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Maryland
Md. Gov. Moore is about to shake up the Public Service Commission. Here’s why it matters – WTOP News
![Md. Gov. Moore is about to shake up the Public Service Commission. Here’s why it matters – WTOP News Md. Gov. Moore is about to shake up the Public Service Commission. Here’s why it matters – WTOP News](https://wtop.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/AP23006702086699-scaled-e1673269537625.jpg)
Gov. Wes Moore Moore rescinded 48 recess appointments to state boards and commissions, together with two appointees to the Maryland Public Service Fee, which regulates public utilities and sure passenger transportation corporations.
This content material was republished with permission from WTOP’s information companions at Maryland Issues. Join Maryland Issues’ free e-mail subscription at this time.
With a single, swift personnel transfer this week, Gov. Wes Moore (D) could have achieved extra to advance Maryland’s battle towards local weather change than volumes of laws or months of advocacy ever may.
That’s the optimistic view of many environmentalists after Moore introduced Wednesday that he was rescinding 48 recess appointments to state boards and commissions that his predecessor, former Gov. Larry Hogan (R), made final yr. Included on the record had been two of Hogan’s appointees to the Maryland Public Service Fee — which means Moore is now within the place to choose three of the panel’s 5 commissioners over the subsequent a number of weeks.
“The environmental group is ecstatic,” mentioned Josh Tulkin, director of the Maryland Sierra Membership. “That is the only greatest factor you are able to do to arrange local weather progress on this state for the subsequent 4 years.”
The Public Service Fee is an obscure and infrequently sleepy regulatory entity, steeped within the arcana of power coverage, utility legislation, gasoline and electrical energy technology and transmission, and shopper safety mandates. However it regulates an infinite a part of the financial system, as Marylanders spend billions of {dollars} a yr to activate the lights and warmth their houses, companies, industrial buildings and public establishments.
As state policymakers advance extra aggressive targets for confronting local weather change, the PSC can be partially accountable for decoding and implementing a number of of the brand new legal guidelines — and plenty of environmentalists imagine the fee has fallen in need of assembly the imperatives of the local weather disaster.
“The underside line,” Tulkin mentioned, “is that the Public Service Fee generally is a proactive pressure for good, driving equitable local weather coverage ahead, or it may be an enormous obstacle, and what it’s been thus far is an enormous obstacle, dragging its toes.”
Roger Berliner, a former Montgomery County councilmember and long-time power coverage lawyer, mentioned environmental advocates and coverage specialists throughout the nation are more and more state power and utility regulators as crucial decision-makers.
“Who do you look to on local weather?” he mentioned. “There are 50 individuals it’s best to give attention to. For these of us who care in regards to the planet, that is the only greatest factor we have to give attention to.”
Del. David Fraser-Hidalgo (D-Montgomery), a number one environmentalist within the Basic Meeting, mentioned the prospect of three vacancies on the PSC creates a reset within the relationship between the legislature and the fee. New management on the PSC may allow the state and utilities to maximise the quantity of federal {dollars} they search to fight local weather change, and will expedite utilities’ transition from fossil fuels to cleaner power sources.
“I believe it creates a chance to interact the PSC on local weather change-related points in vital and extra aggressive methods,” Fraser-Hidalgo mentioned.
The PSC is led by 5 commissioners, who’re appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate and serve staggered five-year phrases. The individual the governor selects to be chair largely units the agenda.
Formally, the commissioners oversee 19 gasoline and electrical corporations, taxi and livery drivers, bay pilots, privately-owned water and sewer corporations, and telecommunications corporations that offer phone land strains. The fee hears fee instances; considers business developments and functions to change the scope of service; promulgates new guidelines and laws; and assesses the standard of utility service.
It’s a sophisticated portfolio beneath any circumstance, and has change into extra advanced over time as Maryland policymakers envision an ever-swifter transition away from fossil fuels and towards cleaner power sources.
“We’re within the forefront, rivaling [the Maryland Department of the Environment] and [the Maryland Energy Administration], of being within the entrance seat relating to addressing local weather change, power and environmental points,” PSC Chair Jason Stanek advised the Home Financial Issues Committee at a listening to in Annapolis this week.
The PSC accomplishes its work with 156 full-time workers; against this, the federal government entities regulating utilities in Pennsylvania and Virginia have greater than 500 and 700 full-time workers, respectively. Stanek calls the PSC “a small however mighty company.”
All 5 commissioners are steeped in power coverage and have labored within the business, or for federal and state regulatory or coverage businesses, for many of their careers. Collectively, Stanek mentioned, they’ve 125 years’ of expertise within the business — and the PSC has solely been round for 113 years. As a result of Hogan served as governor for eight years, all 5 of the present commissioners are his appointees.
So who’re the members whose phrases Moore short-circuited?
The primary is Odogwu Obi Linton, who was first picked in 2017 and who Hogan tabbed for a second five-year time period final summer time. Linton is a former regulatory legal professional for Baltimore Gasoline & Electrical whose profession within the utility business dates again to the 1980’s, when he was a meter reader for an electrical firm in New Jersey.
Moore additionally rescinded the appointment of Patrice Bubar, appointed final yr to finish the time period of a previous commissioner who was scheduled to serve on the PSC via June 30, 2024. Bubar beforehand had been the deputy director of the Montgomery County Division of Environmental Safety, and has additionally labored for the Nuclear Regulatory Fee, the Division of Power and the Environmental Safety Company.
By rescinding their appointments, which he did with out clarification, Moore can decide somebody to serve the rest of Bubar’s time period and somebody for the rest of Linton’s time period, which runs via 2027. The 2 commissioners had been weak as a result of their nominations had not been confirmed by the state Senate.
It’s solely potential, although on no account sure, that Moore will advance two nominees for the PSC by Feb. 17, the day the governor is because of ahead his “Inexperienced Bag” appointments for myriad state jobs, boards and commissions to the Senate.
However on the similar time, Stanek’s first five-year time period as chair is because of finish on June 30, and it’s conceivable that Moore would look to interchange him as effectively — although the timetable for doing so is just not altogether clear. Earlier than taking on the PSC, Stanek was the senior counsel for the U.S. Home Power and Commerce Committee on Capitol Hill, labored for the Federal Power Regulatory Fee and the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, and labored for a gas firm in Buffalo, N.Y.
Tori Leonard, a spokesperson for the PSC, mentioned Thursday that the three commissioners will proceed to serve till their replacements are confirmed by the Senate and sworn into workplace. The 2 holdover commissioners are Michael Richard, a former deputy chief of workers to Hogan who as soon as headed the Maryland Power Administration and labored for the Division of Power, and Anthony O’Donnell, a former Republican chief within the Home of Delegates who was a security employee on the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Lusby, the place he lives. Richard’s time period ends in 2025 and O’Donnell’s time period concludes a yr later. Each males have served on the fee since 2016.
Already rumors are operating rampant in Annapolis about who is likely to be appointed to the PSC to interchange Bubar, Linton and Stanek. The names vary from business attorneys and present and former regulators to shopper watchdogs, environmental activists and present and former elected officers — together with senior lawmakers within the Basic Meeting. Any nominee from the latter class may produce a set of falling dominoes within the legislature — and it’s potential that extra lawmakers can be picked for different positions within the fledgling Moore administration within the weeks forward.
Advancing the local weather aims
Coincidentally, the information of the probably shakeup on the PSC comes the identical week that Stanek and his colleagues are showing earlier than legislative committees for informational hearings. On Tuesday, within the Home Financial Issues Committee, which helps set utility coverage and is the committee that could be monitored extra carefully by business lobbyists than another, Stanek mentioned he wish to see the fee do extra to encourage battery storage and modernization of the electrical grid, together with extra power distribution planning.
Stanek additionally expressed skepticism over legislative proposals to increase competitors within the power markets. Whereas utilities are the default suppliers of electrical energy and gasoline for many ratepayers, customers are permitted to buy different power distributors. Some giant nationwide power corporations, together with NRG, wish to additional decontrol the utility market in Maryland and promote extra competitors, however some shopper advocates have warned that ratepayers could possibly be vulnerable to shady offers that sound good at first however require larger funds on the again finish.
“I now suppose it’s extra of a detriment to the state than a profit,” Stanek mentioned of larger deregulation.
However most environmentalists argue the PSC hasn’t achieved sufficient to finish utilities’ reliance on fossil fuels, which they imagine has slowed the state’s transition to renewable power and will impede the state’s targets of reaching 100% carbon-neutral electrical energy by 2035. Moore has vowed to make local weather change a prime precedence for his new administration.
“For too lengthy, the general public curiosity in Maryland and the pursuits of utilities have been one,” Berliner mentioned. “We’d like to ensure the utilities are doing every thing to advance the state’s local weather aims.”
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Maryland
Maryland makes filing taxes online free for some
![Maryland makes filing taxes online free for some Maryland makes filing taxes online free for some](https://thebaltimorebanner.com/resizer/v2/VNZHS3ZRPZFIPLMIQSBCIVIK4M.jpg?auth=ff77372d15f6509b1a1f9c396b1babd2c44c98f67411941eae674ed3f248e4b4&width=657&smart=true&quality=85)
More than 700,000 Marylanders should be able to file their state and federal income tax returns online for free next year, saving residents hours of work and hundreds of dollars on tax software and prep services.
Maryland joined dozens of states Wednesday in a voluntary federal program called Direct File after a test run received positive reviews and showed possible cost savings. Filing paper returns by mail will still be an option.
“It’s unacceptable that Marylanders should have to pay any portion whatsoever of their refund or paycheck to fulfill a mandatory requirement like filing tax returns,” Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman said at a news conference in Annapolis.
The first-term Democrat called the program a game changer for Maryland taxpayers that will modernize her agency. It targets low-to-moderate earners with relatively simple tax returns, and is expected to expand over time.
Lierman’s office will partner with the nonprofit Code for America to integrate the Maryland tax filing system into Direct File. Eligibility requirements will be announced in January, the comptroller’s office said.
Gov. Wes Moore, State Treasurer Dereck E. Davis, members of Maryland’s congressional delegation, U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo and nonprofit partners joined Lierman for the announcement.
Funds from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 helped build and test the system. The IRS and Treasury Department then invited states to participate.
The IRS has been considering a free e-filing option for low-income American taxpayers for decades, according to the Congressional Research Service. When tax prep companies pushed back, the federal government agreed not to compete with them if they provided free help and e-filing to low-earning taxpayers.
However, many qualified taxpayers were pushed toward paid services, according to an investigation by nonprofit news outlet ProPublica.
The IRS piloted Direct File in 12 states this year. Filers used a laptop, tablet, cellphone or other device to submit income returns and request certain tax credits offered to low-earning individuals and families.
In a survey, nine out of 10 Direct File users ranked their experience as “Excellent” or “Above Average.”
U.S. Rep Steny Hoyer, a Democrat representing Maryland’s 5th District, called paying taxes the “price of our democracy.”
“We ought to make it as easy as possible for people to comply with a legal obligation that they have to support their country, their state and their communities,” he said. “And this system of Direct File does that.”
Robin McKinney, CEO and co-founder of CASH Campaign of Maryland, said easy, free online filing makes the government work more efficiently for citizens and should deliver refunds and credits to taxpayers faster.
McKinney’s nonprofit promotes economic advancement for low- to moderate-income Marylanders and provides free tax help, among other services.
Economic Security Project, a nonprofit that advocates for guaranteed income and economic equity for working families, found that adopting Direct File could mean $355 million in costs and time saved for Maryland’s low- to moderate-earners.
Maryland recently has expanded tax credits for working families, but about $152 million goes unclaimed each year, according to the Security Project’s analysis.
They also estimated that about $148 million could be saved in filing fees and $56 million could be saved in time spent filing taxes.
That money could have gone into Marylanders’ pockets, CASH Campaign’s McKinney said, and it could have gone back into the state’s economy.
Maryland
Maryland joins IRS Direct File program, offering free tax filing for up to 700,000 taxpayers – Maryland Matters
![Maryland joins IRS Direct File program, offering free tax filing for up to 700,000 taxpayers – Maryland Matters Maryland joins IRS Direct File program, offering free tax filing for up to 700,000 taxpayers – Maryland Matters](https://marylandmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024_Adeyemo_moore_lierman_directfile_edit-2048x1372.jpg)
Some Maryland taxpayers will be able to use a free electronic filing tool for their federal taxes rather than having to pay a tax preparer or buy tax-filing software next year, when Maryland will offer the IRS’s new Direct File service.
The service was tested in 12 states this year, where 140,803 people filed with Direct File, saving an estimated $5.6 million in tax preparation fees. Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D) estimated Wednesday that as many as 700,000 Maryland taxpayers could be eligible for the program when it debuts in the state next year.
“While we value our relationship with tax preparers and CPAs (certified public accountants), it’s unacceptable that Marylanders should have to pay any portion whatsoever of their refund or paycheck to fulfill a mandatory requirement like filing tax returns,” Lierman said at a news conference announcing the program.
The IRS and the U.S. Treasury still have to finalize eligibility rules for the program this fall, but Lierman said it will be a “game changer” for those families who do qualify, which could be as much as 20% of individual taxpayers in the state.
“Taxes are a part of the glue that keeps our state and our nation together, functioning, producing, protecting and thriving,” Lierman said. “Yet in America, we make it uniquely challenging to pay those taxes and file a return — until now.”
According to the Treasury, taxpayers spend “approximately 13 hours and $270 preparing their taxes each year.” Many Americans use tax filing services or software, such as TurboTax and H&R Block, to ensure that their taxes are filed correctly, despite most of the information being readily available state and federal tax collection agencies.
It’s unacceptable that Marylanders should have to pay any portion whatsoever of their refund or paycheck to fulfill a mandatory requirement like filing tax returns.
– Comptroller Brooke Lierman
Direct File launched this year in 12 states for people to file their 2023 federal returns — Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the program is aimed at helping middle-income tax filers with “relatively simple” filings.
“What I can tell you is our goal for us is to build a system that’s going to work for working class and middle class Americans. So you get a W-2, and you’re somebody who’s a teacher, you’re a fireman, you’re a doctor who’s earning most of your money from a W-2, we want to make sure we’re building a system that potentially works for you,” said Adeyemo, who was in Annapolis for the announcement.
“The thing we’re not going to do is build a system that works for big corporations or wealthy individuals. Next year we’re going to expand the system so that more Americans are able to participate in it,” Adeyemo said.
The Biden administration invited all 50 states and the District of Columbia to join the program next year, when people will be filing their 2024 taxes. The Treasury said that Maryland joins Oregon, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Connecticut, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Maine in taking up Direct File.
“I know to some, this announcement may seem inconsequential — and I know how exciting tax announcements are,” Gov. Wes Moore (D) joked at the announcement. “But the details matter. They matter to the families who are impacted by this work. They’re going to matter to the families, who … dread tax season because it feels complicated. Who dread tax season because it seems expensive, or oftentimes have to deal with the consequences of getting something wrong.”
The Direct File program came out of the Inflation Reduction Act signed in 2022, which also secured additional funding to help the IRS modernize and provide better services to Americans.
But Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who chairs a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, said Direct File program and other services under the Inflation Reduction Act could be “under threat.” While his subcommittee wants to fully fund the IRS and keep Direct File going, House leaders want to cut funding for both.
He also said that the industry is lobbying against the free tax filing system.
“There are people who didn’t want us to do this, including a lot of the middlemen” who currently profit from tax preparation, Van Hollen said. “They’re lobbying against this kind of thing.”
In addition to Van Hollen, Moore, Lierman and Adeyemo, Wednesday’s event drew a number of Maryland Democratic heavyweights: U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, U.S. Reps. Steny Hoyer John Sarbanes and State Treasurer Dereck Davis.
Hoyer put it simply: “Nobody likes taxes.”
“We don’t really get excited about paying our taxes. But we know that it is the price of our democracy,” Hoyer said. “We ought to make it as easy as possible for people to comply with a legal obligation that they have to support their country, their state and their communities.”
Maryland
Maryland Weather: Nice stretch with rain chance Friday into Saturday
![Maryland Weather: Nice stretch with rain chance Friday into Saturday Maryland Weather: Nice stretch with rain chance Friday into Saturday](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/09/04/24a84ea6-a5cd-4bed-9808-a9fb32e33d7e/thumbnail/1200x630/84a699c7d390f8d73a7d438723501c23/7-day-wednesday-pm.png?v=631cf5f2b4e8db7f9bc428589402864d)
BALTIMORE -Nice weather continues through Thursday. Sprinkles & drizzle may develop Friday with steadier rain likely Saturday.
We are right in the middle of an outstanding weather pattern that will continue into Thursday. Temperatures reached the middle to upper 70s Wednesday afternoon with comfortable humidity levels. High clouds are mainly south of Baltimore, so we’ve enjoyed a mostly sunny sky.
We have a fantastic evening of weather on the way. If you’re headed to the Os game this evening expect mostly sunny weather for the 1st pitch at 6:35 PM against the White Sox. Temperatures will start in the upper 70s, but then ease into the lower 70s by the end of the game.
Early fall-like temperatures return tonight with lows in the 50s for most neighborhoods. The coolest overnight lows in the low 50s will be located in neighborhoods north and west of the Baltimore Beltway. Temperatures in the metro will dip down into the upper 50s. Any patchy high thin clouds will sink south overnight.
Humidity levels gradually climb Thursday, but we still score ourselves a very nice day. Highs will climb toward 80°. Other than a few patchy clouds, expect a mostly sunny sky.
You will feel even more humidity in the air on Friday. With an easterly to southeasterly wind off the Ocean, areas of low clouds will be possible. As the atmosphere continues to moisten through the day Friday, patchy sprinkles and drizzle will become possible. The greatest chance for this happening would be late Friday into Friday evening. While the rain will be light and patchy in nature, you may want a poncho or light rain jacket if you’re headed to any high school Friday night football games.
Scattered showers and patchy drizzle is likely Friday night with lows in the middle 60s.
Saturday will be our last real humid day for awhile. Expect patchy areas of light rain and showers during the morning and midday hours. There may be a lull or two in the wet weather Saturday, but a steadier round of showers, possibly a thunderstorm will cross the area Saturday evening into early Saturday night. Highs on Saturday will top out in the upper 70s. The cold front that’s responsible for Saturday’s wet weather will flush out the clouds, showers, and humidity overnight Saturday. Temperatures late Saturday night will fall into the lower to middle 50s!
Sunday has another beautiful fall-like feel. Early morning temperatures in the lower to middle 50s with highs in the middle 70s. We get to enjoy abundant sunshine and pleasant breeze out of the northwest at 10 mph.
A winning stretch of weather continues for most of next week along with a gradual warming trend. Highs on Monday reach the upper 70s. By Tuesday and Wednesday, high temperatures climb into the lower 80s with plenty of sunshine and low humidity. We get to enjoy yet another spectacular stretch of September weather for most of next week with little to no rain!
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