As long as the General Assembly’s top leaders are planning a special session to pick up the state’s budget where last they left it, here’s another item to add to the agenda: No MTA fare hike unless it’s part of a broader agenda to revive the financially-depleted Transportation Trust Fund.

Little noticed in all the debate in Annapolis over spending cuts and new taxes was an instruction added to what’s known as the BRFA (the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act), the bill that each year accompanies the budget, that requires the Maryland Transit Administration to raise fares on bus, light rail and subway services every two years to meet a 35 percent farebox recovery rate and keep up with the Consumer Price Index.

The BRFA did not pass. It died in the waning hours of the 90-day session along with the Fiscal 2013 tax bill, a failure that triggered the so-called “doomsday” budget that lawmakers are now scrambling to avoid.

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  • Transportation lacks trust, not taxesSpecial session, yes; per diem, noMiller ‘sabotaged’ budget compromiseTransportation fund has a history of plunderProtect the trust fund, then raise the gas taxAn embarrassing budgetary fail by governor and legislatureMaryland’s ‘doomsday’? Not so badIn Annapolis, the arrogance of powerPut transportation in voters’ handsIf Maryland raises taxes, will voters remember?Let’s take the ‘doomsday’ budgetShame on Maryland’s elected leadersFlush tax: The joke is on usGeneral Assembly elevates the trivial, neglects pension reformDebacle in AnnapolisGov. O’Malley: Cut spending, pleaseFlush tax increase exemptionsO’Malley

    Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/P-t-ZklZjhw/bs-ed-fares-20120416,0,2086914.story

BATON ROUGE — A House committee Monday narrowly approved a bill that would ban the use of hand-held cell phones or other “wireless communications devices” while the user is driving. The Committee on Transportation, Highways and Public Works voted 9-7 for House Bill 787 by Rep. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge. The measure now heads to the House floor for debate where similar measures have died in the past.

Pat Wellenbach, The Associated PressA House committee Monday narrowly approved a bill that would ban the use of hand-held cell phones or other “wireless communications devices” while the user is driving.

Barrow’s bill makes driving while using a hand-held cell phone or devices a secondary offense, one that would require a police officer to issue a ticket only if the vehicle is stopped for another offense, like speeding or improper lane usage.

Barrow, a victim of an auto accident caused by a driver who conceded she was using a cell phone at the time, said that distracted drivers cause “safety issues.”

Barrow said that her bill still allows the use of hands-free devices. “Having a hands-free device makes it a lot less probable (to have an accident). It gives you the use of both hands on the wheel.”

Rep. Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport, an opponent of the bill, said there are greater distractions in vehicles, such as changing radio stations, reading newspapers, eating, or “men fixing their ties and women fixing their lipstick.”

“Some people get so engulfed with a conversation they forget they are driving,” Barrow replied. Bobby Breland, representing the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, said that between 2005 and 2009, 52 fatalities in the state were attributed to the use of cell phones while 111 deaths were attributed to other “in-vehicle distractions.”

However, Breland said the number of deaths caused by the use of cell phones is under-reported in Louisiana and the nation.

Rep. Terry Landry, D-Opelousas, a former State Police superintendent, said that the problem of hand-held cell phone use “may not be as

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BOISE — A judge prohibited a central Idaho county from dispatching a front-end loader to clear boulders that block a remote mountain road, temporarily defusing a local-versus-federal flare-up in which one county official threatened to haul off a Bureau of Land Management manager in “pretty pink handcuffs.”

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled on Friday that Custer County officials for now can’t reopen Herd Creek Road after objections of the BLM, which argued the boulder-removal plan violated federal law.

The agency closed the road near a wilderness study area more than a decade ago. But county officials have been warning for months they would remove boulders on Sunday, arguing the BLM didn’t properly consult with locals.

Custer County sent heavy machinery to the closed road on Sunday but stopped short of removing the boulders after the decision by Winmill, who wrote the county failed to follow proper guidelines to wrest control of the road from the federal agency.

“Irreparable harm is likely because the defendants intend to reopen the road that passes through, and is proximate to, a wilderness study area that could be adversely affected by traffic,” Winmill wrote. “The road has been closed since 1999, and there is no showing of any need for reopening the road at this point.”

Winmill, who said the BLM has a likelihood of succeeding on its argument’s merits, scheduled a hearing Thursday in Pocatello on his temporary restraining order.

Custer County Commission Chairman Wayne Butts, among locals in this mountainous region who for years have chafed at federal control of about 97 percent of county territory, said Monday he envisions this case as establishing a beachhead in returning the region’s management to people who live here.

Since last year, Butts and other Custer County commissioners have been getting advice

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/Lrw-eVPtYmk/

The state legislature’s tax-writing panel endorsed automated camera-issued motor vehicle tickets and Sunday liquor sales Monday, but the details behind both measures likely won’t be ironed out until just before the full General Assembly adjourns next month.

Both bills adopted Monday by the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee now head to the House of Representatives.

Rep. Patricia Widlitz

The House chairwoman of the committee, Rep. Patricia Widlitz, D-Guilford, told members repeatedly that the so-called “red light cameras” bill, which has strong backing both from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and from Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, is “a work in progress.”

Though the bill adopted Monday would have allowed any community with a population greater than 48,000 the option of installing such cameras, Widlitz said the final version being negotiated between legislative leaders and Malloy’s office would be much more modest.

While there are 19 communities with populations above 48,000, Widlitz said she thinks the threshold will be raised to limit the number of municipalities that could opt to participate in the pilot program to “single digits.”

And tickets that would be issued by these cameras, which originally were supposed to carry a fine of $100, now would charge $50, she said.

Still, the concept sparked considerable debate among committee members, with lines between cities and suburbs appearing to dominate more than partisan affiliation.

Urban lawmakers, argued that cash-strapped cities need this pilot program to enhance safety at crucial intersections that are patrolled by local police too infrequently.

Cities face higher crimes rates “and they rarely have the resources to address traffic,” said Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, who added that using automated cameras “removes the arbitrariness of ticket-issuing” by police officers.

“The malls in my town, Manchester, are a death zone at Christmas time,” said Democratic Sen. Stephen T. Cassano, who said some motorists speed through red lights at 50-60 mph.

The legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated that those communities that did impose automated cameras could raise anywhere from $91,000 to $511,000 per year, depending on several factors, including the number of intersections scanned.

But others argued that the primary motivation behind the bill involves

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/PwV_6qMmgVE/finance-panels-oks-red-light-camera-sunday-liquor-sales-bills-fate-both-remains-unclear

This week’s collection of #StateReads covers judicial discipline in Texas, a key question about Illinois’ Abraham Lincoln collection and a review of how states handled federal stimulus money to improve failing schools.

These examples of extraordinary journalism about state government were recommended in tweets using the #StateReads hashtag on Twitter and in email submissions to dvock@stateline.org.

“Texas judges’ misdeeds often kept secret by oversight commission” — The Austin American-Statesman

When Texas judges are disciplined, the public is kept in the dark about key details, reports Eric Dexheimer of the Austin American-Statesman (@AASInvestigates). For example, a judge got in trouble for telling a lawyer he could avoid contempt charges by donating “a large sum of money” to a charity closely connected to the judge, but the identity of that judge and the charity remains a secret, Dexheimer writes. The Commission on Judicial Conduct reveals details only in major cases, and the state constitution limits how much it can disclose. The newspaper reviewed a decade’s worth of cases before the commission and found out punishments were often handed out unevenly.

“Electing to sleep elsewhere” — The New York Times

Several governors have decided against taking one of the biggest prizes of their elected office: residence in a governor’s mansion, reports Jodi Kantor (@jodikantor) of The New York Times. Kantor, also known for her recent book on the Obamas, notes that governors in Colorado, Idaho, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Ohio and Michigan live in their own homes rather than the state-provided mansion. “Blame a desire to minimize the ever-greater scrutiny of public life, along with changing tastes and the current politics of austerity,” Kantor writes. “Who wants to live in a Downton Abbey house on a Tea Party budget?” Nomination from Jake Grovum (@jgrovum).

“Was famous stovepipe hat really Abe Lincoln’s?” — Chicago Sun-Times

The State of Illinois owns a stovepipe hat in its collection of Abraham Lincoln collection valued at $6.5 million. But Dave McKinney (@davemckinney123) of the Chicago Sun-Times reports on one major problem with the iconic piece: No one can

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/H4IMxiLWHAc/story