- The Washington Times - Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Wednesday he supports a bipartisan plan to livestream video from the floor of the House of Delegates and state Senate, his first endorsement of any legislation this session.

The $1.2 million idea, introduced by Dels. Kathy Szeliga, Harford County Republican, and David Moon, Montgomery County Democrat, would put cameras in both chambers of the General Assembly and employ a four-person team to operate the system, giving the public access to floor debates.

“Maryland citizens deserve accountability and transparency from their elected leaders, especially when modern technology should make access easy and inexpensive,” Mr. Hogan said in a statement. “This is a common-sense piece of legislation.”

Maryland is one of seven states that do not broadcast any video of floor sessions. They do, however, broadcast an audio stream from both chambers.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there are three states that broadcast video from just one chamber, but the remaining 41 states provide a video stream of both chambers.

Mr. Hogan’s statement indicated he supported not only livestreaming floor sessions, but also committee voting sessions which are not currently broadcasted. The Maryland legislature does broadcast and archive video of all committee hearings.

Ms. Szeliga’s and Mr. Moon’s proposal is reminiscent of a 2014 bill to establish a video streaming and archiving process, but that bill died in committee.

The bill has the support of Common Cause, a voter advocacy group.

“It’s common sense to make sure Marylanders have access to the floor meetings and being able to see and participate more fully,” Damon Effingham, policy manager for Common Cause, said. “There’s been some positive attention on it, and I think the governor’s attention on it definitely raises the level of the issue.”

Mr. Effingham suggested that a point of contention might be the “wildly high” cost of the measure. Legislative analysts said it could cost $1.2 million to set up a video-streaming system in the two chambers, and then the additional cost of $400,000 a year to operate the system and pay the four-person team that would man it.

Delegates are looking at a way to lower the cost and still make floor debates accessible. Mr. Hogan said the governor’s office livestreams and archives the bimonthly Board of Public Works meetings for $3,500 a year.

Despite past stumbles and a high cost, the Hogan administration backing the bill will likely give it a better chance of gaining support in the legislature.

Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford praised the measure during a Board of Public Works meeting Wednesday morning.

“We think it’s important that in the interest of transparency, we move in this direction,” he said.

• Anjali Shastry can be reached at ashastry@washingtontimes.com.

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