeing in the last month ... are absolutely amazing discounts. Most people buy cruises a fair amount of time in advance.

Suburban and out-of-state residents who come to Baltimore to buy drugs could be slapped with a $1,000 fine - in addition to whatever criminal penalty they might face - under legislation expected to be introduced in the City Council next week. Arguing that the city's pervasive drug trade and crime should be dealt with regionally, City Councilman William H. Cole IV, the measure's chief sponsor, said the bill is intended to spread the financial burden of policing to out-of-town drug users.

Maryland's "tech tax" is dead. The House of Delegates passed a bill yesterday evening repealing the new sales tax on computer services, wiping the unpopular levy from the books before it could ever go into effect. "I'm looking forward to signing it," said Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, after the 93-44 vote. "We're repealing a tax that hits a lot of growing small businesses and entrepreneurial people, the very sort of creative people that we want to encourage to stay." The repeal bill, which has already passed the Senate, replaces the computer tax with a combination of cuts and a three-year individual income tax surcharge on earnings of more than $1 million.

The Maryland Senate voted last night to repeal the computer services tax and replace it with a combination of cuts and an income tax surcharge on millionaires. The 30-17 vote sends the repeal bill, backed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, to the House of Delegates. House Speaker Michael E. Busch said passage in the Senate - where the "tech tax" was born - was the "biggest hurdle" to scrapping the unpopular levy. He predicted that even tax-weary delegates would support a temporary tax on millionaires.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and top leaders in the General Assembly are lining up votes for a plan to replace Maryland's new computer services tax with an income tax surcharge on top earners and cuts to transportation and other spending. The plan has the backing of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and Sen. Ulysses Currie, the Prince George's County Democrat who chairs the powerful Budget and Taxation Committee. "I feel fairly certain we'll be able to get it out" of committee, Currie said yesterday.

Support is mounting in the General Assembly for a plan to replace Maryland's new computer services tax with an income tax surcharge on top earners, suggesting that the coming weeks could become a reprise of the debate that nearly scuttled November's special legislative session. The chairman of the powerful Senate Budget and Taxation Committee said yesterday that he backs the plan. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller remained uncommitted on the idea, but House Speaker Michael E. Busch said yesterday that if the Senate passes the income tax increase proposed last week by Sen. Verna L. Jones of Baltimore, her bill would gain momentum in the House of Delegates.

.. The intention was good: Maryland power companies would help customers save electricity by providing discounted or free energy-efficient light bulbs. But consumers have discovered they're paying for the program - whether they use it or not - with a surcharge on every month's utility bills. And only a few stores offer the discount, which means inconvenience - if the consumer bothers to try to find the bulbs at all. Even the U.S. Postal Service has complained.