Avoiding the tough calls

Friday, April 13, 2007

Avoiding the tough calls

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As they return to their districts and the requisite meetings with constituents, Maryland’s state senators and delegates tote a bag of mixed results from the just-concluded General Assembly session.

Few issues truly splintered the legislature following last fall’s elections that reshaped the power structure in Annapolis. A decade-long push to ban smoking in bars and restaurants finally passed, as did a bill to require car dealers to sell lower-emission vehicles and one that reduces chemicals in dishwashing soap that harm Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts. Yet Blue State lawmakers couldn’t rally enough support for plans to expand basic health-care options to an estimated 100,000 impoverished workers and their families, and a Senate committee dispatched a bill that would have ended the death penalty.

Some transportation projects got a modest boost, but dedicated funding for the Washington area Metrorail and bus public transit network was sidestepped for another year, portending higher fares to cover escalating costs.

There will be about $52.3 million more for school construction projects in Montgomery and more for other large counties, funding that is long overdue; and tuition at state colleges and universities will be frozen.

Moving to ease well-founded worries about the integrity of the state’s newfangled electronic voting systems, the legislature agreed to offer a paper trail but neglected to approve necessary dollars.

As if giddy with power after four years of a frosty relationship with a Republican governor, the majority Democratic legislature grabbed control of the wheel and veered decidedly to the left on at least one key business measure. In becoming the first state in the nation to mandate a ‘‘living wage” for workers at companies holding certain state contracts, Maryland dealt a blow to the workings of a free marketplace, forcing some businesses to pay a base of up to $11.30 an hour for state contract jobs.

Failure to reach a last-minute deal with county leaders in neighboring Prince George’s to bail out a hospital system on the brink of bankruptcy could have ripple effects on hospitals in Montgomery, Baltimore and elsewhere, and could be reason enough to convene a special session of the legislature. A public hospital system on life support is a disservice to all state taxpayers.

In a nod to the new Democratic governor still charting his course, the legislature didn’t touch some key taxes this year — there will be no increases in sales, gasoline or cigarette taxes. Nor will there be added revenues from slot-machine gambling, at least for now.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the 90-day session was the acknowledgement, but avoidance, of the state’s fiscal condition. The legislators waited until the bitter end to enact the governor’s $30 billion budget but balanced it by emptying a big chunk of the ‘‘rainy day” fund.

Next year, the prospect of a $1.5 billion deficit will have to be addressed very early and the choices of service cuts and, or, higher taxes, will be unavoidable.