Newsnight Maryland; 875

The. 2001 Merilee General Assembly opens for business. What's happening to Marilyns farms. And do Cultural Arts Center in and around Dale County. You might remember. Good evening. Maryland lawmakers began their 90 day legislative session today in Annapolis. Smart Growth education of course the governor's budget or just some of the issues on the agenda. Jeff Salkin is here to tell us more Jeff. OK Bill and Bob it looks like this will be a session without a showdown blockbuster type of issue like we've seen in recent years with gun control or the cigarette tax this year the governor is proposing more money for education and for his Smart Growth Initiative and he is reintroducing a gay rights bill. Joining us tonight from the State House in Annapolis are House speaker Cass Taylor and Senate President Mike Miller. And we invite you to call us with a question or comment and take part in our Maryland pulse poll tonight by logging on to npr.org and clicking News Night Maryland. Now to the

presiding officers. Gentlemen thank you for joining us tonight. I'd like to start by asking each of you briefly to list the couple of top issues that you are most concerned with this session. Mr. Speaker. Well I think the budget issues are clearly some of the top priorities in how we balance the distribution of our. Access revenues to those priorities both higher education and K through 12 education along with Smart Growth transportation and health care. Those are all big ticket items. They're all. Crying out for for this surplus money. To make additional investments and we've got to balance those investments very carefully. Mr. President it sort of sounds like the Budget Committee gets all the work this year and everyone else can consider it out. Is that the case.

No we're going to have you know obviously health issues are going to take up a lot of time and finance real estate issues smart growth issues ethics issues drunk driving issues sexual orientation. We're going to run the gamut from agency but the budget is going to define a lot of things as the speaker indicated primarily education. The governor wants to be known as the education governor. Last year he put a lot of the surplus money into capital construction he's going to do the same again this year. These $50 to $50 billion for school construction to put more money into higher education. And it's going to be a very interesting year as to how we adjust our priorities. Education is going to continue to be number one. Senator Miller on that subject we've learned from our spot. John Avishai in Annapolis late today the governor Glendening is planning to fully fund a $55 billion budget request from Baltimore City for additional funding for the public school system there. On top of that $9 billion in additional money for drug treatment for the

city that the education funding to avert a city lawsuit. You have any reaction to those numbers. Is that about what what you're expecting. We're going to do the best we can. You know we're going to we have a surplus of $335 billion. We're in the fifth year of our income tax cutting phase of providing over $2 billion in tax relief to the citizens of the state of Maryland. But you know there are other areas of the state that have problems in that area as well. The speaker comes from Cumberland and Allegheny County where they are having financing problems with regard to schools and certainly other poor jurisdictions. Prince George's County has got a very not dissimilar problems. But on a lesser scale the Baltimore City in terms of of drug abuse we're going to need money for intervention and treatment. And obviously we're going to demand some form of accountability for those funds so it's going to depend on the budget committees the House Appropriations Committee in the house and budget. And the Senate to take testimony and make certain that the resources that we do have are spent wisely and allocated

fairly and justly throughout the 23 counties Baltimore City. Mr. Speaker I'd like to also ask ask you to address that and at the same time maybe respond to some voices of some conservative legislators fiscally conservative who believe that with some economists increasingly talking about the possibility of a recession that now is not the time for a big 7 8 9 percent increase in the state budget. Well first of all Jeff to piggyback on what the president said when you can when you talk about both of them were and it's needs which are absolutely legitimate. Strong needs and it's a lawsuit involving the K through the K through 12 education a few you have to realize is as Mike said there are needs throughout the state whether there's a lawsuit involved or not. And it's our responsibility as statewide officers to balance our answer to each

jurisdictions need whether it be very large or medium or small. When you talk about. Whether or not our Conservative critics are suggesting that we're overspending I would reiterate again what we've already said here this evening over the past six years while we have made substantial investments in our future in education and health care and transportation and smart growth in the environment. We have also moderated Maryland's tax burden to well over two billion dollars being being returned to the taxpayers instead of coming into the state treasury as we approach the the future. We have a reserve fund that is double the size requested by the Baun people in Wall Street. We are very

strongly reserved in our rainy day fund as a hedge against a downturn in our economy and an awful lot of the big investments that we're talking about here tonight. And the governor is proposing. Our capital investments that are one time investments and will not create out your deficit. So we believe that we're approaching this entire balancing act with very very severe responsibility. Senator if I can return to a topic that you mentioned briefly at the top of this part of the governor's legislative package arguably the part that will have the toughest time getting through the legislature is his gay rights bill the sexual orientation bill which failed in a Senate committee two years ago. He indicated at his press conference that he would like to see that bill assigned to a different committee or prevail upon you somehow to get it through that committee. I know there's been a change made to the makeup of

the judicial proceedings committee. But do you believe the governor will be happy with the results this year. I'm not certain perhaps if he amends the bill that was introduced previously. He might be happy. You know I don't tell the members how to vote. And I don't this is a very divisive issue. Minds have been made up on this issue previously but it was taken a couple of years ago. I don't anticipate that any of the votes in that committee will change. There is a new member on the committee. But it will be a very very close vote. There are some significant opponents to this issue. The issue went to referendum in Maine for example in November and it was voted down by the people in Maine. The Catholic Church opposed this issue several years ago or two years ago we had this bill before the committee and I think if the governor accepts some amendments to make it more palatable to the people throughout the state of Maryland it might have a chance of

passage. Otherwise I think it'll will die in the committee I'm not going to just because of certain whim and Caprice I'm not going to just take a bill and refer it to another committee. The bill has been assigned to the judicial proceedings committee in the past and will be assigned to the committee again this year assuming it's introduced. Let me bring in a question from a caller. Alan on the line from Allegheny County Alan go ahead. Yes I have two questions. One is Maryland in the process of deregulating the electrical situation and two if so are there any lessons to be learned by the situation in California. Allan thanks very much gentlemen. Well you know Marilyn hasn't Marilyn looked at California and Marilyn looked at New York and looked at North Carolina and we did it the Maryland way and we think it's the safe way. Not only did we deregulate but we guaranteed a reduction in your rates. Alan So you're going to get a 6 percent reduction in rates. Plus you're not going to have the problems that we the people in California are experiencing.

Mr. Speaker is there any inclination on the House side to redress that issue in light of what's happened in California. No I think we've we've established our model of deregulation. We are confident we have avoided the pitfalls that took place in California because we we purposefully watch very closely what California did and learn from that experience. I think I think the best road we can travel at at this moment is to allow our model to continue to take place. And monitor it very closely. Realizing that if something does go awry in a big way we can always step in at this point. There is no reason for us to step in. Mr. Speaker Congress has given the states Maryland included a reason to to take action on the subject of the blood alcohol limit for drivers essentially requiring or forcing the states to lower to point away. So that's

expected by most to happen this year in Maryland. Do you agree with that. And are there any other aspects of drunk driving policy you would like to change. First of all Jeff I think we're going to have a a broad comprehensive package of drunk driving bills that we're going to have to face. One of which is is 0 8. But there are others the open container issue. The testimony in court issue the repeat offender issue and so forth. So you're right the federal government has imposed a series of sanctions that are going to get everybody's attention nationwide on living up to the standards that the federal government is is requiring in order in order to avoid those sanctions. I think the that's putting the stars in the right place. And it is true that. The House Judiciary

Committee. Has been the stumbling block if you will and in recent years in this subject area. And I think the pressures have been. Substantially increased to the point where there is going to be a more likely result that we will impose the a. Limitation. Senator Miller if I can get back to you for a quick answer on another topic you surprised a lot of people with the creation of a new committee to study gaming in Maryland. Does that mean you see any new forms of gambling on the horizon in the next year or two. No not at all. But I study history and I understand how things go in cycles and I believe that as the economy slows down I don't think a recession is in the offing because we've had eight years of the greatest economic growth sustained period of economic growth that this nation

has ever seen its entire history that our economy cannot keep up this toward pace. And so we're going to see a slowdown. And as the economy slows down and as we continue to have these needs in terms of specifically in terms of transportation needs and and education needs and needs for public safety. Legislators are going to look for new revenues and we're going to look a look to look at Delaware and look at West Virginia both states on our border that are taking $150 billion plus year to state coffers from some form of gambling revenue Senator Miller we're going to have to leave it right there. Guys we're out of time. Thank you. And we'll talk more about this and other issues on our Friday state circle program. Thanks again for joining us here tonight. Again you can take part in our Maryland pulse poll just log on and emptied out or click News Night Maryland. Coming up later on NEWSNIGHT Maryland the grand opening of a new art center in analyzable County is just days away. We'll have a preview. And just ahead Maryland has lost its lead in the country as the country's best in preserving farmland.

Will he get it back. When you want. In-depth analysis of the latest regional news and how it affects the lives of you and your family. You know you can turn to news nightmares. And now our perspective expands be on television to the world wide web visit the news notes Maryland website w w w dot emptied. You'll find the latest local news updates previews of upcoming shows and special highlights of our nightly features. NEWSNIGHT Maryland and bringing you the in-depth regional news coverage you need for the 21st century. Hello I'm Louis Rukeyser guys invite you to join me for the next edition of Wall Street Week My guest will be a mutual fund manager who prospered while so many other investors suffered in 2000. Bill Nygren of Oakmark Select who happily finds his special brand of value investing no longer lacking in respect. Let's find out what he values for 2001.

Friday night at 8:30 here on Maryland Public Television. On tonight's Planet Maryland Governor Glendening is asking the Maryland General Assembly for big bucks commitment to land preservation. He wants to spend 145 million dollars over the next five years to keep farm land and open space out of developers hands declaring the state needs to move aggressively. Now the governor says the new spending would allow Maryland to buy land linking already preserved tracks to help protect animal habitats and to create buffers on farm land to prevent storm runoff and other pollution. Joining us to talk more about this is Don Van green from the Maryland Department of Agriculture. And if you have a question or comment give us a call. Welcome. Thank you. Glad to be here. A hundred and forty five million over five years. This is a huge commitment much larger I think than a lot of people might have expected. It is a very large commitment is consistent with what the governor in the state has been doing for many years. The state has been preserving farmland since 1977 and we still lead the nation in total acres in

total acres I think the the last lead phrase is reference to recent years of I guess budgeting dollars for the thing for the effort. But over five years how much land could a 145 million dollars affect. Well that's pretty hard to estimate right now because it all depends upon on land values and where exactly we look to preserve that land through our land preservation programs that we operate the Department of Agriculture. We pay the difference between what land is worth has developed land versus agricultural land. And those assessments are what we use to guide that. But we have not seen any projections this is such a new program the proposal that we have not seen the projections of what we can do with this. Was this a proposal based on any commission report any recommendations made to the governor or by by the preservation commission or anything. Is this a continuation of the governor's strong commitment to preserve the remaining open space in Maryland which is so critical to the governor's other goal which of course is environmental protection in the quality of the Chesapeake Bay. Every land rover land where you lose the pavement to construction to housing that generates

far more runoff into the bay than it does its agricultural land or open space. How does preservation affect a farm owner's taxes for example if if the state were to buy an easement on his property these meant that the farmer does have a tax obligation for the value of the land of the payment over it above what it is for agriculture. But we are we work with them in order to spread that out over time. Now how does the easement work by the way. Could you explain that briefly in our land preservation program it's a two step process. Initially the farmer will agree to put his land into a five year easement during during which time then we can go through the process of evaluating the land getting estimates on the value of the land. After five years he's eligible then to put it into a permanent easement. And at that point is when the farmer has to make the decision between whether he wants to accept the state's buyout offer or continue to farm the land and hold on for a later development.

What happens if the state buys it as does he and his family lose all right to live there or anything like. No the farmer is allowed to stay on the land and to keep it in agricultural use. OK. And can he also pass it on to certain must sort. He they have the same commitment that he has. Our goal here is to keep the land in agriculture keep it in the family as long as possible and just keep it out of it. You were talking about this that this has been going on now really for quite some time I just wanted you to sort of assess. The success so far of the smart growth policy. Well clearly this the state leads the nation in terms of creating smart growth. It has it has expanded not just the agricultural land preservation program but allowed us to go into open spaces between our suburbs which aren't necessarily farmland could be forest land can be park land and begin to link these little green spaces into continued rural legacy areas so that we have actually a continual spread of the land not just individual properties. That's very important to the future of American agriculture and

also to the quality of our environment. What about Marilyns agriculture community. How did they in general regard these proposals smart growth policies etc.. Farm land preservation I think it's very welcome to the agricultural community because it allows them to continue to farm which many of them want to do but also realize some of the commercial value of their land if they were to sell it and it allows them to protect themselves and their family in the future by taking advantage of the commercial value that they could get for the land if they sold the port development and gave up farming. Don Vadra thank you very much for joining us. Happy to do so. In tonight's State of the arts we're going to take you to and Arendal county to a new cultural arts center the Chesapeake Center for the creative arts is now just days away from its grand opening. And we're going to give you a preview of what to expect. Meet members of what works for the dance ensemble. They're rehearsing for an

upcoming performance. Across the hall in the blackbox theater another rehearsal is underway. This one for a Neil Simon play although not officially open the Chesapeake Center for the creative arts is already busy. We're all really excited. A new Chesapeake Center to bring arts to northern and around the county. And it's the facility is still new so they're you know ironing out problems but the new dance space is beautiful it's a really good spring floor and they just got the mirrors up last week. So it's getting better and better. Basically the Creative Arts Center is divided into two sections. We have her performing section or performance section which involves a 904 seat theater and a gallery. The education wing involves a dance studio a black box theater a ceramic studio.

Piano lab. It's kind of like a language lab that you would have been in a school high school situation where the students and the teachers are living through a rather unique communications device that involves headsets with microphones so that the teacher can communicate with any individual student without the others hearing her or the teacher can group them in any groupings that she would want. The center also has an entire floor upstairs devoted to resident artists. And starting in February a wide variety of classes in ceramics acting writing and dance will be available among the instructors for Dosti. His expertise postes we have good going for us. I think it's a tremendous tremendous amount of talent in this part of the county and we're going to give them a chance to.

Perform and in the studio and our own Cadden and Arundel County delegate and Wayne Shipley. You just met him the director executive director of the Chesapeake Center for Creative Arts and call us with a question or comment. Of course I can dance like that. Patrick Go ahead. It's pretty amazing isn't it. Don't get caught. You were pretty much instrumental in getting the funding for this center. How did this all come about. Well years ago when I was on the school board in and around the county I served on the board of directors for Marilyn hall for the Arts in Annapolis and knew that we really needed an outreach in North County. So when and when the Brooklyn Park High School was going to become a middle school they don't use auditoriums and it was a perfect site to put this outrage. And I just went to work and on three different years put three different Bonfils in without a required match from my county and it was it was really tied to the governor's smart growth initiatives that you had on a little earlier. And the fact with revitalizing older communities and that those monies that we

got like $4.5 billion over the last three years was a smart growth money. The governor's initiative to revitalize older areas. When I think we touched on this in our story but what kind of impact do you see this having on the surrounding community. And do you feel like you're in competition with Marilyn hall. Well to answer your first question the impact that it will have I think will be just phenomenal. This area has filled I think under served for a long long long time. And let's face it if you had to if you wanted to take a course in the arts in the arts you had to either go to Annapolis her into Baltimore. Now people who are involved do want to take courses will be able to do that. It will be in their backyard. And we've gotten a tremendous amount of response to our courses as well as to the kinds of things that we are offering in our theater.

What about competing with Marilyn hall. Do you feel like you're competing. Oh no. No. Marilyn Hall has been fantastic Lenoble and her staff has been nothing but cooperative with us and we've certainly gotten many of her ideas from from them and we've even partnered on various events and we'll continue to do so. I know that Cadden How do you see a senator like this tying in with this idea of cultural tourism. Well I think it's with our center so close to the airport and we have the BWI business partnership group has become you know very interested in what we're doing there. And I think that it actually will add to the tourism for our county and Baltimore City because it said when folks are visiting and come to the airport and use these facilities around the airport and there's an event going on in our theater it'll be a plus. Also I just want to ask you this one quick question. How do you see arts funding going this year in the general assembly.

Do you see more I depends on exactly what's coming you know becoming of course I won't have another Banville but I do believe you know the chairman of my committee is very dedicated to the arts and is very sensitive to those programs in those meetings. I can't imagine it would be more because we have given generously in the past. But I do believe it's a worthwhile project that it would probably get fined but you don't see cuts. No. OK. Really quickly tell us about this grand opening which is Saturday Saturday January 13th 6:30. We're going to have a reception. We will then move throughout the entire complex into both our program section and eventually into the theater at 8:00. We're going to adjourn to the theater in which we were going to present one. Joan here with all the things that she deserves from seeing it this happens and she knows about it. All right. And also we're going to provide some entertainment

for her. Remember this is a fundraiser isn't it. This is a fundraiser. Tickets are a hundred dollars apiece. And we've already had a very very fine response. OK. We'll have the number on our Web site. OK. Thank you. And now let's check our state of the arts calendar. Venus opens at the Axis theatre tomorrow night. Written by the country's leading black female playwright Susan Lori Parks this wickedly funny and dark tale is based on the true story of a famed freak show act in Victorian London where readings from the works of Edgar Allan Poe on January 14th and explore the literary life of the 19th century at the National Historic Site Hampton mansion in 2000. For more information about these and other events here you log on to impeach Tee's event calendar at NPT dot org. Another proposed airline merger could have big implications for our region. Jeff sulkin has more in tonight's Maryland biz.

There are five airlines involved in this situation. Four of them are planning mergers and they need the fifth airline to be viable so that the government will allow those mergers to proceed. Today American Airlines announced plans to buy T.W. a United is in the process of buying U.S. Airways. And part of that deal was the creation of a new airline called DC air which will operate out of Reagan National Airport. Today American announced plans to invest in D.C. air making it a stronger competitor and prompting at least one passenger's group to reverse its opposition to the merger plans. So DC's Harry's chances of flying got a bit stronger today. Now one other story about a district based enterprise that is hoping to get off the ground. XM Satellite Radio is ready to begin its subscription satellite delivered radio service. The rocket was ready to take its first satellite into orbit. When the countdown was halted because of a technical glitch with just 11 seconds on the clock the launch has now been rescheduled for February the 20th. That's today's

Marylands. Thank you Jeff. Coming up next on the Nightly Business Report the special series of Great Expectations continues with a report from Paris on Europe's economic outlook for the coming years and its impact on the U.S. economy. NEWSNIGHT continues