Assembly Digest
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 April 5, 2001
 
 The Senate Finance Committee killed a bill yesterday that would have created a Department of Tourism to promote attractions in Maryland.
 
 The legislation -- which won overwhelmingly approval in the House of Delegates last month -- was sponsored by Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., who had made it one of his top goals for the session.
 
 The measure would have combined units of the Department of Housing and Community Development and the Department of Business and Economic Development to form the state's 19th Cabinet-level agency, and it would have required increases in spending to encourage tourism. The bill would not have affected the Glendening administration, which opposed it, but would have required the governor elected next year to set up such a department.
 
 
 
 
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