From the Sen. Rich Madaleno:
Progress on the governor’s comprehensive revenue package has been put on hold in the Senate as we await action in the House of Delegates. The Senate President has announced that we will not take further action until the House completes its work on slots. In fact, as I write, the House is debating the slots referendum proposal. It remains unclear at this point as to whether the House will take any action on the companion bill to regulate and administer slots. Fortunately, the Senate President also announced today that he will not scuttle the entire revenue package should the slots bill fail in the House. Should that be the outcome, the slots proposal will be brought up again during the upcoming 2008 regular session.I think Rich should endorse Andy Harris. It would probably do far more to aid Wayne Gilchrest than the ads paid for by LCV.
My colleagues from the Baltimore suburbs remain convinced that slots are essential to selling the revenue plan to their constituents. They are criticized for being tax-and-spend liberals. They believe slots softens this opposition. Interestingly, in our county, those of us who have supported the governor’s plan and the Senate compromise package have been criticized for abandoning our liberal values. It is an interesting dichotomy. The Senate caucus has both liberal and moderate factions. Progress is made only when the two find common ground, as we did with the final package.
In the meantime, the Senate is scheduled to reconvene at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and maybe again on Sunday. This weekend appears to be the deadline for action as many people have travel plans for the Thanksgiving weekend.
The Department of Legislative Services has prepared a useful summary document comparing the actions of both chambers with the governor’s initial plan. It is available at www.mlis.state.md.us under the “budget documents” tab. The major issues of disagreement concern the individual income tax and corporate tax policy. The Senate bill expands the sales tax to computer services, while the House bill has a higher corporate income tax rate and a requirement for combined reporting for corporations. Because no bill from either chamber has yet passed the other chamber, there will be no formal conference committee as is the custom for most measures. Apparently, the leadership of the various committees has been meeting to resolve differences in the bills.
On a different topic, there is a hotly contested race for the Republican nomination for the US House district that stretches from the Baltimore suburbs down to Ocean City. State Senator Andy Harris is challenging the incumbent Wayne Gilchrist. The League of Conservation Voters is running ads against Harris, one of the most conservative senators, in the Baltimore market that attack him for supporting “$100 million for dance halls in MONTGOMERY COUNTY while opposing needed funding for the Chesapeake Bay.” I would assume they are talking about the Strathmore Performing Arts Center and the Glen Echo Park’s Spanish Ballroom. It is interesting that an advocacy group would pick these two projects to attack a Baltimore area legislator. In the end, he voted for them as part of the entire capital budget not as individual projects. I am confident he would have opposed both if debated individually.
The end is near (I hope). I look forward to updating you with the final outcome of this special session.
