By Annapolis Digest
Thursday, March 20, 2008; B06

The Maryland General Assembly overwhelmingly passed legislation yesterday designed to strengthen homeowner protections and toughen oversight of the mortgage-lending industry.

The Senate voted to make mortgage fraud a crime and passed a bill that would give homeowners in default more time before they would lose their homes. A third bill that passed would prohibit "foreclosure rescue transactions," in which homeowners are tricked into signing over residences to third parties.

The House of Delegates, meanwhile, passed a similar bill extending the foreclosure timetable. Delegates also passed a bill prohibiting prepayment charges and making it illegal for lenders to make loans without regarding a borrower's ability to repay the loans.

Both chambers will consider other mortgage legislation in the coming days and reconcile differences before the measures are sent to Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) to sign.

Many of the bills are part of a legislative package introduced by O'Malley designed to prohibit the kinds of loans and predatory practices that contributed to the foreclosure crisis. The governor also wants to establish preemptive measures to help people at risk of losing their home.

-- Philip Rucker and Lisa Rein

Legislation to repeal Maryland's death penalty has stalled this session, but a bill to study capital punishment moved forward in the Senate yesterday.

The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee approved a bill that calls for the creation of a commission to weigh the merits of the death penalty, including the costs associated with imposing executions.

Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery), the committee's chairman, said the panel decided to send the legislation to the Senate floor because "there were not the votes to do a repeal."

Maryland has had an effective moratorium on the death penalty since December 2006, when the state's highest court ruled that the state's procedures for lethal injections had not been properly adopted. For executions to resume, the administration of Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) would have to issue new regulations, a step the governor has resisted.

A spokesman for O'Malley, who opposes capital punishment, has said he is open to the idea of a study.

-- John Wagner

One of the Senate's most liberal members is teaming up with one of its most conservative in proposing legislation to increase accountability and transparency in Maryland government by creating an online database of state expenditures of more than $25,000.

Sens. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery) and Alex X. Mooney (R-Frederick) announced yesterday that they have introduced the Maryland Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. The bill would create a searchable Web site that allows citizens to track government spending, including grants, loans and awards.

The bill is modeled after federal legislation passed in 2006 by U.S. Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). The federal law established a national database, http://usaspending.gov.

"This is a true 'Itchy and Scratchy' proposal," said Ryan O'Donnell, executive director of Common Cause, a government-accountability interest group that is lobbying for the legislation. "In Congress, this idea had Barack Obama and Tom Coburn. In Maryland, you have Jamie Raskin and Alex Mooney. The appeal of transparency in government really is universal."

-- Philip Rucker

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) yesterday urged more development at Metro stations in Prince George's County.

Noting that only one of the county's 15 Metro stations has significant development nearby, O'Malley said the state must work with local leaders, business partners and the transit system's managers to urge more commercial and residential projects centered on the stations. He urged passage of a bill now pending in the General Assembly that would remove legal hurdles to such development.

"For decades in America, our transportation system has followed land use," he told the Greater Washington Board of Trade in Greenbelt. "Today it should be a national priority . . . to develop transit systems that make our communities more livable and more walkable, and therefore our entire shared future a lot more sustainable."

-- Rosalind S. Helderman