Legislative Session Ends with Veto Overrides
and BGE Deal Unfinished
By Nicholas Sohr
Capital News Service
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
ANNAPOLIS - Democratic leaders in the Maryland General Assembly
engineered the override of several key vetoes by Gov. Robert L.
Ehrlich Monday night as the state Legislature ended its regular
session in the same intensely partisan way it began three months
ago.
Now, exhausted legislators still must face the possibility that
they will be called right back to Annapolis to deal with some
unfinished business - the search for a way to soften impending
electricity rate increases for the 1.1 million Baltimore Gas and
Electric Co. customers in Central Maryland.
"This is status quo politics," Ehrlich complained at a press
conference a few minutes before the midnight end to the 90-day
session.
He called the series of election-related bills passed over
his veto by the Democratic majority "silly."
And he termed the
Assembly's insistence on blocking a state takeover of 11 failing
Baltimore City schools his "worst moment in 20 years of public
service."
GOP lawmakers have been saying much the same during the last 90
days, claiming that the Democratic agenda was simply one political
jab after another to discredit the state's first Republican governor
in a generation as he embarks on his reelection bid this year.
"It was unusually partisan," said Senate Minority Leader J.
Lowell Stoltzfus, R-Lower Shore, of his 16th year in the
Legislature. "I think it's going to hurt the other side (in the
elections), the public doesn't like this fighting."
But Democrats have been quick to counter with accusations of
their own. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Southern
Maryland, previously called the attempted Baltimore City school
takeover "right-wing malarkey" designed to "subjugate" Democratic
Mayor Martin O'Malley, a leading contender to challenge Ehrlich this
fall.
Ehrlich's veto of the bill was overturned by the House of
Delegates Saturday and then by the Senate Monday morning.
"Kids lost today," Ehrlich said after the override was completed.
"I've never seen so many people celebrate so much over complete
dysfunction."
The move to stall that state takeover was put together by Sen.
Nathaniel J. McFadden, D-Baltimore, who said he was optimistic that
progress will be made in the city schools without state guidance.
"It means we have a lot of work to do," McFadden said after the
override. "We have to roll up our sleeves, we still have a problem."
The schools controversy, like the BGE rate increase, came out of
nowhere in the last few weeks of the session and dominated a General
Assembly that had already been bracing for an unusually strong dose
of election year politics.
Three other veto overrides completed Monday will establish
early-voting polling locations, prohibit University System of
Maryland regents from participating in campaign fundraising and ease
restrictions on collective bargaining by state employees.
"All in all, it was a great session," Miller said a few minutes
after he gaveled the session to a close and endured the traditional
confetti shower from the galleries above. "It was a huge win for
anyone concerned with education."
Indeed, members of both parties were quick to point out increases
in education funding, a bolstered financial aid program, revamped
teacher pensions and tuition freezes for the state's public
universities.
"Higher education has been an incredible winner this year,"
Ehrlich said, tallying up legislative victories this session.
Healthcare and environmental issues were at the forefront as
well, with legislators and the governor both pushing for stem cell
research funding and clean air initiatives.
Members of both parties supported some form of stem cell
research, but conservative lawmakers were able to gather enough
votes to force a preference for the more-controversial embryonic
stem cell research out of the bill before its passage. The law now
includes $15 million in funding to be distributed by the Maryland
Technology Development Corporation, a business development group.
The Healthy Air Act, which imposes restrictions on emissions from
coal-fired power plants, was also passed and signed by Ehrlich,
despite his claims that it closely resembles his own rules announced
last summer.
But several items were still on the table as the clock struck
midnight, including a heavily amended bill that would have toughened
the sentencing and monitoring of sex offenders.
Ehrlich blamed the lack of a sex offender bill on what he
characterized as the Assembly's spending too much time on political
bills aimed at embarrassing him. "By any measure, these misplaced
priorities are a result of partisanship," the governor said.
The sex offender bill stalled in the Senate Monday night as
debate erupted over portions of the bill that would impose minimum
sentences on first-time offenders who have been convicted of raping
young children.
"I think we spent too much time trying to be partisan and trying
to override vetoes," said House minority whip Del. Anthony J.
O'Donnell, R-Southern Maryland, in explaining why time ran out on
many high-profile bills. "It didn't help the citizens of Maryland."
Four of Ehrlich's most controversial vetoes were also left
intact. One would have given the Senate more oversight over the
governor's cabinet. The other three were bills that lawmakers had
been using as bargaining chips with BGE.
The override battles Monday night were reminiscent of the opening
week of the session in January when the overwhelming Democratic
majorities in both houses mustered enough votes to override
Ehrlich's vetoes and enact 17 contested bills into law.
The laws ranged from the "Wal-Mart bill," which requires the
mega-retailer to pay at least eight percent of its payroll toward
employee healthcare, to a $1 increase in the state's minimum wage,
to provisions that require local election boards to open some polls
in their districts up to eight days before Election Day.
Despite the breakneck pace that Miller and House Speaker Michael
E. Busch, D-Anne Arundel, set throughout the final day, and the
partisan warfare in both chambers, members had at least one
collegial moment when the University of Maryland women's basketball
team paid a visit to celebrate their national championship victory.
"Hail to the Terps," yelled Sen. John A. Giannetti Jr., D-Prince
George's, over the roar of the chamber's third standing ovation.
"See you next year," McFadden called as the team filed out.
Copyright ©
2006 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of
Journalism
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