The article in the Baltimore City Paper examines some of the political machinations that are delaying further progress on the Maryland Public Financing Act in the Senate. Senate President Mike Miller's (D) notorious opposition to a Clean Elections public financing program for Maryland has translated into pressure on leadership, and a series of half-baked budget excuses that keep stalling the bill in the Senate.

Senator Joan Carter Conway, a leader in advancing a similar bill last year, is already talking down its chances this year -- yet dragging her heels on passing it out of the committee she chairs. Progressive Maryland's Sean Dobson talked with the City Paper about the challenges facing the bill, as well as the growing importance of doing something about the role of special interest money in Maryland elections and the legislative debacles that result (like the energy deregulation legislation that's caused energy bills in the state to skyrocket).

As for those budget excuses, let's take a look at where the funds will be coming from:

The money for the fund would come from a $5 voluntary checkoff on the state income tax form and from an abandoned-property fund, so taxpayers would not be forced to pay for political campaigns. A fiscal note on the bill puts the first-year cost of the program at $14.1 million, with about $9.2 million the next year.

Dobson's group has calculated that African-Americans, on average, give far less to state political campaigns than do whites. He says that means African-Americans' interests tend to get short shrift in the legislature, and places where African-Americans dominate--Prince George's County and Baltimore City, for instance--thereby are disadvantaged. He thinks his bill would level the playing field.

"This is a big reform bill," Dobson says. "This could really change politics in our state."

It's going to be a fight to pass it, but stay tuned -- there's still time for the Maryland Senate to do the right thing and pass the bill, then send it on to the House which is ready to pass it as they did last year.