Politics

Maryland Senate Republicans tried Tuesday to change how a sweeping climate action bill would be paid for by offering two amendments with alternative funding strategies, but both efforts failed in votes on the Senate floor. The Climate Solutions Now Act of 2021 aims to cut pollution in Maryland which contributes to global warming to a level that is 60% lower than it was in 2006, within the next decade. To achieve that, it sets a goal of planting 5 million trees by 2030, mandates electrifying the state government’s vehicle fleet, requires constructing more energy efficient school buildings, and other efforts.

The report, written by former Montgomery County police chief J. Thomas Manger, is a nearly line-by-line response to the analysis in the Graham report. Where the Graham report asserts that use-of-force investigations are not thorough because 99.8  percent of force incidents are found to be justified, the Manger report argues that the high justification rate implies that officers are well-trained and do not use inappropriate force.

The Maryland Coal Community Transition Act of 2021 was withdrawn during a committee voting session on Monday, so that environmentalists and labor unions can continue to work together during the legislative interim on what a just transition from coal would look like. House Bill 66 is a bipartisan bill that would have phased out Maryland’s coal-fired plants and established a Fossil Fuel Community Transition Fund and a Fossil Fuel Transition Advisory Council to mitigate economic impacts for displaced employees.

Maryland’s state song could be on the road to repeal. The House Health and Government Operations Committee voted in favor of a bill from Speaker Pro Tem Sheree Sample-Hughes (D-Lower Shore) that would remove “Maryland, My Maryland” as an official state symbol. The vote, taken during a virtual meeting on Monday afternoon, was along party lines, with the committee’s seven Republicans voting against the repeal.

Jim Shea, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s nominee to be the city’s next solicitor, is one step closer to being confirmed for the job following a unanimous vote by Baltimore City Council’s Rules and Government Oversight Committee on Thursday. Shea, the former chairman emeritus of the Venable law firm and a 2018 gubernatorial candidate, has been working for the city in an acting capacity since January. He will next face two votes from City Council’s full 15-member body.

An emergency measure, already approved in the Senate, to allow each of Maryland’s 86 school-based health centers to offer telehealth was voted out of a House education subcommittee Tuesday. The vote sends it to the House Ways and Means Committee which is scheduled to vote on it Friday. School-based health centers, traditionally located in schools with high concentrations of poverty, are required by regulation to receive approval from the Maryland State Department of Education before they can offer services remotely.