By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 23, 2007; A01
Gov. Martin O'Malley embraced legislation yesterday to reduce automobile emissions in Maryland, part of a first-session legislative package that would also freeze tuition at public universities next year and mandate millions of additional school dollars to Prince George's and Montgomery counties in future years.
The bills are part of what aides described as a tightly focused package that O'Malley (D) will push during a 90-day session in which he is eager to chalk up early victories. Other measures seek to help replenish the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay, accelerate preparations for an influx of jobs from the military's base-realignment process and expand access to subsidized health insurance.
O'Malley's agenda was also noteworthy for what it did not include, such as a bill legalizing slot machine gambling. O'Malley supports that initiative, which proved highly divisive early in the tenure of former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R).
"The package I've seen shows he wants to govern from the middle," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert).
O'Malley is also poised this morning to announce two more Cabinet nominees, including former Montgomery County Council member Tom Perez as his secretary of labor, licensing and regulation, according to several people familiar with the picks. Perez, whose candidacy for attorney general was cut short last year by a court ruling that he was ineligible for the post, would become the first Hispanic that O'Malley has nominated.
O'Malley will also nominate James E. Lyons Sr., president of California State University at Dominguez Hills, as his secretary of higher education. Lyons served as president of Maryland's Bowie State University from 1983 to 1992.
O'Malley's announcement supporting "clean car" legislation added significant momentum to an initiative that would make Maryland the latest state to join California in adopting tighter emissions standards than the federal government requires. He did not identify that bill as a priority during his campaign.
Under the proposal, all new cars and trucks registered in the state would have to comply with the standards within several years, and car dealers would have to sell a certain percentage of low-emission vehicles.
Similar legislation has stalled in the legislature in recent years in the face of opposition from car dealers and manufacturers.
Several lawmakers suggested that the bill's passage would also quickly signal the ability of O'Malley and the Democratic-majority legislature to work together after four years of sharply divided government under Ehrlich.
"This is a shared priority," said House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel).
Miller said passage of the bill "is not a done deal, by any stretch of the imagination," but he said the onus will be on automobile dealers and manufacturers to show why the legislation would pose an undue burden. "If they don't make their case, and frankly they haven't yet, this bill is going to pass and pass overwhelmingly."
Proponents said momentum is on their side after neighboring Pennsylvania joined New Jersey, New York and New England states in adopting the tougher standards.
Opponents of the legislation said it would do little to help the environment and would drive up sticker prices considerably on Maryland automobiles. Charlie Territo, spokesman for the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers, estimated that prices could rise $3,000, a figure environmentalists say has been inflated to stave off the legislation.
"It should have been Maryland doing this five to 10 years ago," said Brad Heavner, state director of Environment Maryland, the advocacy group leading the coalition pushing the bill.
The bill is likely to face opposition from Republicans, a small but vocal minority in both chambers.
House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Calvert) said he is concerned, for instance, by a provision of the bill that would allow Maryland to peg its emissions standards to those of California. "We're a sovereign state," he said. "We should make our own policy."
The school-aid bill put forward by O'Malley would require governors to fully fund by fiscal 2011 an initiative known as the Geographic Cost of Education Index -- something O'Malley failed to fund in his 2008 budget last week.
The initiative, designed to steer more aid to jurisdictions where providing education is more expensive, is part of the landmark Thornton education formula passed by legislators in 2002 and is a priority for Washington area lawmakers. Unlike other parts of the Thornton plan, the geographic component is not currently mandated by law.
O'Malley also put forward a bill that would freeze tuition at the University System of Maryland campuses and Morgan State University next year. The legislation codifies a proposal in his budget.
O'Malley's package also incorporates several health-care initiatives that lawmakers have been developing, including a requirement that insurers allow parents to include dependents on their policies until age 25.
One O'Malley bill likely to generate controversy would allow unions that represent state employees in collective bargaining to charge fees to the employees even if they have not joined the union.
With O'Malley's announcement this morning of the appointments of Perez and Lyons, he will have put forward 10 Cabinet nominations. Lyons will be his second from out of state.
Yesterday, O'Malley formally announced his plans to nominate Gary D. Maynard, director of Iowa's Department of Corrections, as Maryland's secretary of public safety and correctional services.
Word of that pick leaked out late last week. Maynard also serves as president of a national association of corrections officials.
O'Malley also stressed his desire to work with Maryland's high-powered congressional delegation after a breakfast yesterday with eight of its 10 members at the State House in Annapolis.
O'Malley administration officials relayed several federal priorities, including help in absorbing an expected 10,000 jobs from the base realignment process and homeland security funding.
Staff writers Lisa Rein and Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.