Blair Lee finis as Gazette continues to abandon state political coverage

...In May 2013, the Gazette did a major house cleaning, laying off reporters, editors and freelance columnists. Before that it had completely shuttered its Frederick County editions.

In 2013, it dropped Barry Rascovar, whose Monday columns now appear in MarylandReporter.com and on his own website, politicalmaryland.com. Columnist Laslo Boyd now writes regularly for Center Maryland, as does Josh Kurtz, once one of the mainstays of the Gazette of Politics and Business.

Other former Gazette reporters have gone into public relations and lobbying.

Tallman had left the Gazette to be a regional editor for the start-up of Patch.com, AOL’s hyperlocal websites that once had over 50 local reporters and editors in Maryland. AOL reportedly blew over $150 million nationwide on that project, which hired hundreds of reporters and editors across the U.S. Patch.com still publishes some local news in Maryland with a skeleton crew.

In April, the Baltimore Sun Media Group, owned by the Tribune Co., purchased the Capital-Gazette papers based in Annapolis and the Carroll County Times in Westminster. This means virtually all the local dailies and weeklies in the six-county Baltimore region are owned by the Sun and increasingly share content, where once they published competing stories on the same events.

The Washington Post and the Gazette newspapers share common ownership, but as yet do not share the same stories.
- See more at: http://marylandreporter.com/2014/11/24/blair-lee-finis-as-gazette-continues-to-abandon-state-political-coverage/#sthash.QLvXF38v.dpuf

Sine Die

Here is a roundup of education-related bills that were passed in Annapolis.  The session ended at the stroke of midnight April 11th-12th.  According to the round-up in the MarylandReporter.com, Len Lazarick and Megan Poinski reporting,

ALCOHOL TAX

The House of Delegates and Senate Monday night passed a new 3% sales tax on alcohol sold in stores, bars and restaurants, with most of the proceeds in the first year going to schools and school construction.


Advocates for people with developmental disabilities started pressing for an increase in a nickel-a-drink alcohol tax hike 18 months ago. Then they joined forces with a coalition of health care advocates pressing for a dime-a-drink dedicated to improve access to care and reimbursement for caregivers.

The original bill as proposed would have taxed beer, wine and liquor distributors, and raised $213 million, with about $32 million going for developmental disabilities.

After that proposal stalled, the excise tax was turned into an extra 3% consumer sales tax on alcohol, which would raise a total of $88 million. The Developmental Disabilities Administration got just $15 million in the final version, and the other health and mental health programs who would have gotten a percentage of the take in the original bill got nothing at all.

Instead, over $72 million of the new revenue is going to school aid and school construction in the first year, allocations made to gain the votes to get the tax passed. To get the tax’s proceeds to both places, both houses had to pass two bills.

The first $22 million for schools in Baltimore City, Prince George’s, Allegany and Garrett counties helped the new tax get through the Senate. When the bill ran into problems in the House on Saturday, the Ways & Means Committee added $47.5 million for school construction projects, mostly to the large suburban counties in central Maryland.

And

Del. C. William Frick, D-Montgomery, the floor leader for the debate, said that the alcohol tax before them actually takes the price of the drink into consideration. The “dime-a-drink” proposal would have increased the cost of each individual drink, regardless of its cost. Frick also said that his wife is an alcohol retailer, and she has not opposed the proposal.

“I have not had to sleep on the couch,” Frick said.

Del. Michael Smigiel R- Caroline, Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne’s, said he did not want to vote for a bill that would take away money for people with disabilities. “We’re like a bunch of hyenas picking at rotting flesh,” Smigiel said.

Del. Susan Krebs, R-Carroll and Howard counties, said that her biggest frustration is that for two years, advocates for the disabled and mentally ill had lobbied for an alcohol tax to raise more money to help them.

“In my opinion, this money is going to buy votes, not where it is meant to be,” she said.

For the complete article go here.
Other bills passed, as reported by the AP in the herald-mail.com:

FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES

The Maryland Higher Education Commission will have regulatory authority over for-profit colleges.

STATE BUDGET
Maryland’s $34 billion budget includes tens of millions of dollars in new fees and increases education funding over what was previously submitted by the governor. Certificate-of-title fees for vehicles rise from $50 to $100. A separate fee for paperwork when buying a new car goes from $100 to $200. A fee for filing land records increases from $20 to $40. A fee for vanity license plates doubles from $25 to $50.

IMMIGRANT TUITION
Undocumented immigrants will be able to receive in-state tuition if they complete two years at a community college and can show their parents paid state taxes for at least three years before they graduated high school.

For the full article go here.