Transportation and Environment subcommittee adopts budget recommendations, adds reporting requirements and trims select new positions

The Transportation and Environment Subcommittee voted to adopt its budget decision document after reviewing the Department of Legislative Services (DLS) recommendations and an additional packet of supplemental items.

The vote approved a set of budget adjustments that included requests for regular reports from agencies, deletion of several proposed new positions, conditional restrictions on certain appropriations and a $50,000,000 supplemental appropriation for local clean-energy projects made contingent on authorizing legislation.

The committee’s packet, reviewed page-by-page by staff, recommended narratives that would require agencies to provide monthly or periodic reports on selected programs and projects. Examples include monthly data on residential utility terminations for the Public Service Commission; contingency plans and reports from the Maryland Energy Administration on federal funding assumptions and strategic energy investment fund resources; quarterly reporting on the Howard Street tunnel rehabilitation at the Port; and bimonthly status reports on the Purple Line from the Maryland Transit Administration. Several supplemental-packet items also…