The Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee heard testimony Friday on a proposal to overhaul the Prince George’s County school system.

The committee heard testimony on House Bill 1107, which would create a task force to evaluate best practices for the county’s school board operations. It also heard the more controversial Senate Bill 1071, which would give County Executive Rushern L. Baker increased power to overhaul the struggling school system.

The Senate bill, called the “Academic Revitalization and Management Effectiveness Initiative,” would give the county executive power to appoint school board members and superintendent but keep the budget and salaries within the responsibilities of the school board.

The school system is searching for a new superintendent and has seen the position change hands five time in the last 10 years.

The Senate bill faces opposition from many labor organizations as well as the Prince George’s County Board of Education and some teachers and parents. Opponents testified the bill lacks checks and balances, gives the county executive too much power, was poorly researched and should not be pushed through with so little time left in the legislative session.

“Our county dynamics are unique for a variety of reasons and our school system reflects the same,” said Verjeana Jacobs, chair of Prince George’s County Board of Education. “These fundamental changes to our school system are much too important to do in such a short amount of time.”

Baker testified similar action has been taken in New York City and Washington, D.C., and that his urgency was due to the superintendent position vacancy.

“I believe we need to make some changes in the way we set up the structure,” Baker said “Clearly something needs to be done in Prince George’s county in terms of our education system.”

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, sat in on the hearing.

“Our citizenry is very frustrated with our school system,” Miller said afterward, citing what he sees as a lack of cooperation and slow progress.

Miller said he thought the bill would be amended to reflect what the witnesses said in the hearing.

Little opposition was given for the House bill.

Prince George’s County delegation members from both chambers will host a joint public hearing on the bill Monday night beginning at 5 p.m. in the Joint Hearing Room in the Department of Legislative Services.

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The Eye on Annapolis Podcast returns with a look back at a busy weekend in the House of Delegates.

Alex and I discuss the latest on the gun control and transportation bills and whether lawmakers will be able to resolve the major sticking points in the bills in the General Assembly’s final two weeks.

We also examine the prospects of tax increment financing (better known as TIFs) and reveal the man behind the medical marijuana bill.

Enjoy.

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The Eye on Annapolis Podcast returns with a look at two high-profile bills up for a Senate committee vote this week.

Alex and I are joined by The Daily Record’s Steve Lash to examine the prospects for the gun control and death penalty repeal bills. Will these tie up the General Assembly the way gay marriage and expanded gambling did?

Alex also provides the latest on Senate President Mike Miller’s transportation bill and Gov. Martin O’Malley’s offshore wind bill.

Enjoy.

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The Eye on Annapolis Podcast is back with the latest developments on transportation funding and a preview of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s State of the State address Wednesday.

Alex and I also look at the (brief) life of a proposed online lottery and discuss what Senate President Mike Miller is pleading senators to do.

Enjoy.

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After three sessions of the General Assembly that spanned almost 100 days in 2012, the last of the 797 bills approved by state legislators and made law by Gov. Martin O’Malley this year will go into effect as the fireworks start in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

The most famous of those laws is the Civil Marriage Protection Act, which gives gay couples the right to marry in Maryland.

In Baltimore, the first same-sex couples will be wed shortly after the stroke of midnight and will have a special guest in Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who intends to witness the marriage of seven couples at City Hall at 12:30 a.m.

Ordinarily, the Hall would be closed at that hour, and all city offices are closed on New Year’s Day. But Rawlings-Blake, who joined other state Democratic leaders in the campaign to legalize gay marriage, said this constituted a special occasion.

“New Years Day will have a new meaning for the hundreds — if not thousands — of couples who will finally have the right to marry the person they love,” Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. “It is a remarkable achievement for Maryland, and we are excited to open City Hall to host some of the first wedding ceremonies in our great state.”

Ten other laws go into effect Tuesday, too. A state law that alters the election schedule of Baltimore to bring it into line with presidential elections will become effective, but that effect won’t be felt until 2016, when Rawlings-Blake and the city council are able to stay in office for an extra year, until the calendar turns to 2017.

A similar law passed by the council was approved by voters in November, the intent being to foster greater voter turnout in the city.

Another bill, requested by the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, removes exemptions for low-volume mortgage lenders, some of whom did not previously have to be licensed by the state.

The law, originally SB 302, also allows state regulators to oversee affiliates and subsidiaries of a national bank operating within the state. The legislation was a reaction to the  federal Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which allowed states to regulate those institutions.

Other laws protect children from identity theft, potentially reduce the supervision time of a parolee based on behavior, ban the use of arsenic in chicken feed and provide tax credits for operators of thermal biomass systems — thermal energy generators powered by manure and chicken litter.

The laws go into effect just in time; the legislature will reconvene for its regular, 90-day session on Jan. 9, when members will start the process of reviewing more than 2,500 potential laws.

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Another of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s top aides is leaving the State House, marking the second such departure in a little over a month.

Here’s some other government and politics news for Wednesday morning:

• The Washington Post reports O’Malley will meet with House of Delegates Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Anne Arundel, and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, to discuss transportation funding issues.
• Patch.com reports Sen. Bobby Zirkin, D-Baltimore County, is not giving up his quest for a partially-elected school board in his county, despite opposition from County Executive Kevin Kamenetz.
• The Annapolis Capital reports Anne Arundel County planners insist a new bus route is not catering to the Maryland Live Casino.
• Capital News Service and others report that the federal government has denied aid to residents on Maryland’s Eastern Shore affected by Superstorm Sandy.
• The Herald-Mail reports that the prospects of Hagerstown getting a partially state-funded multiuse stadium are fading.
• MarylandReporter.com reports that Maryland Department of Transportation is working on fixing contract award problems identified in a recent audit.
• The Baltimore Sun reports lawmakers are looking at how they can help with a drug shortage.

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(Photo: J. Kirby Fowler Jr., chairman of the Maryland State Lottery Commission)

Thursday morning may have marked the final meeting of the Maryland State Lottery Commission.

The nine-member panel will become the State Lottery and Gaming Control Commission on Oct. 1, a change spelled out in the General Assembly’s expanded gambling legislation, passed and signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley in August.

The commission’s next scheduled meeting is Oct. 18.

The name change means a reduction in commissioners — the new panel will have just seven members. Lottery Director Stephen L. Martino said the name change better reflects what the commission has done for the last several years, since voters approved Maryland’s casino program in 2008.

Members of the commission could either be reappointed or replaced. Martino said he was unaware of a timeline for such action.

J. Kirby Fowler Jr., chairman of the lottery commission, said he has had some discussions with the governor’s office about remaining a member of the panel. But, while he said he would like to stay involved, he stressed that no decisions had been made.

One change that does appear clear is that, if a majority of voters approve the legalization of table games such as black jack and a sixth state casino license for use in Prince George’s County, the busy Maryland State Lottery Agency will receive some much-needed reinforcements.

Gina Smith, deputy director and chief financial officer of the lottery, told the commission that expanded gambling meant expanded staff.

“You will see that our agency will grow significantly if that happens,” Smith said.

Charles LaBoy, the lottery’s assistant director for gaming, said that if voters approve Question Seven on Nov. 6, he would be ready to present a “package of regulations” dealing with table games, electronic bingo machines at veterans halls and similar machines at seven bars in Anne Arundel and Calvert counties legalized by SB 864 during the legislature’s regular session.

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The Eye on Annapolis Podcast returns with the latest on the gambling and gay marriage ballot questions and the key difference in their fundraising techniques.

We also look at the chances of the General Assembly extending indefinitely the moratorium on fracking.

Enjoy.

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At first, Del. Glen Glass, R-Harford and Cecil, said he would boycott the special session that approved expanded gambling in Maryland.

Then, Monday, Glass issued a statement saying he would come to Annapolis because “important issues other than gambling, such as pit bulls and gun rights, may now be on the agenda.”

And there was Glass on Tuesday in a House Ways and Means Committee hearing — wearing sunglasses and a straw hat.

Patch.com’s Bryan P. Sears described Glass as “looking a little like Conan O’Brien meets Dennis Hopper.”

Incidentally, the gun rights bill Glass referred to was sent to the Senate Rules Committee, according to Sears, and was not passed during the special session.

(Photo by Bryan P. Sears)

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The story of how the Maryland House of Delegates passed same-sex marriage legislation during the General Assembly’s regular session has already been told. Still, I found it interesting to hear Del. Kathleen M. Dumais’ firsthand account, which she gave Friday during a family law session at the Maryland State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting in Ocean City. (When she’s not in Annapolis, Dumais is a family law lawyer who is senior counsel to Ethridge, Quinn, Kemp, McAuliffe, Rowan & Hartinger in Rockville.)

Dumais was the floor leader for the bill, meaning it was her job to determine if there were the 71 votes needed to pass the legislation. Exactly how many votes the bill had was “kept very close to the vest,” she said. The vote count, she continued, was kept “under a Cone of Silence.”

On the eve of the vote, however, supporters had only 70 “yeas.” Dumais left her office prepared to propose “Plan B” — civil unions. But when she returned early the next morning, she was summoned to House Speaker Michael E. Busch’s office.

“We have a heroine,” she was told.

Turns out the night before, “a Prince George’s County delegate” as Dumais put it — she did not identify Del. Tiffany T. Alston by name — had requested and received a meeting with Gov. Martin O’Malley. Alston said she would change her vote and support same-sex marriage if an amendment she offered was adopted. The amendment kept the law from going into effect until any litigation related to a potential voters’ referendum on the measure was processed.

Dumais offered the amendment during the floor debate, which was passed.

“That was the key and clue we had the votes for the bill,” she said. “The whole place erupted.”

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