I received an email letter from House Speaker Michael Busch (who happens to be a delegate for my District) today. It was a Word document attached to an email that had no body text so Speaker Busch gets an "F" for standard business email communications but an "A" for sending a letter at all.

Now for the contents. I'd judge Speaker Busch's letter as more measured and professional than Delegate Clagett's (see previous post) but you can read both if you like and decide for yourself. Speaker Busch shrewdly touted local project he had secured funding for (pork if you will) and also dedicated a good part of the introduction touting the "CAPITAL CITY SAFE STREETS COALITION". Upon reading the memorandum of understanding signed by the participating State and Local authorities you may be a bit skeptical
that anything will happen other than meetings and an annual report. But in his letter Speaker Busch claims success has already been had.

Other notable mentions in the letter include in a section labeled "Investing in K-12 Education" ( I should note -->
 
... this is an abbreviated post. Read the entire article.

The recent papal visit and Mass in Washington, DC brought media attention to National and Local Catholic politicians, including Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who would be attending the Mass and receiving communion despite previous requests from Pope Benedict himself that they should refrain from receiving.

To Catholics communion is more than a symbol, it is a reality of unity with Christ, the Catholic community/Church and its teachings. All Catholics share in the responsibility to receive Communion "worthily" understanding it is a gift, not a right. For Catholic political leaders, there is even a greater burden to allow Church teachings to "inform" their political views, as Governor O'Malley claims in this Baltimore Sun article. Its more than disingenuous to use your "faith" for political gain and popularity and then pick and choose (cafeteria style) the teachings you want to follow. You can't have it both ways.

Many Catholic politicians claimed to have a "clear conscience" and experienced "great sense of excitement" (AP story) over the pope's visit and Mass in Nationals Park. The pr ...
 
... this is an abbreviated post. Read the entire article.

The inevitable harvest limit on blue crabs has finally happened. How did we get here? It took years of neglect, lack of political will and little or no pubic outcry. We'd have to agree with both of the parties on this issue; the watermen who say that the Bay's health is the problem and the Governor's who felt compelled to take action. It's also encouraging that DNR officials have $3 million available to assist watermen who will certainly be feel the 25% decrease in the harvest this season.

The blue crab population has been declining steadily due to woeful action in the Bay cleanup. While it's commendable to see Maryland and Virginia agreeing on something regarding the Bay certainly agreement on a long term plan to clean up the Bay would be more welcome than a short term "fix" for a single though very important species.

Alas gone are the days when you could catch 25 soft crabs in one morning as I did 25 years ago as a kid in St. Mary's County, but let's hope the Bay cleanup truly gets more attention and action as a result of this short term crab crisis.

Governors act to cut harvest of crabs -- baltimoresun.com

There was much talk by the administration about energy during the past legislative session and most of their legislative proposals became law last week. However the Governor missed a golden opportunity to "walk the walk" and not just "talk the talk" by issuing a ban on a wind turbine farms in State Forests in Western Maryland.

Granted the 40 story high turbines are an eyesore but one proposed site would not have been visible from Deep Creek Lake or other tourist areas. See location details.

The generation from the turbines would not have been enormous either but it would have been a step in the right direction since Maryland is facing a electricity generation crisis. Coal burning plants which make up the majority of generation in Maryland are "under a cloud" so no new coal plants will likely be built. Natural gas fired plants have been the industry's latest solution but fossil fuel plants are now very expensive to run, adding pressure to electricity prices. So any capacity we can add using wind, solar or other renewables should be carefully considered at this point.

Someone must have read my previous post about legislators sending session summary letters or emails since I received the below from my Delegate, Virginia Clagett. Kudos to Delegate Clagett for being proactive and responsive to her constituents. Alas this is likely all to rare but it should be commonplace.

But (and you knew there was a but) a fact check of the Del. Clagett's claim in the first paragraph that "Maryland remains a low-spending State on a per-capita basis" reveals otherwise. Namely, Maryland was not a low-spending State per-capita according to any source I found via Google search ranks Maryland anywhere from 3rd to 20th in per-capita spending. And these rankings don't include the tax increases that have already taken effect! I emailed Del. Cl ...
 
... this is an abbreviated post. Read the entire article.

Here's a summary of legislation passed this session...

The Senate passed 295 bills and the House passed 452 bills. The governor has signed 117 bills. His other bill signing dates are April 24, May 13 and May 22.

I'm currently reviewing the first set of signed bills for anything of interest and an upcoming post will describe the first wave of enacted legislation.

For a listing of all bills signed see the Governor's press release.
 

What do you do as a State Delegate or Senator after a decidedly lackluster session? Celebrate!

We raised taxes. Drink some beer!

We didn't do much to help the Bay. Drink some beer, in your office!

We didn't significantly reduce spending. And have some snacks.

We did more work undoing what we did last Fall (special session computer tax repeal and replacement with "millionaire tax") And start drinking early, don't wait till the session is actually over!

I asked the wisest person I know to comment on this story (my spouse) and she said, "Juvenile" then "Ridiculous". In that order. Of course she did work with college students most of her professional career so she expected this from them, but not from our elected representatives.

This really isn't the (pardon the pun) sober type of representation and addressing of our State's problems we are looking for is it?

Well now I'm depressed, so hand me a beer.

Link for all the gory details:
In Annapolis, a feeling like last day of exams -- baltimoresun.com -->
 
... this is an abbreviated post. Read the entire article.

Well much like we expected after a Special Session last Fall that took care of the General Assembly's main job, passing a budget, this session has been relatively anemic. The hangover from the Special Session took its toll during the first couple of months of this years session as Legislators in general seemed to be recovering from the Special Session. So, the situation now is lots of work to do in a little bit of time which naturally reduces the quality of the final output. Who is to blame? The Democratic Leadership, for not leading, and of course committee chairs and finally down to each non motivated member. See this Sun article for more details on exactly what has to be done Session set for hectic ending.

What's a constituent to do? How about calling or emailing your Delegate(s) and Senator and ask for a written summary of the session with specifics as to what legislation they sponsored and how the voted on every bill passed? When is the last time you saw that info come voluntarily from your elected official? I can safely say, never. And we all want accountability but don't take the time to demand it. So call or email your representative today. Here's a link to find your officials and their contact info. And post a comment to Inside State Circle when you do!

State Sen. James Brochin is the type of legislator we should all want representing us, especially independent minded and progressive Marylanders.

According to this Baltimore Sun article, Sen. Brochin has run into some 
trouble with the Democratic majority for "giving them no votes' according to 
Senate President "Mike" Miller. Miller, not surprisingly got petty over  
Sen. Brochin's perceived lack of support for the Democratic agenda by 
moving his seat to the back of the Senate Chamber.

I'm not sure why the Sun labels a legislator who listens to constituents, has principles and acts on them and is not afraid to confront his party's agenda is a "maverick". Frankly we need more such mavericks and fewer lemmings who tow the party line with every single vote whether Democratic or Republican. Realisticall ...
 
... this is an abbreviated post. Read the entire article.

It's amazing but there is finally a bill that is useful to Maryland Citizens that looks like it may actually pass during this lightweight Session. The bill would create a database linked website that would allow Marylanders to discover what the State government is spending our money on. The bill has gathered support from both sides and is very likely to pass. Full Sun article at this link Click, browse, follow the money

I can personally attest to the inability to find budget documents in a format that would allow analysis and accountability. Let's say you wanted to (as I did for a blog post) determine how State revenue has grown over the past ten years and plot that along with population growth to discover if government growth is outpacing population growth? Right now you would have to download a series of PDF documents , enter all the numbers manually in a spreadsheet program and generate the charts.

Not to mention that State government websites, including the General Assembly's are dreadfully designed, poorly implemented and totally di ...
 
... this is an abbreviated post. Read the entire article.