Senate passes bill on utilities
The Maryland Senate approved a bill yesterday that would require gas and electric companies to notify customers at least once a year of any charges they assess for energy efficiency and conservation programs.
The legislation, which passed the Senate unanimously, came in response to controversy over Allegheny Power, a Western Maryland utility, sending customers energy-saving light bulbs and then adding the cost to their monthly bills. Under the legislation, utilities must tell customers on their bills and through the company's Web site about the charges imposed and the benefits of such programs.
The House of Delegates approved a similar bill this month.
Laura Smitherman
Senate approves tax break measure
A bill that would allow tax breaks for businesses that sponsor scholarships at private schools or grants to public schools for extracurricular programs passed the Maryland Senate yesterday.
Senators voted, 30-17, for the bill, despite objections from some lawmakers who said the measure amounts to providing public subsidies for private schools. Under the bill, businesses could receive an income tax credit for 75 percent of their contributions, up to a total of $5 million a year.
Senators amended the proposal to ensure that it would not go forward unless money is set aside for the tax credits in the state's budget beginning next year. The House of Delegates has not acted on a companion measure.
Laura Smitherman
Insurance bill tied to slavery era OK'd
Legislation that would require insurers to provide the state with a report on slaveholder insurance policies won approval in the Maryland Senate yesterday.
Senators unanimously passed the bill, which calls on insurance companies doing business in the state to submit information on policies issued during the slavery era, or the years before 1865. The vote comes one year after the General Assembly passed a measure offering a formal apology for Maryland's role in slavery. The House of Delegates has not acted on the insurance policy proposal.
Slaveholder policies insured slave owners against the injury or death of a slave. In 2000, California became the first state to enact legislation requiring insurers to report on such policies.
Laura Smitherman
Health coverage for children passes
A bill aimed at extending health care coverage to all of Maryland's children passed the House yesterday.
The bill, approved 128 to 10, would require the state comptroller next year to notify families earning about $63,000 a year or less that their children probably qualify for Medicaid or health care provided by the state.
Del. Heather Mizeur, a Montgomery County Democrat who sponsored the measure, said state officials estimate that as many as 90,000 children in Maryland are eligible for government health coverage but are not enrolled.
Families would have to report on their 2008 tax returns whether their children have health insurance, and the comptroller would then send qualifying families applications to enroll in the free or low-cost government health plans. If not enough families sign their children up for coverage by 2011, according to the bill, those parents who don't enroll or get private coverage would be stripped of the state income tax deductions they take for their children.
The bill now moves to the Senate.
Timothy B. Wheeler