For Pr. George's and Montgomery, Bill Could Mean Best of Both Worlds

Prince George's County has pulled the trigger on its net taxable income proposal, a complicated budgetary issue that Montgomery County delegates had warned could cause friction between the neighboring jurisdictions. Or, at least, it has kind of pulled the trigger.

Prince George's officials have been quietly pushing for a few years to change the annual date when the state looks at federal income tax returns to decide each jurisdiction's wealth. The calculation is key because it helps determine how much state aid each county receives. If the date were changed, Prince George's would get a lot more aid; Montgomery would get less.

Del. Justin D. Ross (D-Prince George's) has submitted a bill that would require the state to use either the current date, Sept. 1, or Nov. 1 for the calculations, whichever would result in more state aid for a given jurisdiction.

The either-or option is intended to benefit counties such as Prince George's, which would receive more if the date were changed, while allowing Montgomery and Baltimore counties to maintain the status quo. Both get more than Prince George's under the current system.

Under Ross's bill, only the state budget would lose out: paying more in education aid to some jurisdictions without paring back commensurately in other areas. But Ross also included a line that says the bill would be effective only if money existed in the budget to pay for the proposal, a way to insulate the state budget during the current crisis.

So, in the end, the bill is more about laying down a marker on the issue than actually having budgetary impact. "The hope is to keep the idea alive," Ross said. "As the federal stimulus package gets wrapped up and the money comes back to the state, we want this to be in consideration. We believe there's a fairness issue here."

-- ROSALIND S. HELDERMAN

Familiar Face Aiding Currie

The legal defense fund for Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince George's) is headed by Currie's old friend Bobby Henry, a familiar name in local legal circles. The fund is raising money for Currie's legal expenses as his consulting work for Shoppers Food and Pharmacy is probed by federal prosecutors.

Henry is a lawyer who is representing the family of Ronnie White, an inmate found strangled in his cell at the Prince George's County jail in June, hours after he was charged with killing a county police officer.

Henry is also a minister who preaches at Jericho City of Praise in Landover. And he's been a political candidate as well. He has run for the House of Delegates and twice for the Maryland Senate. In 2006, he made a strong showing, coming within 2.6 percentage points of winning the Senate seat once held by Leo E. Green (D-Prince George's). That seat was instead won by Sen. Douglas J.J. Peters (D), who went on to become the only Prince Georgian besides Currie to sit on the body's powerful Budget and Taxation Committee.

Currie stayed neutral in that race because of his friendship with both men. Peters said last week that he is confident that he will have Currie's support for reelection in 2010. He added that he thinks the creation of the defense fund was the "next logical step" for Currie, given the extent of his legal fees and a summertime ruling that he cannot use campaign funds to pay them.

Henry scoffed at the notion that he might get involved with the fund to secure Currie's support for a possible political run. Henry said that he has been friends with Currie for years and that both are proud North Carolina A&T State University alumni. Henry said Currie served as a mentor to his nephew, who graduated not long ago from Syracuse University, where he had been elected the first African American student body president.

"When he can help my family like that, and he didn't have to help him, why wouldn't I try to help this guy?" Henry said. "I'd like to think that I could help someone with his background and with all the contributions he's made without some sort of speculation that there is a quid pro quo."

-- ROSALIND S. HELDERMAN