The budget each year represents the primary reason for the sessions of the General Assembly and the General Assembly is required to pass a balanced budget before it can adjourn.  This year the responsibility for first review of the Governor’s budget was in the Senate.  The budget crossed to the House of Delegates last week and was reviewed by the Appropriations Committee.  On April 2^nd, SB140 – Budget Bill 2011 and SB141 – Budget Reconciliation and Finance Act of 2010 were passed with a vote of 100 to 35.

This evening the Maryland Muslim community held their Community Services Reception in the Miller Building.  The group asked me to give a short report on the bill which would legalize medical marijuana in Maryland.  I am a co-sponsor of this bill and support the bill after hearing of the needless suffering that patients of serious and often terminal illnesses.  These patients often cannot find relief from their pain through other prescribed medicine.  The bill has various safeguards to make sure that only licensed physicians can write prescriptions for this product.

My bill HB796 – Property Tax Credit for Homes Formerly Owned by the Habitat for Humanity had a hearing in the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee.  This was a sponsor only hearing and went quickly.

This evening I attended the Comcast Leaders and Achievers Reception and met Shelby Clarke from McDonough High School who was the scholarship winner from Charles County.  Shelby is a delight to meet and I enjoyed talking to her parents and her about her future plans.

I support the care and deliberation that the different agencies in both the Maryland and Federal governments are taking in reviewing the request to build this highway.  We live in a beautiful county, blessed with some of the greatest natural resources in our land, and I would like to know that my grandchildren will have the opportunity to see our county at its best when they grow up.  If care and deliberation are taken, then we will never be sorry about the final outcome.  We will know it was right.

This bill sought to encourage apprentices to seek career advancement both for their own economic advancement, but also for their families.  Unfortunately, in these economic times, often the apprentices are the first laid off.  An apprentice can only work under the direction of a journeyman so this means they have no recourse to work unless another journeyman will take them on.  Often in slow economic times, if a journeyman is laid off, he can work independently and support his family by that means until he secures another company job.

HB936 – alters sex offender registration and notification requirements; establishes various tiers of offender classifications and alters various other sex offender registration requirements to move Maryland closer to compliance with federal law.

HB473 – establishes the conditions and requirements for lifetime sexual offender supervision.

HB931 – alters the composition and duties of the Sexual Offender Advisory Board, including a requirement to develop criteria for measuring a person’s risk of reoffending.

The last two bills passed with unanimous approval.

This bill is sponsored by the Governor’s Office and proposes three major reforms to make Maryland more competitive for these grant monies:

1. The probationary period before tenure for teachers is increased from two to three years.  There will be annual evaluations by local boards of education and a mentor may be assigned after the first year of teaching if the teacher needs assistance.  (41 states currently require three to five years of teaching experience prior to tenure.)
2. A framework would be required to incorporate student growth data to be included as a significant factor in teacher and principal evaluations.
3. To facilitate a more equitable distribution of highly effective teachers across all schools, stipends would be available to those highly effective teachers and principals who teach in the State’s lowest performing schools.

These are new proposals designed to help Maryland be competitive in the grants race and keep Maryland schools top rated for the future.

Based on the testimony, there does not appear to be a problem at this time in local and state wide elections, but this has been an issue on the national level.

There is a severe shortage of homes in Charles County that are suitable for those with disabilities.  Hopefully, this will encourage groups to try to make more of this type of housing available.

The Farm Bureau urged the General Assembly to restore the nutrient management budget to meet the funding mandates of the 1998 Water Quality Improvement Act and to support the Chesapeake Bay Restoration effort.

Today 14 bills were scheduled and the hearing for three bills ran over one hour each:  HB176 –Student Information Availability to Military Recruiters; HB334 –  Physical Education Facilities; and HB1160 – Safe Schools Act of 2010.

This bill requires a property sales contract to contain notice of the purchaser’s right to appeal the classification or valuation of the property by the State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) within 60 days of the sale if the property is transferred after January 1 but before July 1.    This could help owners who buy property that was assessed with the last three years and believe that the assessments are too high.