On Thursday, February 3, at noon, Governor Martin O’Malley delivered his fifth State of the State address. The Governor’s message was upbeat. As with past Governors in economic down times, he has to try to rally the State. His mission for the coming year is to carry out President Obama’s national agenda in Maryland and to work to create job growth in ways that will boost the number of Maryland jobs in renewable energy, cybersecurity, and other high-tech sectors. The Governor began his speech talking about how the people of Maryland will be able to move forward into a new economy by the use of their skills and talents. I believe that even with the poor shape that the State is presently in, what Maryland’s government needs to do is create and retain jobs by making the state more business friendly.
The theme of the Governor’s message was “moving forward through innovation”. The Governor stated that one way to address the deficit would be to streamline government. He made the comment, “We need to get government out of the way.” He pledged to cut beaurocratic red tape, while addressing the $1.4 billion deficit. He plans to combine the departments of Higher Education and the Department of Education. I also believe in streamlining government and have introduced a bill, Senate Bill 153 that would combine the Department of the Environment and the Department of Natural Resources. You do not have to be that innovative a thinker to realize that there is much redundancy and unnecessary time consumed in the current permitting processes of these two departments that could be eliminated with just one department. This merger would in the long run save the taxpayer and state government an astronomical amount of money.
Other areas discussed by the Governor are:
■The need to improve public safety, education, and economic growth
■Ways to build the recovery from the economic downturn
■Continue to promote policies that encourage business expansion, job creation, and economic progress.
■Empower businesses owned by veterans
■Reregulate electric companies and hold them responsible for reliable service
■Installation of offshore wind for power
Two items of particular interest for the rural Eastern Shore are:
■The Governor wants to save the native oyster through aquaculture, thus, taking it out of the Department of Agriculture and putting it into the Department of Natural Resources. I do not think this will work.
■The Governor also stated that he wants to stop “the proliferation of new septic tanks”. I believe that banning septic tanks would be very detrimental to future development of the Eastern Shore, since wastewater treatment plants are not available in many of the rural areas of the Eastern Shore.” With 95% of the Chesapeake Bay’s nitrogen coming from the Susquehanna, Potomac, and Rappahannock rivers, all six states and Washington D.C. in the Bay’s watershed must be involved in any clean-up efforts. We must not vilify rural areas like the Eastern Shore, farmers, and watermen, but instead, formulate a comprehensive plan that includes a sustainable oyster population, the Chesapeake Bay’s natural filter.
Thursday, February 10, commemorates the 30th day of Session, which means that one-third of the Session is over. So far, about 400 Senate bills have been introduced and 400 House bills. The following bills that I have sponsored will be heard next week:
On Tuesday, February 8, at 1:00, the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee will hear Senate Bill 153 (Reorganization of State Government – Consolidating the Department of the Environment into the Department of Natural Resources). Like the proposal of the Federal Government to reorganize, the State of Maryland must also look at the effectiveness of its programs, especially those that serve the public sector. Reorganization projects can be complex and controversial. The biggest problems are not so much the structure of individual agencies, but the coordination among them. When two agencies are duplicating efforts, regulating the same areas, and complicating the regulations that the public must adhere to, then it is appropriate to take action. My bill calls for the Secretary of Natural Resources and the Secretary of the Environment to develop and submit to the Legislative Policy Committee a comprehensive and practical plan for the consolidation of all powers, duties, functions, and staff of the two departments. This plan would provide for the elimination or modification of duplicative programs and services – the result being a better coordination of natural resources activities within the State and budget reduction. One department working to oversee the policies and programs affecting our state’s environment and natural resources will insure the preservation, development, wise use, and enjoyment of all the natural resources for the greatest benefits to the State of Maryland and its citizens. I plan to amend the bill to rename the department, the Department of Environmental Resources.
On Wednesday, February 9, at 1:00, the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee will here Senate Bill 157 (Code Home Rule Counties – Development Excise Tax for School Construction – Applicability). This bill would clarify that the development excise tax that a code home rule county is authorized to impose applies to new residential units including apartments and condominiums. The development excise tax is imposed on a multifamily residential project when the building permit is issued for the residential units. This bill would codify the original intent of the Caroline County Excise Tax law. Caroline County Commissioners recommend that a section be amended to provide that the time the tax is levied on multi-family building projects be at the time a building permit is issued for the residential units. Conversions of single family properties to multi-unit properties would pay the tax only on the additional units created.
On Wednesday, February 9, at 1:00, the Senate Finance Committee will hear Senate Bill 154 (Health Insurance Ambulance Service Providers – Assignment of Benefits). This bill would require health insurers, nonprofit health service plans, and health maintenance organizations to reimburse an ambulance service provider directly for services. Currently, an ambulance service provider is not always entitled to direct reimbursement. It remedies problems created when carriers send payments to patients for covered ambulance services that have been provided by the ambulance service, but patients fail to forward those payments to the ambulance service that provided the care.
On Thursday, February 10, at 1:00, the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs (EHEA) Committee will hear Senate Bill 21 (Election Law – Delay in Replacement of Voting Systems). This bill would alter the date for replacing the State’s direct-responding electronic (DRE) touchscreen voting system with a voter-verifiable paper record voting system. It would require the State to continue using the touchscreen voting system for elections until payments for the touchscreen voting system are concluded or until another date.
The Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee will also hear Senate Bill 155 (Legislative Districting – Resident Delegates by County). This is a bill that I am sponsoring and it is being co-sponsored by Senator E.J. Pipkin (R. Upper Shore). If passed by the Maryland General Assembly and approved by Maryland voters, this bill would amend the Maryland Constitution to provide that legislative districting shall, to the greatest extent practical, result in a resident delegate from every county. It would require that every 10 years when legislative districts are redrawn following a U.S. Census, lines are drawn in such a way as to ensure that each of the state’s 23 counties has at least one resident delegate.
The EHEA Committee will also hear Senate Bill 156 (Legislative Districting – Resident Delegate for Each County) would require an advisory committee established by the Governor after a decennial census to formulate a legislative districting plan for the election of members of the General Assembly that to the greatest extent practical draws the lines for the districts so that each county in the State has at least one resident delegate.
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