Rate Increase Proposals For BGE Customers and Frederick County Residents, Court Hearings, and Employment And Education Stats For MD Young Adults

BGE is looking to raise distribution rates on its customers -- saying it needs more money to improve its infrasturucture. If the utility gets what it's asking for, the average residential customer will pay about $6.60 more per month to get electricity and about $4.25 more per month to get gas. Maryland's Public Service Commission has to sign off on the request, and the PSC has recently refused to grant the full rate increase requests of other utilities (via the Baltimore Sun and WJZ). Hearings are taking place this week and next in Baltimore, and the public will be asked to weigh in at a separate set of hearings in January.

The Frederick County Commissioners are considering a proposal to raise water and sewer rates -- by about $35 a year per household. The county's special projects manager says higher rates are necessary to keep the county's water and sewer fund in balance; that fund currently relies on reserve funds to break even (via the Frederick News Post).

Court hearings are scheduled today about the seat in the House of Delegates formerly held by Tiffany Alston of Prince George's County. Alston was removed from that seat in October, after she was was sentenced on a charge of misconduct in office; a judge later changed her conviction to a probation before judgement, and Alston has filed a lawsuit saying that she should be able to gake her seat back. And the man who the PG County Democratic Central Committee nominated to take the seat -- businessman Gregory Hall -- is also suing to get into the General Assembly. Governor Martin O'Malley declined to accept his nomination... but Hall's lawyers say that he had no choice in the matter -- noting that the state consitution says that the Governor has a "duty" to appoint the choice of the central committee. A Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge will examine those arguments today -- but the Washington Post notes that a ruling won't likely end the legal wrangling, and that legal challenges will probably continue as long as courts agree to hear them.

Maryland's highest court yesterday heard arguments from a former Anne Arundel County Councilman who's seeking to return to his post. Daryl Jones was sent to prison for five months this year, after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of failing to pay federal taxes. His fellow council members voted to remove him from office, saying that he no longer lived in his district while he was in prison, and thus didn't fulfill the job's residency requirement. A lawyer for Jones argued yesterday that the council wrongly re-defined residency in that decision, and asked for his reinstatement. Lawyers for the county asked the court to dismiss the case (via the Baltimore Sun). 

A new report indicates that there are 93,000 teenagers and young adults in Maryland who are not working or learning. The report issued by the organization Kids Count shows that 14% of Maryland residents between the ages of 16 and 24 are not in school -- and don't hold jobs, either. The silver lining in the report is that Maryland's teens and young adults are doing better than the nationwide average. For example, about 68 percent of Marylanders between the age of 20 and 24 had some work last year; nationwide, the figure was 61 percent (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).

The Baltimore City Fire Department is requiring a higher level of education for those who want to be promoted in the ranks. The department is phasing in new educational requirements for firefighters, including training and college credits. No one will be demoted if they don't get the higher education, and the requirements for more training and college credits will be phased in over seven years (via our wire service; more here from the Baltimore Sun).

Anne Arundel County school officials say they're seeing a 28% increase in applications for their magnet school programs from last year (via our wire service and the Anne Arundel Patch).

The way primary elections work in Frederick could change, under a proposal by a potential candidate for the city's Board of Aldermen. Republican Katie Nash says she wants to open up the primary to all registered voters -- so that unaffiliated voters would be allowed to cast ballots in either the Democratic or Republican primary. For that to happen, a change would need to be made to the County's charter; there's a workshop on other charter changes scheduled for today (via the Frederick News Post).

The Anne Arundel County Council has approved a 3% pay raise for the approximately 550 Anne Arundel police officers represented by the Fraternal Order of Police; another 1-thousand employees in another union will also get the raises. The last time the Council granted raises to all Anne Arundel employees was in 2008 (via the Baltimore Sun).

CSX Transportation says a recent collision of a tanker vessel with the Curtis Bay Coal Pier caused 22-million-dollars in damage. CSX is now suing the owner of the tanker, charging it of operating an unseaworthy and unfit vessel (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).

Maryland's Motor Vehicle Administration is extending its online driver test tutorial to Android phones. The mobile app lets new drivers test their knowledge and gives other drivers a refresher course. There's no charge and the app can be downloaded through Google Playstore; an iPhone version is already in use (via our wire service, WJZ, and the Capital Gazette).