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         The "Minimum Wage Bill" that passed both houses is a compromise between the House and Senate versions.   

          The compromise version also included the Senate provision that gave Community Service Providers a 4% rate increase rather than the 3% increase provided in House Bill.

           The bill now goes to the Governor to sign or veto.  Under a provision in the state constitution, bills submitted to the governor at least six days before the end of a legislative session become law after six days, unless the governor issues a veto. If there is a veto, the General Assembly can vote on whether to override before adjourning for the year.

        In case you are unaware, there is a nationwide feud between the Roads People and the Transit People that would put the Hatfields and McCoys to shame.  It makes no sense to me, since buses are transit and they need roads.  But the Transit People seem to believe that transit means  trains.  

        Having spent four years in the Department of Transportation during the Ehrlich administration, I came to know this issue intimately.  Today, 13 years later, the war is as alive as ever.  

        Last term, the Transit People tried a direct, frontal attack on roads in the form of a bill that tried to strip MDOT of the right to prioritize projects and put it in the "hands" of a grading system that clearly favored transit.   

        This year, the attacks on general transportation (anything other than transit) is much more sophisticated, and thus more dangerous.   One bill (HB 1091) puts a number of additional reporting requirements and time-consuming activities into the process of building major road projects that use the Public-Private Partnership (P-3) process.  The bill specifically targets plans to expand I-270 and I-465.  The bill is a quite fitting illustration of a "roadblock" to roadbuilding.

A Second bill aims to increase transit funding.

           Maryland, along with Virginia and the District of Columbia provides the funding for the Washington Metro Transit Authority  ( WMATA).   Possibly, because of the divided responsibility, WMATA has not had appropriate oversight.   WMATA has not just overspent, but has overspent on all the wrong things.  Their equipment, including trains and rails, has fallen into a dire state of disrepair.  

         Last year, the three jurisdictions got together to work out an agreement for fixing the critically important metro transit system without bankrupting the three supporting jurisdictions!

        An agreement was reached in which each of the three agreed to give WMATA an additional $167 million to make needed repairs.  To ensure a modicum of fiscal responsibility by WMATA, the jurisdictions placed a cap of 3% on how much the WMATA budget could grow from year to year.  The Maryland General Assembly passed and the Governor signed HB 372 ratifying the agreement between the three jurisdictions and authorizing the $167 million expenditure.

        To ensure that this additional expenditure would not negatively impact the Maryland Department of Transportation's six-year "Consolidated Transportation Plan" (CTP), the bill intentionally allowed transfers from the General Fund to cover this huge appropriation.

More for D.C.-oriented Transit

        This year, before the ink is dry on the agreement, the Transit People have introduced HB 1412 which (1) eliminates the 3% cap on WMATA's budget growth, and (2) mandates that all WMATA funding come from the Transportation Trust Fund, and not the General Fund.  Just to make things worse, WMATA has already  ignored the agreement and proposed a budget that grows 11%.

Impact of HB 1412

         Growing at the current growth rate, WMATA's budget would need at least $723 million more annually than the 3% cap would have allowed. 

        Shifting the entire cost of funding WMATA to the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) means that the TTF would need an additional $793 million annually to fund the 6-year transportation plan.

        Combined, the bill's two changes will reduce the statewide CTP by a staggering $2.3 billion  -- a 14.6% decrease in MDOT's statewide capital program.

        It makes one wonder, What's next?

Skip ahead to 2018

        By January 1, 2020, DBM must establish three new prescription drug benefit programs for specified current and future retirees who are enrolled in a Medicare prescription drug benefit plan:

• Retired from the State on or before May 1, 2019;
• Is enrolled in a prescription drug benefit plan under Medicare; and
• Is eligible to enroll and participate in the State Employee and Retiree Health and Welfare Benefit Program (State plan).

• Began State service on or before June 30, 2011;
• Retired on or after January 1, 2019; and
• Is eligible to enroll and participate in the State plan.

• Is eligible to enroll and participate in the State plan and
• Is enrolled in a prescription drug benefit plan under Medicare.

Caution:  This information is provided as an overview and is not to be relied upon in making any health care coverage decisions. 

Civics, Citizenship, Social Studies

( western Howard County and southern Carroll County)    

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