Schools Hit 'Jackpot,' but Lawmakers Come Up Empty on Some Key Issues

Montgomery County's delegation to the Maryland General Assembly secured tens of millions of additional dollars in state aid for county schools, but failed to win passage of a bill to stiffen penalties on sloppy developers.

The 2006 session of the Maryland legislature ended Monday, and Montgomery legislators say they won their fair share of state funds for education, land preservation, transportation and the arts.

"We certainly hit the jackpot on school construction," said Del. Charles E. Barkley (D), the chair of the Montgomery County House Delegation, noting that the county will get $40 million in fiscal 2007 to help repair and modernize schools, about $10 million more than it got this year.

The county delegation -- composed of eight senators and 24 delegates -- also agreed on several local bills.

If the bills are signed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), hunters in northern Montgomery would be allowed to kill deer on certain Sundays during hunting season, which is currently illegal except in a few rural counties.

The delegation also approved a law prohibiting individuals under 18 from standing on a median or next to a highway while soliciting money from motorists.

But county legislators failed to agree on several other controversial issues, including an attempt to amend the state constitution so that more signatures would be needed to place a referendum on the ballot.

Currently, about 10,000 signatures are needed to place a question on the county's ballot. Barkley wanted to raise that threshold to at least 25,000. Civic activists opposed the plan, saying it would be undemocratic.

County senators blocked Barkley's proposal.

A proposal by Sen. Sharon M. Grosfeld (D) to slow the rate of rental-unit conversions to for-sale condominiums never made it out of committee.

Del. William A. Bronrott's (D) proposal to increase the amount of fines that can be levied by the Montgomery County Planning Board also died in committee.

After last year's discovery that hundreds of homes in Clarksburg Town Center were built too tall or too close to the street, Bronrott drafted a bill that would allow the Planning Board to fine developers up to $500,000 for each violation or $1,000 a day per violation, whichever is higher.