At colleges, fraternities have a "hell week;"  in Session, we have "cross-over week."  The House worked until after 4 p.m. this past Saturday, and we will be back at work first thing Monday morning. This leaves me only one day in which to write my Newsletter -- but I'll do my best!

        "More than 3,100 children were married in Maryland between 2000 and 2014.

 * 146 of them were married at age 15 or even younger (even though marriage below 15 is illegal).
 * An overwhelming majority of the children married - about 85% - were girls wed to adult men; more than a third of the men were 21 or older.
 * At least 69 child marriages began with a statutory rape: They involved a child age 15 or younger who married a spouse four or more years older, based on a pregnancy/parenthood exception."

           The Maryland Catholic Conference testified in favor of the bill because they believe it would increase the success rate of marriage.  " Specifically, the conference wants to minimize marriage annulments, most of which it says arise from 'lack of discretion of judgment when the couple attempted to marry.'"(from the Star-Democrat article referenced above.)

 * Children age 16 and 17 can marry if they have a parent's "consent" OR "the woman to be married" is pregnant or has a child.
 * Children age 15 can marry if they have a parent's "consent" AND "the woman to be married" is pregnant or has a child.

          One of the prinmary objections to the bill is that the parents are in the best position to determine whether they should permit their 15, 16-, or 17- year-old offspring to marry     

        Expected revenues are down.  That's never a good thing.  With lower revenues, the Governor was unable to include all of the "mandated" spending items required by legislation.   Mandates now require 83% of the total budget.

          When the budget  does not fully fund all mandates, an omnibus bill known as the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act is required to adjust spending mandates and formulas to balance the budget.   The Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act, HB 152 known as the "BRFA" (pronounced BUR' FA) is where the mischief occurs .  I voted against the BRFA, along with 28 others.

            In my Week 11 Newsletter from last year, I reported on the $290 million of NEW mandated spending for Baltimore City, alone.  How to accommodate all of this new spending in addition to normal growth and inflation, especially in a year where revenues are down was a huge challenge for the Governor.  

          In a continued effort to address the issue of spending mandates as well as provide a fair and balanced budget, the Governor addressed each of the new program mandates in a thoughtful and rational way.  Unfortunately, the House Appropriations committee ignored this effort, and restored virtually all of the new programs with mandated funding through the BRFA.  In order to balance the budget they cut funding across the board for multiple existing government services to provide the additional revenue needed to reinstate the funding mandates for all of the new programs from last year.  Below are just three examples.