House Speaker Michael E. Busch with his leadership team. (File Photo)

Heading into the final day of the General Assembly’s 90-day session, the House of Delegates had taken no action on a Senate bill designed to prevent raids on the Transportation Trust Fund.

But in a flurry of activity in the waning hours of the session on Monday, the House quickly passed a rewritten version of Senate Bill 829, which retained a key provision that would prevent transfer of money in the fund unless the governor declared an emergency and three-fifths of both houses of the legislature voted to approve the shift.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Anne Arundel, said Tuesday that lawmakers took their time on the “lockbox” bill to ensure it was properly crafted. The bill had sat untouched in the Rules and Executive Nominations Committee — legislative purgatory at that late point in the session — for more than a week.

“We were looking for the right language, and we worked our way through that,” Busch said. “I think it’s a responsible way to deal with the transportation funding.”

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Buried toward the end of Tuesday’s three-hour hearing on a multimillion dollar plan to raise money for transportation projects in Maryland was one opponent who may have had a leg up on the others.

Drew Cobbs, the executive director of the Maryland Petroleum Council, testified in the waning minutes of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee‘s hearing on House Bill 1515, and the longtime gas industry lobbyist had more to offer than how the bill would impact his interest group — Cobbs was a senior policy analyst for the Maryland Department of Transportation for 13 years.

Harkening back to those years, Cobbs told the Senate panel that indexing Maryland’s excise tax on gasoline wouldn’t be necessary if the legislature just increased the tax every five years, as was once fairly common until the legislature — under the administration of Gov. Parris N. Glendening — broke the streak in 1997. Maryland’s 23.5-cent gas tax hasn’t increased since 1992.

Cobbs also added that H.B. 1515 — the consensus agreement reached among Gov. Martin O’Malley, House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. — just played catch-up and did little to address ongoing operating costs of transit.

“We have a significant wound that’s bleeding,” Cobbs told the committee. “But all we’re going to do is give a transfusion, not close the wound.”

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Business leaders in Maryland support increasing the state's gas tax to improve congestion and create jobs for construction crews. (File Photo)

The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee will hold a public hearing Tuesday for comprehensive legislation that would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for transportation projects.

The panel will also hold a hearing Tuesday afternoon for an ambitious plan to finance redevelopment of Baltimore schools. Some lawmakers say the bills have been tied together to garner support for increases in Maryland’s gas tax and transit fees in the city.

The 1 p.m. hearings were added to the committee’s schedule following a brief introduction of House Bill 1515 and House Bill 860 to the full Senate on Monday afternoon. The House passed the transportation legislation, which would increase the price of gas by about 4 cents this summer through a pair of tax increases, in a contentious, 76-63 vote Friday. The school construction plan passed 107-30.

Both bills have the support of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, and are expected to pass the Senate. But Republican lawmakers have vowed to speak out against the transportation plan, which would raise $3.4 billion over the next five years on the back of tax increases.

The House took just a week between its public hearing on the transportation bill and final passage, as the chamber raced toward a deadline to send bills to the Senate. Less than two weeks remain in the legislature’s regular 90-day session.

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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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A well-connected Baltimore public relations firm has joined the campaign to raise taxes and fees to pay for transportation projects in Maryland.

Kearney O’Doherty Public Affairs LLC is directing the marketing for a nonprofit coalition of labor and transportation advocates calling itself Transportation Infrastructure Now.

KO Public Affairs is the same firm that successfully led the campaign to expand casino gambling last year, representing a coalition of labor unions backed by gambling giant MGM Resorts International Inc.

Rod Easter, president of the Baltimore Building and Construction Trades Council, Martin G. Knott Jr., chairman of the Maryland Economic Development Corp. and Michele Whelley, president and CEO of the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, are all members of the coalition. Advertisements paid for by the group have been placed on The Baltimore Sun’s website.

The group argues that increasing the gas taxes and transit fares to pay for transportation projects would create jobs. The House of Delegates is expected to pass House Bill 1515, the transportation bill, on Friday.

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The Eye on Annapolis Podcast is back with the latest from the General Assembly. Alex and I discuss the future of Maryland’s five death-row inmates in the wake of lawmakers approving the repeal of the death penalty and look ahead to the looming battles over transportation funding.

We also discuss why it seems more bills are churning through Annapolis this year and what to look for as Sine Die nears.

Enjoy.

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A complex plan to raise money for transportation projects in Maryland partially depends on the ability of the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that would allow states to impose a sales tax on Internet purchases.

Sen. Benjamin Cardin (Josh Cooper/The Daily Record)

If Congress can pass the Marketplace Fairness Act before 2015, revenue generated from online sales originating in Maryland would go directly to the state’s Transportation Trust Fund, eliminating the need to raise a proposed wholesale tax on gasoline from 4 percent to 6 percent.

When Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell proposed raising transportation money through Internet sales tax revenue earlier this year, some Maryland lawmakers scoffed at the plan. But U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin said Monday that Congressional action on the issue is not only possible, but likely.

“There’s no argument on the other side that makes any sense,” said Cardin, a sponsor of the bill. “I think we can get it.”

He added, however, that the measure would need to be tied to broader tax legislation, or potentially a trade bill.

“If we can get a tax bill, I think we have a reasonable chance,” Cardin said.

With just three weeks left in this year’s regular session of the General Assembly, Gov. Martin O’Malley and Democratic leaders are still piecing together a coalition to vote for raising the gas tax and some transit fares.

The House of Delegates Ways and Means Committee held a hearing for the plan on Friday, but the Senate has not yet moved the bill out of legislative purgatory in the Rules Committee.

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Left to right: Jim Dinegar, Mark Coles and Donald C. Fry talk about the business impact of increasing transportation funding. (Alexander Pyles/The Daily Record)

It is critical that the General Assembly rally around legislation developed by the governor and presiding officers that would raise $800 million a year for transportation projects, business leaders said Friday.

The House of Delegates‘ Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on the transportation bill, H.B. 1515, Wednesday afternoon.

In a morning press conference outside the State House, business advocates from the Baltimore and Washington areas said raising the money was vital to Maryland’s economy.

“Nothing is more important as it relates to keeping business going,” said Jim Dinegar, president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. He said growth at the Port of Baltimore, establishment of a liquified natural gas export facility in Calvert County and expansion of U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade were significant.

“All of this is going to put added pressure, added demands, on roads,” he said.

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House Speaker Michael E. Busch, Gov. Martin O'Malley and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., discussing the transportation revenue proposal.

In the rush to get news of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s gas tax proposals into Tuesday’s paper, a few details of last night’s unveiling had to go unaddressed.

It was thought that after the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation that raised taxes to pay for transportation projects, Democratic leaders in Maryland would be forced to try to muscle through a plan of their own. House of Delegates Speaker Michael E. Busch admitted last week Virginia’s action made the issue more urgent.

Monday night, he and Gov. Martin O’Malley both said that the complicated transportation revenue package was as much about relieving congestion in metropolitan areas as it was about remaining competitive with Virginia.

“Virginia, which is a very conservative state, just passed a transportation program,” said Busch, an Anne Arundel County Democrat. “If we’re to compete with the job market, we need to compete with transportation plans.”

The plans are similar in some ways. Both would require a tax on wholesale gasoline purchases, but O’Malley’s proposal — crafted through private meetings with the speaker, president and staff — keeps in place the per-gallon gasoline tax that has stood at 23.5-cents since 1992. The legislation would lower that to 18.5-cents a gallon, but make it inflation sensitive. Both states also are hoping the U.S. Congress passed legislation that would allow states to collect taxes on Internet sales.

O’Malley acknowledged Virginia’s role in the planning, saying his bill was “informed partly by theirs.”

The question is whether Maryland conservatives will follow the lead of Virginia Republicans, who clenched their teeth and agreed to raise taxes to address transportation woes. Initially, it appears leading Democrats will have to round up almost all of the votes from their own caucus.

It won’t be easy, but Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, said Monday night he, Busch and O’Malley showed last fall what the trio could do when they worked in concert. Several contentious issues publicly supported by the three men went to voters for final approval on Nov. 6, where Marylanders upheld their elected leaders’ decisions.

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Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., Gov. Martin O'Malley and House Speaker Michael E. Busch at a bill signing ceremony last year. (File Photo)

A day after meeting with the Democratic leaders of the General Assembly, Gov. Martin O’Malley may soon introduce a bill that would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for transportation projects.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, said Friday that he expects O’Malley to have legislation ready to be introduced when both houses of the legislature convene Monday at 8 p.m. A spokeswoman for the governor said later that there was nothing to announce yet.

Details of an administration-backed plan have not emerged. Miller introduced his own bill last month that would create a new 3 percent tax on wholesale gasoline purchases while simultaneously hiking the per-gallon fee to 28.5-cents from 23.5-cents. Miller’s plan also calls for the creation of regional authorities in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas that could raise property taxes to pay for light rail projects.

House of Delegates Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Anne Arundel, has meanwhile been working with leaders in his chamber to develop a transportation plan that could raise between $500 and $600 million while raising taxes statewide. O’Malley has previously said he preferred a statewide tax increase to regional hikes.

Miller said he has some inkling of what O’Malley’s bill will look like, but wasn’t divulging details.

“I do, but you’ll have to hear from him,” he said.

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