Assembly Digest
 
 
 March 20, 2002
 
 The House of Delegates approved a bill yesterday that would create a commission to recommend ways for Maryland to pay for its education, transportation and health care needs.
 
 The measure is being pushed by House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., who says the Thornton Commission's recommendations for additional school funding should not be approved until the commission finishes its work. The commission - also charged with studying efficiencies in state government - would report back to the General Assembly by next year's session.
 
 Republicans say the commission is an excuse for Democrats to raise taxes after the fall election. The House approved the measure, 107-32, sending it to the Senate.
 
 Panel to weigh bill to aid wrongly convicted man
 
 A House of Delegates committee is scheduled to consider a bill Friday that would help Michael Austin win compensation from the state for serving 27 years in prison on a faulty conviction.
 
 House Bill 1448, introduced by Del. Salima S. Marriott, a Baltimore Democrat, would allow Austin to take his case to the Board of Public Works without obtaining a pardon from the governor, as the law now requires.
 
 Austin was convicted in 1975 in the shooting death of an East Baltimore security guard. He was released in December by Baltimore Circuit Judge John Carroll Byrnes, who ruled no reasonable juror would have voted to convict Austin based on evidence now available.
 
 Taylor seeks closing of Cumberland strip club
 
 House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. is taking action aimed at closing a strip club that opened over the weekend in his hometown of Cumberland.
 
 Taylor, an Allegany Democrat, said he will seek approval as early as next week of House Bill 340, a measure introduced by the Western Maryland delegation to prohibit live obscene performances in Allegany County. If the bill passes, the county would become the seventh in the state with such a prohibition, joining Anne Arundel, Charles, Howard, Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester.
 
 The Sportsmen's Club Inc., featuring female strippers, opened last weekend in downtown Cumberland across the street from the Allegany County District Court building.
 
 >From staff and wire reports
 
 Copyright (c) 2002, The Baltimore Sun
 
 Link to the article: http://www.sunspot.net/bal-md.legisbriefs20mar20.story
 
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