A little bit of everything
Senate President Mike Miller told reporters Wednesday that new standards making it more difficult to petition new laws to the ballot are not likely to pass this year, though he agrees that the practice needs to be curtailed.
Read moreResponding to Republican assertions at a Tuesday morning news conference that a gas tax hike he proposed is unnecessary, Senate President Mike Miller said, “These people are Neanderthals.”
Miller suggested that Republicans were towing the party line even though many of their districts would benefit from the passage of the tax bill.
Read moreIt was not a great week for openness and transparency at the State House. Perhaps it is more accurate to say it was business as usual in Annapolis, with a few events reminding us that while much of the public business has become remarkably accessible over the Internet, much of it still happens behind closed doors.
Read moreMaryland citizens will have to wait at least another year to get remote access to one of the most important but least accessible parts of the legislative process: committee voting sessions in which bills are amended, killed or sent to the floor.
The Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday voted down a proposed amendment to Senate rules by Sen. Allan Kittleman, R-Howard, that would have required Senate committees to webcast the crucial voting sessions, as the committee hearings already are.
Read moreA tax-weary legislature has no stomach to raise needed transportation revenues. Everybody agrees that a good transportation network of roads, highways, bridges and mass transit are an essential underpinning of the Maryland economy. But there’s no agreement on how to pay for this transportation system in the 21st century.
Read moreSenate President Mike Miller testified Thursday for a bill to make the soft-shell crab sandwich the official state sandwich.
Read moreThere was something new in Gov. Martin O’Malley’s State of the State address Wednesday, something refreshing, a lot of the same old same old and something very disappointing.
Read moreNo one doubts that this month’s special session of the General Assembly to expand gaming wouldn’t have happened without the insistence and persistence of Senate President Mike Miller, who’s been pushing slots and gambling for a decade.
A few loose ends from the session point out Miller’s command of the process and close attention to every stray vote.
Read moreBy the bare minimum of 71 votes, the House of Delegates Monday night gave Senate President Mike Miller the kind of “sine die” adjournment he had expected April 9: The delegates passed a bill asking voters in November to approve table games and a sixth gambling casino in Prince George’s County.
Read moreGov. Martin O’Malley seems hell bent on having a special session of the legislature next month to expand gambling, perhaps the week of Aug. 6, but there appear to be lots of good reasons not to bring the General Assembly back to Annapolis. They include interrupted vacations, long delayed jobs and revenues, sticky details yet to be worked out and the continuing lack of votes in the House of Delegates.
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