O'Malley's Budget Compromise Sinking in Committee

The new tax rate would affect about 0.2 percent of filers statewide, about 40 percent of whom live in Montgomery, the state comptroller's office said. Among the issues under discussion is whether the rate would be permanent or expire after three years.

-- John Wagner

Physical Education Bill on Hold

The Maryland Senate effectively shelved a bill yesterday that would have required public elementary schools to provide at least 150 minutes a week of physical activity, including at least 90 minutes of physical education.

Senators instead agreed to set up a task force to study physical fitness in the state's schools, a move that the bill's sponsor said would allow another run at the issue next year.

"I know that this bill has to live another day," Sen. David C. Harrington (D-Prince George's) told his colleagues on the Senate floor.

Harrington had pitched his bill as a way to combat growing obesity and obesity-related conditions, including Type II diabetes, among the state's schoolchildren. But critics pointed to the unfunded mandate that his bill would impose on Maryland's 24 school systems.

Legislative analysts estimated schools would collectively have to spend $26.5 million to hire additional personnel to comply. The original version of Harrington's bill applied to kindergarten through eighth grade. It was later amended to end after fifth grade.

The amendment to create a task force was offered by Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus (R-Somerset).

-- John Wagner