Politics

State lawmakers in search of money for Maryland’s network of trauma hospitals may connect cause and effect — taxing firearms dealers on the guns, firearm accessories and bullets they sell. Maryland is one of a handful of states with pending legislation that would draw funds from gun industry revenue, mirroring an 11% excise tax on firearms and ammunition California passed last year.

Some Maryland state senators were skeptical on Thursday about a bill that would make data center development easier, expressing concerns about environmental, economic and power consequences of the data center industry. Senate Bill 474, the Critical Infrastructure Streamlining Act of 2024, was put forth by Gov. Wes Moore. It would alter the definition of a “generating station” to exclude facilities that produce electricity for onsite emergency backup power and for test and maintenance operations.

The House of Delegates is preparing to vote later this week on a bill that would allow Maryland’s undocumented population to purchase individual health insurance plans from the state’s insurance marketplace. The so-called Access to Care Act would would prompt the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, the state’s insurance marketplace created as a result of the national Affordable Care Act, to file a federal waiver to permit undocumented Marylanders to buy and use individual health care plans.

Del. Mike Rogers (D-Anne Arundel) gathered a clutch of military veterans and other supporters along the Annapolis waterfront the other day in a small rally for his congressional campaign. He talked about his work in the General Assembly and his desire to do big things on Capitol Hill. “I’m going to bring the same passion I’ve brought here and take it there,” Rogers told the dozen or so people who had assembled on the pier at Susan Campbell Park.

Mayoral candidate Thiru Vignarajah argued Thursday that Mayor Brandon Scott has gravely mismanaged Baltimore’s influx of $641 million in federal pandemic aid, handing out multi-million dollar grants to political allies while risking forfeiture of funds as federal spending deadlines loom. Scott, a first-term Democrat, has distributed the city’s hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic aid across dozens of different agencies and nonprofits and nearly as many projects. His investments range from almost $50 million for fostering non-policing approaches to violent crime to affordable housing, blight remediation, meal programs and internet.

A new bill circulating among members of the Baltimore County Council would make it easier to build multiuse buildings in certain business or manufacturing areas, according to a draft obtained by The Baltimore Sun. The Sun reviewed the bill a day after Council Chair Izzy Patoka and County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. said Tuesday that they had reached an agreement for the council to pass its own bill in exchange for Olszewski withdrawing a similar bill that other members had protested. Patoka and Olszewski are Democrats.

The White House is considering executive action to restrict migrants’ ability to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border if they crossed illegally – a maneuver reminiscent of controversial action from the Donald Trump era and is sure to invite fierce backlash from immigration advocates and progressives. The handling of the US-Mexico border has dogged President Joe Biden for years as migration across the Western hemisphere reached record levels and resulted in thousands of migrants arriving at the border.

Baltimore’s spending board approved an $18.4 million deal Wednesday to purchase two hotels to shelter city homeless residents as Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration pledged to continue the search for additional properties to use for housing. The purchase, which will be covered by the city’s federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, will give Baltimore control of a Holiday Inn Express and a Sleep Inn, both of which are in the area of Gay and Front streets near the mouth of Interstate 83. The city is also purchasing a parking lot between the two hotels, which are catty-cornered from the city’s juvenile justice center.