Maryland lawmakers, cautious throughout this election-year session, played it safe to the end last night, passing a bill to get tougher on violent criminals but killing or watering down virtually every other important measure that might offend one interest group or another.
Showing no mercy for Gov. William Donald Schaefer in his final legislative session, the lawmakers killed three of his major proposals: bills to regulate gambling, to raise the tax on cigarettes and to speed up the death penalty appeals process.
They also weakened two others: his proposal to reform the welfare system, and a measure to deal with the lead paint poisoning problem in old houses in Baltimore and elsewhere in the state.
Less than two hours before their midnight adjournment, hopelessly deadlocked House and Senate conferees ripped from the welfare bill a contentious provision to penalize welfare mothers who have additional children while on public assistance. Stripped with it was a measure to lift restrictions on when the state's Medicaid program may pay for abortions for poor women.
Key House and Senate members worked most of the final day to strengthen other parts of the welfare measure, which they passed with about two minutes left in the session. But the administration wasn't happy.
"You don't have a bill of substance without a family cap. . . . You're modifying some things, maybe putting a Band-Aid on," state Human Resources Secretary Carolyn W. Colvin said in a rare personal plea before the six-member conference committee.
The welfare bill as approved by the legislature still creates a pilot program for selected applicants in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties. This provision is similar to legislation President Clinton has promised to deliver to Congress this spring in that it expands job training for persons on welfare and requires those still unemployed after 18 months to join a work program.
Last night, Ms. Colvin left open the possibility that the Schaefer administration might seek a federal waiver to institute the family cap even though the legislature disapproved of the idea.
Another administration bill to limit the liability of landlords in lead-paint poisoning suits in exchange for their renovation of older rental units was approved last night after being weakened by amendments favoring the landlords. One reduced potential fines against them from $5,000 to $250, and another gives them more time to repair problems that expose children to lead paint poisoning.
Last night marked the end of a session in which the General Assembly enacted no new taxes or fees, gave the state's 80,000 employees their first pay raise in three years (3 percent or $800, whichever is greater), banned the sale of 18 assault pistols and set aside more than $100 million to build schools.
Midway in the final 14-hour day, a separate group of negotiators reached agreement on legislation to require violent offenders to serve at least half of their sentence before they could be paroled, rather than the current one-fourth. State officials have said about 500 of Maryland's 20,000 inmates would remain in prison longer.
The measure -- later approved by both houses -- also attempts to make Maryland's parole commissioners accountable for their decisions by forcing them to open parole hearings if requested by the victim.
The legislation also contains a new two-time-loser provision requiring criminals to receive a minimum mandatory 10-year sentence on their second conviction for a violent crime.
The changes would be expected to add an estimated $29 million a year to state prison costs, and require construction of a $92 million prison by 1998. But Sen. Nancy L. Murphy, the Baltimore County Democrat who sponsored the bill, said the state has little choice. "I think the public wants protection from crime and they don't mind paying for it."
Other measures
On a different issue that pitted trial lawyers against doctors, the lawyers scored a big victory last night when senators and delegates agreed to place a $500,000 cap on jury awards in all future wrongful death and personal injury cases, with a maximum aggregate award to all plaintiffs in such cases of $750,000.
Doctors were worried about potentially huge medical malpractice claims without a cap on wrongful death cases, but ** lobbyists complained the new limit will still force malpractice premiums up as much as 30 percent or 35 percent.
Legislation to establish a statewide commission to license and regulate slot machines, tip jars, casino nights and other forms of legal gambling by veterans groups, fraternal clubs and volunteer fire companies was defeated by the Senate's Judicial Proceedings Committee yesterday morning before the full House and Senate had even convened.
Two other measures, one to repeal the General Assembly's scandal-tinged legislative scholarship program and the other to require lobbyists with multiple clients to provide greater disclosure of the meals and gifts they lavish on lawmakers, died without ever coming up for a vote in the Senate's Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee.
The proposal to increase Maryland's cigarette tax every time the federal tax went up, a substitute for Mr. Schaefer's original 25-cents-a-pack tax increase, was opposed by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and by other legislators who wanted no part of raising taxes in a year in which they will later meet voters at the polls.
A bill heavily lobbied by doctors that would have required health-maintenance organizations to pay part of the cost for patients who seek medical care outside of their HMO network also was defeated last night.
A passionate mini-filibuster by Sen. Decatur W. Trotter derailed the governor's proposal to speed up appeals in death penalty cases.
The Prince George's Democrat, who opposes capital punishment because it is used disproportionately against blacks, held the floor for more than an hour -- an eternity on the final day -- quoting verses from the Bible.
Even as so many key pieces of legislation ran into trouble, lawmakers found time to pass bills making square dancing the state's official folk dance and to make the diamondback terrapin the official mascot of the University of Maryland.
With unusual haste, they pushed through legislation to name a new passenger pier at Baltimore-Washington International Airport after Governor Schaefer. And they debated whether one day next year or one day every year should be set aside to honor a retiring state senator from Calvert County, Bernie Fowler.
Continuing their get-tough-on-crime theme, the assembly enacted on its final day a bill to send juveniles charged with any of a list of violent crimes directly into adult courts. They also voted to make the State Police a separate cabinet-level department, breaking it out of the department that also oversees prisons, parole and probation and the state fire marshall.
Sidetracked by NFL
For the first two-thirds of this year's 90-day session, it seemed as if the lawmakers would never get to such issues.
All their attention was being devoted to one topic: How to make peace between Governor Schaefer, who was still trying to lure a National Football League team to Baltimore, and Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, who was threatening the governor's plans by trying to move his NFL team to Laurel.
The controversy pitted Washington area lawmakers against those from Baltimore, and for two months the dispute seemed to paralyze the General Assembly. Finally, on March 9, they struck a compromise. The governor agreed to welcome the Redskins to Laurel (although the words never passed his lips), and legislative leaders agreed to give Mr. Schaefer the rest of his final year in office to find a team for Baltimore.
More important politically, the deal put off until sometime after this fall's elections the necessity for legislators to decide whether additional taxpayers' money should be used to help either stadium project.
Freshman House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., who was instrumental in forging the compromise, said that without it the session "would have gone downhill rapidly. The stakes were so big to both power bases of this state."
That out of the way, lawmakers turned their attention to an array of big issues piling up in House and Senate committees.
Maryland's tireless 72-year-old governor, in his eighth and final year in office, refused to stand by and let the General Assembly drift through the last year of the four-year term without taking a few hard votes.
"Our work is not finished," he had told members in his January State of the State address. He pressed lawmakers once again to take up the divisive gun control issue.
He put the controversial welfare reform proposal on the table. He pushed the 25-cent-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax, saying it would keep youngsters from smoking.
Despite his own misgivings, the governor even urged lawmakers to support Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's plan for an experimental needle-exchange program to prevent city drug addicts from spreading AIDS to fellow users.
Fighting for gun control for the fourth consecutive year, the governor succeeded in persuading the legislature to ban 18 types of assault pistols. He did so with the help of Senate President Miller, who took the politically risky step of bypassing one of his own committees just to get the measure considered.
Typical of the cautious approach lawmakers took to many issues, supporters and opponents alike claimed a bittersweet victory. Gun control opponents knew they had succeeded in defeating more meaningful provisions, such as required gun licensure or monthly limits on purchases.
But lawmakers eager to put in their campaign brochures that they voted for gun control hailed the measure as a step forward, even if the banned guns have been involved in only a small percentage of crimes.
'True to form'
"We've had an election year session true to form," said Del. D. Bruce Poole, a Democrat from Hagerstown. "We haven't done anything too crazy but we haven't done anything too significant, either."
With re-election campaigns for many of them already under way or about to start, there was little incentive for them to grapple with anything else that was too controversial, and motive aplenty to pass bills that appeared to do more than they actually did.
Mostly, they played defense, fending off scores of bills that might offend constituents or some powerful special interest group that, in turn, might retaliate by targeting them for defeat once this year's September primaries and November general election roll around.
Fearful of offending veterans groups, fire and rescue squads, or fraternal clubs, for example, a Senate committee bottled up and finally killed the legislation to slap statewide controls over legal gambling by such organizations.
Afraid they might lose a perk that could help them be re-elected, another Senate committee ignored pleas to repeal the program that lets senators and delegates hand out millions of dollars in scholarships to their constituents. Lawmakers even passed a proposed constitutional amendment to guarantee the rights of crime victims despite the fact that opponents called it a "feel-good" measure that would do little for anyone, and even ardent defenders admitted it was mostly symbolic.
They glossed over complaints from Hispanic, Chinese and other ethnic groups who said legislation to make English the state's official language was a subtle form of immigrant-bashing, partly because backers of the bill admitted that it would probably have little effect and was not really necessary.
Not wishing to penalize farmers, they killed a Chesapeake Bay cleanup bill designed to stem agricultural runoff. Faced with opposition from manufacturers, they beat back a bill to require minimum amounts of recycled plastics in certain types of plastic containers.
Here are highlights of the 1994 Maryland General Assembly, which ended at midnight. Bills approved by the legislature need the governor's signature to become law, except for those calling for a public referendum.
WELFARE REFORM
Among his last initiatives as he prepares to leave office, the governor proposed welfare reforms that he said would foster self-reliance and personal responsibility. The reform bill was weakened before winning approval last night.
The key provision, known as the family cap, was stripped from the bill. The cap was designed to deny additional payments to women who conceived and bore children while on the welfare rolls. Senate language that would have lifted restrictions on state-funded abortions for poor women also was stripped from the bill.
The bill as approved by the legislature still calls for a pilot program to reduce and eventually eliminate welfare payments to recipients who fail to find a job or perform community service after 18 months on the rolls.
Federal approval is necessary for a state to impose a family cap or pilot program. The administration can still impose the family cap if it gets federal approval, but had wanted the General Assembly's endorsement to strengthen its case.
GUN CONTROL
After refusing for three years, lawmakers finally passed the governor's bill to ban the sale or other transfer in Maryland of 18 types of semiautomatic handguns. The 18 are often called assault pistols because of their military appearance and ability to hold large amounts of ammunition. Scores of other models of semiautomatic pistols are not affected.
Though assault pistols have been linked to only a small percentage of crimes, gun control supporters hailed the legislation as an important step.
The gun lobby and rural legislators killed more sweeping gun control measures, including one that would have regulated private handgun sales -- a loophole through which criminals often obtain weapons.
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Female lawmakers scored a victory in winning passage of a domestic violence bill designed to grant victims of abuse greater rights and legal protection. The bill requires police to give such victims information about their rights, and it allows judges to compel women to testify against their husbands in some abuse cases.
A proposed reform of state child support laws was approved last night. The reform package, backed by the governor, will make it easier for courts to establish paternity and order parents to provide health insurance for their children.
Legislators killed the governor's bill aimed at speeding up adoption of foster children whose mother or father was missing. The measure would have permitted adoptions without a missing parent's consent if foster care officials could not find the parent after a year. Opponents said it would violate parents' rights.
FOOTBALL
Jack Kent Cooke's early December announcement that he planned to move the Washington Redskins to Laurel triggered a controversy that threatened both the harmony of the session and Baltimore's efforts to land a National Football League team to replace the Colts.
After nearly two months of intermittent rancor, mostly involving the governor and the Redskins owner, a compromise was reached. The governor and other state officials dropped objections to Mr. Cooke's move to Laurel but maintained the state's ability to build a football stadium in Baltimore.
Mr. Cooke agreed to move the Redskins training camp to Frostburg State University, in the home county of House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. But Mr. Cooke refused to promise not to try to blackball a move by another NFL team to Baltimore.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Responding to public concern over violent crime and deficiencies in the parole system, both houses approved legislation to require violent criminals to serve at least 50 percent of their prison sentences before being eligible for parole. The final version of the measure was approved last night.
Also approved were provisions to impose new mandatory sentences for repeat violent offenders and open parole hearings to the public. A proposal to send violent teen-agers automatically to adult rather than juvenile courts was approved as well.
Criminals condemned to death after March 25 will die by lethal injection rather than in the gas chamber under a measure approved by the legislature and signed last month by the governor. Inmates already on death row, including John Frederick Thanos, will be given a choice. Maryland was the last state to use gas as its only method of execution.
A Schaefer administration proposal to streamline the appeals process in death penalty cases ran into unexpected legislative opposition. A watered-down version of the bill died last night.
To help prosecutors in the courtroom, legislators agreed to allow greater use of children's statements to medical and other professionals as evidence in child abuse cases. They also agreed to require convicted sex offenders to submit to a state registry samples of DNA, which contains unique genetic
information that can be used to help solve sex crimes.
Voters will decide in November whether to amend the state constitution to guarantee rights for crime victims, thanks to legislation that easily won the General Assembly's approval. Proponents say the amendment would put victims' rights on a par with those of the accused. Its few opponents called it empty, feel-good legislation.
SMOKING AND DRINKING
Concerned by the health costs associated with smoking and drinking, lawmakers debated numerous measures to keep cigarettes and alcohol out of the hands of teen-agers. They agreed, for instance, to increase sharply the penalties for selling cigarettes to minors.
The governor's proposal to discourage smoking by raising the cigarette tax by 25 cents a pack was defeated. An alternate plan that would automatically increase the Maryland tax every time Congress increased the federal cigarette tax died last night.
One of the most sweeping initiatives affecting smokers this session came not from the General Assembly but from William A. Fogle, state secretary of licensing and regulation. He announced plans to issue regulations this spring that would ban smoking in workplaces across the state, including bars and restaurants.
Legislators approved a measure designed to deter adults from purchasing kegs of beer for teen-agers' parties. The bill requires that kegs be labeled with the name and address of the purchaser.
To close a loophole in drunken driving laws, legislators agreed to require an immediate blood alcohol test whenever a suspected drunken driver is in an accident involving a life-threatening injury. The test currently is required only if there is a fatality.
BUDGET
With the economy modestly improving, the General Assembly approved a $13.3 billion budget for fiscal year 1995 that includes the first general pay increase for state workers in three years. They will get raises of 3 percent or $800, whichever is greater.
The spending plan relies on no new taxes or fees. Lawmakers agreed to let a temporary 6 percent tax bracket for Maryland's wealthiest taxpayers expire as planned Dec. 31.
The budget includes more than $100 million for school construction, as well as new money for schools with large numbers of students who are poor or don't speak English. It includes a 2 percent increase in welfare grants and a $131 million increase in state aid to local governments, about $80 million of which is for education.
The increase in spending over this year's budget was held to 5 percent. The budget creates 1,032 new state jobs, most of them to staff new prisons.
BALTIMORE
Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke won the General Assembly's approval to start a pilot needle-exchange program for drug abusers in hopes of slowing the spread of AIDS. The governor has said he will sign the bill as long as his secretaries of health and public safety endorse the final version. Seventy percent of the new HIV infections in Baltimore are attributed to intravenous drug use.
A bill designed to reduce lead paint hazards in older housing stock in Baltimore and elsewhere while keeping landlords in business still was weakened before being approved last night. The measure limits landlords' liability in lead paint poisoning cases in exchange for renovations, such as repainting or replacing lead-coated windows.
Legislation allowing the city to create special taxing districts in neighborhoods that want to buy additional police protection, sanitation and other services was approved. Measures that allow the city to give property tax breaks to the owners of newly constructed homes or renovated homes both were approved yesterday.
HEALTH CARE
Health care proved one of the thorniest, most heavily lobbied issues before the General Assembly. Early in the session, legislators easily approved and the governor signed a law requiring insurers to provide coverage for mental illnesses similar to that offered for other ailments.
However, lawmakers were later caught in a cross-fire between doctors and insurers over a proposal that would allow patients insured by "managed care networks," such as health maintenance organizations, to see doctors outside their plan and require the networks to pay a portion of the costs. Insurers and businesses said the measure would destroy their efforts to hold down medical costs. Doctors said the quality of health care declines when patients cannot choose their doctors. The proposal died last night.
GAMBLING
The governor wanted legislation setting up a state commission that would license and oversee most forms of charitable gambling, as well as commercial bingo parlors. It was killed by a Senate committee yesterday.
A related measure that would strengthen the ability of Prince George's County officials to regulate gambling there died last night.
ENVIRONMENT
Environmentalists, who feared the state would be too lenient with developers, managed to defeat a bill that would have transferred federal regulatory authority over nontidal wetlands to the state. A proposal that would have weakened the state's ability to prosecute environmental crimes also was killed in the Senate after passing the House.
A Schaefer proposal to license some recreational crabbers died last night, but a bill to limit the number of commercial crabbers was approved.
Legislators killed two bills that proponents said would help clean up the Chesapeake Bay. One would have strictly limited development along the banks of the Chesapeake's nontidal tributaries.
The other would have required farmers who receive state aid to reduce manure and fertilizer runoff.
OTHER
Numerous efforts to impose greater ethics on state officials passed the House but died yesterday in a Senate committee. Among them were attempts to abolish the legislative scholarship program and to require greater disclosure of the meals and gifts lavished on lawmakers by lobbyists.
Legislators did approve a bill to allow contributions to be charged to credit cards.
For the third year in a row, lawmakers killed a gay rights bill that would have prohibited discrimination in employment, public accommodations and housing based on sexual orientation. A measure that would have barred clubs that discriminate on the basis of race, sex and religious belief from holding liquor licenses also was defeated.
Some of Maryland's highest-paid professionals -- doctors and lawyers -- battled over tens of millions of dollars in potential jury awards as lawmakers debated when and how they should limit damages families may receive for pain and suffering in "wrongful death" cases. A House bill called for a $500,000 cap on cases dating to 1986. A Senate bill with the same cap -- but which was not retroactive -- was approved last night.
Responding to Ronald W. Price's attempts to sell a story stemming from his sexual abuse of three students, the Senate passed a bill that would prevent criminals from spending money from movie and book deals before paying court-ordered damages to their victims.
But the bill died in the House of Delegates last night.
Compiled by Sun staff writer John A. Morris