Category: legislation

Panhandlers, Caylee’s Law on agenda in Annapolis

Matthew Bieniek Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — Local legislators are filing proposed laws either as sponsors or co-sponsors in the opening weeks of the General Assembly.

A bill to control panhandling in Allegany County is one of the bills filed by Delegate Kevin Kelly.

Kelly introduced the legislation at the behest of Allegany County Sheriff Craig Robertson, who has been concerned about a spike in panhandling in the area. Robertson was responding to complaints from the public. The existing law makes it tough for the sheriff and his deputies to do anything about the problem of people asking for money.

Kelly said he filed the panhandling legislation Friday.

The main concentration of the panhandlers has been in the LaVale area between Country Club Mall and Braddock Square. The panhandlers also seem to be active on nearby National Highway. The sheriff and his deputies have heard concerns from a large number of citizens, he said.

“It’s a safety issue when it comes to the roadway,” the sheriff said.

Kelly’s bill would amend a state law already on the books, to apply to Allegany County. That law bans solicitation along public roadways.

Delegate Leroy Myers said Washington County has faced a similar problem in the past.

Sen. George Edwards has filed a bill that applies to correctional officers in Garrett County entitled the “Correctional Officers Bill of Rights.” The text of the bill, Senate Bill 205, isn’t yet available.

Edwards is also co-sponsoring a “Caylee’s Law” bill in the Senate. Senate Bill 139 would make it a crime for failure to report the disappearance of a minor. Kelly is sponsoring a similar, independent bill in the House.

The proposed laws developed after Casey Anthony’s acquittal in Florida earlier this year, regarding charges that she murdered her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

Anthony did not report her daughter missing to police, who were finally alerted to the missing child by Casey Anthony’s mother 30 days after the child was last seen.

The laws are designed to allow prosecutors to bring felony charges against parents who do not quickly report missing children, with most of the proposals requiring law enforcement notification by 24 or 48 hours after a child goes missing, or a shorter time frame to report the death of a child.

Among other bills Edwards is co-sponsoring is one allowing veteran’s organizations a license for no more than five instant ticket lottery machines under specified circumstances.

Myers is co-sponsoring House Bill 82, which would make it the policy of the state to “restrict and deter the use of unauthorized alien workers in the performance of public contracts and grants in the State; specifying criteria for mandatory registration in a federal E-verify program for specified contractors and grantees; prohibiting noncompliant persons or entities from performing specified contracts,” a summary of the law indicates.

Myers is also co-sponsoring HB 113, which would require specific proof of identification by voters. If they did not have proof of identification, they would be required to submit a provisional ballot.

Delegate Wendell Beitzel is also co-sponsoring HB 82 on the E-verify program. He’s also supporting HB 91, a right-to-work law and HB 102 to proclaim a German-American Heritage month. Beitzel has also filed a bill for a Constitutional Amendment that will be the subject of an upcoming Times-News story.

Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com

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Dec. 22, 2011

The Garrett County commissioners presented their 2012 list of legislative requests to Sen. George Edwards and Del. Wendell Beitzel on Tuesday. About 75 residents attended the meeting, which was held at the courthouse in Oakland.

Issues that the county would like the local lawmakers to consider for possible legislation include collective bargaining rights for Local 1834, a new hotel rental tax limit, late fees for unpaid public utilities bills, animal control, and a bill of rights for local correctional officers.

By a majority consensus, the commissioners asked Edwards and Beitzel to draft a bill that would give them legislative authority to mandate collective bargaining for Garrett County Roads Department workers, who are currently represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 67, Local 1834.

“You’ve created history by approving collective bargaining,” union representative Jim Bestpitch told the commissioners.

The county has informally recognized the union since the 1970s. Numerous road workers were on hand to hear the commissioners’ request.

Beitzel asked the commissioners why they felt the legislation was needed.

“We’ve conducted collective bargaining with the roads workers for years, and it’s been on a voluntary basis,” Commission chair Jim Raley said. “When you look at the state of the country and you look at some of the issues that have happened in other places, I think that the gentlemen and ladies in this room just probably want some form of protection that says no matter who the board of commissioners is, no matter who the county administrator is, no matter who the delegate and senator are, they will have the right to continue to bargain.”

Commissioner Bob Gatto also favored the collective bargaining issue, while Commissioner Gregan Crawford opposed the idea.

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>Kristin Harty Barkley
Cumberland Times-News The Cumberland Times-News Wed Apr 27, 2011, 11:26 PM EDT

FROSTBURG — The District 1 Delegation to the Maryland General Assembly met with area business leaders Wednesday morning to reflect on the 428th session, which ended April 11.

By all accounts, it was a rough few months for Western Maryland.

“This year was almost like an assault on rural Maryland,” said Delegate Wendell Beitzel, noting that education funding was drastically reduced for Allegany and Garrett counties.

“You’d think perhaps the governor was trying to get even with the rural areas of the state because he didn’t get many votes in this area.”

About 45 people gathered at the Lyric Theater Wednesday for the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce’s annual Legislative Wrap-Up Breakfast.

With Beitzel, Delegates Kevin Kelly and LeRoy Myers, and Sen. George Edwards discussed some of the most difficult battles.

• The governor proposed the elimination of key funding sources for both Garrett and Allegany counties, including a 25-percent annual reimbusement for Deep Creek Lake dock fees, and a similar reimbursement for timber sales.

“We held the line on those two,” Beitzel said, adding that the local delegation also successfully defended the Maryland-Mined Coal Tax Credit.

“This is an annual thing we’ve had to battle, and we had to fight it hard this year,” Beitzel said.

• Efforts by Beitzel and Sen. George Edwards to encourage forward movement on drilling in the Marcellus shale were rebuffed by the administration, which wants to further study environmental impacts.

“We got an opinion from the attorney general that says the Department of the Environment has all the power they need to draft any rule or regulation they feel appropriate to put in place for Marcellus drilling,” said Edwards, who encouraged local residents to write the governor’s office to give their “two cents worth” on the issue — regardless of where they stand.

“So it’s a question, I guess, do you trust MDE to come up with what you might feel is appropriate? We feel they can. I just use coal mining as an example. We have some of the strictest mining laws in the country now. … We believe we’ll have some of the strictest, if not the strictest, drilling rules in the country.”

Edwards and Beitzel said that Marcellus shale drilling could provide an unprecedented boost to the local economy and should be pursued, though safely and wisely. The issue has sparked heated debate in the community.

“None of us want to see anyone come in and mess up our area,” Beitzel said. “But we need energy. And this is one area of Maryland where we have energy resources.”

• A 3 percent increase in the sales tax on alcohol is expected to have negative effects on area businesses. Starting July 1, the sales tax will increase from 6 to 9 percent.

“This tax actually impacts the rural parts of the state considerably,” Edwards said. “Because we had a lot of people coming into our part of the state to buy alcoholic beverages. Now they’re not going to because we’re not going to be as competitive as we were.”

The session was not without good news for Western Maryland, however. Legislators overwhelmingly passed a bill aimed to bring a slots operator to Rocky Gap Lodge & Golf Resort, which is deeply in debt.

“We had 120 other legislators come to the rescue of Rocky Gap,” Myers said. “That took our efforts, working with our colleagues, to get a product at Rocky Gap that was something that would attract a bidder.”

And the local delegation worked to defeat a bill that would have forced the renaming of Negro, Polish, and Savage mountains.

“We took a defensive posture, we made great presentations, and we stuffed those bills this year,” said Kelly, who called called the name-change effort “political correctness run amock.”

“I don’t think they’ll be coming back.”

Contact Kristin Harty Barkley at kbarkley@times-news.com

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