The bill that would help small, local banks win more state banking contracts is still alive in these waning days of the legislative session, but time is running short.

Del. Bill Frick, the bill’s sponsor, said Thursday the focus of the bill is still the same, but its mechanics had changed. Originally, HB 1325 would have given local banks a pricing preference when bidding on state contracts. Now, Frick said, it would require the treasurer to consider whether a bank is local bank when reviewing bids.

“The goal for me was to move the business off Wall Street and into local banks,” said Frick, D-Montgomery. “Bank of America is going to invest their money in Dubai. Sandy Spring Bank is going to invest their money in Maryland.”

Del. Dan Morhaim, D-Baltimore County, said the bill is still being worked on by his subcommittee and is in much better shape that it was when originally submitted. But Morhaim wouldn’t hazard a guess regarding the bill’s prospects.

The legislature wraps up its 90-day session on Monday and for Frick’s bill to pass, it would have to come before the House of Delegates twice and the Senate three times — and survive committee votes in both chambers.

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After watching the legislature trim the guaranteed funds for the Heritage Structure Rehabilitation Tax Credit, Gov. Martin O’Malley is pressing for the funding to the popular program to be doubled.

The governor included an extra $5 million appropriation for the program in his supplemental budget, which will face the scalpel-wielding budget conference committee this week.

O’Malley had sought $50 million over three years – $20 million in fiscal 2011 and $15 million each in the two following years.

But, lawmakers opted instead for a $5 million appropriation in 2011, a plan the Senate and House of Delegates appear to agree on. The credit would be back up for annual appropriation from the governor and subject to cuts from the General Assembly.

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Lawmakers took their foot off the throat of the University of Maryland’s environmental law clinic last night, but that doesn’t mean we’ve heard the last of this issue.

After law students filed a suit against a chicken farm on the Eastern shore and the poultry giant Perdue, lawmakers amended the state operating budget to tie funding for the clinic to a requirement that the clinic disclose its client list.

The Senate wanted to withhold $250,000; the House, $500,000. The House amended its budget on the floor last week to take out the funding’s link to the reporting requirement. And Tuesday night, at a conference committee meeting on the budget, the Senate agreed to go with the House.

“We thought that was a fair approach that achieved our goals without the confusion of the initial Senate proposal,” said Sen. Richard Madaleno Jr., a Montgomery County Democrat and a member of the Senate’s negotiating team.

Madaleno said the Senate wanted to “understand what the law clinics are doing, to appreciate what their role is.”

Del. Norman Conway, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and an Eastern Shore Democrat, said the law clinics actions were “prosecutorial.”

“My goal was purely to say the clinic is an instructional tool,” he said. “Any kind of case they take should provide students with experience on all sides of it. I think what they did with the environmental law clinic was one-sided.”

Asked if he thought the law school had gotten the message, Conway said yes.

But, he added sternly: “We’ll be watching.”

Compare that with what law school Dean Phoebe A. Haddon said last month: “The moment you attach a requirement of reporting to money, you’re saying, ‘We’ll be watching you.’ ”

She’s right. The lawmakers will be watching.

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With Maryland locked in a battle to land the headquarters of Northop Grumman Corp., state lawmakers were careful Tuesday to look favorably on the defense giant’s biggest competitor – Bethesda resident Lockheed Martin Corp.

The Senate voted 40-6 on H.B. 855, which exempts corporate lodging facilities from the state’s 6 percent sales and use tax. Lockheed’s Center for Leadership Excellence, which opened a little more than a year ago, is the only such facility in the state that meets the requirements of the bill. The $110 million, 300,000-square-foot training facility is located next to the Lockheed headquarters and employs 170 full-time workers.

Northrop’s name has bubbled up often during the legislative session when lawmakers have discussed issues that could impact the state’s image in the eyes of the business community.

“We have to remember that we are in the running for the headquarters of Northrop Grumman, although we are not sure how much in the running we are,” said Sen. Delores G. Kelley, D-Baltimore County.

Northop is considering a site in Rockville as it wraps up its search for a new home in the capital region.

Those in favor of the training facility bill argued such facilities, which are only open to employees of the companies that own them, shouldn’t be treated like hotels. The bill has already passed the House of Delegates.

Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr., a Montgomery County Democrat and the head of its Senate delegation, said the Lockheed training center has increased Lockheed employees’ travel to the state by 200 percent, boosting business at local restaurants, stores and even other hotels.

“This is a good deal for the state of Maryland,” Madaleno said. “If you want to say no to this corporation, if you want to say no to other corporations, then feel free.”

Some senators took him up on that offer.

“We don’t have enough money for education, but we do have money to give to the largest corporations, that’s what this bill says,” said Sen. Bryan W. Simonaire, R-Anne Arundel, who voted against the bill.

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Lawmakers have six days left in Annapolis and a mountain of work to do.

(For the sake of simplicity and my sanity, I’m assuming the General Assembly will meet this week and wrap up on Monday without an extension or weekend session. The final day of the session is Monday, April 12.)

The budget will be at the forefront. The Senate passed its version in March and the House, after two nearly full days of debate, passed its version on Friday. They don’t differ much on the bottom line, but the conference committee meeting this week will have its work cut out for it to find common ground on shifting teacher pension obligations to counties and funding for a University of Maryland law clinic that has drawn the ire of many lawmakers.

Another difference between the Senate and House budgets is a $20 million transfer from the Injured Workers Insurance Fund proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley. The Senate stripped the transfer out but the House kept it in. The transfer has big implications for the quasi-public worker’s compensation insurer of last resort, as it is tied to legislation that would move IWIF further from state control.

The state’s fiscal straits have also squeezed O’Malley’s proposed overhaul of the Historic Structure Rehabilitation Tax Credit. O’Malley wanted to essentially guarantee $50 million in funding for the program over the next three years, but legislators balked at the prospect of squirreling away such a large lump sum during these uncertain times. The tax credit appears to be pegged at $5 million in FY2011, and will be up for a yearly appropriation after that. Lawmakers are fine-tuning the bill and expect it to move this week.

Lawmakers also have to act on O’Malley’s mortgage mediation plan. The bill passed the House on March 27 and the Senate is scheduled to take it up this week. The bill would allow borrowers to request a face-to-face meeting with their lender during the foreclosure process. It would also impose a $300 foreclosure filing fee to cover the mediation costs and fund nonprofit housing counselors.

Also on the docket this week are bills that would limit the fees and interest charged by payday lenders and another that would expand the rights of Maryland wineries and order a study on the direct shipment of wine from wineries to consumers.

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The Senate gave preliminary approval to a bill that would require retailers to give their employees shift breaks.

The House has already passed their version of the bill, so despite how deep the legislature is in its 90-day session, the bills shouldn’t have much trouble getting to the governor’s desk.

Business groups softened their opposition to the bill as the session wore on and exemptions were added for small businesses and franchisees.

Final Senate action could come this week.

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The Maryland Senate flirted Tuesday with the idea of letting state residents receive shipments of wine direct from wineries, but ultimately let the proposal slip by the wayside.

Sen. Robert A. Zirkin, D-Baltimore County, tried to amend the controversial direct shipping bill, which will likely not make it out of committee, on to another winery bill on the Senate floor.

The move would have upset an uneasy compromise reached last week between proponents of direct shipping – a majority of the 47 senators – and Sen. Joan Carter Conway, the head of the health committee and a unwavering opponent of the bill. They agreed to amend a direct shipping study to Conway’s Winery Modernization Act, a bill that includes a slate of technical changes to winery law. (Here’s our latest story on the winery legislation in the General Assembly, and our longer overview.)

Zirkin’s gambit prompted nearly 30 minutes of debate on the Senate floor, with some direct shipping proponents urging him to give up his amendment so as not to scuttle the modernization bill, and others clamoring for a chance to put the idea to a full-Senate vote.

Sen. Delores G. Kelley, D-Baltimore County, said her office received more than 900 calls from direct shipping supporters this year.

“I must keep my word and I must support this, because apparently it’s the only way it will come before us,” Kelley said.

In the end, Zirkin acquiesced to those who asked him to withdraw his amendment – “I wish you had done that 25 minutes earlier,” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller deadpanned – but not before Sen. Alex X. Mooney, R-Frederick and Washington, tried to force a vote on the issue. He took the unusual step of resisting Zirkin’s attempt to withdraw his own amendment, calling for vote on the motion.

Mooney was defeated 42-4 and the modernization bill, including the direct shipping study, moved closer to final Senate approval. The bill appears to have support in the House of Delegates as well.

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Updated @ 2:20 p.m.:

The House of Delegates passed an expansion of unemployment benefits Tuesday, the next-to-last step for legislation that will qualify the state’s bankrupt Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund for $126.8 million from the federal government.

The measure passed mostly along party lines (the vote was 101-33 in the chamber, but the final tally is still being calculated) without a word of debate. Next stop: Gov. Martin O’Malley’s desk for his signature.

Original post:

The House of Delegates has given preliminary approval to compromise legislation that will alter unemployment benefits to secure $126.8 million for the state’s bankrupt Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

The bill survived a series of amendments proposed by Republican lawmakers during an often heated debate on the House floor Monday night. The House will soon take a final vote on the bill before it heads to the second floor of the State House for Gov. Martin O’Malley’s signature.

Read the rest of this entry »

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A proposal to allow card games at a Baltimore slots parlor – assuming such a thing will one day exist – was shot down in the Senate Friday morning.

The motion was made by Sen. George W. Della Jr., a Baltimore City Democrat, as the legislature’s upper chamber was debating a bill introduced by a Prince George’s County senator that would allow card games like poker at the Rosecroft Raceway harness racing track. (Here’s our latest coverage.)

Sen. Anthony C. Muse, D-Prince George’s, said he introduced the bill as a “desperation move” to keep the racetrack from closing.

“They have a serious problem there [in Prince George's County], but we have a serious problem in Baltimore City, too,” said Della.

The city’s single slots license has been one of the many blemishes on the state’s gaming industry, which has struggled with local resistance to casino development, construction issues and a lack of qualified developers. The city license must be re-bid after the state gaming commission threw out a plan from a Canadian home-builder after he could not come up with the required fees and failed to submit an updated proposal.

Della’s amendment failed on a voice vote. A similar amendment from Senate Minority Leader Allan H. Kittleman, R-Howard and Carroll, was also turned down. Kittleman’s amendment would have allowed the Video Lottery Facility Location Commission to award card game licenses at five other sites around the state.

The Senate gave a preliminary OK to the bill, SB 1035, which has the support of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Prince George’s and Calvert. But, if passed out of the Senate, the bill will face a much tougher road in the House. Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Anne Arundel, has said he is not interested in expanding gaming this year. And for the record, Gov. Martin O’Malley is also opposed to gaming expansion.

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A series of amendments to the governor’s job creation tax credit proposal died Wednesday in the House of Delegates as the legislation moved closer to final approval.

The amendments ranged from a provision that would require the state to check the citizenship status of new workers to a carve-out that would have reserved half the tax credits for businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

After the mostly party-line votes defeating the amendments, the House gave preliminary approval to the tax credit bill. The $20 million program would give $5,000 tax credits to businesses for each Marylander they hire off the unemployment rolls in 2010.

The Senate passed its own version last month with a 46-0 vote.

On Wednesday, Del. Patrick L. McDonough, R-Baltimore and Harford, proposed an amendment that would require the state to use the federal government’s e-verify system to ensure the employees hired under the tax credit program are legal residents.

“This amendment verifies that American jobs will be created and American jobs will be protected in the state of Maryland,” he said.

House Majority Leader Kumar P. Barve, the Montgomery County Democrat whose subcommittee handled the bill, said the amendment was unnecessary because the state’s business regulators use more stringent requirements in determining workers’ eligibility for unemployment benefits.

House Minority Whip Christopher B. Shank, R-Washington, offered an amendment that would have thrown out the tax credits and instead lowered the corporate tax rate from 8.25 percent to 7.75 percent.

“This would provide an immediate boost to the businesses of Maryland,” Shank said. “When we try to compete for jobs, try to compete for Northrop Grumman, the corporate tax rate is an immediate deterrent.”

Barve argued the tax cut wouldn’t guarantee hiring and carried a heftier price tag of $50 million.

The final GOP gambit came from Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell, R-Calvert and St. Mary’s. O’Donnell proposed setting aside half of the tax credits for businesses with fewer than 50 employees at the time they make the hires.

“We’re not talking about the Verizons or the Constellations or the Comcasts,” he said. “We’re talking about the little guys.”

Barve, in response, said the “little guys” at which the bill was targeted are the swollen ranks of unemployed Marylanders.  Imposing more restrictions on the tax credits could slow the hiring it is supposed to spur, he said.

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