Tingles’ Wife To Run For Congress In Maryland…

Getty Images

Kathleen Matthews, the wife of MSNBC personality Chris Matthews, has entered the Democratic primary to replace Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who is running for Senate.

Matthews on Wednesday launched her campaign for Maryland’s 8th District House seat from downtown Silver Spring, vowing to fight for a litany of liberal causes, including equal pay for women, abortion rights, and raising the minimum wage, according to The Washington Post.

Matthews is a former local news anchor. She most recently served as an executive for Marriott Hotels but stepped down from that position last month as she geared up for the House race.

Matthews’s name recognition, and her family’s deep political ties, could help her stand apart from the huge field of Democrats seeking to replace Van Hollen.

Still, she’s never run for elected office before and faces a deep field of experienced state-level officials in the primary.

So far, Maryland Dels. Kumar Barve and Ana Sol Gutierrez are in the race, along with Will Jawando, a former aide to President Obama, and state Sen. Jamie Raskin.

A handful of other Maryland delegates and county officials are also believed to be eyeing the race in a safe Democratic district.

Van Hollen cannot run for reelection to the House because he is seeking the Senate seat left open by the retirement of Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). Maryland law prevents candidates from running for both.

Via: Weasel Zippers

Via: The Hill

Continue Reading.....

[VIDEO] Baltimore Mayor Lashes Out At Fox News Reporter Asking About Violence, WH Answer More Gun Control!

If anyone could shoot the stink eye, that’s Stephanie Rawlings-Blake trying to roast Fox’s Leland Vittert. Then Josh Earnest tries to argue for more gun control to address criminals shooting people. Because criminals are known for paying attention to laws. Maryland already has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country. But never let a crisis go to waste…

Via: Weasel Zippers

Sticker Shock for Some Obamacare Customers

By Megan McArdle

So the proposed 2016 Obamacare rates have been filed in many states, and in many states, the numbers are eye-popping. Market leaders are requesting double-digit increases in a lot of places. Some of the biggest are really double-digit: 51 percent in New Mexico, 36 percent in Tennessee, 30 percent in Maryland, 25 percent in Oregon. The reason? They say that with a full year of claims data under their belt for the first time since Obamacare went into effect, they're finding the insurance pool was considerably older and sicker than expected.

Don't panic, says Kevin Drum. This is just the opening bid in a regulatory dance that will end up somewhere very different: "A few months from now, the real rate increases — the ones approved by state and federal authorities — will begin to trickle out. They'll mostly be in single digits, with a few in the low teens. The average for the entire country will end up being something like 4-8 percent."

He's right, of course, that the proposed rates will not end up being the final rate. Regulators are going to push back on these rates as hard as they can, with some success.

But in the case of the companies cited by the Wall Street Journal, I'd bet they're not going to go down to 4-8 percent. As it turns out, the insurer filings are public information, available on state websites. And in the three cases where I could see supporting data about premium revenue and losses, those losses appear to be large. Moda of Oregon says that its claims were 139 percent of revenue, making for a margin of -61 percent. If I am reading their somewhat confusing table right, Health Service Corporation of New Mexico says it lost $23 million on revenue of $121 million. CareFirst of Maryland says that claims were 120 percent of revenue, which if we add in some money to pay for overhead, amounts to ... less than or equal to what they're asking from regulators. I can't find claims experience data for Tennessee, but that state told the Wall Street Journal that it lost $141 million on exchange plans last year.

Via: Bloomberg View

Continue Reading....

Sports Taking a Hit in Tax-Heavy Baltimore?

The anti-capitalist environment in Baltimore has left city sports in an uncertain state. Thanks to Charm City's high property taxes, Pimlico race track owners, the site where the Preakness is held, are considering moving their horses elsewhere. 

Herein lies the problem:

In Maryland, regulators are like co-owners: Not only did you not build that, but you’re not free to run it, either. Of course, there are tracks elsewhere that would surely like to host a Triple Crown race and that are not subject to Maryland’s regulatory dictates.

In the past, when city governments have exercised extreme regulations over businesses, it has often had fatal results. Detroit's economy suffered under the highest property taxes on homes in the nation, in addition to the top commercial property tax, and the second-highest industrial property tax, before filing for bankruptcy in 2013.

The poor business environment in Baltimore is coupled with the attraction of other more business-friendly regions.

At the city’s current property-tax rate, for example, a $100 million investment at Pimlico — probably less than required to make the crumbling facility world-class again — would cost its owners almost $2.25 million in added annual property taxes.

Via: Townhall

Continue Reading... 

Supreme Court Strikes Down Maryland 'Double Tax' Law

Maryland cannot impose a form of double taxation on residents by not giving them credit for some taxes paid on income earned in other states, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a decision that could slash revenue collected in a number of states.

In a 5-4 ruling, the justices sided with taxpayers Brian and Karen Wynne in finding that Maryland's taxation policy violated the U.S. Constitution by discriminating against interstate commerce, upholding lower-court decisions favoring the couple.

Maryland offers a tax credit for income taxes paid by residents to other states. But it said the credits available to the Wynnes for their out-of-state income did not apply to the couple's county income tax.

The Wynnes were denied a full $84,550 tax credit based on their healthcare business that paid taxes in 39 states in 2006. The state said they owed around $25,000.

The ruling could reduce tax revenues collected by local jurisdictions in Maryland by up to $50 million a year, according to a brief filed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and other groups that backed the state.

"That Maryland's existing tax unconstitutionally discriminates against interstate commerce is enough to decide this case," Justice Samuel Alito wrote on behalf of the majority.

The court was not divided on its usual ideological lines, with Alito joined in the majority by two fellow conservatives, John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy, as well as liberals Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

Most states already offer a full credit for taxes paid in other states. Among states that could be affected by the ruling are Wisconsin and North Carolina, according to a brief filed by the International Municipal Lawyers Association. Separately, New York City is one of a number of municipalities that impose income taxes and do not provide a full credit for taxes paid out of state, the association said.

Via: Newsmaz

Continue Reading.....

Keystone Foes Seek to Disrupt Natural Gas Export Terminal

Environmentalists fighting the Keystone XL pipeline are rallying to block a Maryland natural gas export terminal as momentum builds to use the U.S. fuel as a weapon against Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.

The energy required to liquefy and ship gas at Dominion Resources Inc.’s proposed Cove Point terminal in Maryland will raise the fuel’s greenhouse-gas emissions to the level of coal, says Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Such terminals threaten the climate like pipelines tied to developing oil in Alberta, such as Keystone, he said.

“This issue is a lot like the fight over tar sands,” Tidwell said in an interview. “It’s gone from non-existent to the biggest environmental fight in Maryland, and is on its way to being the biggest environmental fight in the Mid-Atlantic.”

Comparing Cove Point to the $5.4 billion pipeline project that’s fueled stiff environmentalist opposition shows a challenge advocates face in pushing to use gas, America’s newfound energy bounty, as a geopolitical tool. The export terminals are a “whole new category of fossil fuel trouble,” Bill McKibben, co-founder of the environmental group 350.org, said on a conference call with reporters today.

House Republicans introduced legislation to speed approval of applications for more than 20 terminals like Cove Point, in response to Russia’s actions. Russia, the second-largest global producer of natural gas after the U.S., twice since 2006 has cut supplies to Ukraine, a conduit for energy to Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called today for Russia to absorb Crimea, where voters overwhelmingly backed secession, after signing a draft treaty to take the Ukrainian peninsula. He said Russia wasn’t interested in annexing other parts of the former Soviet republic.

Dominion said a study it commissioned by ICF International Inc. found that liquefied natural gas exports would cut greenhouse gas emissions if the fuel replaces coal as a way to make electricity.

“Slowing or preventing natural gas exports from the United States is a step in exactly the wrong direction for those who are concerned about climate change,” said Pamela F. Faggert, Dominion’s chief environmental officer and vice president- Corporate Compliance.

Via: Newsmax
Continue Reading.....

Costs of ObamaCare bungles start to add up, with Maryland first at about $30.5M

Maryland could end up spending as much as $30.5 million as a result of a glitch in its ObamaCare website, as the Obama administration steps in to help states with problematic exchanges.

Because of Maryland’s defective exchange, the state cannot determine whether customers remain eligible for Medicaid, according to a report by state budget analysts released Thursday.

As a result, the state has agreed with the federal government to a six-month delay in determining eligibility, meaning that payments will continue to be made to customers who are not eligible until the system is fixed. The delay will cost the state $17.8 million in fiscal 2014 and $12.7 million in fiscal 2015, the analysts estimated.

On Friday, the Obama administration said it would suspend some Affordable Care Act rules to help the 14 states with their own ObamaCare sites, particularly Maryland, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Oregon, which have had the most problems.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plan, completed a day earlier, states the federal government will help pay for “qualified” health-insurance plans for customers in those states who because of “exceptional circumstances” had to buy plans outside of ObamaCare exchanges, as reported first by The Washington Post.

Via: Fox News Politics

Continue Reading....

Maryland’s clown-show gubernatorial Democratic primary heats up. #Obamacare

This is going to be a gloriously ugly primary campaign…

Washington has been locked for months in a series of partisan battles over the law known as Obamacare, as well as battles within the GOP over how best to oppose the ACA. But it’s the state just to the north that has served up the country’s first Democrat-on-Democrat brawl over the inept implementation of the law, offering perhaps a first test of Democratic voters’ patience with the ACA’s technical setbacks.

In Maryland, the fight to succeed outgoing Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley has pitted [Attorney General Doug] Gansler against state Del. Heather Mizeur and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, the frontrunner for the nomination who chairs the state panel on ACA implementation and has long presented himself as the O’Malley administration’s point man on Obamacare.

…and the fact that Politico did its best to skip over Delegate Mizeur should be diagnostic. Essentially, the primary (ahem) problem for the Democrats is that the Lt. Governor is now inextricably linked to the Maryland state Obamacare exchange*, while the Attorney General has a dysfunctional campaign and has visual evidence linking him to a party featuring underage, drunken twerkers. As for the last remaining major candidate?

:pause:

Well. Perhaps the state of Maryland is ready for an openly gay, pro-marijuana governor. And perhaps it is not. Now, don’t get me wrong: in Maryland the problem for Del. Mazeur would be the latter part, not the former. But the fact remains this is the wrong administration for politicians to try to be too vocally pro-pot. Joe Biden in particular is a hardcore War on Some Drugs enthusiast, and at this point he’s the only person in the administration’s A-list who is actually popular. If he tried to stump for Mizeur, everybody would scream hypocrisy. Including people on the Left.

Via: Red State

Continue Reading....