'Progress Is Possible,' O'Malley Tells Returning Md. Lawmakers

Maryland lawmakers reconvened yesterday, still feeling fatigue from November's special session on the state's finances but preparing for new battles over taxes, university tuition, the death penalty and the future of the state's embattled schools superintendent.

On a day dominated by ceremonies and receptions, leaders of the General Assembly pledged to work with Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) on most issues, including foreclosure reform, energy policy and crime. Today, the governor will propose significantly expanding a DNA database that the state taps for leads in unsolved cases.

During a flurry of media interviews in Annapolis, a difference emerged between O'Malley and Democratic legislative leaders over whether they should freeze in-state tuition at public universities for a third year in a row.

"Our priorities differ somewhat," Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said, calling O'Malley's plan to freeze tuition a "laudable goal" but something "we can't afford."

During brief appearances before the Senate and House of Delegates, O'Malley congratulated lawmakers for a special session in which they raised taxes by $1.4 billion a year, directed him to cut $550 million from next year's budget and agreed to allow voters to decide in November whether to legalize slot machine gambling.

"Important work remains to be done," O'Malley told House members. "As we proved before, progress is possible."

During radio appearances hours before the 90-day session convened at noon, O'Malley, Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) suggested they would resist efforts to reverse one of the more controversial actions of the special session: passage of a tax on computer services, which analysts say could yield $200 million a year for the state.

"You can't talk about repealing things unless you have alternatives," Busch told host Marc Steiner on WYPR (88.1 FM).

Republican lawmakers and several business organizations have said repeal of the 6 percent tax is a priority. As the Senate convened yesterday, the founder of a new association of computer services providers was among those watching in the gallery.

On the same radio show as Busch, Miller predicted that Nancy S. Grasmick, the long-serving state schools superintendent, would not survive to serve another term. Over the objections of O'Malley and legislative leaders, Grasmick was given another four-year term last month, starting in July, by a State Board of Education on which a majority of members were appointed by former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R).

"Nancy Grasmick is not going to be the superintendent," Miller said. "She's had a great run. She should step aside."

If that does not happen, lawmakers might change the law on how superintendents are appointed.

In an interview with Steiner the following hour, O'Malley affirmed his interest in replacing Grasmick. He acknowledged that he and lawmakers would have to change the appointments law.

"Yes, we will, and we intend to do that," O'Malley said, referring to Grasmick as "the poster child" of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law and "a pawn" of the Maryland Republican Party.

Grasmick, a Democrat who was close to Ehrlich, has characterized efforts to oust her as politically driven.

Miller also predicted during the radio interview that an effort to repeal Maryland's death penalty will fail again this year. In the last session, a bill fell one vote short in committee. "I think the bill stays in committee, quite frankly," said Miller, a death penalty supporter.

O'Malley, who opposes capital punishment, acknowledged that the bill might not pass. He pointed to a pending U.S. Supreme Court case on lethal injection that has resulted in a de facto national moratorium on the death penalty.

O'Malley plans to start rolling out his legislative agenda today with a pitch on another criminal justice issue: expansion of the state's DNA database to include samples taken from people arrested for certain violent felonies. Currently, samples are taken only from those convicted. At least 11 other states, including Virginia, have moved to expand their databases.

"I'd like to catch up to where Virginia is," O'Malley said in an interview last week. He has scheduled a news conference today at the state forensics laboratory in Pikesville.

Yesterday's floor sessions in the House and Senate included the reelections of Miller and Busch as leaders of their chambers.

In a speech, Busch pledged to meet the "great challenges" that lie ahead. Busch, starting his sixth year as speaker, cited Chesapeake Bay cleanup as a priority. During the special session, lawmakers set aside $50 million a year but left open how to spend the money.

Miller, who is starting is 22nd year as president, opted against an opening speech, citing the short break since the special session. Miller told reporters that the new session feels "anticlimactic."

"I sense a sort of fatigue, no question about it," Miller said.