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- Maryland /
Regional
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State Center could add to Maryland debt limit
(Baltimore Sun)
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Shortfall in
taxes means more cuts
(Baltimore Sun)
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$18.9 million awarded for stem cell research in Md.
(Baltimore Sun)
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- National /
International
- --
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- Opinion
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Public-financed health care a must
(Baltimore Sun Letter to the Editor)
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- Maryland /
Regional
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State Center could add to Maryland debt limit
- Maryland treasurer issues warning about $1.4 billion
development, but backers say complex would be economic
stimulus for Baltimore
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- By Laura Smitherman and Lorraine Mirabella
- Baltimore Sun
- Saturday, May 16, 2009
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- Maryland's treasurer warned Friday that a planned $1.4
billion development anchored by the state office complex in
Midtown Baltimore may count toward the state's debt limit,
raising questions about the state's ability to afford the
huge undertaking.
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- State officials also announced separately Friday a new
lead developer to replace Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse,
which has struggled with mounting debt, and reiterated a
goal to break ground on the State Center in 2010.
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- The development has become a politically charged topic
in Annapolis, where lawmakers are seeking more information
about the state's financial obligations, while Baltimore
politicians and community members say the project would
revitalize the area. The state's budget has been hit hard by
the recession, and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp's report
indicated that the project could cause the state to exceed
its debt limit within 10 years.
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- Lawmakers on budget committees have until the end of the
month to weigh in before the project planners seek approval
of the master development agreement from the state Board of
Public Works, which has purview over state contracts and
includes Kopp, Gov. Martin O'Malley and Comptroller Peter
Franchot.
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- "Lawmakers have a lot of questions about the structure
of this, how it would work and what the risk to the state is
versus what the rewards would be," said Del. Murray D. Levy,
a Charles County Democrat on the House Appropriations
Committee. "We don't have any money right now. The timing of
this is difficult."
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- The mixed-used development around the state's 28-acre
office complex, which holds the largest concentration of
state workers in Maryland, has been hailed as a model for
urban renewal that would include commercial and residential
space near a number of major public transit hubs. The
project also could create 8,000 jobs and generate nearly $60
million in annual tax revenue for city and state coffers.
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- "We see this whole project as an economic stimulus when
this economy really needs this kind of private investment,"
said Michael A. Gaines, a project manager at the Maryland
Department of General Services, which is working closely
with the Department of Transportation to push ahead with the
State Center plan.
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- Gaines said more than 60 percent of the project's
capital costs would be borne by private developers, and that
the state has time to back out of the deal. But several
lawmakers question if it's a good deal.
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- "If we think we're going to go into a long depression,
it would be kind of stupid to do such a development," said
Sen. David R. Brinkley, a Frederick County Republican.
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- Kopp's office was careful not to judge the merits of the
project and instead addressed the narrow issue of whether
the state's occupancy leases should be considered "capital
leases," and thus count toward the limit on how much can be
borrowed for schools, prisons and other projects. The report
said it would be "prudent" to consider them capital leases.
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- Struever Bros. will remain as a consultant on the
project. The new developers, PS Partners LLC, include Linden
Associates, headed by Baltimore developer Christopher Kurz,
and Ekistics Capital Partners LLC, founded by Caroline
Moore, who recently left Struever, where she had been
project manager for the State Center.
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- The project's original minority partner, Doracon
Development, withdrew earlier this year to focus on internal
issues, Moore said. Its owner, Ronald H. Lipscomb, was
indicted in January on charges related to an alleged bribery
scheme involving City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton.
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- Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
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Shortfall in
taxes means more cuts
- Agencies asked to find three state programs to slash
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- By Julie Bykowicz
- Baltimore Sun
- Saturday, May 16, 2009
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- Maryland agencies that have already undergone several
rounds of belt-tightening will have to get even leaner.
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- State Budget Secretary T. Eloise Foster distributed a
memo Friday asking department heads to take another look at
next year's budget with an eye toward more program cuts. The
memo was prompted by this week's announcement that, amid a
national economic downturn, revenues through the end of
April fell $200 million short of what the state anticipated.
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- Agency leaders - from Public Safety to Human Resources
to Environment - have until June 5 to "itemize and discuss
... reduction proposals" and single out three programs each
that "do not deliver critical services." Unlike a request
last fall to reduce spending by 5 percent, there's no target
number - yet.
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- "At this point, it's a conceptual task," said Shaun
Adamec, a spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley. "This is Round
One. They know they need to come to the table with
something."
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- Foster's memo asks agencies to consider "curtailing or
limiting programs and activities that do not directly impact
critical services for Maryland families during these
difficult economic times." It also recommends "partnering
with sister agencies to reduce costs" and rebidding
contracts.
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- State lawmakers spent months agonizing over the 2010
operating budget, which at $14 billion represented less
spending than this year, but fiscal policy analysts warned
that a continued recession could mean more trouble for
Maryland's coffers.
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- This week's state write-downs came about in part because
of decreased income tax revenue. Comptroller Peter Franchot
called the figures "ugly" and said he is troubled by a
decline in individual income taxes, which dropped more than
17 percent last month compared to the year before.
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- Maryland law requires the state to balance its budget,
so plummeting revenues mean another squeeze in state
programs. After the agencies make their next reductions,
which must be approved by the Board of Public Works,
O'Malley will have reduced state spending by $3.7 billion
and state positions by at least 2,700 since taking office in
2006, according to Foster's memo.
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- State hiring has been frozen for more than a year,
although the overburdened Department of Human Resources
recently received the governor's approval to fill 66
vacancies in the division that handles food and medical
assistance requests.
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- "There's no illusion that this is a pleasant process,"
Adamec said.
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- Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
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$18.9 million awarded for stem cell research in Md.
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- By Gus G. Sentementes
- Baltimore Sun
- Saturday, May 16, 2009
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- WASHINGTON — - The Maryland Technology Development Corp.
awarded $18.9 million this week to dozens of researchers
involved in stem cell research at private and public
institutions across the state. The state has been formally
funding stem cell research since legislators passed the
Maryland Stem Cell Research Act of 2006. Stem cell research
is widely regarded as having the potential to deliver
groundbreaking cures to a broad range of health problems and
help fuel the state's efforts to become a hub for the
biotechnology industry. Fifty-nine projects received funding
in the latest round of awards. The researchers work at
numerous public and private organizations across Maryland,
including the Johns Hopkins University, the University of
Maryland, Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy
Krieger and GlobalStem.
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- Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
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- National / International
- ---
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-
- Opinion
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Public-financed health care a must
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- Baltimore Sun Letter to the Editor
- Saturday, May 16, 2009
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- I am writing to express my dismay about the health care
reform process as it is currently being orchestrated.
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- Every other industrialized democracy in the world
guarantees universal coverage through a publicly financed
system. For the U.S. to think it can accomplish the same
without a strong public system as a central tenet is folly.
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- The evidence that our for-profit system is more costly
than publicly funded systems is overwhelming. Will someone
please explain to me what the thinking is behind this?
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- Jan Caughlan, Baltimore
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- Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
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