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Commentary

Stock photo of the Business Man with a credit card by rupixen
Wilford: Maryland’s digital ad tax not only bad policy, it’s fraught with legal problems
March 10, 2021 -

When Maryland’s legislature made the decision last month to override Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto of its digital advertising tax, it was clear that the legislature had pushed the state into legally dubious territory. And sure enough, the state is already facing legal challenges from tech industry trade groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The state’s new system will impose a gross receipts tax ranging from 2.5% to 10% on businesses with global revenues exceeding $100 million, so long as they have at least $1 million in advertising revenue within Maryland.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Rodricks: A data dive on Baltimore homicides shows the need to stop retaliatory violence
March 10, 2021 -

After he sent me another pile of data about violent crime — specifically, an analysis of the Baltimore Police Department’s performance in making arrests in homicides — I wondered why Thiru Vignarajah, former candidate for mayor and Baltimore State’s Attorney, keeps doing this. To get on Fox 45 again? To stay viable as a political candidate for some future office? Why go to the trouble of looking at four years of violent crimes and arrests? That’s heavy work for a private citizen.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Persad, Largent and Emanuel: Age-based vaccine distribution is not only unethical. It’s also bad health policy.
March 10, 2021 -

Americans are queuing up for coronavirus vaccinations, but some states have started pushing vulnerable residents out of the vaccine line. Maine removed eligibility for all front-line workers and people with high-risk medical conditions, instead basing vaccine access solely on age. (It later restored eligibility for teachers, following the Biden administration’s announcement that it would prioritize them.) Other states, such as Connecticut and Nebraska, have made similar age-focused changes. In Maine and Connecticut, a healthy 50-year-old working from home will be eligible for vaccination, while a 44-year-old front-line worker with diabetes living in a hard-hit community will be turned away.

Read More: Washington Post
Norris: The royal family saga is a mirror of America
March 10, 2021 -

For me, it’s the schadenfreude. American audiences are aghast at the allegations of rejection and racism from the British royals after Sunday night’s blockbuster Oprah Winfrey interview with Harry and Meghan. But if we look closely as we gaze across the ocean — as we peer across the pond — we might see ourselves in that proverbial reflecting pool. The disparate treatment of someone with Black ancestry, the obsession with skin color, the private consternation over bloodlines and mixed marriage. Let’s not pretend that the United States has rid itself of these particular strains of the virus called racism.

Read More: Washington Post
Editorial: Was it really a lack of resources that led to the failures of Jan. 6?
March 10, 2021 -

A review of security at the U.S. Capitol commissioned by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 incursion concluded that the Capitol Police force is “understaffed, insufficiently equipped and inadequately trained.” It recommended an increase in staff of more than 850 officers and other major investments. One would not know from reading the report that the agency is already one of the largest and best-funded police departments in the country. With a budget of more than $460 million and 2,300 employees, it is roughly equivalent to the police forces of cities such as Atlanta. It is charged with guarding two square miles.

Read More: Washington Post
Greene: Improving Support for State’s Behavioral Health Care Providers
March 10, 2021 -

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to highlight the behavioral health challenges facing many of our Maryland neighbors. As someone who has lived and worked in Maryland for much of my professional career, I agree with many of my colleagues in the behavioral health community these challenges will only increase as we emerge from this global pandemic.  This is why Optum Maryland is deeply committed to support providers’ work in delivering vital care to their patients. As the contractor tasked to deliver the Maryland Medicaid and state behavioral health plan claims payment system, our mission is to ensure that care providers can get paid quickly and accurately for the services they deliver to some of our most vulnerable who live in our community.

Read More: Maryland Matters
Maryland’s broken unemployment system needs an overhaul. Here’s how to fix it.
March 9, 2021 -

Maryland’s broken unemployment system has caused tremendous damage to workers in the state. In our union, UNITE HERE Local 25, 90% have still not returned to work. As hotel and hospitality workers, they were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. For too many, the unemployment insurance system became a logistical nightmare rather than the lifeline they needed. Many of our members are in dire, frightening financial circumstances because of the economic fallout from COVID-19. Most of them continue to rely on government services like unemployment insurance so they can meet basic human needs for themselves and their families.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Montgomery County Council declared a ‘climate emergency’ — then sabotaged a solar program
March 9, 2021 -

Talk is cheap. Or, in the case of the Montgomery County Council, declaring a “climate emergency” and then sabotaging affordable clean energy. This week, the council debated a bill to allot 2 percent of rural land for solar energy development under the state’s Community Solar Pilot Program, and then amended it to such an extent as to make it unfeasible. Community Solar, a program approach that incentivizes developers to offer solar-based electric service to low- and middle-income customers, allows individuals, communities, nonprofits and others to buy in to solar energy without having property on which to build a solar installation. The original intent of the county’s bill was to increase the county’s solar resources for this program.

Read More: Washington Post
Lisa Kershner and John ‘Butch’ West: Legislation would remove enforcement flaw in Maryland public information law. Lawmakers should pass it.
March 9, 2021 -

Right now, transparency in government is critically important. In some areas, peoples’ trust and faith in the ability of government to act in their best interests and to protect their health and welfare has diminished. If properly functioning and fairly enforced, Maryland’s Public Information Act can do much to restore that trust and faith. In Maryland, the “PIA” promotes government transparency by affording citizens’ a broad right of access to records of State and local government agencies “with the least cost and delay.” Though the right to access records is subject to certain exceptions for confidentiality, privacy, and privilege, the core of the PIA is a belief in the right of citizens to know what their government is up to.

Read More: Capital Gazette
Carlester Smith is a symbol that Annapolis can accept people who are different
March 9, 2021 -

The temptation, of course, is to think that only people in power make a difference in our lives. Carlester Smith proved the notion wrong. To his family and friends, Smith was a kind and caring figure who grew up in Annapolis after his family relocated following a fire. He attended local schools until the sixth grade in the 1960s, an era of education that didn’t work very hard to find a place in the classroom for students with developmental disabilities. Smith was placed in a vocational institute.

Read More: Capital Gazette

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