1. By Angela Winters
Sentinel Contributing Writer
As the wealth of Marylanders
has grown, so has their generosity,
according to a new report on individ-
ual charity released by the Associa-
tion of Baltimore Area Grantmakers,
a philanthropy forum organization.
The report, The State of Individ-
ual Giving in Maryland 2005, is
based on government data from
2002, the most recently year avail-
able. It is the second in a series of re-
ports theABAG will release this year
documenting the status of charitable
giving in the state. In that year, Mary-
land residents gave 2.9% of their ad-
justed gross income to charity.
Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz,
Communications Director for the
ABAG, says the report is necessary
to know where the state is in terms of
giving in order to know what is still
needed. “This series of reports are to
benchmark how we’re doing and
keep people talking about charitable
giving. We want to make charitable
giving a part of everyday conversa-
tions.”
Beaudoin-Schwartz says the
study is also important because it
shows where Maryland stands rela-
tive to other states. In 2002, Mary-
land was the fifth wealthiest state in
the country, the seventh highest in
giving in percentage of adjusted
gross income and the seventh highest
in giving in percentage of total gross
income.
“It’s good to see that charitable
giving has kept pace with wealth,”
said Beaudoin-Schwartz.
Among the factors the ABAG
believes contribute to greater giving
are wealth, a high number of Mary-
landers who itemize deductions on
their tax returns, volunteerism, the
percentage of African-Americans in
the population and the high numbers
of residents with graduate degrees.
“What was unexpected,” said
Beaudoin-Schwartz, “was for the
first time we saw that having a large
number of baby boomers influenced
giving in a negative way. We don’t
yet know the reason for that.”
In addition to the decline in giv-
ing among baby boomers, the report
shows that factors negatively influ-
encing charitable contributions in
Maryland are the low percentage of
Protestants, lower capital gains and a
low dispersion of giving from lower
income households.
The ABAG is comprised of
more than 130 private foundations
and corporate giving programs. Ear-
lier this year, the organization re-
leased a report on non-profit charity.
In the fall, it will release a report on
foundation giving with another re-
port on corporate giving expected
during the holiday season.
The current report can be found
on their website at http://www.abag-
md.org.
By Mike Torralba
Capital News Service
ANNAPOLIS — The House
Thursday sent its $1 billion capital
budget to the Senate, which is ex-
pected to alter the lower chamber’s
plan to borrow $250 million for
public school construction.
The Senate will likely trim be-
tween $25 million and $50 million
from the $250 million allocated by
the House for school construction,
said Sen. Ulysses Currie, D-Prince
George’s, chairman of the Senate
Budget and Taxation Committee.
The Senate’s school plan will be
“completely different” from the
House’s, Curry said.
“We’re going to appropriate
the money based on the number of
kids in each county,” Curry said.
The House allocated construc-
tion funding to school projects rec-
ommended by the state Interagency
Committee on School Construc-
tion. But the committee’s executive
director, David Lever, said the
House Appropriations Committee
never answered his questions on
how delegates determined the pro-
jects and their funding levels.
“All of the projects that were
shown were, in fact, eligible pro-
jects,” Lever said. “They weren’t the
ones we gave great emphasis to.”
The House plan skims bond
money from various capital pro-
jects to reach the funding level rec-
ommended last year by a state task
force to build more schools and
renovate aging ones.
But the task force also said
$250 million will be needed each
year until 2010 to fix the school
system -- the House budget maps
out only spending during the fiscal
year beginning July 1.
The House passed the capital
budget, 137-0, with some Republi-
cans saying they had reservations
despite voting in favor.
Those Republicans criticized
some of the cuts made by the House
Appropriations Committee, which
removed bond funding for a num-
ber of projects favored by Gov.
Robert Ehrlich.
Under language adopted by the
committee, Ehrlich would have to
fund those programs with surplus
money in the state Rainy Day Fund.
Among the deletions:
• $3 million in bonds to be is-
sued for a rural land preservation
fund, leaving the fund with $9.9
million.
• All $8 million in bonds for a
neighborhood revitalization pro-
gram, allowing up to $5 million to
come from the reserve fund.
• $14 million in bonds for an
economic development assistance
fund, which the panel instead
funded with $7 million in reserve
money.
If all the shifted projects re-
ceive funding, about $186 million
PHOTO BY MARKETA EBERT
Tea Time
Clare Alexander, 5, on the left and Celsiana Cornett, 7, create a fanciful hat and gloves to wear at the SpringTea at
the Greenbelt Community Center Artful Afternoon on April 3.
Senate Expected to Shift House
School-Construction Plan
Marylanders
Show Generosity
In Giving, New
Report Says
See Schools, page E-4
Letters E-2
Reflections E-2
Calendar E-6
Fun Page E-7
Classifieds E-8
Council Notices E-10
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