Tonight is sine die, without the benefit of the clock.

On the last day of the regular session, we adjourn sine die, Latin for without a day for the next meeting. We must do so by midnight. I’ve lost bills over the years because of that deadline.

There is no such time limit tonight. So we will stay until we’re done, most likely into the early morning hours. (The House adjourned at 2:08 a.m.)

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Readers of this diary may recall that I voted against the slots bill two years ago.

Why did I vote for it this time?

If the bill contains the money for the Park Heights neighborhoods and the revenue package is progressive, I told the Governor’s staff two weeks ago, I will vote for slots. Those two conditions were met.

Beyond that, I concluded that this General Assembly will not raise any more taxes beyond what we enacted this session. As I said on the House floor, without slots, we will have to make drastic cuts in vital public services.

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Why did the legislature vote for slots this time?

The Governor used the powers of his office - powers greater than those of any other Governor.

He made a sweeping proposal, called us into special session, brokered compromises, made commitments, and counted votes.

“The Governor got the necessary votes yesterday. He’ll get the votes this time as well,” I said to my seatmate on the House floor when the vote count looked bleak..

The Republicans, meanwhile, walked away. Like candidate Nixon in 1968, they had a secret plan to end the deficit. They did not, however, put it on the table for discussion.

Instead, their mantra was “whatever it is, we're against it.” (My apologies to Groucho.) That included slots, which many of them had supported before. Former Governor Ehrlich called Republican delegates to urge them not to vote for the referendum or the enabling legislation.

Only a handful supported the bills. Consequently, the Republicans had minimal input on the final product.

That’s my insider’s view. The voters will ultimately decide.

My cell phone vibrated as I was driving to Annapolis this morning.

It was a member of the Speaker’s staff.

I didn’t think he was calling with good news. He wasn’t.

$1 million of the money for Pimlico’s neighbors would be going elsewhere, the subcommittee had voted last night. That left us with $12 million. In the scheme of things, not such bad news.

The good news: our amendment extending the 15-year sunset on this assistance to Fiscal Year 2027 (when I’ll be 77) was adopted on the House floor.

That’s not the norm. Waiting to offer your amendment until a bill hits the floor is waiting too late. Tonight, however, we approved 13 such changes to House Bill 3.

That flurry of friendly amendments almost sank the slots bill. One change would have required licensees to pay their employees a living wage. For Republican delegates who think the minimum wage is a misguided intrusion on free enterprise, the living wage is the minimum wage on steroids.

The loss of five or six Republicans would leave the tally below the needed 71.

So early Sunday morning, we amended Senate Bill 3 instead – without the living wage amendment.

When the green and red lights first came up on the tote board, there were only 65 “yes” votes.

Whips from both parties scurried about the floor. My eyeball count reached 71 as a second member was explaining his vote; so did the Speaker’s binary tally. At 1:40 a.m., the clerk took the call: 71-44.

Then there was another flurry of activity. Fifteen members were present but not recorded as voting. For the most part, they were the Governor’s bench – the members who would vote for the bill if needed. What Earl Weaver called his “deep depth.”

The deed is almost done.

We passed House Bill 4, the constitutional amendment on slots that must still be approved by the voters, but not without drama.

The leading opponent of slots offered the first floor amendment. It failed, 61-67. A close margin, but more importantly, the House leadership was 18 votes shy of the 85 needed to pass the bill itself.

Consequently, this tally was pored over by both sides. Undecided members will be flattered and cajoled. But only the Governor has the ability to provide substance (capital projects for your district) as well.

Later this afternoon, I spoke on the House floor:

“If you want to vote on a doomsday budget, vote no on this bill. Without the revenues that slots would provide, the State will not have the funds to maintain the programs and services that each of us in this house has fought to create and preserve.

“If this special session has made one thing clear, it is that the political will does not exist in this house or across the hall in the Senate, to enact any more taxes than we already have. Without the revenue from slots, we will have to drastically cut services to the citizens of this state. I urge a green [yes] vote.”

When the vote first went up on the electronic boards in the House chamber, my eyeball count was 83. (Only the Speaker has a computer count of a vote in progress.)

The second time, I counted to 86. The Speaker told the House clerk to call the roll. The vote was 86-52.

A Baltimore Sun article related that the tally rose to 86 after three members switched their votes.

If only my batting eye was this good.

“We need to get this done,” bemoaned a frustrated delegate.

“We” is the General Assembly. “This” is slots.

The reason: at one meeting today, the itinerary was to pass the referendum on slots and stop there. The bill with all the details would wait – until the regular session next winter or the session after the November 2008 vote on the referendum.

“I don’t want to have to go through this again,” I said to myself. “The issue is not going to go away.”

In large measure because the political will is not there to raise any more revenue through taxes beyond what each house has already passed this session. Even if Lyndon Johnson were the presiding officer, the votes aren’t there.

Our first floor session was recessed shortly after it began. An hour later, we came back into session so that the chairman could announce that the Ways and Means Committee would be meeting to consider an amendment to the referendum bill. Presumably, that amendment was necessary to get the necessary 85 votes for the legislation.

Just to make sure, there was a Democratic caucus/pep rally. Edmund Burke was quoted and John Belushi was channeled.

The vote, however, was postponed until Friday.

The Baltimore Sun editorial page made news today.

After opposing slots for decades and as recently as last week, the Sun today endorsed putting the issue on referendum. “To become law, Gov. Martin O'Malley's slots plan will have withstood not only the scrutiny of lawmakers,” declared the Sun, “but also a year of review by the public.”

Members won’t carry the editorial onto the House floor as some voters carry the Sun’s endorsements into the voting booth. Nonetheless, for Baltimore area legislators who vote for the referendum, it’s a Grade A good government justification when explaining your vote to slots opponents back home.

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Last week, I wrote about the possibility that the funding for the redevelopment of the neighborhoods near Pimlico Race Course might be sunseted, meaning that this aid would stop after a certain date, unless a bill is passed to continue it.

I initially heard today that a 10 year-sunset had been rejected by the subcommittee working on the bill; then it was very much alive. I suggested 15 instead – the same period of time as the slots licenses. Money for redevelopment will also be going to the neighborhoods in the immediate vicinity of slots facilities. A 15-year sunset was adopted.

That means that when this issue is next debated, I would be in my 40th year in Annapolis and 72 years old.

But I doubt that I would still be going to Orioles Fantasy Camp.

The most important thing I did today was go home.

I had dinner with my parents, who are leaving town on Thursday.

I could leave Annapolis because our floor session ended at 2:40 pm. The slots subcommittee was meeting at 6:00 pm. Reminding myself not to leave anything for granted, I spoke once again with the two Baltimore City members on the full committee.

I told the City’s lobbyist to call me whenever something required my input. Even if it meant my taking a cell phone call during dinner – a definite no no in the Rosenberg household.

I got the call as I was leaving my parents’ apartment. No votes had been taken.

Most likely because they don’t have the votes yet.

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Morgan Stanley, an international financial services firm, announced yesterday that it will be adding 900 jobs to its Baltimore division because the area has "great" universities, an able work force and good access to company headquarters in New York City. "We just anticipate a lot of growth in this area," said a company spokesman.

After they read the Wall Street Journal, don’t the Morgan Stanley executives glance at the Baltimore Sun?

Don’t they know we’re about to raise taxes to support our “great” universities, train our work force, and enhance our transportation system?

Hurry up and wait.

An old Army expression that’s apt for the developments in Annapolis on this Veterans Day.

The subcommittee wants to hear from all of the delegates who have sponsored amendments to the slots bill, I was told. Normally, I don’t sit in on another committee’s deliberations. But if I’m being invited, I’ll be there.

I was there at the appointed hour, as were a score of lobbyists. But the only other delegate in the room was a Republican member of the subcommittee. There must have been a pre-meeting meeting of the Democratic members.

Ten minutes later, the chairman arrived. “We’re not voting on anything tonight,” he told me. “No need for you to be here.”

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Nearly $500 million in cuts were approved by the Appropriations Committee late this afternoon. Among the reductions: $3 million reduction in embryonic stem cell research, more than $13 million taken from higher education, and more than $10 million from health care providers and people assisting the developmentally disabled.

In a courtroom, this would put an end to the argument that cuts of this size can be easily made because of all of the waste, fraud and abuse in the state’s budget. But we’re operating in the political arena, where the burden of proof is met, not by the evidence, but by who best defines or frames the issue.

These cuts will not convert the person who wrote me today, in opposition to tax increases, and concluded his message by stating: “May God have mercy on your soul.”

“The god that I worship,” I replied, “would welcome the actions I took to preserve state programs for the least among us.”

The votes weren’t there.

Last night’s whip count was woefully short of the 71 votes needed to pass the sales tax and the income tax bills.

That’s why our 1:00 p.m. floor session was not gaveled to order until 7:05 p.m. So much for any records for legislative time that may have been set yesterday.

It wasn’t arm twisting that produced the needed numbers. Rather, it was a combination of:

* removing from the bill an extension of the sales tax to the labor charged for auto repair;

* a meeting of one county’s delegation with the Governor (persuasive arguments and implicit understandings not known); and

* the realization that the Speaker was going to keep us here on a Saturday night until we passed the bills.

My contribution to the legislative process: If we are going to increase the sales tax, I asserted, we must increase the Earned Income Tax Credit. This rebate for the working poor was in the Governor’s legislation; about to be removed from the bill when I spoke; and restored after I, followed by others, argued the credit was necessary to reduce the tax burden on those with the least income.

I also spoke during the floor debate: “Our revolutionary ancestors said that taxation without representation is tyranny. In a representative government, we should listen to our constituents. Most of them oppose these tax increases – for now. It is also our duty to vote our conscience, in this case to invest in our future – our education, transportation, and health care systems.”

At 12:30 a.m., the income tax bill passed, 82-55; 38 minutes later, the sales tax bill advanced, 80-56.

Nothing ever happens at the scheduled hour in the General Assembly.

It's called legislative time.

Today we may have set new records.

The 2:00 floor session started at 4:42. The reason: the Appropriations Committee was still deliberating - very deliberately.

The 8:30 pm session started at 10:18. We were told at 9:42 that the committee amendments to the tax bills would be on the floor very soon. 30 minutes later, they were.

That down time also gave the leadership the opportunity to address concerns expressed about the tax bills at the Democratic caucus, held after the afternoon floor session.

The torrent of phone calls and emails is having an effect. One Democratic delegate described his phone conversations with many of those who had called for no new taxes. It was not clear that he would be voting for the tax bills.

"What was your winning margin over your Republican in the general election?" I asked.

Over 17,000 was the answer.

EVERY WORD IN ALL CAPS, with 29 exclamation marks (I counted them.) after the last sentence.

The message: DON’T RAISE TAXES!!!!!!.

I can’t ignore the intensity of feelings over tax increases. Nonetheless, I hope that my more measured response will at least leave my constituent with an understanding that I made my decision after serious consideration of the impact higher taxes or program reductions would have on him.

A different perspective from a business lobbyist: A few weeks ago, he said the Governor was hurting himself by raising so many different taxes. Today he predicted that a successful resolution of the special session would make the Governor the man who solved the problem

My view: The policy differences between the House and Senate are the kind that will be resolved, with minimal dramatics, in a conference committee. The Governor’s hand with the legislature will be strengthened, and the public will judge our performance by their quality of life and the state of their pocketbooks three years from now.

The whips were at work on the House floor yesterday afternoon. Instead of counting votes, they were taking attendance. “Will you be here Saturday when we vote on the tax bills?”

I won’t be in Israel or Orioles Fantasy Camp. I’ll be voting yes.

Four bills got favorable reports from the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee yesterday. So I had four sets of amendments to read late this morning. Staff didn’t finish writing them until 2 a.m.

At Baltimore City’s initiative, at least 95% of the City’s proceeds from the South Baltimore slots facility would be used to reduce the property tax rate and construct or rehabilitate City schools.

Under another amendment, additional forms of gambling could be authorized by legislation passed by a 3/5 supermajority in both houses of the legislature. It would not have to be approved by the voters, as would be the case for changes to any other part of the constitutional amendment that would be on the ballot next November. .

The committee did not amend the Pimlico neighborhoods section of the slots
bill. However, the House committee might sunset the funding, meaning that this aid would stop after a certain date.

Since slots money won’t be flowing until two or three years from now, I wrote a staffer: “A suggestion: if the committee adds a sunset provision, it should not be “x” years from the passage of the referendum but “x” years from the first year in which all slots licensees are fully operative.”

As I was driving home yesterday afternoon, a Democratic Senator from Baltimore County was being hailed on right wing radio for announcing that he would join the Republicans in filibustering the tax bill.

At the same time, one of the Republican delegates from his district was sitting in an Appropriations Committee hearing. She objected to a proposal to eliminate a cost-of-living increase for state employees, who would still have to make a pension payment. “It seems like we're robbing Peter to pay Paul here," said the delegate.

Votes in committee aren’t the same as voices on the airwaves.

I began the day with the names of five delegates handwritten on the back of a business card.

They are the members of the Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over embryonic stem cell research. During our brief session on the House floor, I wanted to talk to as many of the five as I could - before their hearing this afternoon. .

Two were favorable, and one was leaning that way. I saw a fourth later in the day; he was very supportive. We should have the votes to preserve the funding.

Shortly before we adjourned, the chairman of the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over the slots bill announced a meeting for 3 pm.

I added the six names on that subcommittee to my business card. (I write small.)

Two members had concerns that there was no limit on the number of years money would go to our communities. I asked Baltimore City to provide the cost projections for the Park Heights Master Plan - $24 million in annual expenses and $135 million in one-time only costs.

To reassure them that a change could be made to this allocation in the future simply by passing a bill, instead of amending the state constitution, I checked with the Attorney General’s office. That is the case.

I later learned the subcommittee won’t be voting on the slots bill at today’s meeting. They’re waiting to see what the Senate does.

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The State House will be closed for renovations for nine months after the regular legislative session ends next April, today’s Baltimore Sun reported. That means we can’t have a special session there next year!

$500 million.

That’s the target for spending cuts in the current fiscal year that the Appropriations Committee hopes to achieve. The reductions the Governor has already made would count towards that total.

When I first learned of that figure last week, I nodded approvingly. To sell the tax package to the public, we need to reduce spending further. That’s very apparent from the emails and phone calls we’ve received.

Since I no longer serve on the Appropriations Committee, I won’t be involved in making the difficult decisions as to which programs get hurt and which are spared.

Then I read Sunday’s Washington Post:

"Other possible cuts include canceling planned cost-of-living increases for state workers, eliminating 750 vacant jobs and spending less than planned on stem cell research grants, a new initiative in Maryland."

As the leading proponent of embryonic stem cell research in the House, I can’t sit idly by and defer to the committee’s wisdom. It would send the wrong signal to the scientific and business communities if we reduced funding for this cutting edge research.

“Everything remains on the table,” I was informed. There’s a hearing on proposed cuts Tuesday afternoon. I emailed the people who had testified in the past and asked them to do so again.

Members asked questions about several of the moving parts of the Governor's slots bill at today's hearing.

Among the issues raised: the number of slot machines, the five proposed locations, the viability of Magna (the owner of Laurel and Pimlico), and which local governments would receive money if a facility is opened at Laurel,which straddles two counties and a city.

There was even a question from the Senate minority leader about the cannibalizing effect of a slots facility near Ocean City on that community's existing bars and restaurants. “I'd do anything to get your vote,” responded the Governor's chief lobbyist.

That prompted laughter from the audience. In the legislature and the lottery, “You've gotta play to win.” You have to vote for the bill if you want your amendment to be adopted. Republicans have removed themselves from the process by announcing that they won't vote for a slots bills during the special session – even though they have done so in the past.

I'm not a member of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over the slots bill. So at today's hearing, I sat in the back row next to staff - which has its advantages.

When a Baltimore City official testified that the City would choose what entity would run the slots facility on City-owned land in South Baltimore, the staffer and I both knew that under the bill, a commission appointed by the Governor would make that decision. I promptly emailed the City official, copying the staffer, so that this could be resolved.

I later told the staffer which of our amendments on the funding for the Pimlico neighborhoods were most important. To make sure, I emailed him as well.

Sometimes, where your amendment stands depends upon where you sit.

Monday, I read the slots bill; yesterday, I read the drafts of my amendments; today, I discussed those amendments with the Speaker and the Governor’s staff.

My 40th and 41st District colleagues and I met with the Speaker because he had proposed two years ago that slots money be set aside for the Park Heights Master Plan, a major revitalization of the communities from Northern Parkway to Park Circle. Delegate Oaks and I suggested that money also be provided for other neighborhoods within one mile of Pimlico Race Track. The Speaker agreed then, as well as today.

Our amendment reflects the suggestions of the neighborhood association presidents we met with in September - to prepare for a possible special session.

My other amendment would list the programs that a certain portion of the Governor’s revenue package could be spent on. It would also put my Republican colleagues on record as voting against funding for these services. I shared it with staff for the Governor and the Speaker.

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I drove to Baltimore to teach my two law school classes, Legal Writing and Legislation. I’ll spare you the highlights of the Socratic dialogues.

I never served on the Appropriations subcommittee with responsibility for the state’s transportation system.

So it was uncharted territory when I attended the hearing on the Governor’s legislation to increase transportation funding by $400 million.

It was out of the ordinary for all of the legislators present to hear the business community call for higher taxes - enough to provide $600 million, 50% more than the Governor's request.

Gridlock costs the business community time and money. The environment also benefits if more people use mass transit. That was their pitch.

Nonetheless, rural legislators objected to their constituents’ gas tax dollars funding subways that they would never use. A delegate from the D.C. suburbs questioned an existing funding formula that benefits Baltimore City.

None of this is cheap. The average cost of building a highway interchange has skyrocketed from $28 million to $115 million from 1993 to today.

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Monday, I read the slots bill; today, I read the draft of my amendments.

I was walking out of the State House late this afternoon when someone asked me, “Are you glad to be back?”

“It depends upon the outcome,” I replied.

The Republicans contend that result is preordained. The Governor and the two presiding officers will meet, emerge with an agreement, and ram it down the throats of the membership, without public input. That does happen here – sometimes. But not this time.

The stakes are too high. The budget is the policy document of the state. How we do or don’t spend $1.7 billion, the projected deficit we’re trying to address with program cuts or additional revenue, will be a very significant policy statement.

And it’s a tough vote for each member, however liberal your district may be. The majority of emails and phone calls I’ve received thus far oppose any tax increase.

No one has asked me yet how I’m going to vote. Whether the revenue package in its entirety is progressive is crucial for me. And no one knows yet what that’s going to look like.

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The regular session next winter keeps intruding. Whether driver’s licenses will be issued to undocumented immigrants will be one of the issues before my committee. In light of that, I’d like to share with you my email today to my brother, Bruce:

According to a recent New York Times article, "Maximillian Rafael Levchin [a 32-year old Internet multimillionaire] was born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine, a Jew living under Soviet rule for 16 years. As the Soviet Union was crumbling, the family moved to the United States."

So did Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google. He attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Prince Georges County, as one of my colleagues told me last night when I discussed this story.

This is why Russia is a third world country, and there's a Lady in New York Harbor welcoming those huddled masses yearning to be free.

I read the bill.

The first thing I did after getting to Annapolis this morning was read the Governor’s slots bill. I’m not going to rely on anyone else’s summary of the legislation.

I learned over the weekend that it does contain money for our neighborhoods. However, we’ll need to offer an amendment clarifying which communities would be eligible for assistance.

Today, I discovered that the bill would mandate a hiring preference for individuals living within 10 miles of a slots facility. That distance makes sense in a rural area but not in Northwest Baltimore. Another amendment to be drafted.

As the only one who had read the bill, I had an advantage, although a fleeting one, in a meeting this afternoon.

I’m also working on an amendment that would put my Republican colleagues on record as voting against funding for services that would be maintained only with a tax increase.

I had a productive meeting with a lawyer who can help get my amendment drafted and a positive meeting with a member of the House leadership who can help get it adopted.

My committee won't hear any bills next week.

The special session is limited to the looming budget deficit. Any legislation that would normally go to the Judiciary Committee will be referred instead to the Rules Committee. And stay there.

However, since Pimlico Race Course is in my district, I need to be vigilant about the slots issue. The slots bill that passed the House in 2005 contained $3 million for economic and community development in neighborhoods within one mile of the track.

Senator Gladden, Delegate Oaks, and I have been meeting with these community groups for the past month to discuss this funding. If a slots bill is enacted, we want to make sure it benefits our neighborhoods.

80% of life is showing up, says Woody Allen. So I'll be in Annapolis every day that the budget committees are meeting - formally or informally.

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A reminder in today's Washington Post of the issues that my committee will be addressing next January. "Marylanders Lean Left on Gay Marriage, Death Penalty," read the headline concerning a just completed poll.

Although 51% oppose gay marriage, 57% support civil unions, a significant increase from nearly four years ago, when 44% were in favor. Any bill that we pass is certain to be petitioned to referendum.

I believe that we should provide same-sex couples the legal protections the state already provides to married heterosexual couples - in a manner that will be supported by 50.1% of the voters in November 2008.

Marylanders also favor a compromise position on the death penalty. 60% favor the death penalty, but they support life without the possibility of parole over the death penalty, 52-43%.

Next January, I will again introduce legislation repealing the death penalty and replacing it with life without parole.

It’s no Profile in Courage to oppose a tax increase.

But there can be a cost to doing so: if the voters are informed of the services they are likely to lose without those additional revenues.

Governor O’Malley had a press conference yesterday to announce budget cuts totaling $1.65 billion if taxes aren’t raised.

“Governance through fear is abhorrent to the American psyche,” responded the Republican leader in the House of Delegates, Anthony J. O’Donnell.

Gee, that’s what the Bush-Cheney administration has been doing since 9/11.

2007
November (15)
October (5)