Gay Rights Bills Also Move Ahead in Legislature
By Philip Rucker and Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, April 5, 2008
The Maryland Senate advanced legislation yesterday authorizing an independent takeover of the ailing Prince George's County hospital system and revived an emergency measure to ban children's products containing lead as lawmakers sprinted toward adjournment Monday.
In the House of Delegates, gay rights advocates scored two victories in their piece-by-piece pursuit of rights now provided only to married couples. A bill allowing domestic partners to make medical decisions for each other cleared the General Assembly and headed to Gov. Martin O'Malley's desk for his signature. And delegates gave final passage, 86 to 47, to a measure extending some property ownership rights to same-sex couples.
The House also passed legislation that would make eligible for a state license a Columbia-based for-profit credit counseling company whose business practices are under review in a number of states. And the Senate voted to tighten regulations on shoreline development in environmentally sensitive coastal areas, a top priority for O'Malley (D).
With lawmakers in the homestretch of the 90-day legislative session, both chambers were scheduled to meet today for rare weekend floor sessions. The House could take action on repealing the state's new tax on computer services, and the Senate is expected to give final passage to the Prince George's hospital takeover.
"It's a very, very important bill to Prince George's County," Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said. "We cannot fail them, and we will not fail them."
The Senate tentatively approved, 37 to 7, legislation that would establish an independent authority to take over the financially struggling hospital system, which the county owns. The bill reflects a long-sought agreement between the state and county.
But yesterday's action came over the objections of three of the eight senators from Prince George's. They voted against amendments to the bill that Sen. Nathaniel Exum (D-Prince George's) said could be a "deal-breaker."
Exum questioned the appointment process for the seven-member authority. Under the deal, three members would be appointed by the governor, three by the county and one by the county's Senate delegation. But the House amended the bill to make the seventh seat a joint appointment by the House speaker and Senate president.
Asked later why he voted against the bill, Exum told a reporter: "I don't have to explain my vote. My vote is what it says."
Miller said he would push the bill through the legislature before Monday's deadline.
"We need to get the county elected politicians out of the hospital business," Miller said.
The Senate held a long debate over a measure to ban jewelry, toys, furniture and other children's products with dangerously high levels of lead, which is toxic. The bill follows a year of high-profile recalls of toys made in China that were found to have too much lead.
The House had approved such a ban 132 to 4. But in the weeks since, the Senate version was severely weakened in the Finance Committee with amendments proposed by lobbyists for the toy-manufacturing industry.
After several senators delivered impassioned speeches yesterday, the Senate was persuaded to toughen the bill, voting 30 to 16 to adopt amendments that would align it with the House version.
Leading the floor fight, Sen. Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County) held up his daughter's plastic basketball hoop, made in China, and said such products could harm children.
"It is incomprehensible to me why we would water down such an important piece of legislation," Zirkin said.
The Toy Industry Association said in a statement that the Zirkin amendments could ban "toys Maryland children have played with safely for years."
Arguing against Zirkin, Sen. Delores G. Kelley (D-Baltimore County) said the Finance Committee tried to "strike a reasonable balance" to make the bill "workable."
"This is not an attempt to water down anything," Kelley said. "We want what we do to be enforceable."
In other action yesterday, the House voted 89 to 45 to give same-sex partners the same rights as married spouses to make hospital and nursing home visits, end-of-life choices and other medical decisions. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Robert J. Garagiola (D-Montgomery), heads to the governor's desk.
Republicans who opposed the bill said gay couples already have these rights if they give each other power of attorney. But supporters said visitation rights are a source of confusion at many hospitals, and gay partners often are pushed away.
The House property bill would exempt gay couples from paying recordation taxes and state and county transfer taxes when they transfer property to their partner or the partner's family member.
The bills are incremental measures that fall far short of a legalization of same-sex marriage that gay rights advocates had sought. The General Assembly remains deeply divided on gay rights issues, as was clear yesterday in the House, where opponents of the medical decisions bill called it a thinly veiled attempt at marriage rights.
"We all know marriage is what this is partially about," said House Minority Whip Christopher B. Shank (R-Washington).
O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said the governor supports both bills and "looks forward" to signing them into law.
Taking up one of O'Malley's top environmental priorities, the Senate followed the House in voting to tighten the buffer zones that protect the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries from shoreline development.
The Senate agreed to double the 100-foot buffer, and the House bill would mandate that it be tripled. The two chambers will have to find agreement by Monday.
Eastern Shore senators said a 300-foot buffer would hurt property values in their counties. But advocates of a stronger law said a larger buffer was environmentally essential.
Last night, the House passed a controversial debt-management bill that effectively would make eligible for a state license AscendOne Corp., a Columbia-based for-profit credit counseling company whose business practices are under review in a number of states.
The bill's sponsor, Del. Brian J. Feldman (D-Montgomery), said most states allow for-profit firms to help consumers deep in debt get assistance in paying it off. He said Maryland has had a shortage of debt counseling companies since the IRS revoked the licenses of almost a dozen nonprofit firms for operating as for-profits.
"If we don't do anything, we're going to end up with zero players in this industry," Feldman said.
But Del. Elizabeth Bobo (D-Howard) said the for-profit industry is "making profits on the backs of people already hurting" from the foreclosure crisis.
"When there's money to be made on people who are in dire straits, someone will figure out a way to make a profit out of it," Bobo said.
The Senate has passed a similar debt-management bill.
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