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October 14th, 2013

10/14/2013

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At a time when moving people to public transportation and out of cars is the environmental thing to do neo-liberals are using this push to transit to upgrade and privatize as they do.  You will not have the level of service, the quality of service needed to get people onto public transportation if run privately because as we all know EVERY SERVICE THAT IS PRIVATIZED BECOMES ABOUT PROFIT-MAKING AT THE EXPENSE OF SERVICE AND QUALITY.  We know as well that labor becomes impoverished as well.  Privatizing does not make transit good.  It is defunding of public transit that makes public transit bad in Maryland and especially Baltimore.

Baltimore Development and City Hall are all on board to privatize the city transportation system and the Maryland Assembly is sending public funds to do it.  Montgomery County has a new transit system all run by VEOLA and MARC is run by CSX.  We know that tons of public transportation money will go into building the High-Speed rail that O'Malley signed on to.  Meanwhile we are paying tolls on new roads collected by private contractors all making profits while labor is impoverished.

BALTIMORE CITY HALL AND MARYLAND ASSEMBLY IS SUPPORTING THIS.

SHAKE THE BUGS FROM THE RUG AND GET RID OF NEO-LIBERALS BY RUNNING AND VOTING FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE AT ALL LEVELS!


We are shouting for people to come to these meetings and write/complain as O'Malley and Maryland's neo-liberals privatize all of Maryland's public transportation.  PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION WAS THE CROWNING DEMOCRATIZING PUBLIC POLICY OF 1900s.....why are people silent as they work to dismantle and hand public transportation to Wall Street?


Central Maryland Transportation Alliance

Come to one of the six (6) public workshops to learn about the Maryland Transit Administration Bus Network Improvement Project and provide your feedback. http://mta.maryland.gov/bnip Bus Network Improvement Project | Maryland Transit Administration mta.maryland.govWhat Is the Bus Network Improvement Project (BNIP)?BNIP (Bus Network Improvement Project) is a focused, 8-month project to develop a plan for updating and improving MTA's bus service. BNIP is a key component of a larger effort called the Transit Modernization Program (TMP) which is working to modern...



BNIP Workshops Come to one of the six (6) public workshops to learn about the study and provide your unique feedback. Download PDF of workshop schedule. You can find more information on BNIP workshop agenda and format here!

Date Time Location

Tuesday, October 15 12:00 pm- 2:00 pm State Center
201 W. Preston Street,
Room L1
Baltimore, MD 21201


Wednesday, October 16 5:00 pm-7:00 pm Rosedale Branch
Baltimore County Public Library
6105 Kenwood Avenue
Rosedale, MD  21237


Saturday, October 19 12:00 pm- 2:00 pm North Point Branch
Baltimore County Public Library
1716 Merritt Blvd.
Baltimore, MD  21222


Monday, October 21 5:00 pm- 7:00 pm Towson Branch
Baltimore County Public Library 
320 York Road
Baltimore, MD 21204


Wednesday, October 23 5:00 pm- 7:00 pm Edmondson Avenue Branch
Enoch Pratt Free Library
 4330 Edmondson Avenue
Baltimore, MD  21229


Thursday, October 24 5:00 pm- 7:00 pm Brooklyn Park Branch
Anne Arundel County Public Library
1 East 11th Avenue
Brooklyn, MD  21225


________________________________________

In Maryland all of public transportation is being privatized, buses and all.  VEOLA is the choice for buses, taxis, and BWI transit and CSX gets the MARC commuter rail.  This is not good as we in Maryland know how quality of service goes down, labor becomes impoverished, and access declines when any service is privatized.  The public pays all the costs of capital investments and operations while the business partner rolls in profits!

More public transit — except buses — on road to privatization Local transit agencies make their own decisions.
October 11, 2013 | By Eric Freedman - Capital News Service LANSING — Most public transit agencies across the country contract with private firms to provide some services and operations, a new federal study shows.

A survey by the General Accountability Office found that local agencies across the country are most likely to contract out for paratransit services for disabled riders, dial-a-ride and commuter rail service.


“Transit agencies most consistently cite reducing costs as a factor influencing their decision to contract,” said GAO, a nonpartisan investigatory arm of Congress. “Contracting can reduce costs because contractors’ work forces are more flexible, with more employees working in part-time positions, and lower insurance costs, among other things.”

Other common reasons are more efficiency, more flexibility and starting new services, it said.

Michigan has a long history of helping to fund public transit in every county, according to Clark Harder, executive director of the Michigan Public Transit Association. In counties without a local transit agency, the Department of Human Services or an Office for the Aging may arrange for services.

Transit agency contracting practices vary across Michigan, from small systems such as those in St. Joseph and Monroe counties to large ones such as those in Grand Rapids and Metro Detroit.

For example, the Detroit Department of Transportation and The Rapid in Grand Rapids rely on a combination of employees and contractors.

DDOT has always contracted out paratransit service for passengers with disabilities, and its Detroit MetroLift program works with four private contractors, according to Deputy Director Angelica Jones. “We didn’t have the staffing and the wheelchair lift vans.”

Jones said the department has no plans to contract out its fixed routes — buses, which account for the major part of its services.

In Grand Rapids, The Rapid has contracted for paratransit and demand-response services for many years, said Jennifer Kalczuk, the agency’s external relations manager. Employees provide bus services.

Monroe County uses a different hybrid model: Lake Erie Transportation Commission employees provide bus services, a private company provides management and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, or SMART, owns the buses, said Lake Erie Transit general manager Mark Jagodzinski.

In contrast, SMART doesn’t contract out for any of its own fixed bus routes or small bus services, said Beth Gibbons, its marketing and communications manager. The agency serves Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties.


In the 1990s, SMART did contract out its fixed routes “but we brought it back in-house because we could do it cheaper,” Gibbons said. In addition, she cited concern about “quality of service because you don’t have the control.”

She also said SMART’s union contracts prohibit subcontracting existing work, so any future contracting out would be limited to new services.

The GAO findings are based on a survey of 637 transit agencies that file reports with the U.S. Department of Transportation. Of those, 463 agencies responded. GAO staff also interviewed transit officials, union leaders and representatives of citizen advisory groups.

“Transit agencies and contractors cited benefits and challenges to contracting, while labor unions primarily noted disadvantages — most notably, reduced wages and benefits and a potential decline in safety and service, among other issues,” the report said.

Challenges included the agencies’ loss of direct control of operations, it said, while contractors reported they could improve operational efficiency with the newest technologies, such as routing systems, and lower costs through more affordable insurance.

The GAO study comes at a time when Michigan’s state government, municipalities and school districts are increasingly looking to privatize services to save money.

For example, the Department of Corrections is hiring a Pennsylvania-based food contractor to provide meals to prisoners. The $145 million, three-year deal eliminates about 370 state government jobs. The Snyder administration estimates that the food service contract will save $12 million to $16 million annually, a claim that union leaders dispute.

In addition, a growing number of school districts have privatized nonacademic services such as cafeterias, bus transportation and janitorial services.

Sharon Edgar of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Office of Passenger Transportation said she hasn’t seen increased use of outside contractors by local transit agencies, adding that MDOT has no policy that encourages or discourages the practice.

Local transit agencies make their own decisions, Edgar said.

__________________________________________
We thank this writer of an opinion piece a few years ago as he saw the writing on the wall.  What is important is that since he wrote this more and more privatization has occurred.  The entire Montgomery County public transit is privatized with VEOLA and now more and more of Baltimore is as every upgrade comes with ties to a private partner.  Toll roads are now serviced by private contractors.

The downside of privatizing public transportationApril 16, 2011In his commentary in the Baltimore Sun


("End the MTA Monopoly," April 14), Professor James Dorn of Towson University, and the Cato Foundation whose journal he edits, would have us privatize our public transportation. Dorn characterizes the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) as a monopoly, without mentioning the scores of private transportation providers (vans, shuttles, taxis, etc.), including the massive French multinational corporation Veolia, which already co-exist with the MTA right here in the Baltimore region. But, granting the MTA's preeminent position in our regional transportation picture, what are the implications of what Dorn's suggestion? What could this mean for the present and future transit- riding public?

For starters, as a private enterprise, it would greatly reduce any accountability of the operation to the people it is supposed to serve. Government regulation of such private enterprises is fraught with obstacles, loopholes, lack of transparency, and persistent opposition by business lobbyists.

For another thing, it would add the need to "grow the business bottom line" as a factor in providing service to the public when, in urban areas around the country, reality requires that public transportation be subsidized beyond mere reliance on the fare box.

Finally, and most tenuously, it would have us place our public trust in this private enterprise to pursue the public interest, not exactly what people go into business to do.

The track record is clear for public utilities such as transportation which have been privatized. The results have usually been less and costlier service, and less accessibility for those who depend on such services. Eventually, there has been business bankruptcy and abandonment of the services back to management by government.

Just after a time when our economy has almost imploded due to the abuses of unimpeded, under-regulated greed by private enterprise, it is a bit much to ask us to look to the private sector to solve our very real problems of adequate public transportation.

Art Cohen, Baltimore



______________________________________________

PLEASE GET ENGAGED AND GO TO MEETINGS, PUBLIC FORUMS, AND PUBLIC COMMENT SITES.  THEY WILL TAKE PUBLIC TRANSIT THAT ALLOWS PEOPLE TO MOVE ANY TIME AND MAKE IT ONLY ABOUT GETTING TO WORK.

If you are sick and tired of an unfunded, broken transit system the problem is just that-----it is unfunded.  Privatizing is not better and in most cases it is worse!


Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Letting Elected Officials Know That Bus Riders Have a Voice!

Since the founding of the Bus Riders' Union in late 2011, many people were skeptical. They thought that bus riders like me don't vote, and that we weren't engaged in politics. Or they didn't think about us at all, ignoring transit issues during election time and ignoring bus terminals as voter engagement sites. We wanted to change that mindset. We started showing up to legislative hearings, to committee meetings, even to meetings with elected officials. And people started to hear our message, but some not loudly enough.

Today, we released a report that shows just how engaged bus riders are. Do bus riders vote? Well, yes. In our new report, called "Bus Riders Vote: A Report on Voter Engagement for Bus Riders", we showed that 55% voted in the past two years, and 58% plan to vote in the November 2013 elections. Not only do we vote, but 69% of us think that public transportation is a "very important" issue to us when we're deciding on a candidate.

Check out the full report online here and see our list of recommendations for elected officials, which includes recommending they: attend transit advisory committee meetings, speak to us at bus terminals, and ride the buses themselves! By doing these things, they will understand what we already know: many improvements need to be made to our bus system, from increasing County funding to repairing erroneous Metrocard machines.
Thank you for your support over the past few years, and read our report to learn more!


Aaron Watkins-Lopez
Bus Rider and Organizer with Long Island Jobs with Justice Posted by Long Island Jobs with Justice at 10:07 AM


___________________________________________


What's driving privatization of public transit?
In Fairfield, officials have outsourced the city's public bus service to MV Transportation.

Michael Short/California Watch

  As more cities turn to private companies to run public transit systems, our recent investigation shows that privatization may not be the silver bullet that cash-strapped municipalities were hoping for. We asked transit reporter Zusha Elinson to break it down for us. by Kelly Chen — March 7, 2013, 6:00 a.m.3

As more cities turn to private companies to run public transit systems, our recent investigation shows that privatization may not be the silver bullet that cash-strapped municipalities were hoping for.

In Fairfield, where the city’s suburban landscape makes it difficult to provide reliable and comprehensive bus service, local officials are finding it hard to hold its contractor, MV Transportation, accountable.
Transit reporter Zusha Elinson found that “over a two-year period beginning in 2008, the company was fined 295 times for a total of $164,000” for late arrival times and drivers speeding, being out of uniform and using cellphones while driving.

Behind the fines, however, is a much larger ideological debate: Is privatization of certain industries like transit, which some traditionally consider to be public domain, a good thing?

We asked Elinson to break it down for us.

Q: Why are more cities turning to private companies to run their public transit systems?


A: Privatization started under (President Ronald) Reagan, who championed public-private partnerships in favor of smaller government. But the trend really accelerated during the (recent) recession because a lot of municipalities and transit agencies don’t have enough money to maintain these services. The one thing that outsourcing your public transit does is save money.

Across the country, very large cities are going this route: Austin recently outsourced all their bus services; New Orleans handed over its entire public transportation to a private company, including its management; Nassau County in Long Island did the same.

A lot of times these deals will be sold as saving the taxpayers this many millions of dollars. But looking at a couple of different situations in San Diego and New Orleans,
the money being saved has been quite a bit less than advertised. That’s not to say they haven’t been saving money. Often they’ll tout savings that are quite far above than what is being saved.

Q: Who benefits? Who loses?

A: One of the biggest costs for public transit is labor. When they contract to private companies, they can winnow away labor costs by not offering pensions and cutting health benefits. So naturally, bus driver unions don’t like these arrangements because it means their wages and benefits will be cut.

For example, a few years ago in northern San Diego County when the North County Transit District brought in a private company, the starting wage for a bus driver went from $14 to $10.50 an hour. One general concern that comes with paying drivers less is safety – maybe you have more inexperienced drivers. This isn’t the case for every company, but it’s a concern.

Q: What does the case in Fairfield teach us?

A: Supposedly the benefit of doing this is that you have a contract with the company to make them do what you want. But the story in Fairfield shows that it’s not so. For example, in Fairfield, MV Transportation officials actually had quite a bit of political sway to squash efforts to keep them in line. So it was difficult, at least for (former) Transit Manager George Fink, to hold them accountable.

(Our investigation found that MV Transportation made a $10,000 campaign donation to then-City Councilman Chuck Timm in 2007. In 2009, Jon Monson, then the company’s board chairman, made $10,000 campaign donations to City Councilman John Mraz and City Councilwoman Catherine Moy.)

People can take lessons from this situation: You need to really take a look at which company you’re hiring and make sure they comply with the contract. Can people holding them accountable really do that? While many transit agencies are run very inefficiently and can be improved, you don’t have to worry about influencing politicians or people taking measures just for profit margins when the system is run by public agencies.

Q: Can this happen in big cities like San Francisco?

A: A leader of the Muni drivers union in San Francisco, a very strong union, laughed when I asked him that. He said no way. So, likely it wouldn’t come to a big city with a strong union presence, but it could be the fact that other large cities continue to do this. Maybe not SF, but some other big cities.

In the Bay Area, as we mention in our article, they’re considering contracting out some routes in southern Alameda County, where AC Transit has provided the bus service for many, many years. That’ll be a really big fight if that happens because the bus drivers union is quite strong in the East Bay. But I think it just shows the trend that even in the Bay Area, where the unions are really strong, this is even being considered.

Q: Does the public even know who runs its public transit system? Do riders feel the impact?

A: Transit officials tend to say that people don’t really know who’s running their bus lines, but I don’t think that’s actually true. In talking with people in Long Island, they were really wary of this situation in Nassau County. In fact, in Nassau County, where (nearly) everyone is a commuter to the city, their transit was outsourced to a big French company. For the first time ever, they formed the Long Island Bus Riders Union. It showed that bus riders were really concerned about what might happen. There’s always two sides to the story: The company says it saved a lot of money and provided services more efficiently. But at the same time, it cut service, which people are upset about.



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September 23rd, 2013

9/23/2013

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SOCIAL DEMOCRATS LIKE MCGOVERN AND MARYLAND'S SHRIVER BELIEVED CORPORATIONS NEEDED TO BE GOOD CITIZENS WITH TAXATION AND REGULATION.  NEO-LIBERALS BELIEVE ALL REGULATIONS NEED TO GO AND ALL POLICY SHOULD MAXIMIZE CORPORATE PROFIT.


DON'T BE FOOLED BY NEO-LIBERALS CLAIMING TO BE LABOR AND JUSTICE!



Regarding the German elections and how that is relevant to US:

I stated before that DeutscheBank and Wall Street were the ones setting the stage for the 2008 crash with the fraudulent instruments that allowed PIGS finance ministers to hide sovereign debt and then load more and more and more debt to implode their economies using all that cash to fund tons of development by corporations owed by investment firms......just as in the US. The same is happening now with O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake with the tons of credit bonds and TIFs that mortgage government up to the ears just as the next economic crash is coming!

First I would let to point out that Marketplace how Marketplace not only mis-informs but deliberately manipulates the news to the public's detriment.....on the public's dime.

This is from a New York Times article on the German election.....

'The distinctions in their positions fall squarely into the two social groupings from which they spring: the Christian middle class in the case of the Christian Democrats, and the working class and trade unions for the Social Democrats'.

Marketplace correctly told us that business was voted out of government at all levels in these elections giving Social Democrats a strong position in forming the government.  What is called Social Democrats in Germany -----CENTER LEFT.  Center left is neo-liberals who are rampant corporate and profit pols....they are not Social Democrats and Marketplace made that mistake on purpose because of how US media portrays neo-liberals as center-left.  Confusing Americans as to Social Democrats and center-left neo-liberals is very important to this captured US political scene.  SOCIAL DEMOCRATS ARE LABOR AND JUSTICE FOLKS....80% OF THE US DEMOCRATIC PARTY.  We need the same election results here in America.  The difference....we have no public media giving real news so we must look for the information elsewhere as we fix our public news outlets!

SOCIAL DEMOCRATS ARE WINNING ALL OVER EUROPE!  WHAT THEY NEED TO DO FIRST-----RECOVER TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD TO GOVERNMENT COFFERS!  Germany is ground zero for the fraud so they need to stop German government from using German taxpayers to pay PIGS debt and force banks to write-off debt!  TAXPAYERS SHOULD NOT BE PAYING GOVERNMENT DEBT CREATED BY MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD!


People must see by now that blowing up the US economy on mortgage fraud was a deliberate attempt not only to move money to the top but to give excuses to dismantle public programs and services. Neo-liberals from Clinton to now Obama are working with republicans for wealth and profit!


Destroying Social America
By Stephen Lendman on September 21, 2013 3:34 pm

  It’s on the chopping block for elimination. Initiatives began decades ago. Republicans, Democrats and Obama are in lockstep. They’re waging war on vital safety net protections.

In 1996, Clinton’s Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) became law. Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) ended.

Time limit harshness replaced it. Five years and out became policy. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) mandates it. States get diminishing amounts of federal funding.

Fixed block grants provide it. They’re pemitted to administer policy freely. They take full advantage during harder than ever hard times.

Join the Project Censored Newsletter Here! To qualify, recipients must work or train for jobs. Single mothers with small children are cheated. Millions are left on their own high and dry.

America is unprincipled. It’s shameless. It’s ruthless. Policy reflects neoliberal harshness. It’s hard right, soulless and uncaring.

It’s pro-war and pro-corporate. It’s anti-populist, anti-labor, anti-welfare, and anti-government of, by and for everyone equitably and fairly.

It supports the worst of imperial ruthlessness. Wealth, power, privilege and unchallenged global dominance alone matter. Let ‘em eat cake applies for all others.

Progressively things worsen. Policies reflect growing dystopian harshness. On September 19, The New York Times headlined “House Republicans Pass Deep Cuts in Food Stamps.”

Billions of dollars in vitally needed aid was slashed. Republicans voted to eliminate $40 billion over the next decade.

Become a Project Censored Supporting Member Today a Receive a Free Top 25 Censored Stories Book! Join Here. One provision requires adults between 18 and 50 without minor children to find work or be enrolled in job training. Otherwise benefits are denied.

A time limit is imposed. Three months and out was enacted. States can now extend benefits for recipients able to work or preparing to do so through training.

According to House Speaker John Boehner:

“This bill makes getting Americans back to work a priority again for our nation’s welfare programs.”

How he didn’t explain. America’s enduring a jobs crisis. It’s been ongoing for years. It shows no signs of ending.

Able-bodied workers can’t find employment. Most doing so don’t earn enough to live on. Both parties oppose enacting a living wage.

Republicans mandate work or train to do so or starve. Democrats and Obama are in lockstep. They differ only on timing. Rogue states operate this way.

The House measure also mandates testing recipients. It’s to assure they’re drug-free. It prohibits lottery winners from receiving benefits.

It’s the latest initiative targeting social America. Previous ones Obama approved included cutting:

• Medicare and Medicaid benefits;

• Pell Grants for college tuitions;

• federal wages;

• the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help impoverished families have heat in winter;

• the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP);

• community healthcare centers;

• nonprofit health insurance cooperatives;

• HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other disease prevention programs;

• WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) grants to states for supplemental foods, healthcare, and nutrition education for low-income families;

• Head Start for comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income families with children;

• earlier Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (food stamp) Program (SNAP) aid for poor households;

• community development block grants for housing;

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) first-responder funding;

• energy efficiency and renewable energy programs;

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) clean/safe water and other projects;

• National Institutes of Health (NIH) medical research;

• the National Park Service;

• vital infrastructure and transportation needs; and

• other non-defense discretionary spending.

Further cuts Obama endorses benefit Wall Street, other corporate favorites, war profiteers, and other special interests. They do so at the expense of ordinary people losing out.

Increasingly they’re on their own sink or swim. Obama calls it “shared sacrifice.” Ordinary people sacrifice to let business and super-rich elites share.

Social America is on the chopping block for elimination. Austerity harshness assures it. Bipartisan complicity endorses it.

The latest measure targets food stamps. It’s a core safety net protection. Enacting the House measure means denying four million recipients vital aid they need straightaway. Millions more will be affected in out years.

Democrats and Republicans haggle over details and timing. In June, Senate Democrats cut $4 billion in food stamp aid over the next decade.

Doing so comes during protracted Main Street Depression conditions. Nearly 50 million Americans require SNAP aid to eat.

Democrats know cutting $4 billion is only for starters. Republicans want $40 billion. Compromise suggests they’ll settle for $20 billion. Perhaps more if Republican hardliners prevail. Either way, millions of needy recipients lose out.

Many more will ahead. Plans are to entirely shred America’s social safety net. Major Medicaid cuts are coming. They’re on top of previous ones.

Medicare and Social Security are targeted for elimination. It’s planned by handing over both programs to Wall Street profiteers.

Depriving needy recipients of healthcare, retirement income and food reflects how low America has sunk. Class war is official policy. Gaming the system for profits matters most.

The American dream is more illusion than reality. The criminal class in Washington is bipartisan. Rogues and crooks run things.

Gangsterism is official policy. Making the world safe for capital reflects it.

War on humanity is waged for dominance and profit. Ordinary people lose out everywhere. What can’t go on forever, won’t. According to a 19th century proverb:

“Only when the last tree has died and the last river poisoned and the last fish caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”

US policy reflects heart of darkness viciousness. Personal freedoms and general welfare are targeted for elimination.

Obama, Republicans and most Democrats endorse the worst policies planned. Disagreement’s only over timing.

Duplicitous scaremongering claims America’s going broke. Obama wants “fiscal discipline” restored. He supports cutting vital SNAP aid.

He calls Medicare the “big problem.” Its cost is “unsustainable,” he claims.

“Let’s not kid ourselves and suggest that we can solve this problem by trimming a few earmarks,” he said.

The “biggest cost drivers in our budget are entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, all of which get more and more expensive every year.”

“If we want to get serious about fiscal discipline – and I do – we will have to get serious about entitlement reform.”

Medicare and Social Security aren’t entitlements. They’re insurance programs. They’re funded by worker/employer payroll tax deductions. They’re contractual federal obligations to eligible recipients who qualify.

Obama repeats what he does best. He lies. He’s a serial liar. He’s a moral coward. He supports wealth and power.

He’s beholden to powerful monied interests. They own him. He spurns popular needs. He prioritizes letting them go begging on his watch.

He proposed massive Medicare cuts. In 2010, 2011, and last November he urged more. He’s waging class war on Americans.

He wants fundamental social benefits destroyed. He wants ordinary people hung out to dry. He wants them on own sink or swim.

His “fiscal discipline” mumbo jumbo is imposing it on the backs of ordinary people least able to survive on what he endorses.

At the same time, he handed trillions of dollars to Wall Street crooks and other corporate favorites. He spent trillions more waging war on humanity.

He’s turning America into a dystopian backwater. Poverty, unemployment, underemployment, hunger, homelessness and overwhelming human misery are at Depression levels.

Wealth is more than ever disproportionately concentrated. America’s 1% overwhelmingly controls it.

What do you call a nation spurning its most disadvantaged? A failed state reflects today’s America. It’s no democracy. It’s not beautiful.

It’s not the best of all possible worlds. It’s not what PR wizards want people to believe. It’s rogue state viciousness writ large.

Truman once said “(t)he buck stops here!” Obama bears full responsibility for the worst of policies he endorses.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.


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This development that is happening in US cities is just the explosion of municipal debt that took down the public sector in Europe.  THEY ARE DOING IT ON PURPOSE AS WE HAVE $16 TRILLION IN DEBT AND ALL THE CUTS ARE COMING TO PUBLIC PROGRAMS.

Do not allow the media to confuse you with center-left with neo-liberals vs left with labor and justice.  The two are completely the opposite!




Friday, Sep 20, 2013 11:23 AM EST

Privatization fetishists resist reform, costing cities millions Proposed reform could add transparency and public input to such deals, but some like Rahm Emanuel aren’t interested

By Micah Uetricht
Local governments around the country are facing budgets deep in the red. And for some, the solution is to privatize city assets and services. But few large cities have pursued this agenda as aggressively as Chicago, where everything from tollways and parking meters, mental health care and public education, and even infrastructure funding itself has been turned over from public ownership into the hands of private corporations.

Now a proposed law in Chicago, backed by a coalition of community groups and unions, could slow the selling off of everything city-owned not already nailed to the floor. The Privatization Transparency and Accountability Ordinance (PTAO) is designed to help prevent abuses of privatization, and avoid the kinds of deals negotiated in the past that were intended to help close budget deficits but turned out to be massive boons for corporations and Wall Street while losing long-term revenue for the city.

The bill could serve as an example for cities around the country, and put a check on free market-minded politicians like Mayor Rahm Emanuel attempting to sell off as many public goods as possible. But despite support of a strong majority of the city council, the bill has sat in a forlorn committee where it has not moved since it was first proposed nearly a year ago. Emanuel seems to want the bill to stay buried, away from public debate, so the city’s privatization deals can remain largely unscrutinized.

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Introduced in November, 2012, and backed by a coalition of unions and community and good government organizations, the PTAO would require the city of Chicago to engage in a multistep process involving the public before it privatized any asset or service.

The city would be required to conduct an independent cost-benefit analysis study; demonstrate at least 10 percent cost savings and prove that the economic benefits of privatizing an asset or service would outweigh the benefits of keeping it public; hold at least one public hearing on the deal; deliver an annual report for each privatized deal on costs and the state of services; require at least 50 percent of subcontracted workers reside within Chicago; and attempt to work with workers’ unions rather than steamrolling them.

The bill has been praised nationally by government watchdog groups. Donald Cohen, executive director of the Washington, D.C., privatization resource center In the Public Interest, says, “Chicago plays a key role in setting national standards for cities,” and the bill’s provisions could be instituted elsewhere.”

advertisementHenry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Council 31, one of Chicago’s major public employees unions and a key backer of the bill, says the measures are “common sense.”

“There’s no good argument that we shouldn’t have transparency,” Bayer says. “The city over the years has done a lot of privatization, and they’ve never been required to demonstrate that they were actually saving any money, nor that the service levels were being maintained or improved. They just do it based on this false notion that if the private sector is doing it, it’s automatically more efficient than the public sector.”

Bayer’s union has been hit hard by the city’s privatization deals, begun by Mayor Richard M. Daley and massively accelerated by Emanuel. In her critical book on Emanuel, “Mayor 1%,” a meticulous dossier of the mayor’s privatization deals and other achievements at the head of the rightmost flank of the Democratic Party, Chicago journalist Kari Lydersen notes that even in his election speech in 2011, “without saying the words ‘union’ or ‘labor,’ [Emanuel] alluded to the looming battles” with public sector unions around privatization and budget cuts that began almost immediately.

One of the first was over the outsourcing of 34 union jobs at the city’s water department. The deal saved the city a paltry $100,000 (out of a $8.3 billion budget). And the work was outsourced to a company based in Tokyo, meaning the economic benefits would be reaped by a corporation in Japan rather than working class Chicagoans.

City council member Roderick Sawyer says the move “woke us up, to what could go on if we just let these deals go on unchecked.” His district, a middle and working class African American neighborhood on the city’s South Side, was hit hard by the layoffs.

“We hardly knew about it because it happened so fast,” Sawyer says. “A lot of them were members of my community. I found out their jobs were going out of the country, and they were going to get paid a lot less.”

Around the country, neighborhoods like Sawyer’s have been hit hardest by privatization. Historically locked out of high-paying private sector jobs, public sector jobs form the backbone of America’s black middle class; the wave of privatizations and downsizings in the public sector since the 2008 recession has sharply eroded those long-tenuous gains.

Sitting in the city council chambers after the water department announcement, Sawyer remembers thinking, “‘Why are we letting these privatization deals go through and we don’t have any oversight whatsoever?’” Citing potential ripple effects like foreclosures, Sawyer says, “We think we’re saving a couple dollars here or there, but getting rid of these jobs decimates our communities.”

In consultation with AFSCME, other city unions, and good government and community groups, Sawyer introduced the PTAO in November 2012. Thirty of the council’s 50 aldermen cosponsored the bill.

But before it could even be debated, a procedural move by an ally of Emanuel shifted the bill to the Rules Committee, where, in the words of columnist Ben Joravsky, “good legislation goes to die”–especially when a mayor wants it to stay dead.

The bill has remained there since November. Absent a committee chairperson and a majority of council members willing to vote to move the bill from committee and buck the mayor, who has issued no public statements on the bill and likely wants to continue passing privatization deals with no oversight, the bill will remain undebated–and privatization deals will continue unchecked.

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Privatization of government functions and publicly-owned goods has become central to governance for both political parties. The underlying idea is the private market can manage goods and services cheaper, more effectively, and better than the government ever could–an idea politicians have run with. One wealthy conservative Atlanta suburb decided to privatize everything it does upon incorporation in 2005, leaving only seven employees for a town of 94,000; in 2010, Maywood, Calif. fired all city employees and outsourced everything. Democratic politicians like Mayor Cory Booker in Newark, N.J., and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have privatized services like park restoration and zoos — moves praised by the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page.

“It’s an ideological wave,” says Evan McKenzie, lawyer and professor of political science at the University of Illinois-Chicago and author of two books on privatization. “[Politicians] try to argue that privatization is about sheer dollars and sense, that it’s cost benefit analysis. That’s hogwash.”

Countless privatization schemes have turned out to be disasters. In 1999, the city of Atlanta entered into what was then the largest privatization deal in the country, selling off the city’s water systems. The city broke their contract four years in after poor service and city residents’ water repeatedly turned brown–and the savings were far lower than projected. The state of Wisconsin privatized much of its department of transportation, only to discover through a 2009 internal audit that $1 million was wasted on the project, and 60 percent of the subcontracted jobs could have been done at a cheaper cost by state workers. In 2006, Indiana privatized its public benefits system, contracting IBM to process services like food stamps; three years later, after admitting the move was a failure and that service suffered tremendously, Gov. Mitch Daniels canceled the contract, costing the state $52 million immediately and $12 million later in payments to IBM.

“The losses are sometimes mind-boggling,” McKenzie says. “Once these deals are made, judges enforce them deals–and government stands to lose.”

And privatization inevitably leads to lower wages for workers, as the decent-paying and good benefits public sector jobs are replaced by contractors whose cost-effectiveness is based on cutting workers’ wages.

“Most of the people who say we need middle class jobs then turn around and spend most of their time figuring out ways to drive people out of the middle class,” says Bayer.

Few major American cities have led as aggressive a campaign of privatization as Chicago — and few have proven to be as spectacular a disaster. The city’s $1.4 billion parking meter privatization deal, negotiated under the city’s previous mayor, Richard M. Daley, and overwhelmingly approved by the city council in 2008, is known throughout the country as a botched privatization deal par excellance, shafting taxpayers, average citizens, and the city’s very ability to govern itself.

A group of investors led by Morgan Stanley won the bid, gaining near-total control of the city’s parking meters for 75 years at a fire sale price–according to one city council member’s projection, the deal was worth something more like $4 billion. Immediately, parking prices doubled or even tripled, with some zones become the most expensive in the nation; not long after, contract provisions emerged that actually required the city to pay the company for lost revenue during street festivals or parades, and bills for tens of millions of dollars were delivered to the city from the parking company. The money from the investors’ payment to the city, meanwhile, has almost entirely been spent.

So a Wall Street firm snatched a major city service for a steal, public coffers were drained of perhaps billions over the next three-quarters of a century, the city actually began receiving bills from a deal that was supposed to plug a budget gap, and average Chicagoans’ parking rates skyrocketed.

The parking meter deal is universally loathed in Chicago — even by Emanuel, though his publicly-expressed distaste has not squared with his actions as mayor — but it is far from the only such deal in the city. Chicago has become a national leader in selling off public goods. Richard M. Daley also privatized the city’s Skyway toll road (the first time any existing toll road in the U.S. had been sold off to private interests), the city’s parking garages (also to companies owned in large part by Morgan Stanley), and over a dozen other city services and assets.

–

The shoddy, damaging deals that enriched corporations while hurting Chicago and other cities and states might have been avoided with the institution of rules similar to the PTAO. For his part, Emanuel recently rejected a bid to privatize one of Chicago’s two airports, Midway International, after he said the received bids were not a good enough deal for taxpayers. (The political fallout of the parking meter likely weighed heavily on his mind.)

McKenzie says the move was the right one, but not enough. A thorough, transparent bidding process needs to be institutionalized.

“It can’t just be a matter of, ‘trust me, I’m an honest mayor,’” McKenzie says. “I hope that’s true, but it’s not enough. There have to be extensive safeguards put in place.”

Those safeguards are still sitting tight in the city council’s rules committee, leaving a piece of legislation of national importance stuck in limbo. Two requests for comment from the rules committee chair, Ald. Michelle Harris, went unanswered. But Ald. Sawyer says he is “fairly confident” the bill will move soon. He recently co-authored an op-ed with two other aldermen arguing the PTAO “deserves a full hearing.”

Without it, the only thing in Chicago standing between layoffs, wage cuts, worsening service, and the auctioning off of most of the city seems to be Rahm Emanuel’s benevolence.

“Cities across the nation are looking closely to see what kind of protections are put in place” around the selling off of public goods, Cohen says. With the PTAO, “Chicago would become a leader of taxpayer protection rather than a worst case scenario to avoid.”

Micah Uetricht is an assistant editor at Jacobin and a contributing editor at In These Times, who has written for The Nation, Al Jazeera America, and elsewhere. He is the author of Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity (Verso/Jacobin Books, 2014).

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THIS IS WHERE THE MONEY COMES TO FUEL THIS CITY DEVELOPMENT.....YOUR RETIREMENTS/PENSIONS, HOMES, AND HEALTH CARE.....This is the dismantling of social democracy by neo-liberals.

Actually labor simply needs to elect politicians that reinstate Rule of Law to bring back tens of trillions of dollars in corporate fraud that has tanked retirement savings and pensions, taken homes, and health care.  If you look at the development in downtown Baltimore, you see those very corporations and banks that stole public money through massive corporate frauds last decade now using it to build those Enterprise Zones full of affluent apartments and corporate buildings. 

That is your retirement money!  It is the pols in City Hall, Maryland Assembly, teaming with Obama and Congress to make sure your money is used to pay down debt created by fraud while these Visigoths are building away with it!  We wouldn't have this situation if Rule of Law recovered corporate fraud.  So, it is your labor and justice organizations who should be shouting loudly and strongly against this suspended Rule of Law and running good labor and justice candidates to bring back the fraud and


THEN, BABY BOOMERS WOULD BE ABLE TO RETIRE IN THE COMFORT THEY WORKED FOR!




Golden years grow dimmer as workers labor longer More workers plan to delay retirement since end of recession


Before the recession, Madie Green's home daycare was normally full. As parents lost their jobs and pulled kids out, the 55-year-old District Heights woman spent through her savings to keep up on her mortgage and auto payments.

Her business still hasn't recovered to what it once was, and now she's so worried about whether she'll be able to retire that she is expanding into an after-school program for elementary and middle school students.

Retirement seems more distant than ever.

"It's no longer the golden years," Green said.

These days, the sentiment is more common.

Though stock prices are rising, unemployment is falling and the economy is growing, more workers are choosing to stay in the labor force longer. The trend reverses decades of steadily falling retirement ages. During the recession, delaying retirement was spurred by job losses, salary reductions, depressed home prices and depleted savings. Now, workers anticipate smaller returns on their investments. Health benefits for retirees also are eroding even as costs are rising. Meanwhile, people are living longer, healthier lives — all of which adds to a need to work and save longer.

The share of workers nationwide aged 45 to 60 who planned to delay retirement soared to 62 percent last year, the Conference Board reported, up from 42 percent in 2010. Even in states such as Maryland that were not among the hardest hit economically, the share of workers planning to delay retirement jumped to 61 percent in 2012 from 40 percent in 2010.

Separately, analysts at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research found that about 40 percent of older Americans have delayed their planned retirement since the end of the recession.

Since the recession ended, "a lot of people spent more than they earned and had to continue to deplete their savings, and that makes them less prepared for retirement," said Gad Levanon, director of macroeconomic research for the Conference Board. "People were unemployed for a while, or worked part-time or got significant pay cuts and were unable to cover their expenses. Savings shrunk and made them more willing to delay retirement."

The Conference Board found that workers 45 to 60 who've lost a job, had a salary cut or saw their home decline in value are more likely than others to plan to delay retirement. But even workers who were not significantly hurt by the recession are more likely than before to plan to work longer. That trend held true across all ethnic, gender and income lines.

CareerBuilder found 60 percent of workers aged 60 or older planned to look for another job after retiring from their current company — up from 57 percent last year. About three quarters of respondents planned to work another one to six years, and more than one in 10 of 680 workers surveyed said they probably never would be able to retire.

On average, those who delayed retirement are waiting about one and a half years longer than they originally planned to leave their jobs, said Brooke Helppie McFall, an economist with Michigan's Institute for Social Research.

Many workers have lost too much value in savings and other assets or were forced to draw down on those assets, McFall said. A typical household lost about 5 percent of its total wealth between the summers of 2008 and 2009. The biggest asset for most people is their home, and housing prices still have not recovered pre-recession levels.

The recession exerted particular influence on the retirement plans of men 55 to 64, U.S. Labor Department statistics show.

"Their retirement is less secure than they had thought," said labor economist Heidi Shierholz, either because of a decrease in assets or a loss of a job that left a long-term income gap.

"More of them are in the labor force than there would be if the Great Recession hadn't happened," said Shierholz, with the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, who compared Bureau of Labor Statistics pre-recession projections to actual employment figures.

Jeff Miller realized two years ago he would not meet his goal of retiring at 62.

A computer server engineer at a Frederick data center for Marriott International, Miller suffered losses in the value of his 401(k) and his home. Plus, he has seven more years to pay off a student loan for his son.

At 61, he expects to work at least six more years.

"I was hoping for 62, but that went out the window when the economy went south," Miller said. "And I couldn't have sold my house four years ago."



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Remember when the public works were public? Strong public sector jobs with benefits? This is an example of how privatizing to private contractors has filled the public works with fraud and corruption. Demand public sector be rebuilt with public works jobs. Neo-liberals are going to bring in global corporations to do these public work projects and that is not good for labor and justice!

STOP ALLOWING THE PUBLIC SECTOR TO BE GUTTED WITH PRIVATE CONTRACTING FULL OF FRAUD AND CORRUPTION!


This is an add for the Illinois Transportation build that is happening just as with Maryland.  How much do you want to bet that union leaders will come to us and shout that unions are not getting most of the work? This is a case where the private construction unions are working against public sector unions.

IT WILL HURT ALL WORKERS AS STRONG PUBLIC UNIONS MAKE STRONG UNION MEMBERSHIP!

Keep in mind that below is an ad coming from Rahm Emanuel....just like O'Malley.....a raging neo-liberal that works against labor and justice.  Do you really think there will be good jobs or exploitative jobs?


This is an opportunity for paid training, mentoring and union apprenticeships with the Illinois Department of Transportation leading to jobs!

This program is a partnership with Chicago Urban League, Austin Peoples Action Center, United Services, and Black Chamber of Commerce.

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0 Comments

August 07th, 2013

8/7/2013

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THEY ARE TRYING TO PRIVATIZE ALL THAT IS PUBLIC SERVICE AND THE RESULT WILL BE CONSUMERS SOAKED IN CHARGES!!!



Think smart meters are just about efficient tracking of energy consumption?  REALLY?  Peak times are as clear as day so we already know when most people use energy the most.  So why does Exelon/BGE and O'Malley want to know how you use your energy?  Now that BGE has merged with a national energy corporation with ever-growing monopoly hold on energy distribution it is time to maximize profits and that means rates that go as high as the market bears and then some.  That is why utilities should be public after all!  Do you know that the subsidy for people who are too poor to pay can and will go away at any time and the number of people in the US impoverished is at a historical high?  What happens when that government subsidy is defunded?  That's right...rationed energy just as in third world countries.  So, if you can only pay for 3 hours of energy that is all you will get.  These smart meters will monitor that.


Utilities propose charges to opt out of smart meter Estimates don't pass the 'straight-face test,' opponent says

By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun 6:28 p.m. EDT, August 5, 2013

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and other utilities in Maryland will make the case to state regulators Tuesday that customers who don't want smart meters should pay an upfront charge and a monthly fee — anywhere from $15 to $87 — to opt out.

Smart-meter opponents are ready to argue that those proposed charges are unreasonably high, considering the costs utilities have borne so far from customers deferring meter installations.

"It doesn't pass the straight-face test," said Jonathan D. Libber, president of Maryland Smart Meter Awareness, which opposes the technology.

It's the latest skirmish in the continuing battle over smart meters, which send energy-use data to utilities wirelessly.

Utilities say the meters save money because they don't have to be read in person, like old-style analog meters, and also allow employees to pinpoint outages faster. Opponents, here and across the country, have health, privacy and other concerns about meters, and they say they shouldn't have a product forced on them.

Customers are allowed to temporarily defer the meters without cost while Maryland's Public Service Commission decides whether to permit a permanent opt out. Commissioners said in January that an alternative — either old-style meters or the option of a smart meter with no or lower levels of radio frequency emissions — would come with charges.

"Whichever option we ultimately choose, we will require those ratepayers that exercise the option to bear appropriate costs," the commissioners wrote.

Smart meters give off radio frequency emissions, a type of radiation also emitted by cellphones. Utilities argue that the meters' emissions are safe, and the commission said it found no "convincing evidence" to the contrary. Smart-meter opponents, pointing to the emissions' classification as possibly carcinogenic, contend they're dangerous.

Both the utilities and the opponents seem to agree on one point: Going with smart meters configured to emit no or lower levels of radio frequency — for instance, by installing a phone jack so the meter doesn't need to communicate its data wirelessly — isn't the right alternative.

Maryland Smart Meter Awareness says customers would have to continually monitor such meters to ensure they weren't emitting radiation. And utilities say the costs are prohibitive.

That would leave existing analog and digital meters as the alternative. BGE is asking to charge an initial fee of $100 — largely to recover administrative and IT system costs — and a monthly fee of $15.

As BGE officials are quick to point out, that charge is the lowest proposed among utilities installing or planning to install smart meters in Maryland.

Pepco and Delmarva Power & Light Co., which have the same parent, proposed a $100 upfront fee and a monthly charge between $50 and $87, depending on the total number of customers opting out. Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative also offered a range of charges depending on participation — about $71 to $105 upfront, and roughly $30 to $35 a month.

Costs range widely in states with the option to forgo a smart meter. Some utilities charge a monthly fee of $10 or less — in California and Nevada, for example — while Portland General Electric in Oregon charges $51. Vermont consumers can opt out for free.

Libber, with Maryland Smart Meter Awareness, said it's simply too early for regulators to determine a fair charge because utilities' "very large" proposed fees are based on cost estimates. The hard numbers from BGE, tracking installation expenses through March, show "virtually no extra costs for accommodating the opt out ratepayers," Libber said in a filing to regulators.

He said he's concerned utilities want to press people into accepting smart meters by making it too costly to do otherwise.

"They obviously know the higher the expense for the opt out, the fewer people will opt out," Libber said.

Mark D. Case, vice president of strategy and regulatory affairs at BGE, said the company took a "fairly conservative approach" to estimating additional costs. The reason the utility hasn't incurred substantial expenses yet is that more costly work such as modifying the billing system is either just now underway or hasn't begun, officials said.

Maryland regulators told utilities that they may not seek to recover smart-meter installation costs until the work is done and they can show the benefits to customers make it worthwhile. Libber said those who opt out should likewise not be charged extra until utilities make that case — if they can make it, he added.

BGE officials say they believe more customers will see the value of smart meters as more of that network goes in. The utility has installed about 550,000 meters and is on track to finish by the end of next year.

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THIS IS HAPPENING ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY....ENERGY/UTILITIES ARE BEING CENTRALIZED AND RATES ARE MAXIMIZING CORPORATE PROFITS!

BGE's is the first such request in Maryland since a new law took effect in June allowing for gas surcharges. Critics worry that allowing surcharges will make it easier for utilities to prevail in such cases. BGE's net income in the three months ending in June was $22 million — nearly 70 percent more than it was a year earlier. Parent Exelon Corp. said the increase was "primarily due to higher electric and gas distribution rates."

"That's remarkable," AARP's Greenberg said. "And they can thank their customers for that."




BGE asks for monthly gas-bill surcharge Fee requested for gas pipe replacement would start at 32 cents a month for residential customers, $1.87 a month for businesses

By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun 8:16 p.m. EDT, August 2, 2013

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. asked Friday for a monthly surcharge on gas customers to cover part of the cost of replacing old pipes, a request that comes in addition to the rate increase and electric surcharge it is seeking.

BGE said it asked state regulators for permission to charge residential gas customers 32 cents a month and business customers $1.87 a month, starting in February.

The utility intends to ask for higher monthly surcharges in each of the following four years — effectively topping out at $2 for residents and $11.55 for businesses, though some of that amount ultimately could be pushed into base rates. Those amounts are the maximum that utilities can request.

BGE's is the first such request in Maryland since a new law took effect in June allowing for gas surcharges. Critics worry that allowing surcharges will make it easier for utilities to prevail in such cases.

BGE officials said they need a surcharge to pay for part of about $400 million they plan to spend in the next five years to replace old and leaky pipes — including cast-iron ones installed as far back as the early 1900s.

"We feel very confident that we operate a safe and reliable gas system today but that we need to increase the level of investment," said Rob Biagiotti, BGE's vice president of gas distribution.

BGE officials argue that they can more easily and cost-effectively accelerate infrastructure work if they get some money flowing in from the start, rather than waiting for state regulators to allow reimbursement afterward.

But opponents of surcharges contend the fees increase the chances that consumers will overpay. Utilities aren't subject to the same level of profit and expense scrutiny in a surcharge case as in a rate case, when all financials are on the table.

"I understand why it's cost-effective for the utility because they basically get a separate income stream," said Hank Greenberg, director of AARP Maryland, which advocates for the interests of older residents. "It is not cost effective for the consumer."

He and other advocates, including the state Office of People's Counsel, worry that surcharges — sometimes called trackers — are poised to multiply.

State legislators sent a supportive signal about gas surcharges when they approved the utility-backed legislation this year, aimed at accelerating pipeline replacement. Gov. Martin O'Malley's grid reliability task force, convened last year after high-outage storms, recommended surcharges to pay for a faster pace of electrical upgrades.

And last month, Maryland's Public Service Commission approved the first-ever infrastructure surcharge, a portion of what Pepco requested for electrical grid work in Montgomery and Prince George's counties. The majority of commissioners said a "properly defined" surcharge can be appropriate to improve customer reliability, but one commissioner warned of the precedent.

"Today we are letting the tracker genie out of the bottle, and I fear it will continue granting the wishes of Maryland utilities for many years and we may never get it back in the bottle," said Commissioner Harold D. Williams, a former BGE official, in his dissenting opinion.

The fight is playing out against a backdrop of aging infrastructure. Maryland is behind only four states and the District of Columbia for the percentage of gas main miles made of cast and wrought iron. Utilities used those materials in the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th, switching later to steel and plastic.

BGE said it was cost-effective for years to repair the older pipes when needed, but that's no longer true. Twenty percent of the utility's gas infrastructure accounts for more than 70 percent of leak repairs, Biagiotti said.

BGE plans to spend about $400 million in the next five years, double what it spent in the previous five, to replace pipes made of cast iron, copper, uncoated steel and even plastic in some cases. The utility wants to get $90 million of that amount through surcharges. BGE said it would request reimbursement for the rest of the work in a later rate case.

What customers pay in rates is based on the amount of electricity or gas they use. The gas surcharge would be a flat fee, with small businesses paying the same as big customers.

Ned Atwater, owner of the Atwater's restaurants in Baltimore and Baltimore County, said he'd prefer a charge that takes usage into account, but he thinks infrastructure replacement is worth paying for. He also thinks BGE should be willing to eat into profits to cover some of the needed work, in addition to asking customers to pay.

"We would be happy to chip in," he said. "We would be a lot happier about it if we would [also] see that from the other side."

BGE's request comes on the heels of its May request to increase monthly distribution rates — by $4.41 on the typical residential electric bill and $2.50 on the typical residential gas bill. BGE also asked for a five-year surcharge to accelerate work on electrical infrastructure. The typical residential charge would begin at about 34 cents a month.

The utility last received a rate increase in February, and it's feeling a boost as a result.

BGE's net income in the three months ending in June was $22 million — nearly 70 percent more than it was a year earlier. Parent Exelon Corp. said the increase was "primarily due to higher electric and gas distribution rates."

"That's remarkable," AARP's Greenberg said. "And they can thank their customers for that."

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The Affordable Care Act was written to consolidate the health industry as bank deregulation created the big banks....just making global health systems for maximum profit.  This is a market-based republican policy.  The larger health insurance corporations like AETNA are already to go global and so will attach themselves to global corporations...private insurance plans that will be offered mostly to higher management...not everyday workers.  Most people will indeed be pushed into these exchanges as will Medicare and Medicaid.  The types of insurance offered on these exchanges will be preventative for the most part as that is all that individuals will be able to pay.  The lower cost plans have high deductibles and co-pays that will severely limit access keeping the most in need of care from accessing but still calling them 'insured'.

This is not a democrat/republican issue.  Republicans like this plan....they wrote it after all!  They just don't want the safety net that is preventative care.  Either way, only 10% of people will be able to access the level of care we all have experienced and health business profits will soar!  The answer is indeed Universal Care as we need markets out of this vital public service!

Aetna pulls health plans from state insurance exchange Insurer says Md.-approved rates weren't feasible as it scrutinizes its offerings across the country


By Scott Dance, The Baltimore Sun 8:29 p.m. EDT, August 2, 2013

Aetna Inc. said Friday it canceled plans to sell insurance on Maryland's new health insurance exchange, set to open Oct. 1 as part of the federal health care reform law, after regulators cut the rates it could charge consumers for its plans.

Aetna was one of several carriers poised to sell on the state's exchange, along with Coventry Health Care, which Aetna acquired this spring. But Aetna told Maryland Insurance Commissioner Therese M. Goldsmith in a letter this week that cuts regulators made to the rates the companies had proposed "would not allow us to collect enough premiums to cover the cost of the plans."

The decision leaves the exchange with fewer choices for consumers who need to buy insurance, as required by the law, because they don't have it now or can't get it from their employer. But state officials said they don't expect the loss of Aetna and Coventry to significantly reduce consumers' options.

Officials hope the exchange will keep the cost of health insurance low for consumers with competition among the insurance carriers. And as more people enroll, costs are expected to decline.

"This is not a step that we take lightly," Aetna said in a statement. "We believe it is critical that our plans not only be competitive, but also financially viable, allowing Aetna and Coventry to meet the long-term needs of the Exchanges in which we choose to participate."

Aetna and Coventry combined insure 13,000 individual members in Maryland and 620,000 individuals nationwide. The decision does not affect coverage the insurers offer in the state through employers.

Aetna had filed a proposal with state insurance regulators to raise its rates 25.4 percent, the highest of any carrier. The rate the state approved July 26 was 29 percent lower than what Aetna sought, while other carriers saw their proposals cut back by as much as 33 percent.

State health officials estimate that 180,000 people will buy individual insurance policies from the exchange for 2014. They will largely come from the 146,078 Marylanders who currently buy in the individual market and from the estimated 740,000 uninsured people in the state.

Top state health insurance officials, including Goldsmith and Rebecca Pearce, executive director of the state exchange, Maryland Health Connection, said they were confident in the range of options that will be available on the exchange when it opens this fall. Coverage through the exchange becomes effective Jan. 1.

"Notwithstanding Aetna's business decision not to offer products in Maryland's individual insurance market, consumers will continue to have many choices among health insurance carriers and plan options when open enrollment begins in October," Goldsmith said in a statement.

Pearce added that the carriers' departure does not affect an analysis showing rates on Maryland's exchange to be competitive nationally.

"The rates are still the lowest in the country," Pearce said in an interview. "I believe the plans will be competitively priced and people will find something that's right for them."

Insurance officials do not expect any other carriers whose rates were approved to follow Aetna.

Aetna's decision came days after it pulled its and Coventry's plans from Georgia's exchange, and as its CEO expressed hesitation about participating in other exchanges around the country. The company pulled out of California's individual insurance market earlier this year.

In a quarterly earnings conference call, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said the company was cautious about the rollout of the exchanges and was considering whether to cut back on its participation in them in 14 states. The company, meanwhile, plans to participate in private exchanges being run by benefits companies and is working on launching its own exchange for Aetna products.

"We are continuing to evaluate where Aetna and Coventry have submitted bids and are in the process of rationalizing our combined exchange participation," Bertolini said.

Also Friday, Coventry pulled a dental plan to be offered on Maryland's exchange. That plan's rates had been approved without modification.

One other insurer, a new cooperative model, said it remains committed to Maryland's exchange.

"We are very much devoted to staying on the exchange. That's the mission for our entire insurance company in the first place," said Dr. Peter Beilenson, president and CEO of Evergreen Health Cooperative Inc., which formed in November and plans to offer two types of plans on the exchange.

Other insurers, including CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States Inc., could not be reached for comment late Friday. Nine carriers in all had proposed plans for sale on the exchange, though they were represented by five owners.

Beilenson, the former health commissioner for Baltimore and more recently for Howard County, said it was unfortunate that Aetna decided to drop out. The point of the health care law is to increase competition so consumers have more choices and more affordable care, he said.

On the other hand, he noted, Aetna's action also means his new insurance company will have less competition.

Vincent DeMarco, president of the advocacy group Maryland Citizens Health Initiative, said Marylanders still will have plenty of choice within the exchange even without Aetna.

"There are seven carriers left providing a broad range of services, which we think are at reasonable rates, especially with the subsidy that the federal government is providing," he said. "Marylanders will be well-served."

DeMarco said he thought the commissioner did the right thing on setting rates.

"We wish as many as possible would have stayed," he said. "The point is the rates have to be fair for consumers. The commissioner came up with some fair rates."

Baltimore Sun reporter Eileen Ambrose and Reuters contributed to this article.

________________________________________________

First we need to acknowledge that this high-speed rail has already been embraced by O'Malley and indeed money for its construction is why we have this large tax increase on gas.  It will consume much of the Transportation Trust budget. Is high-speed rail an environmental issue or do the rich simply want elite transportation that most people will not be able to afford?  Well, China and Japan have it they say.  This is a neo-liberal policy that places appearance in the global community over what is best for the public.  Is it greener than commuter trains like MARC?  Of course not.  This is not a green issue!


Republicans want everyone travelling in BOLT-style commuter buses which is no good either for those needing to get places faster and cheaper than flying.  What we are seeing is all of transportation costs for the average person being made ever higher, limiting access and ability to travel.  Whether higher gas prices to pay for transportation for the wealthy counties who travel around in electric/hybrids not paying much gas tax or Federal and State money to build this super fast train when Maryland's commuter trains are crowded and have lots of safety issues....this is not something any progressive would want.  It will further privatize public transportation and give yet another public service over to market-based pricing!
High-speed rail would be better than a new Bay Bridge


12:00 p.m. EDT, August 6, 2013  Baltimore Sun

Having had the opportunity to attend the recent Maryland Climate Change Summit, it was both enlightening and reassuring that our governor, the legislature and our state agencies are taking proactive positions in planning for what cannot be stopped and a leadership role in reducing what is driving temperature increases so that future impacts may be constrained, primarily those of sea level rise and flooding.

With 3,200 miles of bay and ocean coastline, Maryland has already lost 13 islands, and as sea levels continue to rise, we will lose thousands more low lying acres over the next decade, including marshes, forests, farms and developed land.

That afternoon, traffic reports indicated that vehicles were already backed up at the Bay Bridge for the weekend run to the beach, and I was reminded of the May 26 article in The Sun, describing concerns of the current bridges' safety, costs and life expectancy. By 2025, increases of more than 40,00 Saturday, and 16,000 daily vehicles are expected. I couldn't help but envision all of those cars backed up at the tolls, spewing the very carbon dioxide responsible for most of the warming and resultant sea level rise that we are currently experiencing.

Many Eastern Shore residents are rightfully concerned about the developmental impact that would occur if a new bridge span were constructed, as some feel the need for.

It seems time to decouple ourselves from paradigms of the past. Decades ago, Walt Disney built a futuristic monorail as a demonstration of how people can be rapidly, comfortably and efficiently whisked to their destinations. Though the monorail has not been emulated in our cities, transit systems such as BART in San Francisco, the TriMet System in Portland, and totally computerized trains in places like Copenhagen are great examples of modern transit. The Baltimore light rail/metro system, is gradually moving toward regional continuity.

Might it not be time to establish a high speed transit link between the Western Shore and beach destinations that would eliminate excessive traffic, reduce gas consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, and save time, energy and frayed nerves? You could arrive at the shore refreshed, relaxed and ready to enjoy! Those who wish could still use the existing spans. It would be a win/win situation for both commuters and the businesses at the shore, increasing visits, both during the summer and through the rest of the year. The pressure would be off the road system, eliminating the need to pave more impervious surfaces and create more runoff. It is possible that in many places, existing rights-of-way could be used.

Visionary ideas drive innovation and can solve vexing problems. Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, is purported to be planning an ultra high speed, hyperloop rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Perhaps we could lure him to Maryland to develop a short-range prototype between our Eastern and Western Shores. If that is not an optimum application for the technology, there are many other manufacturers that could step up to the challenge.

Stan Kollar, Harford County

The writer is a biology professor at Harford Community College, where he developed the Environmental Technology Program.







0 Comments

June 06th, 2013

6/6/2013

0 Comments

 
WE ARE BEING TOLD THAT THE WASHINGTON SUBURBS HAVE THE WEALTH AND THE GROWING POPULATION TO ALLOW THEM TO BE THE DECISION-MAKERS IN THE STATE. 

Whether it is on a local scale as in Baltimore where all the revenue is going to city center....at a state level all the wealth is going to the Washington suburbs,.....remember the Transportation Trust that went empty?  It was spent on transit in these wealthy counties and it is taxes on the middle/lower class of central and eastern Maryland that will replenish this fund again.  STOP ELECTING THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS.....WE NEED LABOR AND JUSTICE RUNNING AGAINST INCUMBENT THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS!!



One doesn't have to look hard to know why Brown/Ulman is the ticket being pushed by Maryland's 1% and WYPR...he is a rampant Wall Street team player. There is not a public asset he won't privatize; no tax exemption for corporations for which he won't fight; no public partnership he won't enter in order to have the public and consumer pay for all the costs of doing business maximizing corporate profits. THAT IS WHY O'MALLEY AND RAWLINGS-BLAKE ARE HEADING NATIONAL AND IT IS WHY BROWN WILL BE THE ONE YOU HEAR ABOUT CONTINUALLY IN MARYLAND MEDIA.

Did you know that your Third Way corporate democrat voted not to audit or give oversight to business tax credits even though several government watchdogs have said they are rife with fraud? What about the States Attorney office and Doug Gansler....they have fraud all around them yet nothing is done and no shouting out for stronger fraud laws. Since it is the elected public official's duty to protect and serve the people they become complicit in these crimes they know are happening and ignoring....they are aiding and abetting. Think about the billions of dollars stolen each year in health fraud and then think about the cuts to health access in Maryland that is already killing people no longer able to get basic health service. That is aiding and abetting, but it appears to be pre-meditated homicide as well. These pols know the problem lies in theft and they know people are dying because of the laws denying care.....ergo, pre-meditation. WE WANT TO BE CLEAR, WHEN A GOVERNMENT SUSPENDS RULE OF LAW IT SUSPENDS STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS. The American people can and will recover these tens of TRILLIONs lost to fraud and tax evasion and we will prosecute those complicit in crime.

The latest affront to the citizens of Maryland is the Maryland legislator's bill that puts the government offices of Housing that will be moved to Prince Georges County in leasing status. We know that every level of government is doing this, from the Attorney's General offices, the Census people with offices in Harbor East for example, Public Works, now Housing. Each time a public building is given up the people lose more and more of its public assets and become renters to developers who exist only to defraud and profit. DOES THAT SOUND LIKE GOOD PUBLIC POLICY? ANTHONY BROWN/O'MALLEY, AND RAWLINGS-BLAKE THINK SO.....IT MAXIMIZES CORPORATE PROFITS YOU KNOW!

All of this shows that despite Fraser Smith's claim that there is only one democratic party,.....that there is not split.....that once again public media is giving you disinformation. The US has the same political system as the UK......where the neo-liberals are their own party. The problem in the US is that the neo-liberals have made the democratic party their party even though 80% of the democratic base of labor and justice occupy the democratic party. See how politics in America has become captured? Neo-liberals and republicans are the same free market, free trade, global corporations and rule. LABOR AND JUSTICE SIMPLY NEED TO TAKE BACK THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BY NOT ALLOWING THE DNC TO CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATE!

DO NOT THINK YOU MUST VOTE REPUBLICAN FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!


Maryland Housing Agency to Move to Prince George's County

Wednesday, May 29, 2013  |  Updated 9:13 PM EDT  NBC Washington



Tracee Wilkins

Prince George's County Bureau Chief Tracee Wilkins explains what the agency's relocation means for residents.

advertisement Gov. Martin O'Malley announced Wednesday the approval of a lease to move the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development headquarters to Prince George's County.
 
A new building will be constructed for the agency as part of a new transit-oriented development by Berman Enterprises at the New Carrollton Metro station. The development will initially include 500 new residential units and retail space. It will eventually include 2,400 residential units, a hotel and more retail space.

"How does that make sense when the state is being asked to spend $58 million for a lease and we are leaving a building that we own?" Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot said.
 
The Board of Public Works approved the lease Wednesday.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker called the move a potential catalyst for the state, comparing it to former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry's decision to move part of the D.C. government to U Street NW in the 1980s.

State delegates from Anne Arundel, the current home of the agency, tried to delay the vote.

"I would urge you to postpone this vote until we have a proper chance to look at all the numbers," Del. Tony McConkey said.

"Anne Arundel employees will be forced out of their jobs and replaced by others," De. Steven Schuh said.

In a statement, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown says the project is a commitment to strengthening Prince George's County.
 
The agency's move from Anne Arundel County will bring Prince George's its first state agency. The move is expected to be complete by June 2015.





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THE MONEY FROM GAMBLING IS ALREADY BEING DIRECTED AWAY FROM STATE REVENUE AND EDUCATION K-12 AND WE HAVE JUST STARTED!  IT WILL GET WORSE IF WE DO NOT SHOUT AND VOTE THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS OUT OF OFFICE!!!

Do you hear education/justice/consumer advocates decrying the failure to collect state revenue and send it to education?

Thank you MdOUTLOUD for asking the right question and one that this article looks to have deliberately tried to hide as the figures combined both slot and table revenues together.  This is like the financial fraud settlements that gave you a settlement figure with no idea how much fraud was uncovered.

The citizens of MD were duped by their Governor, their Maryland Assembly pols, and in Baltimore their City Council pols.....most being Third Way corporate democrats.  We went into gambling with the promise of 68% revenue for the state for slots designated for education.  We now have most money made at casinos at the table games which oddly enough these corporate pols placed at only 20% revenue for the state and education.  Slot revenue for the state was lowered to around 50% but the profits from slots are substantially lower and slot machines are being taken out of casinos as table games are added so the state revenue is falling fast while profits are soaring for the casino.  Did you know that if a casino categorize a day of gambling as 'promotional' then there is no state revenue at all taken?  Did you know that the education towards which these proceeds go is job training for casinos and businesses, not K-12?

Third Way corporate democrats work for wealth and profit and all MD dems are Third Way.  We need labor and justice running and voting for primary candidates next elections!



Revenue at Maryland's casinos reaches $69.2 million in May Figure reflects new casino in Allegany County


By Eileen Ambrose, The Baltimore Sun 7:58 p.m. EDT, June 5, 2013

Revenue at the state's casinos climbed to nearly $69.2 million in May, the first full month of table games at Maryland Live Casino as well as the initial days of the state's newest casino in Allegany County, the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency reported Wednesday.

Revenue at Maryland Live in Anne Arundel County, which celebrates its one-year anniversary Thursday, totaled $55 million in May for its 4,319 slot machines and 122 table games. The latter were introduced April 11, and officials accurately predicted they would raise the facility's revenues by more than 20 percent.

Rocky Gap Casino Resort, which opened May 22, generated $776,133 in slot machine and table game revenue. Rocky Gap has 554 slot machines and 10 table games.

As in previous months, Hollywood Casino Perryville continued to see its revenue fall from the year before. Hollywood pulled in $8.57 million in May, a drop of $1.5 million or 15.6 percent from a year earlier, when it did not face competition from Maryland Live.

The Casino at Ocean Downs, with 800 slot machines, took in $4.77 million in revenue last month, a 7 percent increase from a year ago. Officials there have yet to announce whether the Ocean City-area facility will introduce table games.

The agency reported that for the first 11 months of the fiscal year, slot machine revenue totaled about $511 million.  Remember, table games just came into play these last few months with slots being pulled out! That is greater than predicted by the state Board of Revenue Estimates, which estimated slot machine revenue would total $498.3 million for the entire year.


eileen.ambrose@baltsun.com



____________________________________________________
As hospitals say they will not lower quality of care.....they already are as staffing is cut, patient access is denied, fraud is not mentioned, and costs for procedures stay the same.

DO YOU THINK AS POLS PRESSURE HOSPITALS WITH CUTS THAT HOSPITALS ARE GOING TO CHOOSE TO CHANGE THESE THINGS?  OF COURSE NOT....QUALITY AND ACCESS WILL DROP!

There are two hospital cost reduction issues not mentioned in this article that are the drivers of health costs.  I read in another state's medical system that hospitals and specialty medicine were shouting out that health fraud needs to be made a priority in ridding hospitals of cost since health fraud is a billion dollar business in MD.  Not one mention here.  Second, the charges for imaging for example, an MRI, are just as high now as when the hospital first bought these medical machines and they have long paid off these costs through augmented patient charges.  They are inflating the costs for MRIs to maximize profits.  If the medical equipment is paid, drop the fees!

I know that at the University of MD Medical System the new MD Health Insurance removes the cost of poor patients that have historically received the same treatment as everyone else that comes to this hospital.  Now, UMMS refuse certain levels of care that are costly because of this new category of MD insurance for the poor.  Cancer treatment for example is denied a patient at a certain threshold.  All of this is causing the poor to die early from lack of access and it takes a great deal of expense off of hospitals and emergency rooms..the two most costly operations, so why are hospitals not seeing expenses go down?

We are seeing in MD a push to lower employee wages as well.  Me thinks truth is missing yet!



Maryland panel approves hospital rate increase Hospitals say additional revenue not enough



By Andrea K. Walker, The Baltimore Sun 7:53 p.m. EDT, June 5, 2013

A state panel voted unanimously Wednesday to increase the rates hospitals can charge by 1.65 percent, but the medical institutions say the amount is inadequate and will collectively drive hospitals into the red.

The Maryland Hospital Association said the decision will cause operating margins to plummet to negative 0.24 percent. The association had pushed for a rate hike of 2.43 percent, which would have also pushed down margins, but still left hospitals operating in positive territory.

Members of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission said they preferred the lower rate hike proposed by their staff. That plan sought to balance the financial constraints facing hospitals with the state's attempt to negotiate with the federal government over a new Medicare waiver, an agreement unique to Maryland that allows the state to set hospital rates.

The state has been concerned that rate increases might disrupt those talks.

"I am really worried about the waiver," commission member Dr. Stephen F. Jencks, an independent consultant and senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, said in explaining why he supported the staff recommendation.

"I am mindful of what the hospital executives are saying," Jencks said. "But I feel pretty strongly that in this environment where cost competition has essentially been removed, that the pressure of limited resources is the only way that you get real interest in improving productivity. We have to hear your concerns with both respect and empathy, but the fact we hear your concerns does not mean the system is out of kilter."

Commissioner Jack Keane, a health care consultant, also said he was "not persuaded by the financial condition of the hospitals." He also said hospitals could adjust to the changes.

Hospitals say the commission's balancing act is wobbly and puts hospital finances on the back burner.

"We believe the commission is too singularly focused on the fear of losing the waiver," said Carmela Coyle, CEO of the hospital association. "But what good is the waiver if in the process we bankrupt Maryland hospitals?"

Robert A. Chrencik, CEO of the University of Maryland Medical System, said five years of low rate increases have prompted hospitals to tighten their belts and the commission's vote makes things more difficult. He worried about the impact on the bond ratings if hospitals become more financially strapped.

"It is a decision that continues to underfund cost inflation and makes it more difficult financially for hospitals to operate," Chrencik said after the meeting.

Chrencik said hospitals won't sacrifice care as they try to balance budgets, but may consider cutting services that aren't profitable. The obstetrics unit at Maryland General, which is owned by the University of Maryland, will close June 30 because of a decline in deliveries that doesn't make it financially feasible to maintain the unit.

Meritus Health in Hagerstown is considering eliminating paid time off to deal with financial constraints. Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., announced a similar strategy in April to deal with federal budget cuts. Under its plan, the staff won't accrue vacation time for three months or receive pay increases, according to the Tennessean newspaper.



"It is easier than laying people off," Raymond Grahe, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Meritus Health System, told the commission. "It is easier than reducing, but it cuts benefits. … It is a serious consideration that goes before my board next month.

"One would say this rate increase does nothing but maintain the status quo or less," Grahe said.

Anne Arundel Medical Center said job vacancies are being carefully scrutinized and that the hospital is reviewing positions to make sure they can be supported.

"Proposed payment reductions leave hospitals with few options for reducing spending," the hospital said in a statement. "This weakening of hospital finances concerns us. We are not cutting services, and actually hope to expand our community outreach later this year. But we are not sure how long we will be able to sustain this growth without adequate reimbursement."

The rate increase would take effect July 1 and run through the end of the year. The rate-setting panel typically decides rates for a full fiscal year's time, but did it in a smaller increment because of the waiver negotiations.

The state must pass a test to maintain the waiver, but has a hard time meeting its standards. Maryland keeps the waiver if its average cost per hospital admission rises no faster than in other states.

The rate increase comes as Maryland hospitals have complained that the state hasn't done enough to help the facilities increase revenue to help make up a 2 percent cut in Medicare payments required by federal sequestration, which began in April.

Hospitals say they are facing some of the worst financial conditions in years.

As a group, the hospitals' operating margin was 0.8 percent for the first eight months of the 2013 fiscal year, their second-lowest return in 14 years, a recent report by the hospital association found. Twenty-five of Maryland's 60 hospitals had negative operating margins, according to the report.

The hospitals had also sought a rate increase for the remainder of fiscal year 2013: April, May and June. But the commission voted at a May meeting to keep rates unchanged, leaving the hospitals to absorb the federal cuts. The facilities are collectively expected to lose $7 million to $8 million a month during that period.

andrea.walker@baltsun.com


_______________________________________________

What O'Malley means is that all you have to do to get rid of poor and working class citizens in a state is raise taxes so high they cannot afford to live in Maryland....which is what is happening.  The reasons they are making Maryland so regressive in revenue is that they are eliminating taxes on corporations and the rich.  We are watching as wealthy foreign families are moved here just as is happening across the country who are paying for the priviledge of citizenship and the Washington suburbs are filling with these new immigrants.  Universities in Maryland recruit foreign students from wealthy families while cutting financial aid for in-state residents.

Third Way corporate democrats like O'Malley work for wealth and profit so they see success from bringing others into the state not caring about pushing others out and that is what we see in MD's policies today.  The burden of revenue is pushed more and more on the working class and poor.  Now, you do not want to vote republican because you think they will reverse this because they will not..remember Ehrlich and his fees and taxes.  Republicans want corporations and the rich to rule as well.  We simply need for democratic voters to take back the democratic party that works for labor and justice to reverse what corporate democrats are doing to the state.  Wealth inequity is greatest in MD and that is not a democratic stance!


How do Gov. O'Malley's tax increases make Md. a model for growing the middle class?

Baltimore Sun Opinion

Gov. Martin O'Malley argues that Maryland has become a national model for growing the middle class ("O'Malley touts state economy in address on middle class," May 30).

Say what?

Could I have some of that Kool-Aid, sir?

Governor how does putting such a heavy tax burden on the citizens of Maryland — 40 tax and fee increases in seven-plus years — help the middle class?

Your policies are crushing the middle class, sir. Come down from your high horse and see what life is really like in Maryland.

John Jackson, Baltimore


0 Comments

January 17th, 2013

1/17/2013

0 Comments

 
YOU WILL HEAR A PROPAGANDA MACHINE THAT SAYS MARYLAND AND NEW YORK, HOME OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES CUOMO AND O'MALLEY ARE SOOOOO PROGRESSIVE AND IT IS A COMPLETE LIE!!!!!  WHETHER THESE TWO, OR BIDEN AND HILLARY CLINTON.....THEY ARE ALL RAGING THIRD WAY CORPORATE POLITICIANS!!!


This is a busy week for actions of all sorts and I want to finish for now on Gun Control by encouraging all people to look closely at all of what is being proposed by the Obama/Hopkins policy group and think about the regressive nature and the current state of our country as regards attitudes towards government and corporate autocratic control.  In Maryland, Health Care for All, an organization supposedly working to protect people is promoting these regressive policies because they are a Hopkins private non-profit!!!

I would like to discuss labor issues that show progress on the part of citizens organizing and combating ever regressive labor conditions and introduce new areas to fight in that regard.  Here in Baltimore we have strong unionizing actions in a city whose pols work hard to impoverish.  We see Sheraton and Hyatt staff at all levels on the streets in picket lines fighting for unionization.  This week Baltimore is the site of a National Labor Board action against Hyatt for firing union organizers and look forward to favorable rulings as the case is solid.  I will attend those proceedings tomorrow and give an update.  This is important as US labor is now at such an impoverished level of wages as to make us almost equal to China in how labor costs effect corporate operational costs and therefor profits.

Below you'll see that the manufacturing sector that is moving back to America is doing so not because Obama and Third Way corporate democrats gave them trillions of dollars in tax breaks under the guise of job creation, they are coming back because the technology created over these few decades has eliminated the need for much of the human labor in these factories....the article below places robots as taking half of the jobs in a factory.  So, your corporate pol is providing a bonanza in tax breaks for very few jobs......which is why unemployment will remain high.  Now, what is an American citizen to do....we cannot hate robots?  The problem and deliberate policy that makes this transition as bad as it is for unemployment is that ALL OF THE SMALL, REGIONAL BUSINESSES THAT WOULD COMPETE AND OFFER ALTERNATIVE PRODUCTS ARE BEING SIDELINED EITHER BY INABILITY TO GET SMALL BUSINESS FUNDING OR BY LAWS THAT ALLOW THESE MEGA-BUSINESSES TO FORCE SMALLER BUSINESSES TO MERGE WITH THEM, PUTTING THEM OUT OF BUSINESS.   Remember, a handful of corporations own all of business interests in America and this is what is keeping unemployment high!!!!  Do we have free-markets and the benefits of competition if we have a business environment that stifles competition and allows price-fixing?  IT IS ALL AN ILLUSION AS WE ARE CAPTURED BY THE INTERESTS OF A HANDFUL OF CORPORATIONS.  THIS IS BAD POLICY FOR A FREE AND DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY.

If your Third Way corporate democrat is not shouting loudly and strongly against these policies that are consolidating our economy and killing our ability to actively engage in personal pursuits.......THEY ARE NOT WORKING FOR THE MIDDLE/LOWER CLASS ....VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!  IF YOUR LABOR OR JUSTICE LEADERS ARE NOT RUNNING CANDIDATES AGAINST THESE THIRD WAY CORPORATE POLS ......THEY ARE NOT WORKING FOR YOU AND ME AND YOU NEED TO VOTE THOSE LEADERS OUT!!!

WHEN OBAMA IS TELLING US THAT MANUFACTURING RETURNING TO AMERICA WILL FUEL JOB CREATION AND WHEN YOUR THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS KEEP GIVING TAX BREAKS TO THESE CORPORATIONS UNDER THE GUISE OF JOB CREATION......THIS IS WHAT IS CAUSING EVER GROWING UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES.....AND YOUR POLITICIAN KNOWS THAT.

We know that policy creating mega-corporations is bad for American labor, we know as well that policy designed to maximize corporate profits are as well because it is labor and quality of service that are that source.  So corporate tax policy that is now not only free corporations from paying taxes but actually have our government handing our tax revenue to corporations for their operating costs it TOXIC for the American people and your Third Way corporate democrat is going at this like gang-busters.  Obama and all of the Senate's democratic leaders are Third Way corporate and that is why we are seeing these policies getting ever deeper.

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!

Lastly for today I want to remind all citizens ......because you all are potential labor after all......that Third Way corporate democrats are pushing for privatizing all that is public even faster than Republicans because they are wanting government to be all about serving corporate interests and not about protecting the interests of the people.  GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE------THAT IS OUR DEMOCRACY-----IS BEING TAKEN AWAY BY USURPERS THAT WOULD NORMALLY BE PROSECUTED FOR CRIMES AGAINST THE STATE....ONLY THE PROSECUTORS ARE WORKING FOR THE USURPERS!!!!

So every public institution is being given over to corporations and as a result the public sector which was always middle-class with benefits are now being made the most impoverished..  Maryland's O'Malley and Baltimore's Rawlings-Blake are deliberately allowing contractors to dismantle our MTA by making agreements that were to protect the unionized MTA workers and their rights when handed over to Veola and then Veola slashes all those rights and the unions are dissolved by firing and resale.  YOUR THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRAT IS DOING JUST AS BAIN CAPITAL DID TO BE RID OF UNIONS AND THEIR BENEFITS.....DEFUNDING THEM BY ALLOWING MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD TO EMPTY GOVERNMENT COFFERS AND BY FURTHER STARVING GOVERNMENT WITH CORPORATE TAX BREAKS AND PARTNERSHIPS THAT PLACE ALL THE COST OF BUSINESS OPERATION ON THE PUBLIC.

STOP REELECTING YOUR INCUMBENT AND MAKE SURE A LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATE IS RUNNING FOR OFFICES AT ALL LEVELS!!!!!


January 13, 2013 8:07 PM Are robots hurting job growth?

The following script is from "March of the Machines" which aired on Jan. 13, 2013. Steve Kroft is the correspondent. Harry Radliffe and Maria Gavrilovic, producers.

60 Minutes Overtime The robot waltz: An appreciation » One of the hallmarks of the 21st century is that we are all having more and more interactions with machines and fewer with human beings. If you've lost your white collar job to downsizing, or to a worker in India or China you're most likely a victim of what economists have called technological unemployment. There is a lot of it going around with more to come.

At the vanguard of this new wave of automation is the field of robotics. Everyone has a different idea of what a robot is and what they look like but the broad universal definition is a machine that can perform the job of a human. They can be mobile or stationary, hardware or software, and they are marching out of the realm of science fiction and into the mainstream.

The age of robots has been anticipated since the beginning of the last century. Fritz Lang fantasized about it in his 1927 film "Metropolis." In the 1940s and 50s, robots were often portrayed as household help.

And by the time "Star Wars" trilogy arrived, robots with their computerized brains and nerve systems had been fully integrated into our imagination. Now they're finally here, but instead of serving us, we found that they are competing for our jobs. And according to MIT professors, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, one of the reasons for the jobless recovery.

Andrew McAfee: Our economy is bigger than it was before the start of the Great Recession. Corporate profits are back. Business investment in hardware and software is back higher than it's ever been. What's not back is the jobs.

Steve Kroft: And you think technology and increased automation is a factor in that?

Erik Brynjolfsson: Absolutely.

The percentage of Americans with jobs is at a 20-year low. Just a few years ago if you traveled by air you would have interacted with a human ticket agent. Today, those jobs are being replaced by robotic kiosks. Bank tellers have given way to ATMs, sales clerks are surrendering to e-commerce and switchboard operators and secretaries to voice recognition technology.

Erik Brynjolfsson: There are lots of examples of routine, middle-skilled jobs that involve relatively structured tasks and those are the jobs that are being eliminated the fastest. Those kinds of jobs are easier for our friends in the artificial intelligence community to design robots to handle them. They could be software robots, they could be physical robots.

Steve Kroft: What is there out there that people would be surprised to learn about? In the robotics area, let's say.

Andrew McAfee: There are heavily automated warehouses where there are either very few or no people around. That absolutely took me by surprise.

It's on display at this huge distribution center in Devens, Mass., where roughly 100 employees work alongside 69 robots that do all the heavy lifting and navigate a warehouse maze the size of two football fields -- moving 10,000 pieces of merchandise a day from storage shelf to shipping point faster and more efficiently than human workers ever could.

Bruce Welty: We think its part of the new American economy.

Bruce Welty is CEO of Quiet Logistics, which fills orders and ships merchandise for retailers in the apparel industry. This entire operation was designed around the small orange robots made by a company outside Boston called Kiva. And can now be found in warehouses all over the country.

Steve Kroft: Now this is the order that she is filling, right, on this screen.
______________________________________________

The key word here is other contractor.  This is our public transportation system and we do not want any of it to fall to private contractors because, as you see, there is no stability for the employees attached to these contractors.....which is the point says Mayor Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore City Council.  These are employees that should be working for the MTA making a middle-class salary with strong public sector benefits.  What Baltimore politicians are doing is privatizing public transportation a little at a time and throwing these employees into a private hiring situation that impoverishes them, takes their benefits, and now we see they are losing their jobs and seniority.  When Veola took jobs from the MTA there were contract protections for the workers.  The idea was that the employees would remain unionized just as they were with MTA but, as is the plan with all these public-private partnerships, they are brought down to poverty and then if unionized, a reason is found to dismiss.  Now, when/if these employees are rehired or moved to yet another private contractor will they be unionized?  You can bet that won't happen in Baltimore with this City Council and mayor.....they seek to make you as poor as possible!!


Veolia Transportation warns that it will lay off 78 Most could be hired by a competitor, company tells state
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun 1:02 p.m. EST, January 15, 2013

Veolia Transportation warned state officials that it will be laying off 78 employees in Baltimore as it stops servicing a portion of an unspecified contract, but added that most could be hired by the new contractor.

The cuts are expected March 3.

Veolia's notice to the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said the workers are based at a Huntingdon Ave. location. Veolia's services in Baltimore include paratransit.

State labor officials said the company hopes that employees who don't switch to the new contractor will find other jobs at Veolia. The company is based in Illinois and has operations across the country.

jhopkins@baltsun.com

________________________________________________________________________________
THERE ARE SO MANY POLICIES COMING FROM BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL AND MAYOR RAWLINGS-BLAKE THAT DELIBERATELY IMPOVERISH CITY WORKERS THAT WE NEED ALL OF THE FEDERAL HELP WE CAN GET.  THE NATIONAL LABOR BOARD IS SO WEAKENED BY DEFUNDING THAT IT TAKES VERY FEW CASES TO COURT......WHICH IS THE REASON IT IS DEFUNDED BY THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS.

Labor-practices case against Hyatt Regency begins National Labor Relations Board attorneys call it a 'classic nip-in-the-bud case'

By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun 8:31 p.m. EST, January 14, 2013

A hearing into allegations of unfair labor practices filed against the Hyatt Regency Baltimore began late Monday after hours of ultimately fruitless discussion about settling the complaint.

National Labor Relations Board attorneys began their case against the hotel by describing the situation as a "predictable pattern" of "unlawful" management responses to unionizing efforts by employees working with Unite Here, a union that represents employees in fields such as hospitality.

"It's a classic nip-in-the-bud case," said Sean R. Marshall, a senior trial attorney for the board.

In a November complaint, the board's general counsel alleged that Hyatt Regency managers who "interrogated employees about their union activities" suddenly began "invoking harsh discipline" when employees arrived late to work and fired four people last year as part of the reaction to unionizing.

Since then, one of the workers has been rehired, Unite Here says. Eric M. Fine, an administrative law judge for the board, will decide whether to reinstate the other three and whether to order the Hyatt to give them back pay. The government's case also alleges other unfair labor practices against workers who were not fired.

Hyatt Regency's general manager, Gail Smith-Howard, said in a statement that she believes the hotel will prevail. She said in an earlier interview that the hotel hasn't tried to stop workers from unionizing.

"Because of our disagreement with UniteHere over its organizing tactics, the union has said and done anything to advance its cause, including making false accusations about Hyatt's workplace environment in Baltimore and elsewhere," she said in the statement.

Unite Here, which said Hyatt Regency managers disciplined workers for arriving as little as one minute late after union activities came to light, expects the government to call at least a dozen witnesses. The case will likely continue past this week.

"I think it's really significant that this many workers are coming forward to testify," said Tracy Lingo, an organizer with Unite Here Local 7 in Baltimore.

The National Labor Relations Board says about 90 percent of its cases settle. Attorneys on both sides of the Hyatt case tried for most of Monday to do so, with updates to the judge suggesting the parties were getting close, but they couldn't reach an agreement.

After that, there was only time for Marshall's opening statement — the Hyatt's attorneys will make theirs when their part of the case begins — and a single witness.

Barthold Philippeaux, who worked in the Hyatt Regency's kitchen for two stretches, most recently from April 2011 to last June, was part of the union organizing committee. He testified that he received a text message from a supervisor that asked about union activities after word got back to managers.

The next day, workers went public. Philippeaux and others passed out union leaflets to co-workers. Soon after, he said, the same supervisor called him into an office.

"He said, 'That right there is a f— — up way of trying to get fired,'" said Philippeaux, who now works in Atlanta.

Brian Deller, a Hyatt bartender who is also active in the unionizing effort, said before the hearing that the case is encouraging workers to press on.

"In this country, you have the right to organize a union, you have the right to join a union and you cannot be fired for that," he said.

jhopkins@baltsun.com
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November 27th, 2012

11/27/2012

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We are watching as the 1% build a system in America that not only is geared towards corporate profits, but it is geared towards building a pipeline through elite universities and corporations and into  employment that will have no access for most of Americans......and they are using our retirements, our health care, our wages and benefits to do it.  Add massive fraud and this is a well-financed deal.  Obama even passed legislation that will allow students of elite schools to write-off much of the high tuition at our expense as well.  IT IS BIZARRE FOLKS....THEY ARE CREATING A PROTECTED CLASS.

We need to start reversing this trend by working against global markets and corporations.  You cannot control or hold accountable businesses this size...everyone knows that.  So that means all of the incumbents must go!!! When you listen to the news with all of the corporate angst regarding Congressional actions......as if that is the reason for stagnation, look at the international news to see US businesses are expanding in leaps and bounds....there is no stagnation, they are doing just as they planned.  Domestically we never hear that because the intent is to hand all that is public over to private hands and they need the drama of this deficit to do it.  ALL OF THIS IS A LONG PLANNED SCHEME AND THERE IS NO CRISIS....ONLY BAD POLICY AND BAD PEOPLE IN LEADERSHIP.

NPR has now become the harbinger of things to come.  They slowly expose the public to the next phase of the 'New Economy' by highlighting the next phase....in this case it is transportation.  Here in Maryland we have already been exposed to high speed rail and the need to raise gas taxes 6% to pay for more road infrastructure...and we cannot manage it without partnerships.  Taxpayers build the ICC at such a leverage as to require private companies to build others and collect tolls at a profit.

THE RECURRING THEME IN MARYLAND AND BALTIMORE IS MARTIN O'MALLEY'S SIGNATURE AND WHY HE WAS TAPPED FOR NATIONAL OFFICE:

LEVERAGE THE HECK OUT OF ALL GOVERNMENT TRANSACTIONS AND MAKE THE PUBLIC TIED TO WALL STREET DEBT.  IT IS VERY SIMPLE.  THINK OF WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO DO WITH THE SCHOOL BONDS IN BALTIMORE AND ALL THAT LEVERAGE.

The last article shows Veola yet again.  This is an example of how Maryland is not only being sold to Wall Street, but is being used in this global game of quid pro quo in corporate expansion.  Take a look at this global corp and its history to see that, like the sale of BGE energy company to Exelon, O'Malley has literally blown Maryland's public out of the water.


Local transportation observers say that if Maryland motorists want new or wider highways, the state’s next alternative would be allowing private companies to build and operate roads for a profit. That, of course, would lead to motorists paying more tolls.

ICC puts strain on Maryland’s transportation funds
The Washington Post -
By Katherine Shaver, Published: November 21, 2011 | Updated: Tuesday, November 22, 6:42 AM

The 18.8-mile Intercounty Connector, which opened in full Tuesday, could be the last publicly funded highway built in Maryland for a generation, as the state’s tolling agency, which financed its $2.56 billion construction, reaches its debt limit, local transportation experts said.

Financing for the six-lane toll road linking Interstate 270 in Montgomery County with Interstate 95 in Prince George’s County leveraged the Maryland Transportation Authority’s statewide toll collections.



But the transportation authority’s debt capacity is tapped out from borrowing to build the ICC and $1 billion in express toll lanes on I-95 northeast of Baltimore, state budget analysts said. Mounting debt recently prompted the authority to raise tolls statewide as the authority also struggles to maintain its aging bridges, tunnels and roads.

“You’re probably looking at another 20 years before we see another major road like this be built,” said Lon Anderson, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Supporters say the ICC provides a vital east-west link long missing from Maryland’s highway network, but some critics worry about the toll road’s long-term financial effects. They say the ICC’s hefty price — it’s the most expensive road Maryland has ever built — has hamstrung the state’s transportation finances for years.

“The state has mortgaged its transportation future in many ways to the ICC,” said Montgomery County Council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville), a longtime critic of the highway. “The opportunity cost of building the ICC has been huge, because it’s foreclosed improving many other roads.”

.........................................................................................
HERE IS NPR PREPARING US FOR THE MUST-NEEDED PARTNERSHIPS IN TRANSPORTATION.  REMEMBER......WE ARE OWED TRILLIONS IN FRAUD FROM THESE VERY DEVELOPMENT CORPS WHO WILL BE BROUGHT IN TO BUILD THIS INFRASTRUCTURE AND THEN THEY WILL PAY FOR IT BY CHARGING EVER HIGHER TOLLS.  CAN'T AFFORD THE TOLLS?  MOVE OUT OF MARYLAND IS THEIR MOTTO!!!  THEY USED ALL OF YOUR TRANSPORTATION TRUST FOR TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN WASHINGTON SUBURBS AND NOW ALL OTHER STATE CONSTRUCTION WILL BE PRIVATIZED AND TOLLED

Below you revisit the Mass Trans as it is a model for Maryland....Baltimore just inherited Boston's development person.... just like Maryland after two decades of record growth and profit (albeit fueled by fraud) no investment in infrastructure happened.  Now the roads and bridges are like Baltimore's defunded, blighted neighborhoods in need now of corporate rescue.  Boston on the other hand is still trying to recover from the Big Dig and public losses to massive fraud there.

WE DON'T NEED DEVELOPERS INVESTING AND DECIDING WHERE AND WHAT OUR TRANSPORTATION WILL BE.....WE SIMPLY NEED CORPORATIONS TO REPAY FRAUD AND PAY THEIR TAXES INTO OUR GENERAL FUND.

Prospering Public Transportation Air Date: Week of November 23, 2012

Urban walkers (photo: bigstockphoto.com)

With more and more people riding the train, public transportation systems are becoming increasingly crowded. Yet many are deep into debt; for instance Boston's system, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is 130 million dollars in the red. George Washington University Transportation researcher Christopher Leinberger discusses his plan to revitalize public transportation and curb climate change with host Steve Curwood.

Transcript CURWOOD: It’s Living on Earth, I'm Steve Curwood. As more and more people move into walk-able city centers, public transit ridership is on the rise - and under stress.

Nowhere is the trend more stark than Boston, home of the nation’s first subway system.

[BACKGROUND NOISE, SUBWAY]

WOMAN: This morning I was on the 6:00am Heath Street train and there was a broken down car ahead of us and we had to get off of three different trains and back on, and everyone on the train was late for work. They did a lot of service cuts recently, I feel like they’re just short on people or something. I don’t know, but it’s definitely been way worse than what I’ve experienced in the past few years.

MAN: I actually waited last week for like a half an hour for a B-line train, I think. I saw a bunch of other trains go by and then mine came and it was so full that I had to wait for the next one. And then the next one came and that was even still full so I just squeezed my way on, shoved my way on.

CURWOOD: Despite the boom in ridership and a recent fare hike, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is in deep financial trouble, with some routes strained to the breaking point. The combination of debt, operating deficits, long deferred maintenance, and growing ridership looks like an intractable problem, especially with governments' budgets squeezed.

But there is a way to finance operations and expansion that taps the profits that transit can bring to business, according to Christopher Leinberger, a George Washington University transportation researcher. He says - think of transit attached to walkable districts as a means of sustainable economic development that then helps pay the transit tab, and fights climate change.

LEINBERGER: Transportation, whether it be roads or rail transit, or bike lanes, have always been subsidized. The airlines have been around 100 years, and the net profit that those airlines have made in that 100 years, is zero, the few good years get offset by crushing losses. The question is – who pays? We have a situation where the federal government is not going to play its historic role funding a significant amount of mass transit, the state governments are in the same situation, so where does that money come from?

And I’m suggesting, and Locus is suggesting, and a lot of developers are suggesting that we need to learn from how we used to build our transit systems 100 years ago. This country 100 years ago had the finest rail transit system on the planet. And the vast majority of it was paid for by real estate developers, and it’s not as if the economics were different then than now – those rail transit systems, those trollies, those subways in New York, lost money. So why did developers build them?

They built them to get their customers out to their land, so land profits subsidized the transit, and that’s what we’re proposing with value capture as well. Value capture is capturing the value that’s created by transportation improvements. And it’s not as if you can just assume that developers are just going to pay for it all, that’s not going to happen. Think of it as a layer cake of different financing sources.

Some is going to be from the federal government, some is going to be from the state government, and some will be from the developers that will commit a portion of their profits, a portion of their up-sides that pay off the bonds that build those transit systems.

CURWOOD: So, tell me, how could this concept of value capture work for existing transit systems? Consider Boston for example, the fare box just pays for the debt, but businesses have been getting the MBTA for free, so why would they now want to pay?

LEINBERGER: Because they could get increased density, possibly. So that you could go to the existing property owners and say, ‘we will zone a higher density for you. In exchange, we want a piece of that upside to help pay for either the operations of or the capital improvements of the rail system.’

CURWOOD: Let’s focus for a moment more on new transit systems – how does value capture work exactly for those new routes of mass transit?

LEINBERGER: With a new system, such as the new line that’s going out to Tyson’s Corner in northern Virginia from downtown DC, about a third of that cost is being paid for by the property owners at Tyson’s. Tyson’s, 25 years ago, led the market in DC, the highest rents, the highest absorption, they were the king of the hill. Today, they’re near the bottom, and that’s because the market wants more walkable, urban, higher-density places.

So, the Tyson’s developers, very intelligently, said they have to bring metro out to Tyson’s. And so they taxed themselves to pay for about a third of the cost of that very expensive rail system. Another way is the New York Ave. metro station in DC, a bunch of developers got together and said: We’d like to build a station, and we so need this station that we’re willing to pony up, again, about a third of the cost, and they put the money upfront.

And I’ve talked to one of them recently and he says it’s the best investment he’s ever made because money in that metro station increased the value of his land so much that he made a phenomenal return on that investment.


The Washington DC tube (photo: bigstockphoto.com)

CURWOOD: What about Boston? Boston wants to extend its green line out from the Lechmere area out to Somerville. How could value capture work for that new route?

LEINBERGER: Well, there’s a number of new developments that are being proposed along that green line, and there are some very substantial developers that are proposing it. They too could help pay for the stations and they could also cut a deal with the MBTA to maybe share a piece of their financial upsides to help pay for the operations.

Because, with transit, you’ve got both the issue of capital costs and operating costs – most systems, the operating costs are not even covered by the fare box and then you have to find separate sources of funding to pay for the capital costs, and that’s just the way it is, so we have to deal with that.

CURWOOD: What’s the formula for having this economic success. If you bring a transit line to a certain place, what needs to be there to get the development that you say, and how critical is walkability?

LEINBERGER: Walkability is driving this. Walkable urban places have a significant price premium over drivable suburban, and so much so that the variability in economic performance, about 2/3s of it is explained by how walkable it is. It’s a major economic driver. The other two, by the way, happen to be job density and work force education level, how many people have their college degrees. That explains over 90 percent of the reason why these walk-able urban places perform so well economically.


A passenger waits for the T in Boston (photo: bigstockphoto.com)

CURWOOD: How does Boston move forward? What do you recommend?

LEINBERGER: Think of it as a baseball team. Think of it as the Boston Red Sox. And the infielders are the walkable urban places, whether they be in the suburbs or the city. The outfielders are the 128 drivable suburban places. They’re both important, but you have pent up demand for more walkable urban places and the market wants a lot of those to be in the suburbs.

The center city is growing and the suburbs are not just not growing, they may be shrinking.

_______________________________________________________


WONDER IF O'MALLEY, ANTHONY BROWN, MAGGIE MCINTOSH, AND RALWINGS-BLAKE IS WORKING FOR THE CITIZENS OF MARYLAND, OR FOR THE 1% WITH GLOBAL INTERESTS?

SINCE VEOLA HAS TAKEN OVER MARYLAND TRANSPORTATION WORKERS FROM TAXI DRIVERS TO BUS DRIVERS HAVE BEEN FORCED TO TAKE WAGE CUTS AND LOSS OF BENEFITS.  TAXI DRIVERS WERE MADE INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS WHO NOW CAN'T AFFORD HEALTH INSURANCE.

THESE GLOBAL CORPORATIONS ARE CUT THROAT AND HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OF HOW SERVICES ARE DEVELOPED AND RUN. THEY ARE BROUGHT TO THE STATE TO DO THE DIRTY WORK OF IMPOVERISHING WORKERS THAT USED TO BE MIDDLE-CLASS.  WITH TAXPAYERS PAYING ALL THE CAPITAL COSTS......SHAREHOLDERS ARE ON EASY STREET.  NOW, AFTER EXPANDING FROM WASTE MANAGEMENT AND WATER SYSTEMS, TO TRANSPORTATION, I HEAR THEY ARE GOING INTO THE ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE BUSINESS.

WHY WOULD WE WANT THESE KINDS OF BUSINESS CONNECTIONS?  WE DON'T!!!  IT IS JUST PITIFUL!!!

Veolia Rejects Federal Mediator's Proposal, PG County Bus Service Continues to Suffer   Veolia Management Refuses to Allow Workers to Return WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

Members of Teamsters Local 639 working for Veolia/TheBus remain on strike today after the company refused to agree to a settlement proposed by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service that would have resulted in an end to the current job action and an immediate restoration of regular bus service to the residents of Prince George's County, Md.

Late Wednesday night, the union agreed to a proposal by Federal Mediators to end the strike, return to work and extend the current contract another six months to allow for additional bargaining between the two sides. Veolia negotiators refused to immediately agree to the proposal, promising to give their answer to the Federal Mediators the morning of Thursday, Sept. 30. Late Thursday night the mediator was informed that Veolia completely rejected an extension and refused to allow drivers back to work.

"We have done all we can to settle this dispute," said Tommy Ratliff, President of Local 639 in Washington D.C. "The County Executive has been notified that the company is refusing to agree to a six-month extension, and is effectively refusing to negotiate. Our members are ready to get back to work, but the company is stonewalling."

Company representatives have made it clear that they are unwilling to accept even the most reasonable offers during negotiations, turning down every proposal the union put on the table – even those that would have saved Veolia more than $150,000 in health care costs.

"When the Federal Mediators are stunned by the company's behavior you know something is wrong,"
Ratliff said. "We received nothing but compliments from the mediators for our efforts to resolve the dispute. The only way I can describe Veolia's actions during bargaining is bizarre, and that may be an understatement."

Veolia is a French Multi-national company with operations throughout the US and Canada. The Teamsters represent thousands of Veolia members at all three of its North American subsidiaries. Veolia derives over $1 billion in revenue from its U.S. operations and more than $7.6 billion worldwide.

In contentious contract negotiations in Phoenix, Arizona yesterday, hundreds of workers at Teamsters Local Union 104, Amalgamated Transit Union Local No. 1433, and the International Union of Operating Engineers 428 agreed to a contract extension through midnight Sunday. All three unions are preparing for strike action, while the company has indicated that they intend to lock workers out if there is not an agreement by Sunday. In Phoenix, Veolia's maintenance staff is represented by Teamsters Local 104, Amalgamated Transit Union Local No. 1433 represents the more than 600 bus operators, and the International Union of Operating Engineers 428 is the bus mechanics' union.

Local 639 represents more than 8,000 workers in the Washington Metro area, a large number who reside in Maryland. Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

SOURCE Teamsters Local Union 639



THIS IS FROM BEFORE VEOLIA CAME TO MARYLAND/BALTIMORE.  THERE IS A LITANY OF LAWSUITS ET AL THAT YOU CAN READ ABOUT WITH THE LINK BELOW.

Terminate Indianapolis's Contract with Veolia Don't let Veolia into your town or city

  Excerpts from http://www.polarisinstitute.org/files/veoliapdf.pdf   Return to Home

Introduction

Since the late 1990’s, the multinational corporation Vivendi (now known as Vivendi Universal) has gone through a number of fundamental shifts in operational focus. Moving away from the environmental services management business and towards communications and media, Vivendi Universal has almost completely retreated from its roots in the water services industry where it began operations in France 1853. The Vivendi legacy, however, synonymous with water privatization and corruption, lives on in a new corporation created in 2002 out of their water and wastewater services division. The new company, Veolia Environment, which was known as Vivendi Environment until 2003, carries all of Vivendi’s history and reputation into its new corporate entity.

Vivendi, the notorious water services privateer, originally called Compagnie Générale des Eaux, was formed in the 1850s in France as a private water services provider. After more than a hundred years of global expansion in the water and wastewater services business, they expanded its business in the 1980’s with the acquisition of a waste management services and transportation provider  and an energy services provider. In 1998, following the acquisition of several communications and media companies they changed its name to Vivendi. The same year Vivendi continued to extend its global environmental services activities with the acquisition of  the leading water and wastewater treatment services company in the US, United States Filter Corporation.
In 1999, Vivendi created Vivendi Environment to conduct all of its environmental management activities. At this point, because of its now huge scope, Vivendi began to fall into some serious financial difficulties. Investors began to believe that the company was overstretched, causing a major sell-off of shares and a drop in Vivendi’s share price. They had to write off almost $17 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2002 and took $4.85 billion charge on their 2nd quarter earnings statement, because the value of their assets had dropped after the stock tumbled.

In April 2003 Vivendi Environment changed its name to Veolia Environment (VE).4

At the same time VE became a limited liability company under French law with a Board of Directors, replacing a Management Board and Supervisory Board structure used under its former core shareholder VU. This move essentially split VE from its former majority shareholder.

Like its predecessors, Veolia Environment profits from pro-privatization policies. VE has allied itself with international institutions and capitalized on its extensive links with the French government to ensure that the use of public private partnerships is a widely promoted and accepted economic development initiative. VE makes money managing privatized water utilities and it is in their interest to influence governments and institutions to privatize public services.

VE has also been charged with corruption, bribery and anti-competitive business practices on a number of occasions.

002 – 2004: Indianapolis, Indiana – Indianapolis authorities are realizing the mistake they made when they bought a 130-year old water utility from NiSource in 2002 and handed it over to US Filter instead of keeping it a public utility. Since US Filter was awarded the contract, lawsuits have been filed and customer complaints have gone up by 250% for the water utility, which serves over 1 million.

Within one month of requesting management proposals, US Filter was granted a contract. Opponents criticized the excessive secrecy and “fast-tracking” surrounding the agreement. At its first opportunity, the company, limited by the contract from firing employees in the first two years, began to cut corners by slashing employee benefits. A report by Public Citizen, member of the Indianapolis Citizen’s Water Coalition, states that “non-union employees lost their valuable "defined benefit" pension; health care coverage was reduced, vacation time, personal days, sick days and holidays were all reduced.85 The employees claim that over $9000 in annual benefits have been lost or $4.3 million per year. Employees are angry and fearful as talk of the first layoffs in 130 years circulate. CEO Jim Keene told employees, ‘Being fair does not mean having a job for life’.” The employees have brought a federal lawsuit against the City charging breach of contract.
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May 30th, 2012

5/30/2012

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Unassailable integrity says Franchot and O'Malley of the outgoing Transportation Department head even as calls for accountability of the Transportation Trust that no one knows where the money was spent.  Unassailable integrity of Ulyssus Currie, longtime Chair of all things financial in the Maryland Assembly.  China has its Politburo.....the West has its Troika.......same thing.  I spoke with the new Director of Common Cause Maryland about the Center for Public Integrity Study placing Maryland at the bottom in America in corruption and other watchdog groups the same in fraud and invited him to join CitizensOversight in investigating what we all know to be massive fraud in business tax credits.....'Come to Baltimore' and he said he was on board.  We will be looking for Common Cause Maryland to shout out for audits and accountability!

Gorbachev of the Soviet Union was hailed as a modernizer of now Russia.....America loved him.  He took a socialist state where all government assets were public and with the next leader, Yeltsin systematically gave all that was public to a handful of Russian families.....Russia's 1%.  There was no taxpayer money to help in the transition, but then everything in Russia was state....plenty with which to work.  In America, the 1% are doing the same thing with taxpayers paving the way.  They have to give the appearance of working within a framework of the Rule of Law, but as we see.....they aren't really worrying about that.

Let me get back to my favorite government agency, NASA.  Well on its way to privatization with Bush and Obama.  The public owns all the NASA accomplishments....the moon landing, astronomical research and imagery, all heading into private hands.  Will you be riding the Space taxi by SpaceX?  We can barely afford to take the toll roads in Mongomery County to work!  No, you are paying yet again for affluent development.  NASA AND ACADEMIC RESEARCHERS HAVE MAPPED OUT JUST WHERE THE RARE ELEMENTS AND MINERAL DEPOSITS ARE LOCATED ON THE MOON AND THEY NEEDED TO CLAIM FOR THE US AND PRIVATIZE THESE AREAS FOR FUTURE MINING.......THAT IS WHY WE ARE SEEING THE SHIFT TOWARDS PRIVATIZING.  WE WOULDN'T WANT ALL THOSE MINES BELONGING TO THE PUBLIC!  I have watched as plans for space elevators develop that will move the bounty from the moon to earth......a sci-fiction that may come true development.  So, as with all the natural resources that should be public assets; oil, natural gas, etc., the 1% are taking it from you and I.  Northern Europe is so progressive because it's oil wealth is public, allowing their citizens a high standard of life.  DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM HERE IN AMERICA------
MAKE A CHANGE------VOTE YOUR INCUMBANT OUT!  

May 29, 2012 11:17 AM

NASA releases moon landing guidelines for Google Lunar X Prize By Kevin Hayes   CBS Evening News

Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., the lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, stands next to a United States flag July 20, 1969, during an Apollo 11 Extravehicular Activity (EVA) on the surface of the Moon. (NASA/Newsmakers)

(CBS) The teams competing for Google's Lunar X Prize have agreed that if they reach the moon, they will abide by NASA's guidelines to protect historic sites on the lunar surface - like the sites of the Apollo moon landings.

The Lunar X Prize is a $30 million competition sponsored by Google that calls for a privately-funded landing of a robot rover on the moon by the end of 2015. Twenty-six teams are vying for the prize.

The guidelines, 
according to NASA, were put together with the cooperation of the X Prize Foundation, which is overseeing the competition, along with the teams. 

"NASA and the next generation of lunar explorers," the NASA press release says, "share a common interest in preserving humanity's first steps on another celestial body and protecting ongoing science from the potentially damaging effects of nearby landers."

The 
guidelines protect artifacts from the Apollo moon landings and unmanned lunar landing sites, as well as "indicators of U.S. human, human-robotic lunar presence, including footprints, rover tracks, etc."

Portions of the Lunar X Prize will be awarded based on various accomplishments, including, fittingly, photographing the protected sites: "Additional bonus prizes," the
X prize Foundation says, "will be awarded for photographing a Lunar Heritage, Apollo or Surveyor spacecraft site."

Last week SpaceX, a privately-funded space exploration venture, successfully launched a capsule delivering supplies to the International Space Station.



© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved 
______________________________________________________________

TAKING JUST AN EDUCATED GUESS, AS I DON'T HAVE TIME TO INVESTIGATE, I FEEL SAFE TO SUGGEST THAT MARYLAND'S TRANSPORTATION TRUST HAS GONE TO A LARGE EXTENT TO PRIVATIZING THE MTA----MARYLAND TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY-----TO FRENCH COMPANY VEOLIA.  TAXPAYER MONEY HELPS TO BUY THE INFRASTRUCTURE, LIKE THE VEHICLES, AND SUPPLIMENTS THE SALARIES OF WORKERS........AS TAX CREDITS, AND THE PRIVATE COMPANY KEEPS THE PROFITS ON OPERATIONS.  YOUR TAX DOLLARS ARE FUELING THE INITIAL GROWTH OF THIS BUSINESS IN THE WEALTHY BELTWAY COUNTIES AND IN THE 'ENTERPRISE ZONES' IN AFFLUENT BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT.......THE DOWNTOWN CROWD RIDES FOR FREE------ON YOUR TAB!  AS YOU CAN SEE, BEN CARDIN, WHO THIS JOURNALIST FEELS WAS FRAUDULENTLY REELECTED IN THE PRIMARY, LOVES THIS PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP! 

THIS IS WHY THIRD WAY DEMOCRATS IN MARYLAND WANT TO ADD ALL THOSE ROAD TAXES; GAS, BRIDGE AND ROAD TOLLS; TO PAY FOR THIS!  WE WANT TO PAY TAXES, BUT WE WANT OUR TAXES SENT TO OUR COMMUNITIES!

CARDIN JOINS VEOLIA TO LAUNCH BALTIMORE’S FIRST PROPANE AUTOGAS TAXI FLEET Friday, May 11, 2012

WASHINGTON--U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) today attended a special ceremony today at the headquarters of Veolia Transportation to launch Baltimore’s first propane autogas taxi fleet.  Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Maryland State Comptroller Peter Franchot and other officials also attended the launch.


Veolia Transportation -- the largest private provider of multiple modes of transportation in North America -- is converting 300 of its taxis nationwide from gasoline to propane autogas. The company also has installed an autogas fueling station in Baltimore to serve 50 Checker and Yellow taxis.

“I want to commend Veolia Transportation for taking the lead in using more energy-efficient propane in its taxi fleet,” said Senator Cardin, a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee.  “Veolia has become an industry role model for how transportation companies can make a difference by helping to reduce our nation’s reliance on foreign oil.”

Veolia Transportation is Baltimore City’s largest operator of taxicab services. Operating under the names Yellow, Checker, and Sun Cabs in Baltimore City, and Jimmy’s Cab in Baltimore County, the company currently serves approximately five million people annually with a fleet of nearly 700 vehicles.

Veolia Transportation’s propane autogas vehicle conversions are being completed under the Southeast Propane Autogas Development Program (SPADP).  Under the public-private partnership, Program fleets are converting more than 1,200 autogas vehicles and implementing more than 30 autogas fueling stations throughout the southeastern United States, Pittsburgh and Denver.

In addition to the 50 Checker Yellow taxis in Baltimore by the end of 2012, Veolia Transportation will convert more than 250 of the taxis it operates in Pittsburgh, Jacksonville and Denver to run on propane autogas.

 
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Post Title.

5/1/2012

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Think that it's getting too expensive to live in Maryland?  You are right.  The politicians both state and local are moving public policy towards containing the working class to areas away from the wealthy enclaves.  Johns Hopkins University is studying how the poor move so as to assure this balance.  New York's Manhattan has done the same.  Metro prices going so high as to limit all but the movement to and from work.  Government subsidies being the great equalizer are now seeing funding cuts.  We are watching as the working class are moved to great poverty and then marginalized through housing, education, and transportation.  This is necessary if you intend to keep income inequity in place.  MARYLAND IS NOT A STATE MOVING TO REVERSE INCOME INEQUITY.....MARYLAND IS BECOMING THE TEXAS OF THE MID-ATLANTIC!  Remember, the working class includes everyone earning $40-50,000 a year, up to a $100,000 .  That is most of us.  Think paying healthcare co-pays and deductibles hurts....think gas prices and plane fares are limiting your travel....wait til simply taking a bus or commuter rail leaves you with no disposable income!

In Baltimore the rate increases are needed because the Mayor and City Council want to give the newly built luxury enterprise zones.....all affluent, free Circulator bus service aroung the city downtown.   So if you live in Canton, work at Legg Mason, you can go to lunch in Federal Hill and shop at the Gallery without ever using your car or paying for public transportation.  The rest of the city has such poor transportation with rising fare prices as a result of this shifting of funding.  I had an MTA driver say to me that the posted MTA schedules tell the rider when to be there ---- not the driver.  Most drivers do their best in a system that has deliberately been left to fail.

Everytime a new Circulator bus line starts, it turns the MTA into a public-private partnership with taxpayer money funding a private company paying its staff non-union poverty wages.

This is the policy of Governor O'Malley, Lt. Gov Anthony Brown, Mayor Rawlings-Blake, and City Council President Jack Young.  Your city council member voted for this as well.  THESE POLITICIANS ARE DELIBERATELY MAKING YOUR LIFE HARDER IN ORDER TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR THE AFFLUENT.  THEY ARE NOT WORKING FOR THE MIDDLE/LOWER CLASS!

Baltimore gets stranded Our view: Maryland lawmakers need to add another item to any special session agenda — killing a proposed 40 percent transit fare hike  
11:43 a.m. EDT, April 16, 2012  Baltimore Sun  

As long as the General Assembly's top leaders are planning a special session to pick up the state's budget where last they left it, here's another item to add to the agenda: No
MTA fare hike unless it's part of a broader agenda to revive the financially-depleted Transportation Trust Fund. Little noticed in all the debate in Annapolis over spending cuts and new taxes was an instruction added to what's known as the BRFA (the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act), the bill that each year accompanies the budget, that requires the Maryland Transit Administration to raise fares on bus, light rail and subway services every two years to meet a 35 percent farebox recovery rate and keep up with the Consumer Price Index. The BRFA did not pass. It died in the waning hours of the 90-day session along with the Fiscal 2013 tax bill, a failure that triggered the so-called "doomsday" budget that lawmakers are now scrambling to avoid.   But if the House and Senate reconvene in special session — a near-certainty in the coming weeks once the two chambers work out their differences to the satisfaction of Gov.Martin O'Malley— the BRFA is likely to be resurrected, too, and that language included. 
If so, that would be an outrageous assault on Baltimore and its most vulnerable citizens. Forcing higher fares on bus riders in particular at a time when city unemployment rates remain unacceptably high (10.3 percent as of February) could cause considerable financial hardship. What's truly shocking about the move, however, is that lawmakers would not even consider raising other forms of transportation-related revenue. Governor O'Malley's proposal to apply the state's 6 percent sales tax to gasoline couldn't even get a committee vote. Nor were legislators willing to pursue alternatives to rescue the trust fund. Make no mistake, MTA fares will have to be increased in the near-future by some incremental amount. The city's $1.60 bus fare lags behind its peers and was last increased duringRobert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s term as governor. But to meet the arbitrary 35 percent recovery rate, the fare would have to be raised to $2.25. How could the legislature willingly hit low-income riders so hard while totally ignoring the fact that Maryland's gas tax hasn't been raised since 1992? Whether they ride in a limousine or a jalopy, Maryland motorists have been living well on 20-year-old tax rates. If only transit fares had received similar treatment, Baltimore residents could claim the cheapest bus and train service in the country. Frankly, we've always found the 35 percent recovery rate a foolish benchmark. It's mostly a sop to rural lawmakers who opposed city transit projects a generation ago. Such bean-counting fails to consider the social good that even a little-used transit line does if it connects a poor and isolated community to jobs and basic services. Maryland may be regarded as among the most progressive states in the country, but you wouldn't know it from the recent machinations in Annapolis. Lawmakers couldn't pull the trigger on a modest increase in the income tax for those earning more than $100,000, but mandating a 40 percent increase in the cost of an MTA fare didn't cause a second thought? Hello? Earth-to-Annapolis: This is not what you do to people living in areas of concentrated poverty while others are getting a free ride. Maryland faces billions of dollars in transportation needs. There isn't enough money in the trust fund to keep up with basic repair and replacement, let alone expand the existing infrastructure to accommodate future growth. City transit riders shouldn't be the first people to make sacrifices to fix that particular problem. Copyright © 2012,
The Baltimore Sun  

Here is my response:   There is a need to audit the Transportation Trust Fund's revenues over this past decade....that is what all this legislative grandstanding is hiding.  Just as with the public sector pensions that went unfunded for the same decade or two, these shortfalls need more than a rally for more taxes...we need to know where this money went.  An educated guess would lead to the fact that just as these funds were depleted, business tax credits and cuts were increasing.  This past decade has seen more money returned to business than any in recent history.  The legislators and the Justice Department refuse to investigate these business tax credits for compliance and justification of goals, but watchdog groups have conducted small audits that show most of these tax credits don't meet standards and there is no oversight at all of the process. As someone who rides the public transit frequently, I can say that for well over a year the fare styles on most routes didn't work.  Do fixed income people benefit from this if the result is a whopping fare increase?  No! As Baltimore builds its network of Circulator bus routes...privately owned with taxpayer money, these downtown routes receive excellent service for free while the extended city service is the worst in the country.  Want to control how and where the poor travel?  Here you have it. 

Task force readies report on Montgomery transit
 Posted: 6:30 am Mon, April 23, 2012
By Associated Press ROCKVILLE --
 
A Montgomery County task force says a rapid bus network there would cost about $1.83 billion to build and another $1.1 million per mile each year to operate.
The Washington Examiner reports that the Transit Task Force wants the system running in nine years. The panel appointed by County Executive Ike Leggett recommends a “world class,” 161.5-mile bus rapid transit network along 23 major county thoroughfares. It would be built in three phases. The recommendations will be formally presented to Leggett this week. The task force suggests multiple ways to pay for the system. They would include a combination of property taxes and county and state contributions. The task force does not recommend trying to get federal funding, but it does suggest getting private partners to help raise money.

Here is a world-class rapid bus system in wealthy Montgomery County being made public/private and it is almost a sure thing that O'Malley was pushing the 6 cent gas hike to pay for the state's commitment to high-speed rail (or that is where the depleted transportation trust went).  Remember that tax revenues are fenced to stay in the county, that is why Montgomery can raise all this revenue.  Travelling one end of Baltimore to the other on public transportation?-----better leave 2-3 hour window....the same amount of time the high-speed rail will take the rich from Washington DC to Boston.  All of which benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle/lower class.
TIME TO CHANGE POLITICIANS ------VOTE FOR REAL PROGRESSIVES!
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    Cindy Walsh is a lifelong political activist and academic living in Baltimore, Maryland.

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