The Week Ahead

Last week we blogged about the 1.2 million Marylanders who are set to gain critical health care protections next year, thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the governor's announcement of a second special session to focus on gaming, beginning August 9th.

Tuesday, July 31st

• Video Lottery Facility Location Commission meets. The Commission is the state body responsible for awarding the five licenses to operate video lottery operations. The primary topic at the second special session will be whether or not to add a sixth license. The Commission will discuss various legal proceedings, an update on gambling implementation, an overview of the background investigation of a Baltimore City license applicant, and consideration of the Baltimore City license proposal. A portion of the meeting will be held in closed session.  1pm in the Joint Hearing Room of the Legislative Services Building, Annapolis.
• Governor's Commission on Small Business holds a board meeting. 10am to noon in the 17th Floor Conference Room at the World Trade Center, 401 East Pratt Street, Baltimore.
• Maryland Nonprofits offers Researching and Writing Foundation Grant Proposals 101. This is a Maryland Nonprofits training; for more information or to register go to their events page.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

• Board of Public Works holds its regular meeting. 10am in the Governor's Reception Room on the second floor of the State House.
• Maryland Underground Facilities Damage Prevention Authority meets. 9am in the lower level conference room at the One Call Center, 7223 Parkway Drive, Hanover. 
• Maryland Nonprofits offers a webinar on starting a nonprofit. This is a Maryland Nonprofits training; for more information or to register go to their events page.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases metropolitan employment data for June.

Friday, August 3rd

• BLS releases national employment figures for July. The unemployment rate in June stalled at 8.2 percent.

Wild Cards in the Special Session on Gambling

Governor Martin O’Malley has called the state legislature into special session beginning August 9 to deal with gambling issues. The administration will propose legislation to authorize an additional gambling location in the National Harbor development in Prince George’s County, and to allow table games (like blackjack, roulette and craps) at all of the casino sites in Maryland.

The proposal would then go to the voters for consideration at the November election.

The Governor indicated that the proposal would produce $100 million for education. He indicated further that it would include measures to hold harmless the jurisdictions that are already authorized for casino sites – including Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City.

Several considerations remain to be disclosed – of maybe they remain to be decided. That is to say, there are some wild cards in this game.

Will there actually be more money for schools? Up until now, the linkage between gambling money and schools has been nebulous. I described it in the Gazette newspapers as “financial sleight of hand.” You see, the bulk of the gambling revenues go into a “Education Trust Fund.” The trust fund money goes towards state aid to public school systems.

But the law that set up the trust fund did not change the funding formulas to increase the amount of funding for public schools. So what happened is that the slot machine money replaced other money from the state’s general fund.

The state is forecast to have a $400-to-$500 million revenue shortfall for next year. In the eyes of state budget-makers, the money from expanded gambling is just the first $100 million or so towards solving that problem. There might not be any extra money for schools. It may all go to help fill the projected revenue shortfall. (Of course, the state has to balance its budget somehow, so the alternative could be other cuts that would be just as bad).

Finally, while the voters are needed to expand gambling (because the approved type and locations for gambling is in the state Constitution), the legislature can adjust the tax rate on the casinos any time (because that's just a regular law).

There is a lot of suspicion that once the expansion is in place, the gambling interests will ramp up pressure to cut back on their tax rate.

Their “tax rate” IS where the money for schools comes from. If the legislature is going to let the casinos keep more of the profits, that will mean less money for schools, or more budget cuts somewhere else.

So, there are wild cards in this gambling game. If the state is going to expand gambling, it should assure that the schools come out ahead, and that future education funding is protected.

1.2 million MDers to gain healthcare protection

According to a report out today from FamiliesUSA, nearly 1.2 million non-elderly Marylanders with pre-existing conditions will gain needed protection from health insurance discrimination under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).  That's nearly one out of every four Marylanders under the age of 65 (24.2 percent).

Thanks to the ACA, beginning in 2014 no Marylander (or resident of any other state) can be denied coverage, charged a higher premium, or sold a policy that excludes coverage of important health services simply because of a pre-existing condition. Using historical data about the number of Maryland residents diagnosed with pre-existing conditions, FamiliesUSA was able to estimate the number of individuals at risk of being discriminated against by the health insurance industry. The 1.2 million Marylanders are distributed across the state, including:

• 184,800 in Montgomery County
• 170,900 in Prince George's County
• 167,000 in Baltimore County
• 136,300 in Baltimore City

Furthermore:

• In Allegany and Garrett counties, the share of non-elderly residents with a diagnosed pre-existing condition is 28.8 percent (highest in the state).
• 46.1 percent of adults between 55-64 years of age have been diagnosed with a pre-existing condition that, until the ACA, would have put them at risk of health insurance discrimination.
• Income does not predict likelihood of pre-existing conditions--24.3 percent of Marylanders in households making more than 4x the poverty rate have been so diagnosed.
• The numbers may in fact be much higher, as FamiliesUSA based their estimate on the number of Marylanders currently diagnosed with a pre-existing condition. Many others, particularly those currently without health insurance, may be undiagnosed.

We here at MBTPI are glad that Maryland is at the forefront of the effort to implement the ACA, and will continue to promote policies that meet the needs of all Marylanders, especially those most in need.

The Week Ahead

Last Friday MBTPI Director Neil Bersgman and Policy Analyst Benjamin Orr were interviewed separately about unemployment in Maryland and the education trust fund.

Tuesday, July 24th

• Maryland Nonprofits holds a training in Silver Spring on Low-Cost and No-Cost Strategies for Generating Press and Publicity for Your Nonprofit, from 2-4pm. For more information or to register, go to their events page.

Wednesday, July 25th

• Local Government Article Review Committee is reviewing drafts of local legislation from around the state on topics such as special taxing districts, local associations, and other matters. 3pm in the SOC Training Room at the State Highway Administration, 7491 Connelly Drive, Hanover.

Thursday, July 26th

• Maryland Health Insurance Plan Board of Directors holds an 11am conference call on SPDAP premium and coverage gap subsidy determinations for 2013. The conference call dial-in number is 888-769-8797, and the participant passcode is 9523545.
• Maryland Medicaid Advisory Committee meets. 1-3pm at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in the Lobby Level Conference Room L-3, 201 W. Preston Street, Baltimore. 

The Week Ahead

Quite a few meetings related to health care and health care reform this week.

Monday, July 16th

• Commission to Study Campaign Finance Law meets. 10am in room 130, House Office Building, Annapolis.
• Maryland Health Benefit Exchange Board, Exchange Financing and Sustainability Advisory Committee meets. 2-3:30pm in the Tech Center UMBC Main Seminar Room, 1450 Rolling Road, Baltimore.

Tuesday, July 17th

• Work-group on Lead Liability Protection for Rental Property meets. 10am on the 24th Floor Hearing Room, Maryland Insurance Administration, 200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore.
• Maryland Advisory Committee on Manufacturing Competitiveness holds a board meeting. 10am to noon at Marquip-Ward United, 10615 Beaver Dam Road, Cockeysville.
• Maryland Health Care Reform Coordinating Council meets. 1-3pm in the Joint Hearing Room at the Department of Legislative Services, Annapolis.
• Joint Committee on Health Benefit Exchange Financing of the Maryland Health Care Reform Coordinating Council holds its first meeting. 3-4pm in the Joint Hearing Room at the Department of Legislative Services, Annapolis.
• Maryland Nonprofits is holding a training on financial leadership.

Wednesday, July 18th

• Joint Committee on Children, Youth and Families meets for an update on the Race to the Top Early LEarning Challenge Grant and a presentation on after school programs. 10am in room 130, House Office Building, Annapolis.
• Joint Committee on Transparency and Open Government meets for a design update on the General Assembly website. Public testimony will be accepted. 1pm in room 130, House Office Building, Annapolis.
• Essential Health Care Benefits Advisory Committee of the Maryland Health Care Reform Coordinating Council meets. 9am to noon in the Tech Center UMBC Main Seminar Room, 1450 Rolling Road, Baltimore.
• Maryland Nonprofits is holding a webinar on developing a conflict of interest policy.

Thursday, July 19th

• Maryland Health Care Commission meets. 1pm in room 100, Maryland Health Care Commission, 4160 Patterson Avenue, Baltimore.
• Inter-agency Committee on School Construction meets to discuss fiscal year 2013 energy efficiency improvement procedures. 10-10:30 in the 2nd floor conference room, 200 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore.

Friday, July 20th

• Maryland Health Care Reform Coordinating Council meets. 2-4pm in the Main Conference Room, Maryland Health Care Commission, 4160 Patterson Avenue Baltimore.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics releases state employment figures for June 2012.  In May Maryland's unemployment rate rose for the third straight month, to 6.8 percent.

ALERT: Fox 45 Budget and Tax Town Hall TONIGHT 7pm

Maryland lawmakers recently passed a responsible compromise budget that featured both spending cuts and tax increases, while avoiding $500 million in “doomsday” cuts.

MBTPI’s own Neil Bergsman will be taking part in a town-hall style debate on taxes and the budget, TONIGHT at 7pm.  The other three panelists will be Vincent DeMarco from the Maryland Health Care for All Coalition, Charles Lollar from New Day Maryland, and David Schwartz from Americans for Prosperity. Mark Hyman of Sinclair Media will moderate. Fox 45 (which is owned by Sinclair Media) is hosting and moderating the debate, which will be streamed live on their website (it will NOT be broadcast live). Viewers will have the chance to submit questions online, on Facebook, and via Twitter.

We know that our opponents will flood the Fox 45 forums with questions arguing that Maryland should cut taxes and gut vital programs. With your help we can show support for continued public investment in the programs and services that make Maryland great, such as our schools, parks, hospitals, and universities. 

Please watch the 7pm debate live at www.FoxBaltimore.com.  We also ask that you post comments and submit questions for the panelists on Fox 45’s website, Facebook page Facebook.com/foxbaltimore and by Twitter @FoxBaltimore. You can also follow along as MBTPI tweets comments and reactions to the debate at @MarylandBudget. The hashtag for the forum will be: #Fox45TownHall. 

See you tonight!

Week Ahead

Last week we blogged about the 4th of July as a celebration of interdependence, the high unemployment ratio between blacks and whites in Baltimore, and the stagnant U.S. unemployment rate. Our Executive Director, Neil Bergsman, also appeared in the Washington Examiner and the Washington Times.

Tuesday, July 10th

• Public Health and Long Term Care Subcommittee of the House Health and Government Operations Committee is meeting about House Bill 1090 of 2012. 1pm in room 241 of the House Office Building, 6 Bladen Street, Annapolis: House Bill 1090 of 2012 Workgroup
• Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive, and Legislative Review (AELR) holds a public hearing on a variety of proposed regulations from the Departments of the Environment and of Agriculture. 2pm in the Joint Hearing Room, Legislative Services Building, 90 State Circle, Annapolis. 
• Advisory Council for Alternative Response holds its introductory meeting. 1-3pm in room 1044, Department of Human Resources, 311 West Saratoga Street, Baltimore.

Wednesday, July 11th

• Board of Public Works meets. The pre-meeting will be held at 9:45am in Room 217. 10am in the Governor's Reception Room, Second Floor, State House, Annapolis.
• Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) holds its monthly meeting. 10am in room 100, 4160 Patterson Avenue, Baltimore
• Maryland Nonprofits is holding an all day Social Media Bootcamp. Unfortunately, registration is now closed. 

Thursday, July 12th

• Neil Bergsman will be one of four panelists at an invitation-only town hall put on by Fox 45 at 7pm. The panelists will discuss the recent tax increases in Maryland, whom they benefit, and the state's deficit. While the town hall will not be broadcast, it will be streamed live over the internet. 

Friday, July 13th

• Board of Social Work Examiners meeting has been cancelled.
• Baltimore Data Day, a workshop sponsored by the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance-Jacob France Institute (BNIA-JFI). Data Day is BNIA-JFI’s “workshop to help communities expand their capacity to use technology and data to advance their goals.” See the latest in community-based data, technology and tools and learn how other groups are using data to support constructive change. Register for this event. 8:30am to 3:30pm at the University of Baltimore Thumel Business Center, 11 W. Mt. Royal Avenue, Baltimore.

US Unemployment rate stuck at 8.2 percent

128,000 more Americans had jobs in June compared to one month earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unfortunately, this was not enough to move the unemployment rate, which remained unchanged at 8.2 percent. The professional and business services industry added 47,000 jobs, while employment in other major industries changed little over the month.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics: "The Employment Situation - June 2012"

The national monthly jobs report contains much more than just the unemployment rate and distribution of new jobs. Highlights include:

• Unemployment among teenagers ages 16-19 fell almost a full percentage point, to 23.7 percent.
• As we discussed yesterday, blacks had a much higher unemployment rate (14.4 percent) than whites (7.4 percent), Asians (6.3 percent), or Hispanics (11 percent).
• Those without a high school credential were much more likely to be unemployed (12.6 percent) than those with the credential (8.4 percent), some college or a two year degree (7.5 percent), or a college degree (4.1 percent).
• 8.2 million workers were underemployed (working part-time for economic reasons) in June, an increase of 112,000.
• There are still 5.4 million workers among the ranks of the long term unemployed (27 week or more). 
• The unemployment rate does not include the 2.5 million workers who are not counted as part of the labor force. 821,000 of them are discouraged workers--those who want to work but have given up looking.

Black unemployment rate more than double that of whites

The Baltimore region had the second highest black to white unemployment ratio in the country in 2011, according to a new brief released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute. In that year, black members of the region's workforce were 2.6 times more likely to be unemployed than white workers. Only Minneapolis-St. Paul had a higher ratio. The Washington DC metro area (including northern Virginia and the District)--where blacks were 2.4 times more likely to be unemployed--was fifth.

On the other hand the metro Baltimore black unemployment rate of 13.1 percent was below the national average of 15.9 percent. It also declined more than the national average (-1.4 percentage points compared to -.01) between 2010 and 2011. Regardless, the continuing high unemployment rate among blacks, and particularly when compared to whites, is unconscionable.

Preliminary 2011 figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate a statewide unemployment rate of 10.3 percent among blacks, compared to just 5.7 percent among whites and 7 percent among Hispanics/Latinos.

MBTPI will continue to work with our partners on legislation that attacks the structural underpinnings of this tragedy (poverty, the achievement gap, racism), and promote anti-poverty strategies such as fully funding Head Start and public schools, affordable housing, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and many more.

Declaration of Interdependence

Happy Independence Day!  236 years ago the founding fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence and committed themselves to fight for their freedom from England. But it was also a declaration of interdependence, each state leaning on the others as they stood up to face the British empire. The 13 colonies, now states, made this clear in the final line of the declaration: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of the divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Liberty and freedom are often highlighted as the virtues upon which our nation is based--and so they are. But America is also based on a sense of community, of coming together in our time of need to protect and care for our neighbors as they do the same for us. This sense of community has never been perfect. There have always been excluded groups, whether Native Americans, blacks, women, non-Western European immigrants, or the poor. But throughout the centuries our country has been at its strongest when we stood together and expanded the circle.

Roosevelt understood this when he spoke of the four freedoms:

• Freedom of speech and expression
• Freedom of worship
• Freedom from want
• Freedom from fear

The recent heat wave is a perfect example of how community make us stronger.  Neighbors with power helping those without, drivers (for the most part) stopping at intersections without stoplights to let folks on the side roads through, or utility crews from distant states driving overnight to help out.

Have fun tomorrow (and be safe).  And remember that the Fourth of July is as much a celebration of coming together as a national community as it is of independence from foreign control.

The Week Ahead

Wednesday is Independence Day, so there isn't much going on this week. Last week we blogged about Maryland Nonprofits new partnership with the University of Baltimore, the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act, and the start of Maryland's new fiscal year.

Sunday, July 1st

• Maryland's fiscal year begins. As Neil blogged last week, this is a time for celebration, before returning to the hard work of managing the budget.

Tuesday, July 3rd

• This week is so slow that I'm going to highlight the meeting of the Maryland Underground Facilities Damage Prevention Authority. The Authority hears complaints and assesses civil penalties related to damage to underground facilities, such as natural gas, telephone, cable, water and sewer lines. Of course, this week our attention is focused more on above-ground utilities, specifically those knocked out in last Friday's storm. The Authority also oversees public education and outreach programs, and the development of safety procedures. 9am in the lower level conference room at One Call Center, 7223 Parkway Drive, Hanover.

Friday, July 6th

• Bureau of Labor Statistics will release national employment data for June. The U.S. unemployment rate edged up slightly in May, to 8.2 percent.

Stay cool and hydrated!