Tom LoBianco, Maryland politics reporter

(Here‘s my latest for Center Maryland – TL)

A little more than a week ago, developers, environmental advocates and lawmakers hammered out a tepid compromise to ease Maryland into a tough new set of environmental restrictions on development.

Now that measure is locked in a committee run by an ardent liberal lawmaker, and in attempt to break free the compromise, one of the state’s most powerful developers’ lobbying groups unleashed a study blasting stormwater regulations as bad for the economy and workers in the construction industry.

And environmentalists, who feel like they gave up a lot to developers in the negotiating process, are now angry with what they say are excessive political tactics.

The report is a reminder of how devastating unchecked environmental rules would be for the economy, said Thomas M. Farasy, president of the Maryland State Builders Association, which commissioned the study.

(Here’s my exclusive for Center Maryland – TL)

The co-chairman of the General Assembly panel that must approve a compromise on tough new stormwater runoff regulations denounced the deal Thursday, calling it “an abomination” crafted with little regard for the environment.

The opposition of Sen. Paul Pinsky, the Prince George’s County Democrat who serves as co-chairman of the Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review Committee, suggests the compromise on stormwater rules remains tentative and could still face a difficult challenge before winning approval.

But House Speaker Michael E. Busch warned that the deal – crafted after extensive negotiations among lawmakers, builders, city and county officials, environmental advocates and others – should be approved as is.

“I don’t know how you can get to a better compromise than this, and I think it would be foolhardy to change any of this,” Busch said Thursday.

(My latest from Center Maryland – TL.)

Homebuilders would have more time to complete projects before they have to meet stricter stormwater environmental rules under a compromise reached between developers, environmentalists and lawmakers.

The new regulations would allow developers to complete their final permitting by May 2013 and would then give them until May 2017 to complete construction.

The rules would also alleviate what had become one of the most divisive issues in Annapolis this year: how to curb runoff pollution as mandated by a 2007 law without completely stifling new development.

The Maryland Department of the Environment is expected to submit the new regulations by Wednesday. Read the full story here.

(My latest from Center Maryland. – TL)

Maryland lawmakers and governors have wrestled with seemingly intractable problems in the state’s juvenile services system for more than a decade, reaping both political benefits and despair.

And the killing of a 65-year-old female teacher at the Cheltenham Youth Facility last month has lawmakers again calling for a review of the Department of Juvenile Services – putting the issue at the center of the agenda for another crucial election season.

In 2005, lawmakers passed a bill to form a legislative oversight panel to review problems in the juvenile services system. When the measure was vetoed by then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the General Assembly’s Democratic leadership included the oversight panel legislation in a package of more than a dozen vetoes that were overridden at the start of the 2006 session.

Then the oversight group – which was to include six members of the House of Delegates and six members of the Senate – never met. (Read the full story here.)

(Here’s my latest from Center Maryland – TL.)

The Fiscal Leaders Committee, a secretive grouping of the Maryland General Assembly’s most powerful members, has met routinely through good budget times and bad.

But as the state struggles through its worst budget storm in generations, the group has met on only a handful of occasions.

Partisan rancor and a decade’s worth of skirmishes have driven a wedge between the two men who jointly determine when the group will meet: House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.

Miller, Busch, and other budget leaders in the General Assembly can’t remember the last time it met, although they know it was some time last year.

“I’m not exactly sure why they haven’t been meeting, I’d love to have a meeting, at least between the principals,” Busch said. (Read the full story here.)

(My latest story for Center Maryland – TL)

Farmers getting pinched by Maryland’s estate tax could get some relief soon, but not likely this year.

Lawmakers have been pushing for more than three years to give family farmers a waiver on the tax, citing the growing squeeze on family farmers facing increasing land values and major tax hits each time land is passed down a generation.

The bill has failed in the last two sessions, but supporters are taking a new approach this year, looking to the environmental community for help. (Get the full story here.)

Here’s my latest CenterMaryland.org story – TL

Price tag for clearing snow from state highways up over $100 million

By Tom LoBianco

The historic snowstorms of this winter also come with a historic price tag of more than $100 million, the state transportation department said Monday.

And that’s just an early guess, as road crews are still working to clear secondary lanes and literally remove snow from some of the areas which went untouched over the last two weeks of snow, Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley told a state budget committee.

“We’re already well over $100 million,” she said.

Between December’s snowstorms, a few relative dustings in January and the past two knockout blizzards, the state is on track to almost double what it normally lays out for snow removal annually, Swaim-Staley said.

Get the full story here.

(My latest story for CenterMaryland.org – TL)

By Tom LoBianco

With jobs and economic relief at the top of most political agendas this year, state lawmakers are again pushing for legislation that would mandate work breaks for employees.

The bill, currently being drafted, is expected to be similar to last year’s measure, which called for mandatory breaks for workers who log four or more consecutive hours.

“We’ve heard enough from folks, that it does need to be addressed,” said House Economic Matters Committee Chairman Dereck Davis, who plans to file the measure soon.

“We want to do something that is not too onerous on business, but by the same token ensure that our workers have certain basic rights in the workplace,” said Davis, a Prince George’s County Democrat.

Last year’s proposal mandated that employees be given a 15-minute break for working at least four consecutive hours, and a 30-minute break for working more than six consecutive hours.

The measure included a number of waivers and exemptions, however, for workers in medical and law enforcement fields.

Davis expects that this year’s bill would apply only to businesses with 50 or more workers.

Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller Jr. said last week he has not staked a position on the issue yet, but hopes that private industry would be able to find a satisfactory resolution without government stepping in.

Business groups have largely aligned against the measure, saying something of such breadth cannot be properly crafted across the many different industries and job-types which would be affected.

“We just don’t think that a one-size-fits-all mandate on how employers and employees handle their business will work,” said Allyson Black, vice president of government affairs for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.

Davis said he is looking to pare back some of the items which frightened business the most during last year’s debate, including a provision that would have allowed violations of the law to be tried in Circuit Court.

“We would want to discourage that sort of thing,” Davis said. “But at the same time you have to have some sort of penalties.”

The bill died in Davis’s House committee last year by a one-vote margin, and the Senate version was thrown in the drawer and never considered for a vote.

Labor groups and progressive activists who have largely supported the measure in the past could not be reached for this article, although Progressive Maryland chided the General Assembly in its 2009 legislative wrap-up:

“Who could oppose such a common-sense bill? The Maryland General Assembly, that’s who. The bill did not even make it out of the House Committee which passed this bill last year [in 2008]!”

House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell said he’s worked many jobs where it would be wrong for him to take a break, and would not want to be forced by law to stop work.

“I think it’s overstepping of government into private industry,” he said.

Click here to read the 2009 version of the legislation.

Read more articles and political observations from Tom LoBianco here.