Trimming Budgets Here While Cutting Commuter Time There: Government Stories that Matter in Your Area

Patch takes seriously the journalists’ credo to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Read all about what your elected leaders are doing in the community, and how it affects you, in the Week in Regional Government.


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Patch put the power of the Freedom of Information Act to work over a previously denied government document. Read all about it on Catonsville Patch.

And, while you’re there check out how the (http://catonsville.patch.com/articles/patch-complaint-spurs-more-openness-at-revenue-authority) , when the group decided to post its meeting announcements online instead of on a sheet of paper posted on a desk inside an office.

Public's Right to Know: Baltimore County Police Agree to Better Comply With Open Records Laws (http://patch.com/A-fVFL)

In other “Sunshine Week” efforts by Patch to gain access to public records, the Baltimore County Police denied a reporter access to arrest records but said it would start offering those unfettered to news media. Local editor Bruce Goldfarb challenged the withholding of records and wrote about it on Arbutus Patch.

(http://colesville.patch.com/articles/leggett-calls-for-job-cuts-flat-funding-of-schools)
Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett outlined an operating budget proposal that seeks to close a $300 million gap by slashing 216 county jobs, tapping county employees to bear more of the cost of their benefits and rejecting the school system's request for more county aid. Colesville Patch has the story.


Owings Mills-area teachers say they would rather work without pay than be reassigned to new schools in response to a $1.3 billion school budget for 2012 that calls for 5 percent cuts in school and office finances. Hear more from those who oppose the cuts on Owings Mills Patch.


(http://elkridge.patch.com/articles/proposed-maryland-snack-tax-could-help-overweight-kids)
Maryland lawmakers have proposed taxing certain snack foods to help fund the Maryland Combating Childhood Obesity Grant Program, which would in turn earmark money for organizations fighting obesity and teaching kids about healthy eating. Hear more about the proposition to keep Maryland’s kids fit while fattening up the budget on Elkridge Patch, (http://elkridge.patch.com/), and be sure to check out the video for on Reisterstown Patch.

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Recently, Congress debated the need to rein in spending and eliminate the federal government’s annual budget deficit; one of the items on the chopping block is federal funding for public broadcasting. Local editor Diana Soliwon sat down with Joseph Krushinsky, vice president for institutional advancement at Maryland Public Television, to find out what would happen if federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was eliminated. Hear his response on Owings Mills Patch.


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In response to inquiries by Arbutus Patch, Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) released more details about the new $21 million Halethorpe MARC station, the construction of which will begin next month. In addition to skimming transit time for Baltimore and Washington, D.C., MARC commuters, there are also designs in place for an elevator-equipped pedestrian bridge connecting sheltered, raised platforms for the station. To learn more about the anticipated updates, be sure to check out Arbutus Patch.