City seeking $190M in private financing to build new schools

Originally published in the Baltimore Business Journal

By Scott Dance, Staff Writer
Published on Friday, June 13, 2008
The Baltimore City school system needs private financing to fund $250 million in new school construction, a practice more states have turned to as building costs skyrocket and budgets stagnate. The city is hiring a financial consultant for $350,000 to look at public-private partnerships as a possibility to move forward a plan for seven to 10 new schools in the next decade. The school system is slated to get $40 million in state money and $20 million in city money for the projects, but it's not enough, leaders said. Read More »

Getting on board: Is mass-transit's surge a blip, or are we in it for the long haul?

Originally published in the Baltimore Sun

By Michael Dresser, Sun Reporter
Published on Sunday, June 08, 2008
It was June 2001, and the price of a gallon of regular gasoline had soared to $1.68 a gallon. It was so ridiculous that many folks said to heck with it, we'll take mass transit. And they did. There were 5 million more transit trips taken in the United States that month than the previous June.But by June 2002, with travel curtailed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, gas was down to a less burdensome $1.39. Public transit lost 23 million rides from the same month a year before as commuters returned to their cars. Not until 2004 would annual transit ridership return to 2001 levels.Now comes another June, with many Baltimore-area outlets selling gas for more than $4. Transit ridership is up nationally and locally, according to the American Public Transit Administration and Maryland Transit Administration. Read More »

Legislator, lobbyist: a delicate dance

Originally published in the Baltimore Sun

By Laura Smitherman, Sun Reporter
Published on Sunday, May 11, 2008
Maryland lawmaker Heather R. Mizeur shepherded a bill through the General Assembly this year to establish a new fund supporting the emerging field of nanobiotechnology. In the process, she also succeeded in securing a potential funding source for companies she had registered to represent on Capitol Hill.The Montgomery County Democratic delegate acknowledges working extensively for a nanobiotechnology company as a congressional lobbyist with the Washington law firm of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis, but she says she got clearance from the state legislature's ethics counsel to sponsor and vote on the legislation.That company ended its contract with the law firm around the time she introduced the bill. On matters related to other companies, she says she gave "generic advice" to colleagues and was listed as a lobbyist out of an abundance of caution. Read More »

U.S. and Canadian Think Tanks Release Joint Evaluation on Universal Health Care in Maryland

Published on Wednesday, April 16, 2008
ROCKVILLE, April 16, 2008-The Maryland Public Policy Institute of Rockville, Maryland and the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) of Halifax, Nova Scotia have released a joint evaluation of the proposal for a universal health care system in Maryland, providing both an American and Canadian prospective."Single-Payer Health Care for Maryland: Two Analyses" responds to a bill proposed by Del. Karen S. Montgomery (D-Montgomery) in the recently ended session of the Maryland General Assembly. It evaluates Montgomery's proposal and addresses the flaws in a statewide universal health care system including the high cost to the state budget that would inevitably lead to rationing of services by government officials. The 15-page report also issues strong warnings to Maryland from Canadians living under a single-payer system. Read More »

Social issue advocates have mixed success

Equality Maryland chief: ‘Anger right now at Democratic party leadership’

By Janel Davis, Gazette Staff Writer
Published on Friday, April 11, 2008
ANNAPOLIS - Most advocates for social issues were happy to walk away from the 2008 General Assembly with their victories, however few.One exception was Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland. Although the legislature passed laws giving incremental rights to domestic partners, including allowing hospital visitation and exempting them from property transfer taxes, Furmansky's organization wanted more. Read More »

The cost of being rich

New tax bracket for Md. millionaires becomes law

By Michael Dresser, The Baltimore Sun
Published on Wednesday, April 09, 2008
It's quite an exclusive club, Maryland's new millionaires' tax bracket. A little more than 6,000 households statewide qualify for the distinction - more than 40 percent of whom reside in Montgomery County.It's a group that includes a Fortune 500 executive in Potomac, an energy company CEO in Roland Park and wealthy retirees with bayside estates in St. Michaels. Throw in some developers in Howard County, a growing corps of black entrepreneurs in Prince George's County and certain small businesses statewide. The Ravens' star middle linebacker would appear to be among the 16 percent of the club that lives in Baltimore County, No. 2 in the state for resident millionaires. Read More »

Let consumers make health care choices

Originally published in the Baltimore Examiner

By Marc Kilmer
Published on Thursday, April 03, 2008
BALTIMORE - The other day my 6-year-old niece told her mother that she thought the family should buy a boat. Her mother tried to explain to her how much boats cost, that the family needed to spend money on other things, and an elemental conception of having finite resources. To a 6-year-old, however, none of that mattered. She wanted a boat, and she saw her parents as having limitless resources to provide any desire she wanted. If they didn't buy a boat, it was because they selfishly wanted to keep her from enjoying it. Read More »

Maryland Think Tank Comments on Maryland Senate Vote for Scholarship Tax Credit

Published on Thursday, March 27, 2008
Rockville, MD - March 27, 2008- On March 26, Maryland's Senate gave preliminary approval to a bill that would encourage businesses to sponsor scholarships at private schools. Modeled after a similar program in Pennsylvania, the Maryland plan would provide tax credits to businesses that make scholarship contributions. The program would open up more opportunities for working families to send their children to schools of their choice. Read More »

Give consumers control over their electric bills

Originally published in the Baltimore Examiner

By Baltimore Examiner Editorial
Published on Friday, March 21, 2008
BALTIMORE - No one likes to open their Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. bill these days. The prices cause many people to gasp for air. But as Peter Van Doren of the Cato Institute and University of Maryland Baltimore County professor Timothy Brennan said at a Maryland Public Policy Institute forum Thursday, no simple solutions exist to lowering electricity prices in either a regulated market or a partially deregulated market like Maryland. We like to offer readers clear solutions. And the vast majority of the time, that means allowing the free market to work. But electricity markets may be "different" than other markets, largely because electricity must be used as it is generated. It's not a pair of jeans that can be stored in a warehouse and shipped to a store with low inventory. It must be used right away. And it can only go where lines provide it access. Read More »

Energy Administration powering up for Md.’s future

By Andy Rosen, Daily Record Business Writer
Published on Friday, March 21, 2008
ANNAPOLIS - Maryland has to be more conscious about the way it steers itself into a complicated energy future, says Malcolm D. Woolf. And the director of the Maryland Energy Administration has been thinking about exactly how to do that. Woolf, who took the helm at the agency last summer, is presiding over a change in direction for the MEA. The goal, he said, is to look more broadly at Maryland's energy system. "MEA traditionally administered narrow energy-efficiency and renewable-energy programs," said Woolf. "What I think Maryland has found is there has not been an entity that was looking out for the overall energy picture." Read More »