State Roundup, July 25, 2017

NO PLAN TO FIX DEFICIT: Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration is refusing to provide Maryland lawmakers with a plan for how he will resolve the state’s structural deficit next year, reports Holden Wilen for the Baltimore Business Journal. Maryland faces a $700 million shortfall in fiscal 2019, and the General Assembly’s budget committees had given the Hogan administration a July 1 deadline for submitting a report on how it will fix the gap. In a letter responding to the request, Secretary of Budget and Management David R. Brinkley declined to provide a plan and said the legislature’s request skirts the state’s budgeting procedures.

GREEN LIGHT ON VOTING DATA: A federal judge on Monday allowed President Trump’s voting commission to go forward with seeking voter data from 50 states and the District, ruling that the White House advisory panel is exempt from federal privacy review requirements, whatever additional risk it might pose to Americans’ information, Spencer Hsu of the Post is reporting.

ASSAULT GUN ADVOCATES AT SUPREME COURT: Gun rights advocates took their case against Maryland’s strict Firearm Safety Act to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday, asking the justices to strike down a lower court ruling upholding the law. Lawyers for the advocates argued that the 2013 law’s ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines violates the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to bear arms, writes Michael Dresser in the Sun.

 

READ MORE HERE: http://marylandreporter.com/2017/07/25/state-roundup-july-25-2017/