Maryland General Assembly Weekly Update

As of this morning there were 409 House Bills and 408 Senate Bills introduced to date.

Of those I've read 320. This week the Bills I've highlighted and provided links to are the ones that appear to me to effect the average Joe Blow taxpayer the most.

One Senate Bill of particular interest, SB-89, is the imposition of fines and penalties to farmers who may have inadvertently violated the Agriculture Preservation easements that they relinquished to their great State. A fine of $2,500 per violation up to $50,000 may be in order.

One Bill that SBYnews has previously chastised from the get-go and may have contributed to its eventual repeal is HB-78 . HB 78 sponsorship will benefit gasoline users by repealing the provisions in another bill that prohibits gas stations from selling their fuel below cost. I call it price fixing to the highest degree. SBYnews has shed light on this subject in many of its commentaries throughout the past year.

And then there is our struggling economy whereby our State touts that it is being squeezed when along comes such pork barrel spending bills like $500,000 of our hard earned money to construct a facility to benefit our citizens SOUTH OF THE BORDER. That's right folks . . .get this. . . . . HB-107 proposes to expend $500,000 for the construction of the Latino Economic Development Corporation facility. Moreover, their is $175,000 in grant money being proposed to construct a Pathway's facility located in HOLLYWOOD - HB-276.

And there are others like $500,000 - HB-125 - of grant money being proposed to buy a generator for the Owens Mills Jewish Community Center. I'd like to know why we didn't have a legislator sponsor legislation to equip our Wicomico Youth and Civic Center with the new generator that is currently being installed.

I think most of SBY readers might find amusing when they read about a new fertilizer surcharge being proposed - HB-136 - called SPECIALTY FERTILIZER SURCHARGE. Not even the excrement goes untaxed in our great State.

And then there are more anti-renewable energy bills - SB-220 . This one actually prohibits State funds from being used to purchase Ethanol Derived from Corn. I wonder which poultry lobby funneled persuasion into this renown anti-renewable energy bill?

And finally of local interest, HB-227, will increase the borrowing limit of Somerset County's Liquor Control Board. Although I am a strong advocate of Page Elmore, I beg to differ with him on this as he has previously sponsored House Bills during the previous sessions to increase Worcester and Wicomico's borrowing limits also. And we all know what happened in Wicomico regarding mischief in the County's Liquor business.