Rise in sales tax is sought
Baltimore Sun

Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that he plans to raise $730 million by increasing the state sales tax and extending it to health club memberships, property management and other services. But he said his proposed changes to the state income and property tax rates would mean that most families would still come out ahead.Sitting around a middle-class family's dining room table for the second day in a row, O'Malley acknowledged yesterday that increasing the sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent would run counter to his goal of making Maryland's tax system more progressive. But the Democratic governor said the move is necessary to balance the budget and that he designed his overall tax package to minimize the impact on working families.

Editor's Note -- You had to see this one coming.

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Md. lawmakers begin preparing for 2008 battle
The Baltimore Sun

Within minutes of Maryland's high court upholding a ban on same-sex marriage, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle began preparing for what is sure to be a pitched battle in the next General Assembly session over what rights -- if any -- gay couples should be afforded."I see it being a fight," said Sen. Brian E. Frosh, the Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. "And it's hard to predict the outcome."Conservative lawmakers promised to reintroduce a constitutional amendment that would make clear that marriage is an institution limited to heterosexual couples, an amendment that has stalled in committee in years past.Others said they intend to propose that same-sex couples be given the same state rights as their heterosexual counterparts, a concept that activists are calling civil marriage. Still others are already talking compromise, which could resemble the civil unions that exist in several other states or could look like something else altogether.What they agree on is that the court ruling gives a legislature that was already expecting a busy session another -- and likely contentious -- set of issues to sort out come January. Most legislators had been avoiding the same-sex marriage issue while waiting for the court to rule.

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Churchill High Students Were Expected to Buy Own AP Texts
Washington Post

Several teachers at one of Montgomery County's top high schools were instructing students to buy their own textbooks for Advanced Placement courses, a breach of state education code that has stirred debate among suburban parents about the duty of public schools to provide such basics as classrooms, desks and books.For the past seven or eight years, a cadre of AP teachers at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac had told students to purchase the $90 and $100 texts, allowing exceptions only to those who could not afford them. The teachers wanted students to get a leg up in their college-preparatory studies by annotating the actual text, as is done in college, rather than keep notes on separate sheets of paper.

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Annexation without representation?
Frederick News-Post
September 13, 2007

Call it "Forgotten Frederick" -- 34 acres on Bowers Road off U.S. 40 lacking police protection and trash collection.The City of Frederick annexed the area a decade ago and Wednesday, landowners asked the mayor and Board of Aldermen to stop charging them property taxes until they start getting services.The more than a dozen landowners would be willing to pay taxes if the city had a plan for extending services, said Carol Smith, who owns Hi-Way Liquors, one of the affected properties.The 1997 annexation agreement specified that the city wouldn't tax the properties until they were either connected to the city's water and sewer system, sold, or until seven years passed. Because of a building moratorium in 2001 and 2002, the city extended the seven-year threshold to December 2005, said Gerald Kolbfleisch, the city's finance director.At least some of the property owners have refused to pay taxes since then.

Editor's Note -- Frederick City gets it right...Finally!

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To Speed Grading, Tests Will Be Multiple Choice
Essay Questions Slowing Graders
The Washington Post

September 13, 2007; Page B06Maryland plans to eliminate written-response questions from its high school exit exams to address long-standing complaints about how slowly test results are processed, state education officials said yesterday.Beginning in May 2009, the Maryland school system will phase out "brief constructed responses" and "extended constructed responses" -- questions requiring a short or long written answer -- from its four tests covering algebra, English, biology and government, said Ronald A. Peiffer, the state's deputy superintendent for academic policy.Eliminating those questions will allow the state to process test results up to four weeks faster than before, Peiffer said. The timing of the change means that the Class of 2009, the first group for which the test will count, will still be responsible for composing written answers.

Editor's Note -- Translation- It's important that we hold our children to the same standards of laziness, poor communication skills and demands for instant gratification that we expect from our government employees.

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Board Approves Ethanol Fleet for State.
The Baltimore Sun
September 13, 2007

State government is pledging to increase its use of ethanol- and biodiesel-powered cars and trucks and to triple the number of hybrids in its fleet by 2011.The three-member Board of Public Works approved the policy yesterday, applauding the move as a way to bring Maryland into an eco-friendly future."Even though it is a small step, it is something that is concrete and solid and we can focus on it," said Comptroller Peter Franchot. "We're leading by example."The cornerstone of the plan calls for 40 percent of state vehicle purchases over the next three years to be cars and trucks that operate on biofuels, principally ethanol and biodiesel.

Editor's Note -- Once again, the O'Malley regime proves it's ineptitude. In an era when the state grapples with a structural deficit, the Board of Public Works has voted to adopt a program that increases capital expenditures and operating budgets. And all for a science that has no demonstrable ecological benefit.

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