JUICE: Del. McIntosh & Sen. Kittleman for Legal Pot, MD for Utah LGBT Marriages, Fracking, Luiz Simmons Mail & More!

Below Maryland Juice provides a round-up of news tidbits of interest to politicos:

JUICE #1: POT LEGALIZATION ENDORSED BY DEM LEADER DEL. MAGGIE MCINTOSH & GOP SEN. ALLAN KITTLEMAN // PLUS HUGE REVENUE & NO PROBLEMS IN COLOARDO - The calls for marijuana legalization in Maryland have earned important allies in the state legislature. Delegate Maggie McIntosh, a top Democratic House leader, has endorsed proposals to tax and regulate pot like alcohol and to remove jail-time as a penalty for possession. Meanwhile, GOP State Senator Allan Kittleman, who is running for Howard County Executive, has co-sponsored marijuana legalization legislation. Del. McIntosh announced her support in the following email blast (excerpt below):

MAGGIE MCINTOSH: Last session, my colleague Curt Anderson introduced legislation that would have legalized marijuana use for adults. I supported Delegate Anderson’s bill because I believe our current drug prohibition laws are wasteful and counterproductive, taking resources away from combating drug violence and promoting treatment options for those suffering with addiction. Our current laws also overburden our judicial and prison systems, forcing many non-violent offenders into jail. Last session, the Maryland Senate also passed a bill that would have made possession of small amounts of marijuana a civil – rather than criminal – offense. This year, I fully expect both bills to be introduced again and plan to support either should they come to the House floor. The early reports on legalization efforts in Colorado and Oregon show that this approach can work.

The Washington Post's John Wagner reported on the new bi-partisan push for rolling back the failed War on Drugs in Maryland with the following article announcing support from GOP State Senator Allan Kittleman (excerpt below):

WASHINGTON POST: Sen. Allan H. Kittleman (R-Howard) said Friday that he will co-sponsor legislation that would allow regulated marijuana sales in Maryland, adding a bipartisan wrinkle to this year’s push in Annapolis. Kittleman, a Republican who is running for Howard County executive this year, said that he has agreed to work with Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery) on a bill that will be unveiled next week....

Raskin’s legislation would allow sales under a similar framework that recently was set up in Colorado, with marijuana subject to state regulation and taxation. Sales would be limited to people age 21 and over, and there would be tough penalties for selling to minors.

While he has compiled a conservative record on fiscal issues in Annapolis, Kittleman supported two other high-profile liberal social policies in recent years: the legalization of same-sex marriage and the repeal of the death penalty.

“One thing most people know about me is I’m a civil libertarian,” Kittleman said. “This isn’t something I’m doing for politics. The current way we’re dealing with marijuana and the use of it by our citizens isn’t working....”

HUGE POT SALES IN COLORADO = MAJOR REVENUE BOOST: Indeed, all eyes have been on Washington and Colorado, where voters recently approved marijuana legalization at the ballot. The early reports from Colorado, where over-the-counter pot sales began last week are overwhelmingly encouraging. Denver's CBS affiliate reported on massive sales of recreational pot, indicating that the first state on the East Coast to end prohibition will face a revenue windfall (excerpt below):

CBS: The first week of legal pot salesin Colorado is over, and now some Colorado pot shops are already running out of product. In the past week, long lines of customers swamped the Colorado dispensaries that have been granted retail marijuana licenses and bought nearly $5 million worth of pot.... Many shops are limiting the amount of pot a customer can buy, and some have raised their rates....

“We are okay right now but if things go the way they are we might be also running very short,” [marijuana ship owner Moe Atieh] said. “We expected it to be very busy. Did we expect it to be this busy? No, I don’t think anybody did....”

POLICE IN COLORADO REPORT FEW PROBLEMS IN IMPLEMENTATION OF MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION - The Huffington Post reported this week that local law enforcement officials in Colorado report no real problems since marijuana sales begun this year (excerpt below):

HUFFINGTON POST: A week after Colorado dispensaries started selling recreational marijuana to adults, local law enforcers are not reporting any significant problems. In the state's largest city, there have been only four marijuana citations issued, according to the Denver Police Department. "Everything has gone relatively smooth," Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson told The Huffington Post. "We've written four citations for public consumption since Jan. 1, and that's relatively small considering the number of people consuming right now." A similar lack of trouble swept over other Colorado towns....

Consumer interest was so high the first week that many shop owners capped the amount of marijuana an individual could buy or raised prices to mitigate a possible legal weed shortage.... "Colorado is demonstrating to the rest of the world that regulating marijuana works," said Mason Tvert, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project and a key backer of Amendment 64. He added, "The implementation process and smooth rollout of the system in Colorado is surely going to pique the interest of lawmakers and voters in other states who are also ready to move beyond prohibition and adopt more sensible policies...." The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the Department of Justice is drafting legal guidance for how banks can work with marijuana businesses in states like Colorado and Washington, which also legalized recreational marijuana for adults....

VOTERS IN FOUR STATES PLUS WASHINGTON, DC MAY VOTE ON MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION IN 2014: While Maryland continues to piddle around on the wholly uncontroversial issue of medical marijuana, U.S. News & World Report writes that four other states (Alaska, Arizona, California & Oregon) plus neighboring Washington, DC may send the issue to voters on the 2014 ballot (excerpt below):

US NEWS: One week after the nation's first recreational marijuana stores opened in Colorado, Alaska activists submitted what appear to be enough signatures to put marijuana legalization before voters. The measure – which would go up for a vote Aug. 19 – is one of several 2014 efforts that could yield a good year for pot supporters, particularly in the West....

So far, voters have been at the vanguard of legalization, blowing past state legislatures. In November 2012, more than 55 percent of Colorado and Washington voters approved initiatives to legalize the drug and open state-licensed stores – and polls suggest those successes may be replicated elsewhere.

A CNN/Opinion Research poll released Monday found 55 percent of Americans believe marijuana should be legal, compared to 44 percent who do not. Support was highest in the West – where voter-driven initiatives often become law – and in the Northeast. An October poll released by Gallup put nationwide support for legalization at 58 percent....

Residents in the nation's capital also may get a chance to vote on legalization in November. D.C. Cannabis Campaign leaders plan to submit draft ballot language Friday with the city's elections board. The proposal would legalize possession of 2 ounces and six plants by adults over 21.... Although an April PPP survey put support for legalization at 63 percent in D.C., Eidinger says supporters "can't count out the opposition" and estimates a half-million dollar campaign is necessary to win..... In addition to voter-driven initiatives, legalization bills have been proposed in at least 13 state legislatures....

JUICE #2: ATTORNEY GENERAL DOUG GANSLER ISSUES OPINION ANNOUNCING MARYLAND WILL RESPECT UTAH'S SAME-SEX MARRIAGES - The Washington Blade reported yesterday that Maryland will recognize same-sex marriages issued in Utah, which are currently suspended as courts review their legality (excerpt below):

WASHINGTON BLADE: Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler on Friday said his state would recognize same-sex marriages performed in Utah.... Gansler told the Washington Blade his office on Thursday received a call from a gay Maryland couple who married in Utah about whether the state would recognize their union. Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin on the same day urged him and attorneys general in the 17 other states that have extended marriage rights to gays and lesbians to recognize the marriages of the more than 1,300 same-sex couples who exchanged vows after U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby struck down the Beehive State’s gay nuptials ban. The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 6 blocked any future same-sex marriages from taking place in Utah until the case is resolved....

Attorney General Doug Gansler also issued a press release announcing the release of his opinion (excerpt below):

PRESS RELEASE

AG Gansler: Utah Same-sex Marriages are Valid in Maryland

2010 opinion on recognition of legal same-sex marriages performed in other states underpins view that Maryland would recognize Utah unions

Baltimore, MD (January 10, 2014) – In response to a request from the Human Right Campaign, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has expressed his view that recent same-sex marriages legally performed in Utah should and would be recognized in Maryland. This week the United States Supreme Court issued a stay on performing such unions in Utah after a court ruling there struck down a same-sex marriage ban. As a result of that decision, Utah determined same-sex marriages to be legal and, for 17 days, more than 1300 such marriage licenses were issued until the stay by the Supreme Court ended the practice.

“Maryland will continue to recognize valid out-of-state same-sex marriages as we continue to strengthen the Constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law,” said Attorney General Gansler. “It is an affront to the idea of basic human rights that the battle for full marriage equality in this country remains in headlines and courtrooms.”

The Obama administration today also issued a statement saying that the federal government would recognize same-sex unions performed in Utah despite the fact that the state government of Utah is refusing to do....

To see the Attorney General’s 2010 Opinion on same-sex marriage visit:
http://www.oag.state.md.us/Opinions/2010/95oag3.pdf 

# # #

JUICE #3: HEATHER MIZEUR SLAMS ANTHONY BROWN OVER FRACKING ISSUE - The Baltimore Sun reported this week that Delegate Heather Mizeur is criticizing Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown's environmental platform, particularly calling out his position on fracking (excerpt below):

BALTIMORE SUN: Seeking to highlight her green credentials in the race for governor, Del. Heather Mizeur took issue Friday with the environmental platform posted this week by the front-running ticket of Lt. Anthony Brown and Howard County Executive Ken Ulman.

Mizeur's campaign issued a statement accusing Brown and Ulman of glossing over the dangers of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and making "vague statements" about how to exploit the energy deposits in western Maryland without harming the environment or people's health.

Mizeur, D-Montgomery, has pushed unsuccessfully for years for a moratorium on "fracking" until its safety has been thoroughly studied and adequate safeguards are in place.  Though the legislation has not passed, Gov. Martin O'Malley has frozen drilling for past three years while an advisory commission on which Mizeur sits reviews the issues....

Heather Mizeur issued the following press release highlighting this difference of opinion:

PRESS RELEASE

Mizeur-Coates Campaign on Brown-Ulman’s “Environmental Values”

SILVER SPRING, Maryland — Yesterday, the Brown-Ulman campaign failed to address the significant dangers of shale gas hydraulic fracturing in their “Environmental Values.”

The Mizeur-Coates campaign released the following statement:

"In the same week the Brown-Ulman campaign released their 'environmental values,' which glossed over the dangers of fracking with vague statements about finding a path forward, the Associated Press published an investigation in which four states, including two of Maryland’s neighbors, confirmed the contamination of drinking water for families as a result of hydraulic fracturing.

Heather Mizeur is a vocal advocate for a more cautious approach. Under her leadership, the state has operated under a de facto drilling moratorium while we conduct independent analysis of the environmental and public health safety threats of this controversial practice. Delegate Mizeur is teaming up with Frederick Senator Ron Young to introduce a bill this session that provides for an 18-month legislative review period guaranteeing the General Assembly a chance to act on the policy recommendations from the safety study’s commission report.

This is our last chance to keep Maryland from unregulated shale gas drilling. The current state study—which so far lacks adequate funding and appropriate risk analysis—is due out later this year. We know the moment the study concludes there will be enormous pressure on the Administration to drill. The Shale Gas Drilling Safety Review Act will give us more confidence that science and the public interest—not special interest politics—will prevail in Maryland. If clean water is truly non-negotiable, then we must act on this now.”

###

JUICE #4: ATTEND A MARYLAND GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES DEBATE IN MOCO ON THU, JAN 30 - Leisure World Democratic activist Paul Bessel sent Maryland Juice the following announcement of a gubernatorial candidates debate at MoCo's largest retirement community (details below):

EVENT FLYER: MD Gubernatorial Debate THU 1/30/14

JUICE #5: DISTRICT 17 SENATE RACE HEATS UP AS DEL. LUIZ SIMMONS SENDS DIRECT MAIL HIGHLIGHTING CHERYL KAGAN "MUDSLINGING" - Though many political observers believe it is very early in the election cycle to be spending resources on direct mail, Delegate Luiz Simmons has come out of the gates swinging with the following piece criticizing rival candidate Cheryl Kagan:

JUICE #6: CASEY ANDERSON DECIDES AGAINST RUNNING FOR MOCO COUNCIL DISTRICT 5  //  PLUS: MOCO PLANNING BOARD CHAIR FRANCOISE CARRIER RETIRING - Montgomery County Planning Board member Casey Anderson has indicated to Maryland Juice that he's decided not to run in the Democratic Primary for Valerie Ervin's District 5 Council seat. He will instead be seeking to Chair the Planning Board, given that the current Chair Francoise Carrier has announced she will not seek another four-year term. Patch.com reported on the development (excerpt below):

PATCH: Montgomery County Planning Board Chair Françoise Carrier announced Friday that she will not seek a second term as chair, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission reported in a news release.

In a Thursday evening email to Montgomery County Planning and Parks Department staff, Carrier wrote that: "It is with mixed feelings that I write to tell you I have decided not to seek a second term as Planning Board Chair. It has been wonderful working with such fine people, and I will always love this agency, but for me, one term feels right."

Carrier was appointed in 2010 by the Montgomery County Council, and her time as board chair "has been marked as one of the busiest and most productive terms during the [Planning] Board’s history, with the approval of Master Plans such as: Chevy Chase Lake, Takoma/Langley, Glenmont, Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Plan and Long Branch," the news release stated....

JUICE #7: TODAY IS THE ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF MY FRIEND AARON SWARTZ  //  TAKE A MOMENT TO UNDERSTAND HIS IMPACT - One year ago today, Aaron Swartz, my friend and colleague at Demand Progress committed suicide. He was a brilliant activist and technologist who co-founded reddit.com, Demand Progress, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC). He was also involved in development of open information technologies like RSS 1.0 and Creative Commons, and it should be noted that flunkeys in the Obama administration including DOJ Chief Eric Holder and U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz brought trumped up felony criminal charges against him, threatening him with over 35 years in prison and erasing the money the 26-year-old had amassed through his entrepreneurial endeavors. I finally broke my silence about all of these horrifying incidents in a lengthy piece I wrote last July called "Hacking Politics."

But since then, those of us who knew and worked with Aaron have not given up on advancing his vision, which included challenging corporate power, tackling mass incarceration, and ensuring the Internet remains a place for dialogue free from censorship and undue surveillance. In fact, we're doubling down on fighting the excesses and overreach of the powered and money interests dominating society today. Wired magazine published an article about Aaron's legacy today (excerpt below):

WIRED: Internet activist Aaron Swartz took his own life one year ago today. He was 26 years old and facing federal hacking and fraud charges for downloading millions of academic articles using MIT’s network. Before his passing, he was on outspoken advocate for freedom of information and a founder of Demand Progress, the nonprofit that invigorated a successful grassroots effort to fight the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in 2012.

Swartz was, as WIRED’s Kevin Poulsen wrote a “coder with a conscience,” and in a clip premiering today on WIRED from director Brian Knappenberger’s forthcoming documentary The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, more than a few web visionaries remember him for the important work he did and the legacy he created.

“I think Aaron was trying to make the world work – he was trying to fix it,” says World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee. “So he was a bit ahead of his time....”

Swartz’s fight for rights online has only been brought more intensely into focus in the year since his death, largely due to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. To see him talk about government spying in this documentary at a time before the Snowden leaks is especially chilling now. But thanks to Knappenberger’s documentary – and other actions being taken to remember the internet activist – the conversation he started can continue....

Indeed, Maryland Juice will be heading to the Sundance Film Festival next week for the premiere of "The Internet's Own Boy," a documentary which promises to further embolden those of us involved in organizing for social justice and Internet Freedom. You can watch the trailer for the film, along with a special selection of interviews below:

Members of Congress have also not forgotten the unjust prosecution of Aaron Swartz (who incidentally faced more jail time than typically given to rapists and molesters). Techdirt reports that elected officials are calling on Eric Holder for real answers to their questions, instead of the same vague and defensive explanations they've provided for their overzealous prosecution (excerpt below):

TECHDIRT: Tomorrow is the anniversary of the unfortunate passing of Aaron Swartz. Senators John Cornyn and Al Franken, along with Rep. Darryl Issa, have now sent Attorney General Eric Holder yet another request for an explanation concerning the investigation and prosecution of Swartz. This follows on a similar request from last year, but these elected officials note both that the DOJ's response was inadequate, and that it was also contradicted by the eventual report on the prosecution that came out of MIT....
 

The MIT Report indicates that Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann considered other factors in advance of the return of the superseding indictment. He told MIT that "the straw that broke the camel's back" was an internet webpage soliciting signatures on Mr. Swartz's behalf by Demand Progress, an activist group founded by Mr. Swartz.

In other words, despite the claims from Holder that the charges against Aaron were not based on Swartz exercising his right to free speech, Stephen Heymann has since admitted that, in fact, Swartz's friends speaking out on his behalf were what made him decide to try to throw the book at Swartz....

Indeed, those of us at Demand Progress did attempt to fight the DOJ's ridiculous prosecution of Aaron Swartz, and Eric Holder's minions responded by adding more trumped up charges against my friend. This has been an unpleasant reminder that those of us fighting for the common good must prioritize justice over party politics. But in the meantime, please:
 

#OccupyLife

MoCo JuiceBlender: Ambulance Fee Returns, O'Malley Launches Bike Share, Roger Berliner Calls for Innovation Officer

PLUS: A WARNING TO DEMOCRATS ABOUT INTERNET POLICY

Now that Annapolis legislators are currently pausing from legislative activity, Maryland Juice is paying closer attention to policy proposals floating through Montgomery County. We've provided extensive commentary on County Executive Ike Leggett's corporate welfare plan for Lockheed Martin, but there is much more to discuss. Below we provide a few recent tidbits, starting with a news item on a proposed Montgomery County ambulance fee:

JUICE #1: IKE LEGGETT'S AMBULANCE FEE PROPOSAL BACK FROM THE DEAD - MoCo politicos are likely familiar with the long-running debate about whether to charge insurance companies for residents' use of County ambulances. The proposal passed the County Council in 2010, but was struck down by voters later that year. Now County Executive Ike Leggett seeks to overturn the will of voters and is attempting to pass the ambulance fee yet again. Should the Council pass the plan one more time, opponents would have to organize yet another petition drive to strike down the measure. That doesn't seem fair -- no matter where you stand on the ambulance fee. The Washington Post reported last week:

WASHINGTON POST: An ambulance fee is back on the agenda in Montgomery County.

On Thursday, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) proposed legislation to reinstitute the fee, which was struck down by referendum in 2010....

After dueling campaigns that involved hundreds of volunteer and career fire and rescue personnel, the law failed in a referendum. Leggett said the circumstances are different this time, because the state legislature is in the midst of adding significant costs to the county.

The General Assembly approved changes to the formula deciding how much counties must allocate each year for school funding, and Leggett said he expects that the legislature will soon enter a special session to approve a shift of teacher pension costs to the counties. Both measures will create substantial costs to the county in the long term, and Leggett said he wanted a stable source of revenue to help mitigate the effect.

“It would be irresponsible not to put this as an option given the financial conditions we’re in today,” he said.

Maryland Juice finds Ike Leggett's worries about MoCo's cash-flow to be very strange, given that the County Executive seems to think we have hundreds of thousands of dollars to give away to profitable multinational corporations right now.


JUICE #2: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ROGER BERLINER CALLS FOR MOCO INNOVATION OFFICER - MoCo's current Council President Roger Berliner has at least one idea for a better way to spend county money than on mindless corporate welfare. Yesterday, he sent some of his colleagues on the County Council a letter calling for MoCo to hire a Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). In a letter to members of the County's Government Operations (GO) Committee, Mr. Berliner stated some concrete goals for a CIO:

ROGER BERLINER: ...an early funder of Twitter and a representative from Google advised us that in their view our County needed to do more to embrace innovation. They specifically pointed to the wealth of data that our County possesses and how other communities are using that data to create economic opportunities.

The Chief Innovation Officer would assist in putting the data our County collects to work for our residents: turning information into services through cutting‐edge technology like mobile phone “apps”. He or she would engage a new generation of problem‐solvers, our County’s most tech‐savvy residents, to come up with new solutions to old problems.

CANARY IN THE COALMINE: AN EARLY WARNING ABOUT INTERNET POLICY: Over and over again, Maryland Juice has pleaded with politicians and policymakers to start taking Internet policy and citizen engagement more seriously than they may have in the past. We already witnessed citizen backlash to proposals to censor or invade privacy on the Internet (ie: SOPA & CISPA). I am pleading one more time for the Democrats to own Internet freedom as an issue, and to not cede one inch to the Republicans. In the short-term I believe this will aid Democrats in building a brand among younger voters; and in the long-term it will build us loyalty among a new majority voting population of Internet users who self-identify as such. More importantly, protecting the free-flow of information (and now commerce) on the Internet should be a bigger government priority than it currently is.

The New York Times today had a timely warning for U.S. policymakers. Germany notably has a multiparty democracy due to their country's proportional representation election system. But amazingly, the third most popular party in the nation right now is The Pirate Party. Given that the party is focused on Internet issues and is only six years old, Maryland Juice thinks this is pretty significant:

NEW YORK TIMES: The sudden roar erupting from the Jägerklause bar in east Berlin’s bohemian Friedrichshain district late on a recent Sunday sounded like the usual soccer-match pandemonium. But the crowd inside, with their jeans and sneakers and easygoing looks, didn’t seem like typical soccer fanatics.

Nor did they look like political operatives — but that’s what they were: members of the upstart Pirate Party, which had just scored a key electoral victory in the small western state of Saarland.

The German Pirates, founded in 2006 and long dismissed as a niche party obsessed with copyright reform and online privacy, picked up four seats in the Saarland regional Parliament, twice as many as the once strong Green Party — and far more than the pro-business Free Democrats, who were shut out.

This month they face their biggest challenge, with elections in two more states, including North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populous. Should the results match recent poll numbers — as high as 13 percent, making the Pirates Germany’s third-most-popular party — they will serve notice that a new electoral force has arrived and offer a compelling political lesson for parties on both sides of the Atlantic.

On the surface, the Pirates are indeed niche: their platform stands for stronger protection for file sharing and against censorship, along with unorthodox ideas like voting rights for teenagers.

But their real goal, and the root of their success, is more meta: using the Internet to create a new structure of politics that can solve the problem of how to energize citizens — not only for the excitement of a campaign but also the often dreary realities of actual governance....

But the Pirates’ generation isn’t as radical as their parents’, and they understand the value of conventional politics. They just believe that it’s stuck in the past....

Still, the real lesson for American observers is not how to build a viable third party, but how Mr. Obama and other politicians must adapt to the political sensibilities of Internet-savvy voters. It’s easy to dismiss the Pirates as a quirky band of idealists. But as countless old-line German politicians can attest, American parties ignore them at their peril.

MOCO COUNCIL RAPS WITH GOOGLE & TWITTER REPS: Below, you can a video of the County Council discussion with representatives from the Internet companies and startups mentioned by Mr. Berliner. We also re-print Mr. Berliner's letter to the Council below:




Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner Calls for MoCo Chief Innovation Officer (CIO)


JUICE #3: O'MALLEY ANNOUNCES FUNDING OF MOCO BIKESHARE PROGRAM - Montgomery County Planning Board member Casey Anderson alerted Maryland Juice to an exciting new development:

CASEY ANDERSON: I just found out that Montgomery County received a grant to fund their bike-share program. Assuming the County Council funds the required match, the program could be operating by the end of the year. The state grant, if matched by County funds, would pay for all of the bike-share stations proposed inside the Beltway. It looks like there will be 29 stations and 204 bikes for now.

Councilmembers Valerie Ervin and Roger Berliner deserve huge credit for this. Valerie was pushing for bike sharing before anyone else, and Roger has pushed the County's Department of Transportation repeatedly to get it funded. Even MCDOT has come around and seems to be genuinely enthusiastic.

UPDATE:  A Maryland Juice reader notes that several state legislators also played a large role in ensuring funding for MoCo's bikeshare program. Effort was sponsored in the House by Delegates Bill Frick, Al Carr, Ana Sol Gutierrez, Sheila Hixson, Tom Hucker, Ariana Kelly, Susan Lee, Eric Luedtke, Heather Mizeur, and Jeff Waldstreicher. In the Senate, the measure was sponsored by Senators Brian Frosh, Rich Madaleno, and Jamie Raskin

Maryland's Department of Transportation made the announcement via press release yesterday (excerpt below):

GOVERNOR O’MALLEY KICKS OFF BIKE MONTH
BY ANNOUNCING $2.5 MILLION IN GRANTS
TO BRING BIKESHARE STATIONS TO MARYLAND

Seven Winners throughout the Baltimore-Washington Region

HANOVER, MD – As part of the O’Malley Administration’s Cycle Maryland Initiative, Governor Martin O’Malley today kicked off bike month, by announcing the first seven winners of his new Maryland Bikeshare Program grants to help Maryland communities plan, establish or expand bikeshare programs.  He announced the new Maryland Bikeshare Program in November 2011 to create bikeshare systems in Maryland.  Bikeshare systems can help solve the “last mile” problem, connecting public transportation riders to their final destinations.  Governor O’Malley’s new program will provide $2.5 million this year to three counties and several municipalities for a variety of projects in different stages of development from feasibility assessment to implementation of bikesharing stations....

The winners of grants to implement bikesharing systems are:  Baltimore City, Montgomery County and joint partners with University of Maryland at College Park and the City of College Park.  The winners of grants for feasibility studies of potential bikeshare stations are:  Frederick City, Howard County and joint partners with Prince George’s County and the City of Greenbelt.


JUICE #4: MOCO TO FACE EMPLOYEE RECRUITMENT COMPETITION FROM VA? - Maryland Juice periodically gets irate when policymakers blindly believe unproven claims that our state and county tax rates are responsible for residents moving to Virginia. During the recession (and even today), Virginia was constantly being used a bogeyman to justify tax cuts, corporate welfare, pay freezes, and government layoffs. Now some policymakers are hinting that we need to reverse course. Amusingly, the argument is still competition with Virginia. See the recent debate about government employee pay in The Gaithersburg Patch:

GAITHERSBURG PATCH: Instead of pay raises, most Montgomery County employees could receive a one-time $2,000 payment next year, according to a compensation and benefits package reviewed by a council committee Tuesday.

Analysts briefed the Government Operations Committee on County Executive Isiah Leggett’s recommendations, needed because the economic outlook was “uncertain,” Council Staff Director Stephen B. Farber said Tuesday.

According to county records, the lump-sum payouts to county government employees would cost $16.5 million — $14.4 million coming from tax-supported funds — and would include “longevity adjustments” or raises for certain employees who’ve worked for 20 years, according to county records.

Roughly 500 employees would be eligible for such a raise, a cost of $1.3 million, county data show....

Councilman Hans Riemer, D-At Large, said he was concerned that surrounding counties were doing more to increase employee pay, making Montgomery County seem like an “outlier.” Councilwoman Valerie Ervin, D-Dist. 5, asked Farber for “apples-to-apples” figures from surrounding counties and jurisdictions in Northern Virginia.

Councilwoman Nancy Navarro, the committee’s chairwoman, said offering the lump sum instead of pay raises was not ideal, but it was “better than nothing” given the state of the economy and not knowing whether the county would wind up picking up teachers’ pension costs — part of the so-called doomsday budget that resulted from the General Assembly’s unfinished business.

MORE ON MOCO POLICY DEVELOPMENTS SOON!

BREAKING: Montgomery County Planning Board Director Rollin Stanley Resigns // Major City Poaches Smart Growth Evangelist

UPDATE: Washington Post coverage of Rollin Stanley's departure today mentions Maryland Juice's coverage and notes that Stanley will be leaving mid-May. Meanwhile, MoCo blogger Dan Reed from Just up the Pike has a piece up at Greater Greater Washington that summarizes Stanley's work plotting out the future of land use in Montgomery County.

MoCo Planning Director Rollin Stanley

"THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE"

ROLLIN STANLEY DITCHES MOCO: Maryland Juice has learned from two knowledgeable sources that Montgomery County's Park and Planning Director Rollin Stanley has resigned today. When asked about the matter, Democratic Planning Board member Casey Anderson stated simply: "He got a fantastic offer. A much bigger job."

This would indicate that Rollin Stanley was poached by another jurisdiction. When asked to provide details about where Mr. Stanley was headed, Casey Anderson stated: "It is a major city that has grown rapidly and is expected to continue growing fast. They want to announce his hiring themselves next week."

That Rollin Stanley should be poached is not surprising, considering that the public tide among planners and residents these days, strongly favors smart growth principles for land use. Stanley's vision for Montgomery County and his work for other cities has won national accolades. Even still, the timing of the poaching is very interesting, given recent controversy surrounding Mr. Stanley. He recently engaged in a war of words with anti-growth activists, and his job upgrade now leaves him with the last laugh. But the consolation prize for his critics is that he is now gone. Maryland Juice's hope is that the next Planning Board chief will bring the same broadview and gaming out of Montgomery County's future that Rollin Stanley did.

Gov. O'Malley Says PlanMaryland Stops Subsidies for "Stupid Decisions" // MoCo Planning Board's Casey Anderson Explains

Maryland Juice has periodically discussed Governor Martin O'Malley's smart growth initiative PlanMaryland. Montgomery County Planning Board member Casey Anderson today provides readers with some information about the new land use guidelines. Conservative lawmakers have attacked the plan, but Gov. O'Malley adopted it as an Executive Order over their objections. The Baltimore Sun reported last month:

The plan has been decried by conservative county officials and Republican legislators as a usurpation of local power over land use, but O'Malley defended it Monday as a framework for making wise decisions about where the state should invest in capital projects....

O'Malley said the plan will not dictate local land-use policies but will guide state spending, steering money away from projects that promote sprawling development.

"The state's not going to be a part of those stupid decisions, and we're not going to be subsidizing stupid decisions — pardon me — unsustainable decisions," O'Malley said....

The plan seeks to discourage the spread of what it calls "large lot development areas" — subdivisions that are typically built with septic systems rather than with public water and sewer. The policy explicitly seeks to discourage the spread of such developments by minimizing funding for programs that fuel such growth.

Montgomery County Planning Board member Casey Anderson provided the following additional explanation of PlanMaryland:

The most important thing for anyone who lives in Montgomery County to understand about Plan Maryland is that if the surrounding jurisdictions are allowed to do whatever they want, the resulting sprawl will clog up our roads (because many of the people who move there will be commuting to jobs here or travel through MoCo on their way to DC).  It also will increase the amount of water pollution from runoff (because of increased amounts of impervious surface when new roads and parking lots are built, etc.) which limits our ability to grow, because the total amount of pollutants entering the Chesapeake Bay is subject to increasingly tight restrictions.  

In other words, if Frederick's development ends up polluting our watershed, then development in Montgomery will be more expensive and difficult because we will be required to pay for additional water quality mitigation in order to build anything.  

Montgomery vs. Fairfax: Montgomery County Planning Board Member Casey Anderson Weighs In

CASEY AT THE BAT: Montgomery County Planning Board member Casey Anderson recently forwarded Maryland Juice a series of articles regarding the ongoing Internet and media discussions comparing Montgomery County & Fairfax County (or Maryland & Virginia). His primary point in forwarding the news items appears to be to respond to a recent Washington Post editorial jumping in on the side of the Chamber of Commerce, Republicans, and business lobbyists:

The growing breach between Fairfax and Montgomery — which together account for 2 million people, more than a third of the region’s population — is laid bare by new federal data. The data were the centerpiece of an eye-opening presentation to the Montgomery County Council this month by Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University....

Elected officials — some of them, at least — have at last concluded that ever-spiraling taxes and bloated budgets, driven largely by the county’s powerful and aggressive public-employee unions, are not conducive to attracting major employers and high-end, knowledge-based jobs. 

Mr. Anderson questions this framing of the issues. He sent the following explanation to place his three news snippets in context:

My main concern is not so much whether Fairfax is in fact "ahead" or "behind."  It is the (way overdone, in my view) idea that Fairfax is the only or at least most relevant benchmark for where Montgomery County should be.  Montgomery County is not perfect, but when I think about how it might be different I don't say to myself, "Gee, if only we could be more like Fairfax County, this place would be fantastic!"