Published: November 02, 2007 09:49 pm      

Crisis is poor ruse for ill-considered legislation

Shame on Howard County Delegate Shane Pendergrass for introducing HB14 into Maryland’s already chaotic General Assembly special session!

Without any detail, or even the courtesy of contacting the impacted communities or the state agency tabbed in the bill to take over tip jars in Western Maryland, Delegate Pendergrass is blithely reaching into the pocket of every volunteer fire company from Frederick County west by proposing that all tip jar gaming in the four westernmost counties should be the exclusive job of the Maryland Lottery.

Lacking any fiscal notes, and already tracked for a Saturday, Nov. 3 hearing, HB14 is a poster child for what’s wrong with this entire O’Malley engineered session. Surely, Delegate Pendergrass didn’t wake up one morning and decide it was time to fire a grappling line west to grab this money from our firemen.

If Attorney General Franchot or the governor wants to put the state between these volunteers and their tip jar income they should have the courage to say so ... and not hang the cynical albatross of HB14 around some delegate’s neck.

If the arbitrary hijacking of millions of dollars in local revenues dedicated primarily to Western Maryland’s rire and rescue squads (already required to spend 90 percent of their time raising money and 10 percent of their time protecting their neighbors) is appropriate for this special session, then Gov. O'Malley’s cost of delay option is clearly looking better all the time.

Crisis is a poor ruse for the grabbag of ill-considered legislation now ambushing Maryland’s citizens from inside State Circle.

Robert D. Williams

Cumberland