Gov. Martin O’Malley maintains a relatively high approval rating, but nearly half of those polled disapprove of his work on the budget and taxes. Public views in some areas may be tipping in his direction, but there’s limited support for other initiatives. Public priorities differ sharply between Republicans and Democrats.

A Nigerian immigrant who runs an executive car service, Otigba learned over burgers and potato salad that his new neighbors, all of them black, included a White House staffer, a Grammy-winning producer, a lawyer, a nurse, an engineer and a fellow business owner. That's an impressive lineup in most any community, but here in Prince George's County, the most affluent majority-black county in the United States, the Otigbas and their neighbors were just part of the wave of well-to-do families who arrived in the years before the financial collapse to stake their claim on a 5,000-square-foot version of the American dream.

Outside the cul-de-sac's seven brandy-colored brick neocolonials, party conversation quickly turned to typical middle-class concerns, from the quality of area schools to guidelines for the local homeowners association. By the time the Otigbas cleaned up and helped the hired DJ pack his equipment, several of their new neighbors had made something else clear. Most planned to spend the coming decades living in Balk Hill.

"I found that refreshing," said Otigba, 43. "When we moved here, I told my wife, 'This is it. I'm never moving again.' We were planting our roots."

That was then. Today, the Otigbas and five of their six immediate neighbors are underwater on their mortgages, that is, they owe more than their homes are worth. The lawyer's house sits vacant after a failed short sale. The engineer fears the house he shares with his family will become unaffordable when their mortgage resets in about a year. And having attempted once unsuccessfully to cut a new deal with their bank, the Otigbas are waiting to hear the results of a second effort. For months they've lived in fear that an official foreclosure notice will arrive with an order to vacate.

Prince George's County estimates it will be about $126 million in the red in the coming fiscal year. The county will hold a series of public hearings over the next three weeks to find out which programs should be kept and which should be cut.

The deficit has "a lot of that has to do with the fact that there's a decrease in our residential property values," says County Executive Rushern Baker.

At the same time, he says the county's costs have gone up.

"We're going to have to make some tough choices."

Officials working on plans for a regional hospital to replace ailing Prince George’s Hospital Center say they expect by late March to know how many beds are needed and what type of outpatient health care is needed for the county’s nearly 1 million residents.

And they fervently hope that once the needs are established, the money will flow for the proposed $600 million regional medical system that is envisioned by the state, the University of Maryland Medical System and Prince George’s County.

That may prove to be the trickiest part.

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert) has said some of the cost of the hospital could be offset by revenues from slot machine gambling in Prince George’s, which he has been pushing as an antidote to revenue shortfalls. The state is experiencing a budget gap of about $1 billion; Prince George’s County’s gap is about $126 million.

Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission officials say they are proposing a 7.5 percent fee increase to water and sewer fees.

The agency serves about 1.8 million residents in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. The Washington Post reports that commission Chairman Roscoe M. Moore Jr. said in a letter to both county governments that the agency needs 22.3 percent increase to its capital and operating budgets (http://tinyurl.com/7m5pe74).

Prince George’s residents may weigh in on the proposed fiscal 2013 budget for Prince George’s County Public Schools at two community forums later this month.

The forums, which both start at 6:30 p.m., are scheduled for Tuesday at Gwynn Park Middle School in Brandywine and Jan. 25 at Cora L. Rice Elementary School in Landover.

Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. presented the budget at the Jan. 5 school board meeting, and the first public forum took place Wednesday at Laurel High School.

The NAACP is urging the Maryland legislature to abolish the death penalty.

The organization’s action comes on the heels of efforts to stop the execution of Troy Davis last year. But, the tone of that move represents a marked shift in which death penalty critics are increasingly framing the issue within the context of cost rather than as a moral imperative or as a way to highlight racial disparities. The hope is that states like Maryland, pressed for money during hard economic times, will take a second look at the practice and do away with it.

This year, council members said, they plan to seek ways to shore up education, environmental programs, economic development and public safety, and complete an overhaul of ethics rules that began in last year’s state legislature.

It won’t be easy.

Many council members want to expand the county’s tax base to help close an estimated $126 million budget shortfall without further burdening county residents, who pay among the highest taxes in Maryland. At the same time, Prince George’s officials have to cope with challenges emanating from the state capital: potentially less overall state aid, possibly higher teacher pension costs for localities and an ongoing battle over an income tax formula that leaves Prince George’s at a disadvantage.

Obtaining funding for school construction, infrastructure improvements and a new hospital will be top priorities this year and during the upcoming General Assembly session, said Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III.

Improving schools goes hand-in-hand with fostering economic development, Baker (D) said.

The superintendent's proposed budget for Prince George's County's public schools would barely raise the school system's operating costs and includes no teacher layoffs.

William Hite's $1.61 billion budget, an increase of only $238,200 from last year's budget, requires cost-cutting measures in nearly every department of the public school system to compensate for declining revenue.

Prince George's Public Schools officials face a $44 million budget gap heading into fiscal 2013, one year after shedding about 700 teaching positions in sweeping cuts that reduced school spending by $13 million in 2012.

Declining enrollment and the precarious budget situations at the state and county levels required a conservative budgeting approach, Hite said.

Prince George’s County expects a deficit of $126 million in the coming fiscal year, which officials hope to address without layoffs or furloughs, according to a county budget official.

The county is projecting $2.71 billion in expenditures for fiscal 2013 but only $2.58 billion in revenues, according a report provided by County Executive Rushern L. Baker’s staff.

The report shows a 2.7 percent decrease in revenue from the current fiscal year and a 1.7 percent increase in expenditures. The fiscal 2012 budget was $2.65 billion.

Obtaining funding for school construction, infrastructure improvements and a new hospital will be top priorities this year and during the approaching General Assembly session, said Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III.

Improving schools goes hand-in-hand with fostering economic development, Baker (D) added.

“I think there’s a tremendous opportunity ... to help not only Prince George’s County, but also help the state, because the growth in the state is going to happen in the Washington region,” Baker said.

Many people made resolutions to live better, save money and be kinder to the earth in the year 2012. In that vein, there's a farm in Prince George's County that just might help you live up to your New Year's resolution. It's called ECO City Farms, located in Edmonston, Md.

Established in 2010 on County park land, ECO City Farms provides healthy produce, eggs, and honey to the Port Towns communities, and offers many hands-on educational and vocational training opportunities, including the first-ever urban agriculture certificate program with Prince George's Community College.

In just two years, the nonprofit organization not only built the first urban farm in the county, but grew and sold vegetables year-round, engaged more than 1, 000 volunteers, held the first ever Chesapeake region urban farming summit with 400 attendees.

In addition, produce from ECO-City is available for sale at the Riverdale Farmers Market.

It's 2,000 square feet. Three bedrooms. Four baths. But it's something numbers can't fully explain. It is the American dream. Mildred Hardin says it feels like "the beginning of something great."

And it's been a long time in the making for Hardin and her family. After a lifetime of renting, Hardin is a homeowner. And it would not have been possible right now without help from a Prince George's County program called "My Home."

"What we do is assist them, either with a down payment, or closing costs or some combination thereof," says Eric Brown, Director of Prince George's County Department of Housing and Community Development.

"I'm sure that our good friends in Washington and Virginia are eager to either attract them or keep them and Prince George's County is ready for the game," said David Iannucci, Head of Economic Development for Prince George's County. "We've met with the Redskins, and a team with the Maryland Stadium Authority and Prince George's County has met with the Redskins, has interviewed them, and had a tour of their facility."

Iannucci said the county owns land near Bowie State University that would be ideal for a new team headquarters and training complex. He also said the deal to bring the Redskins to Landover 14 years ago had important strings attached.

"Under the 30-year lease that the Redskins have with Prince George's County, Prince George's County is owed the right of first refusal should the Redskins think about relocating their training facility. And the county has essentially said we intend to exercise that right," Iannucci explained.

Since his election, President Barack Obama (D) has had a strong presence in Prince George's County. He has used local sites as the backdrop for national issues: rallies for health care reform at the University of Maryland, College Park; voter turnout at Bowie State University; and economic initiatives at businesses in Bladensburg and Landover. Not to mention, he travels to the county when he uses Air Force One, which flies in and out of Joint Base Andrews in Camp Springs, where he's also been known to hit the links.

Prince George’s officials say the visits — numbering about 10 since 2009 — raise the county’s visibility nationally and provide a boost to the businesses he visits, though others dispute the financial benefits, and costs incurred by the county are closely guarded.

“The president needs to be out there,” said David Abshire, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. “The worst thing is a president that is out of touch when you have an economy that's worse than the year before.”

The county’s popularity among presidents is not new. Former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D), who served as Prince George’s County executive from 1982 to 1994, said the county’s diversity and proximity to the White House make it an ideal backdrop for presidential announcements. The president can make a speech in the county and get back to Washington, D.C., without any major travel time, Glendening said.

Is there hope to turn around the falling prices and foreclosure rates in Prince George’s County? While some areas of the Washington region have seen signs of rebounding from the housing crash, Prince George’s home values have lagged. Total volume of sales was down 11 percent in 2011 compared to 2010 and the average home was on the market more than 100 days last year, according to Alease Bowles, president of the Prince George’s County Association of Realtors .

What’s worse, it’s possible that prices will fall further this year as foreclosures nationwide are expected to rise, according to some economists, and Prince George’s already leads Maryland in foreclosures. But help might be on the way. Two new programs aim to try to revive the local real estate market in the county by providing homebuyers with some pretty attractive incentives.One program, Buy Suitland, offers 0 percent interest grants for people who have not owned a home in the last three years and who are buying a home in Suitland, Md, within certain census track boundaries.

With the Maryland legislature set to reconvene next week, a plan to bring slots to Prince George’s County faces several obstacles, including division among local lawmakers and resistance from Maryland jurisdictions that already have casinos.

Representatives of Penn National Gaming, which began a concerted push over the summer to put slots at Rosecroft Raceway, say they remain optimistic that a bill will pass once legislators realize the economic benefits for the county and state.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker is pushing for approval of a feasibility study into bringing slot machines into the county to help mend a budget shortfall.

In an interview with The Washington Post ahead of next month's opening of the Maryland General Assembly, Baker said "it would be irresponsible" to not take gambling proposals into consideration.

"We have to look at almost everything," Baker told the paper.

Prince George's County is facing a $100 million budget gap next year, while the state of Maryland is facing a $1 billion shortfall. In addition to slot machines, a raise in the state's gas tax and the shifting of teacher pension costs to individual counties.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker says he'll be looking at "almost everything" as an option to raise new revenue and deal with a possible budget shortfall.

The county has a projected budget gap of more than $100 million dollars, and new data expected next month could widen that figure. Prince George's has a $2.7 billion dollar budget and has limited ability to raise property taxes because of a voter-approved tax cap.

Low-interest disaster loans are available to Maryland small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture businesses and most private non-profit organizations affected by Tropical Storm Lee on Sept. 6 -14, 2011.

SBA Administrator Karen G. Mills made the loans available following a request from Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Dec. 1 for a disaster declaration by the SBA. The declaration covers Prince George’s County and the adjacent counties of Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Howard and Montgomery in Maryland; the Independent City of Alexandria and Fairfax County in Virginia and the District of Columbia.

“The Small Business Administration is strongly committed to providing the most effective and customer-focused response possible to help small businesses and non-profits in Maryland with their federal disaster loans,” said Mills. “Getting our businesses and communities up and running after a disaster is our highest priority at SBA.”

Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III said Monday that he plans to ask lawmakers in Annapolis for a great deal of funding in the upcoming legislative session and that he remains open to the possibility of a slot-machine gambling site in his county to help cover the cost.

...

Penn National Gaming, owner of Rosecroft Raceway, is pushing a plan to make the facility the sixth slots site authorized in Maryland. Other options have also been talked about in recent months. Baker said that he is not limiting consideration of slots solely to Rosecroft.

The vast majority of Prince George’s lawmakers opposed hosting a slots venue in 2007, when the state launched its program. Since then, some legislators have begun to reconsider their positions based on the potential revenue a facility could generate for both the state and county.

Having trucked 100 participants, including 43 businesses, through the rapidly growing international markets of India, the state's largest economic trade mission returned this week with more than $37 million in business deals.

Deals included an $8 million theme park ride contract, a $3.7 million highway upgrades contract and a partnership for a Prince George's County call center that could employ as many as 50 people.

With shelves of craft beer sitting a few yards away from bins of rubber chickens, and with a high-quality restaurant and brewery sharing space with gag gifts such as bacon-flavored gum, Franklin’s Restaurant, Brewery and General Store is a study in eclectic style.

Franklin’s, occupying an 1880s-era structure that once was a hardware store, is the brainchild of Mike Franklin, who bought the building in the early 1990s to preserve a piece of Hyattsville history. Franklin still uses its original sliding ladders and metal nail bins, among other features.

What was once billed as Disney’s first resort in the Washington region and a boon to National Harbor in Prince George’s County is no more. The company has backed out of plans to build a hotel at the Oxon Hill development.

Late last week, Disney announced it was pulling out of the project, citing that National Harbor did not fit in with its current lineup of projects, which currently includes a theme park in Shanghai, according to The Washington Post.

The Prince George’s County Council and county executive, already among the highest paid county government officials in Maryland, are due for a 3.4 percent raise next month. The increase comes at a time when public employees are enduring pay freezes and unpaid furloughs to plug local government budget gaps. In nearby Howard and Montgomery counties, pay raises are also in the offing.

In Prince George’s, three council members said they will return their raises or donate them to charity. County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D), whose salary is slated to increase from $174,539 to $180,473, said Tuesday that he will either turn back the raise to the government or donate it to a nonprofit group.

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae opened a center in Prince George’s County on Wednesday that is designed to help struggling homeowners who are facing foreclosure.

The Capital Area Mortgage Help Center will provide free education and one-on-one counseling services to homeowners who need assistance. The center, which is in Greenbelt but is for homeowners throughout the region, is the 12th facility to open in the United States.

Much of the African-American demographic decline can be traced to the way lower- and middle-income blacks are moving to the suburbs, just as whites did after World War II. As a result, Maryland’s Prince George’s County is now the wealthiest majority-black county in the United States. (The gangsters from Yards Park also moved there, which accounts for most of the county’s crime.) But it’s just not true that D.C.’s racial divide is getting worse. Despite the African-American exodus—amounting to 100,000 people since 1990, according to a CBS Baltimore article on the 2010 census—the D.C. population grew by 30,000 residents over the same period. Many of the newcomers are well-off whites, while others are Hispanic, African, Asian, and multiracial. Immigrants now account for over 20 percent of D.C.’s metro-area population, according to a 2011 Brookings report, The Geography of Immigrant Skills. A recent article in the Washington Post, “A Region Remade,” reports that in 2010, just one in three neighborhoods in D.C. was highly segregated, with more than 85 percent of the residents of the same race or ethnicity. D.C. is becoming more diverse and undivided, not less.

More than a month after the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee left much of downtown Upper Marlboro underwater, Frank Kline is still afraid his business might drown.

When Kline's business, Marlboro Blueprint and Office Supplies, flooded from Sept. 7 to 9, his blueprint-making equipment was destroyed, leaving him with a $1.25 million loss and forcing him to send all of his blueprint orders to his other branches in Waldorf and Lexington Park.

“It's taken its toll on me,” Kline said. “If you look at the money coming in versus the money going out; it was already bad enough because of the economy, and this really put a pinch on it.”

Prince George's County officials, meanwhile, offered no such drama, though Evans emphasized that the Bowie plan is far from sealed.

"We've got nothing but open arms from Prince George's County," Evans said. "They want the jobs. They want to put a hotel there where the parents can stay."

State Sen. Douglas Peters, D-Bowie, has a teenage son who plays lacrosse for DeMatha High School. The family will spend about $1,500 to attend a tournament in Florida this month, which may or may not involve a hassle.

"We've literally had to drive from one school to another school, and then back to the other school, depending on whether or not you lose," Peters said. The Legends proposal would concentrate those games in a single spot in Bowie, surrounded by existing hotels and restaurants.

"The idea would be to get those kinds of tournaments to come to Maryland, and then we could get the economic spin-off," Peters said.

In the wake of last month's earthquake and Hurricane Irene which resulted in widespread property damage and power outages in the D.C. region, Prince George's County is distributing information about new and existing state programs aimed at providing relief and assistance to victims.

"One of government's greatest responsibilities after a disaster is to help residents recover and rebuild," said County Executive Rushern L. Baker. "A big part of that task is making sure that citizens are aware of the help that is available. I hope that this information will assist the Prince Georgians whose lives have been affected by recent events."

The Maryland Housing Rehabilitation - Single Family (MHR), Accessible Homes for Seniors (AHS) and Indoor Plumbing Program (IPP) are available to assist residents with home repair costs. There is also a voucher program provided by the Maryland Disaster Housing Assistance Program (MDHAP), which provides 90-day renewable emergency rental assistance for people who have been displaced as the result of a natural disaster.

As part of ongoing efforts to bolster Prince George’s County’s economic presence in Africa, officials hosted a roundtable discussion Monday on emerging business opportunities in the newly-formed South Sudan.

More than 100 businesspeople attended the gathering, which was hosted at the Prince George's Economic Development Corp.'s headquarters in Upper Marlboro and sponsored by U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Dist. 5) of Mitchellville, along with the county’s Africa Trade Office and the Association of Maryland Africa Societies.

"This is an opportunity to play a major role in building a nation," said Patricia Hayes-Parker, executive director of the Africa Trade Office.

South Sudan — which had a gross domestic product of $30 billion in 2010, according to federal data, and derives 98 percent of its revenues from oil exports — seceded from Sudan in July following a voter referendum. Because of its new independence and the region's history of continuous civil war, economic development in South Sudan represents an array of challenges and opportunities, roundtable leaders said.

As part of an ongoing effort to attract new businesses to Prince George’s, the County Council is hosting a town hall meeting Thursday to discuss proposals to streamline the county’s permitting process.

Obtaining development-related permits in the county has long been criticized by business leaders and officials for being slow and redundant, making the county less attractive to new businesses than other jurisdictions.

Prince George’s County has retained its AAA bond rating from three ratings houses that examine local government finances.

County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) on Thursday called the ratings “great news. It shows they have confidence with where we are going in county government.”

Are you 3 or more months late on your mortgage? Is your home in imminent danger of foreclosure?

The EMA program may be able to help you. These are the steps you take:

Go through the Pre-Application Eligibility Checklist to see if you may be eligible.
Contact an approved Prime Counseling Agency from the list provided. They can assist you in completing an EMA application if you appear eligible, and help you pursue other avenues of assistance if you do not qualify for EMA.

Many said they too want the safer neighborhoods and better-quality stores that development brings. There are also long-established black middle-class enclaves east of the river, such as Hillcrest, where residents are also happy to see more well-to-do black neighbors.

Is gentrification black and white? Or economic? Last week, at a meeting about the often ominous issue of gentrification, a panel of young black professionals rejected the common idea that gentrification means white people moving into black neighborhoods. Instead, they argued, gentrification is about economics and a product of market forces....

Speakers referenced demographic shifts in the history of the city. Georgetown had a reputation as a slum in the 1920's, and Anacostia was nearly 80% white up until the 1950's. Given this, there was a consensus that change is natural as people come and go between and within neighborhoods. Davis noted that there is an emerging group of middle class African Americans that are "not choosing to buy or if they buy they are typically choosing the big house in Prince George's County."

There was standing room only in a Prince George’s Community College auditorium Wednesday night as community members clamored to join a town hall forum on race and the economic recession.

The discussion was an opportunity for the community and panelists to discuss the findings of a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation-Harvard University poll on the recession’s impact on area African American families.

America’s wealthiest black county is in trouble.

Prince George’s County, Md., has gained prominence in recent years as the most affluent county in America with a majority African-American population. Average income in the county is almost double the national average for black families, according to the Census Bureau’s 2009 American Community Survey.

But the county, adjacent to the District of Columbia, has been laid low by the recession and the mortgage meltdown and now holds a more dubious distinction: a rising foreclosure rate that ranks as the worst in Maryland.

In June, Pepco will begin installing advanced digital electric meters, also referred to as smart meters, throughout its Maryland service area. The meter exchange program is the first step in the utility’s long-term investment to build a smart power grid that will help customers better manage their energy use and costs and improve customer service and reliability.

Crews will continue with the installation process through December 2012 until all of Pepco’s Maryland customers receive a new meter. Prior to installation, customers will receive a letter and fact sheet from Pepco which, among other things, introduces them to the contractor, Scope Services Inc., who will perform the meter installation.

Hollywood Elementary School is at 140 percent capacity, the former Friends School on Calvert Road remains closed, and the Prince George’s County School Department is facing budget cuts stemming from declining revenue that could make problems worse.

William Hite Jr., superintendent of schools for Prince George’s County, was on hand at Tuesday’s worksession of the College Park City Council to discuss local problems and his budget proposal, expected to be released Thursday.

The state budget restored some of the original cuts made to the budget in February, but certain programs will still see less money.

Prince George’s County has received a AAA bond rating from all three of the major Wall Street ratings agencies for the first time.

Analysts with Fitch Ratings announced May 27 that they had upgraded their rating on the county from AA+ to AAA, the highest rating possible. Ratings are the government equivalent of a personal credit score and indicate to investors the economic strength of a company, fund or municipality.

What we do for the environment affects us all. As I’ve said before, our borders don’t stop pollution. They don’t stop the
economy. And they don’t stop our residents from traveling across regional lines. This is an integrated region, and Prince George’s County will become the economic engine driving prosperity for all of us.

But in order to achieve that goal, we must commit the necessary resources. I have submitted legislation to the County Council that would create a $50 million Economic Development Incentive Fund.

This Fund, if approved by the County Council, will serve as one of many economic development tools we can use to
attract businesses and create jobs. The Economic Development Incentive Fund will be created from a one-time undesignated fund balance. We cannot use this money for recurring costs. If it is used to raise salaries, this fund balance will dry up in the next year or two, creating reductions in services, layoffs and furloughs.

Water and sewer rates will increase 8.5 percent beginning in July for customers of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.

The rate hike will add about $15.15 to quarterly bills sent to the average WSSC-served household that uses about 210 gallons of water per day.

It follows an 8.5 percent WSSC rate increase last year.

The Montgomery and Prince George's counties approved the increase and a $1.192 billion budget for the utility during a joint meeting Thursday afternoon at the WSSC's headquarters in Laurel. The utility serves 1.8 million customers in the two counties.

Supporters of an embattled outdoor education center are relieved the center has gotten a promise of partial funding to stay open, but are pushing for more money to avoid staffing and program cuts.

At a Prince George's County Council public hearing Monday, more than 20 staff, students, teachers and parents attended to rally behind Brandywine's William S. Schmidt Outdoor Education Center, which is known as Camp Schmidt and provides outdoor education overnight outings for county fifth-graders.

In "A Tale of Two Counties," Lawler compares two Washington metro areas: Prince William County, Va., and Prince George's County, Md. Both counties witnessed rapid home-price appreciation during the housing boom. Both had higher-than-average shares of subprime mortgages. And both saw prices take a dive from their 2006 peak.

Today, home prices in Prince William County are above the 2009 lows, while those in Prince George's County still are declining. The difference seems to be the speed with which foreclosed homes were resold.

A controversial pay raise proposal could force Prince George's County to stop hiring firefighters and police and corrections officers in the next fiscal year, according to a budget memo issued Monday by County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D).

In a list of potential cuts given to council members, Baker's staff warned the county would not be able to hire new recruits for the public safety agencies if the council approves a 2 percent pay raise for employees negotiated by former County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) last year.

As Rev Anthony Evans describes it, the initiative to provide financial education and banking resources to black consumers sponsored by the NAACP and Wells Fargo, the nation�s biggest mortgage lender, is a financial crime against the African American community....

Prince George�s County, a bastion of the African American middle class, has the highest foreclosure rate in Maryland. Realty-Trac�s measures show that one in every 742 housing units in the county received a foreclosure filing in February � 2.4 times the state average.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker had high praise for the City of Bowie in his April 7 State of the County address. Baker says the economic development experienced should be the model for the rest of the county.

"I think its fitting that I've arrived here in Bowie where you've faced some of the same economic pressures that we all do, yet you've maintained a steady, healthy economy," Baker told the Greater Bowie Chamber of Commerce. "You've balanced your budget and have a Triple-A Bond rating.

"That isn't a small feat in these tough economic times."

Prince George's County, Md., has seen more foreclosures than any other parts of the D.C. region, and some civil rights groups are accusing banks of discriminating against county residents, who are predominately African-American.

Prince George's County officials said Tuesday that despite the state's fiscal crisis, they emerged from the General Assembly with most of what they wanted, including crucial funds for the school system that could avert some layoffs and restore busing for magnet programs.

The county also won $3 million to help keep Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington afloat while it emerges from bankruptcy protection. That will help save jobs, said County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D).

Nicola Taveres enjoyed walking to stores and restaurants in her neighborhood in Arlington County. But when she began a search for a house in Northern Virginia, she was priced out of the market, so she bought a townhouse near a Metro station in Prince George's County....

More than 200 residents, planners and government officials met at the Maryland Forward forum on "smart growth," an urban planning philosophy that focuses on creating walkable neighborhoods where people can live, work, shop and play. It was one in a series of meetings established by O'Malley to gather public comment about such issues as the economy, education, public safety and smart growth.

Almost $67 million in surplus money is funding one-time investments in Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker's budget despite county jobs and services being cut.

His proposed fiscal 2012 budget calls for making three one-time grants with leftover money accumulated in the general fund.

Baker's budget chief, Thomas Himler, said the county has $116 million in surplus funds because the county brought in more revenue and spent less than expected for several years. But he said officials chose not to spend it on recurring costs because the county wouldn't have the funding next year.

The county is facing a projected $77 million budget deficit, and Baker's budget includes across-the-board cuts to agencies.

Prince George's County could create a Green Business Advisory Board to help promote environmentally conscious commerce through tax credits if a plan introduced Tuesday is approved.

The advisory board would be composed of appointees by the county council and county executive. Its main purpose would be to provide advice regarding the implementation of the county's tax credit program as it relates to green businesses.

In his first major address since taking office, Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III said he is pinning much of his hope for a turnaround on a proposed $50 million economic development fund to promote job creation in a county where 60 percent of the residents commute somewhere else for work.

The building also is expected to achieve gold certification in the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program and features one of the Air Force's first planted roofs. Pitchford added the building uses 30 percent recycled content and that 90 percent of the construction waste was recycled. More than 20 percent of the building materials were manufactured locally.

Prince George's County officials say they are "extremely disappointment" by the U.S. General Services Administration's decision to maintain a major Department of Health and Human Services presence in Rockville for the next 15 years.

The administration's announcement last week that it had selected the Parklawn Building, which is scheduled for renovations and upgrades, comes after months of efforts by Prince George's officials to get the GSA to give their county what they considered "fair consideration" for their bid.

"GSA's decision to keep the Department of Health and Human Services in its current location is extremely disappointing," Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) said through a spokesman Wednesday.

"Prince George's County has consistently been overlooked when it comes to placing federal office tenants," the e-mailed statement continued. "To date, Prince George's County is home to over one-quarter of the region's federal workforce, but only 3 percent of federal office space leased in the region. The three competing Prince George's County locations at the Largo, New Carrollton and Hyattsville Metro Stations were outstanding locations."

Monday, Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker unveiled his budget proposal for next year. Like all budgets, there was some nipping and tucking, as well as some spending increases.

Baker joined us in studio Monday night to talk more about his spending plan. Watch the video to find out what he had to say.

(video included)

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker unveiled his proposed $3.15 billion budget for fiscal year 2012 this week.

Among the measures called for in the proposal are the hiring of 150 new police officers, a 2.3-percent increase in educational funding, the creation of a $50 million fund to spark economic development and $10.7 million for a new library in Laurel.

If approved by the County Council, the budget, which represents a $10.2 million increase over this year's budget, would maintain the continued freeze on hiring and county employees would not receive cost-of-living or merit-pay increases for the third year in a row. In addition, 145 full-time vacant positions in the county would be eliminated.

Maryland earned a "C" for its transparency on government spending, according to a report released Wednesday by a state advocacy group.

The state scored high for detailing expenditure information that allows one to view individual payments made to vendors, according to the report by the Maryland Public Interest Research Group. It also scored well for its ability to allow residents to search expenditures by contractor or vendor name.

Eighteen-year-olds can guard inmates at the county jail. The Board of Ethics is essentially defunct. The county's Health Department lacks a strategic plan. These are some of the findings in a 185-page assessment of more than 30 Prince George's County government agencies.

County Executive Rushern Baker's transition team compiled the report, detailing problems and recommendations on public safety, economic development and education. The review suggests ways for the county to save money and improve efficiency as it faces a $77 million budget shortfall in fiscal 2012.

A son of former Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson was hired in the county's health department despite a hiring freeze, according to The Washington Post.

Jack B. Johnson Jr., was hired as a budget analyst at an annual salary of $71,483, according to documents obtained by the Post, obtained through a public records request.

Maryland lawmakers are tired of swaths of neglected homes in neighborhoods hard hit by foreclosures -- and they want lenders to pay. A bill introduced last week by delegates from Prince George's and Charles counties would require banks and investment companies that repossess or foreclose on a home to pay for maintaining and securing the property, a measure just as much about safety as it is appearance, supporters said. "This is exactly the 'broken widow theory' we worry about," said Del. C.T. Wilson, D-Charles, a co-sponsor of the bill. "When people know that the place is not kept up, that's when the criminals move in."

In January, more than 700 homes went into foreclosure in Prince George's County, nearly five times the total of Montgomery County. The more than 4,000 foreclosed homes in the county account for nearly one-third of the state's total.

[This is a video at a live forum. Only 6 mins. of County Executive Baker telling about the contributions residents and other people in the Prince George's County have made to help with the tough budget cuts and other things the county is planning to do.]

Prince George's has weathered the economic storm of recent years to become a promising home for retail development, developers said last week as they marketed their projects to tenants throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

The county played host to the International Council of Shopping Centers 2011 Mid-Atlantic Conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill's National Harbor, which drew close to 1,500 people.

"The market is just picking up, but we had projects opening up while everyone else was stopped," said Patricia Thornton, spokeswoman for the county economic development corporation. She referred to National Harbor and Woodmore Towne Center in Landover, which opened in 2008 and last year, respectively.

Council members from Greenbelt, New Carrollton, College Park and the Town of Berwyn Heights met Wednesday evening in College Park over issues of mutual concern facing Prince George's County. Widening the Baltimore-Washington Parkway drove much of the discussion, as well as a visit by the county executive, Rushern L. Baker III, who talked ethics and the economy for about 90 minutes with the four-cities coalition.

"Clearly in terms of the emphasis on this administration is economic development," said Baker, isolating potential investments primarily around the county's metro stations. "If we do not grow our tax base then we're going to be in real trouble, and for far too long we relied on residential property taxes."

The Prince George's County school board approved on Thursday night a gloomy budget that slashes more than 1,300 jobs and increases class sizes, despite the pleas of parents and educators who begged the panel to find another way.

Still, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said the 8-to-1 vote was only a first step, as he held out hope that the tough-love fiscal plan might persuade the state and county governments to contribute more money. Both entities must approve the budget before it is implemented.

Researchers from the Greater Washington Research at Brookings, a D.C.-based policy think tank, presented the Prince George's County Council Tuesday with results of a regional study that showed more than 7 percent of Prince George's County residents were living in poverty, the most of any Washington-area suburb.

Elizabeth Kneebone, a researcher at the institute, which released the study of poverty based on 2009 statistics, said that a stronger labor market in the county is needed to help fight poverty.

"Labor markets are regional," she said. "We need to think about this on the regional level."

There was standing room only in a Prince George's Community College auditorium Wednesday night as community members clamored to join a town hall forum on race and the economic recession.

Nearly four years after bacteria from an infected tooth spread to the brain of 12-year-old Deamonte Driver and killed him, the dental clinic named in his memory had made its first stop - at his old school, the Foundation School in Largo. Its mission: to prevent another child from dying from untreated tooth decay.

When the first segment of a controversial new highway that will connect Montgomery and Prince George's counties opens Tuesday, Maryland will have built what was once considered impossible in Washington's congested suburbs: a six-lane, multibillion-dollar toll road across fragile streams, a stone's throw from hundreds of homes.

The full cost of the Intercounty Connector - the exchange of woodlands for asphalt; the effects on residents along its path; debt payments that could require raising tolls throughout the state - will be analyzed for years. The immediate question is how opening the first 7.2 miles will affect traffic.

The full cost of the Intercounty Connector - the exchange of woodlands for asphalt; the effects on residents along its path; debt payments that could require raising tolls throughout the state - will be analyzed for years. The immediate question is how opening the first 7.2 miles will affect traffic.

Indeed, Georgetown may have the "Social Safeway," but Prince George's has what many have dubbed "Club Wegmans." Singles hook up in front of bins of fresh produce; couples gather for dates in the grocery store's sit-down restaurant; and shoppers sway to music from overhead speakers, singing along with Prince, Luther Vandross and Teena Marie.

"[One] Saturday night, I saw a couple hand-dancing to a Rafael Saadiq song," said Ayana Douglas, the store manager, who plays R&B and smooth jazz on the store's sound system. "The couple was getting their boogie on."

Adams says that before moving, he looked at a two-bedroom house around the corner from his mother's home priced at $285,000. But it had no refrigerator or washing machine, so in 2006, he settled on a five-bedroom home for slightly more in District Heights, Md., a working-class suburb in Prince George's County....

In Prince Georges County, where he lives now, the black population has grown 11 percent in the last decade.

Robinson offered the school board his recommendations for how to cut the budget without staff cuts or furloughs:(video)

Testimonials by people of all ages on the school board budget.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's fiscal 2012 budget proposal slashes state aid to Montgomery and Prince George's counties by a total of $70 million.

He would cut Montgomery's aid by roughly 4.3 percent and Prince George's County's aid 3.2 percent.

About $60 million in cuts, half from each county, would come from transportation, public safety and local government operations. The state would save an additional $10 million by charging the counties for property assessments, a cost the state historically has covered.

Prince George's School Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. has proposed cutting more than 1,100 jobs, paring back pre-kindergarten programs and increasing some class sizes to close a major budget shortfall.

The cuts are more severe than what Hite proposed just seven weeks ago, when he presented a budget for fiscal 2012 that would freeze pay and eliminate middle school sports while also cutting hundreds of jobs.

Since then, state officials have proposed lower local school funding levels than Hite expected. The budget he proposed Tuesday night includes nearly all of his previous cuts and many new ones, with the goal of saving $155 million and bringing the bottom line to $1.6 billion.

The federal government's ambitious plan to clean up the Chesapeake Bay could cost Virginia, Maryland and the District billions of dollars each and add hundreds of dollars to the annual property tax bill of local homeowners, state and local officials said.

A new study on the Environmental Protection Agency's plans to reduce pollution flowing to the Bay shows that it could cost each affected city and county between $259 million and $386 million a year for the next 15 years.

The study done by the Virginia Municipal Stormwater Association, a group of Virginia localities that operate storm sewer systems, represents the worst-case scenario for Virginia's cities and counties. But even states that are able to develop alternative cleanup plans of their own could still be forced to raise billions in tax dollars to pay the bill, officials said.

When FBI agents arrested then-County Executive Jack Johnson in a corruption inquiry in Prince George's in November, his newly elected successor, Rushern Baker, was loath to talk about the case. Baker didn't want lurid controversy over an allegedly crooked government to distract attention from jobs, schools and other pressing issues.

It's different today. Six weeks after taking office Dec. 6, Baker talks openly about the need to battle the county's "pay to play" culture.

"We've got to deal with the elephant in the room," Baker (D) said in an interview Thursday. "The perception is you can't get a fair shake in Prince George's County. Whether that's real or imaginary, we've got to deal with it. And the only way to do that is to assure people that here are the extra steps that we're going through to say that is not acceptable in Prince George's County."

Montgomery and Prince George's county residents would face an 8.9 percent increase in their water and sewer bills starting in July under a proposed budget released Thursday by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.

The increase would add $5.30 per month to the average residential bill, said WSSC spokesman John C. White. That would come on top of an 8.5 percent rate increase that WSSC customers saw this fiscal year.

With several new leaders in place, Prince George's County officials are looking to bolster the region's image and lure more businesses in the process.

County leaders recently celebrated the opening of the high-end Wegmans grocery store, but still struggle to attract upscale businesses, despite the abundance of affordable land and accessibility to Washington, D.C.

"The perception is that the bureaucracy in this county is not friendly," said M.H. Jim Estepp, president and CEO of the Greater Prince George's Business Roundtable. However, Estepp added, that perception might not be totally accurate.

County officials from Prince George's are spending extra on themselves this year for their annual County Council retreat, the Washington Examiner reports.

Members this year will head to the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort, Spa, and Marina in Cambridge, according to the report. The estimated cost for the two-day retreat, scheduled to start Monday, is between $10,000 and $15,000.

"Council retreats have been located both locally and at offsite facilities," Council chair Ingrid Turner said in a press release. "This year, the Council retreat will be held at an offsite location that will allow us to focus away from the distractions that a home site often presents. "

But Lehrer argues that the County's housing market really isn't that bad when compared with the rest of the country. He also noted that unemployment in Prince George's County -- 7 percent in October -- is lower than the national jobless rate of nearly 10 percent.

"The situation in P.G. County is worse than the situation anywhere else in the D.C. metro area," he said, "but by many measures it's actually doing better than the country as a whole. This is a problem, but it's not an incredibly severe one by national standards."

In her four-wheel-drive pickup truck, Claudia Raskin is bumping over the muddy dirt road on an unusual mercy mission.

She's an organic farmer, foodie and former Manhattanite who helps run a food bank in rural Prince George's County.

This isn't the Wegmans/Redskins/cash-filled bra part of the county. This is what used to be tobacco country, where roadside signs advertise goat meat and discount pig stalls. And we're only 23 miles from the White House.

Prince George's schools superintendent says plan to eliminate middle school sports and other reductions may not be enough

With more than 70,000 assessment notices to residential property owners in the eastern half of Prince George's County, including homeowners in Laurel, Glenn Dale, Bowie and Upper Marlboro, going into the mail Dec. 27, the assessments are in — and values have dropped.

On average, assessed values have dropped between 30 and 35 percent in the Cycle 2 area, said Joseph Hensley, supervisor of assessments for Prince George's County, on Tuesday.

Venkat A.R. Subramanian, owner of technology consulting firm Angarai International, expects to close on his first office condominium in Greenbelt this week with the help of a Small Business Administration 504 loan.

Prince George's Financial Services Corp., a nonprofit agency that's certified to manage state and federal loans, guided him through the process of securing 50 percent of the purchase price from a private lender to match the 40 percent backed by the agency. There was some frustration, with rejections from three lenders. And there was a false start, with a property deal that fell through.

The two men have known each other for years - one the professor, the other the student. But on Sunday, Isiah Leggett (D) and Rushern L. Baker III (D) sat opposite each other as equals, two county executives trying to help a local charitable organization raise money to plug gaps that their own local governments are struggling to fill.

In what has become an annual no-miss event for elected officials, politicians joined hundreds of volunteers at phone banks at Jewish community centers in Fairfax County, the District and Rockville to elicit private donations for schools, the elderly, young people and special-needs residents supported by the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.

Eight Maryland counties including Montgomery and Prince George's have asked the State Board of Education to give them a pass on mandatory school funding because of an influx of federal dollars.

State law requires counties to increase funding to schools each year based on factors such as higher enrollments, independent of dollars coming in from state and federal sources. But in dire budgetary times, counties can petition for a waiver. And the promise of extra federal money helps their case.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George's counties, said taxes will be a tough sell this year, but "at some point in time we're going to have to pass a gasoline tax."

Maryland's 23.5-cents-per-gallon gas tax is lower than those of 27 other states -- including neighboring Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The revenue would return dollars to the state's Transportation Trust Fund, which O'Malley has raided in the past as a source of funding transfers.

On top of fixing the 2012 budget, the legislature is expected to tackle ballooning pension and health benefits costs -- which are $33 billion underfunded.

"We might not end session on time," Miller said, predicting certain gridlock after studying his colleagues' faces during the two-hour budget briefing. "The fact that we're into an extra session will put added pressure on us to do what's right for our constituents and make the tough cuts."

Farmers in Prince George's County will be entitled to federal help following a summer of record high temperatures and little rain, after the county has been declared a natural disaster area.

But only about 20 percent of county farms will meet eligibility requirements for federal relief programs, meaning most local farmers will not benefit.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the designation Monday for 22 counties in Maryland. Farmers who lost at least 30 percent of their crops this year will be eligible for low-interest federal loans and other federal relief programs, provided they have crop insurance and can meet other eligibility requirements.

You've heard the gloom and doom reports, and yes, the economy's in the tank, but employers see glimmers of hope on the horizon and are offering advice for job-seekers.

Over and over again, employers at a job fair at Prince George's Community College said they wanted to see crisp, clean resumes, applicants who are dressed for success and positive attitudes.

On a typical weekday, it takes Jane Young about an hour to commute from her Croom home to her job at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C.

Young, who travels by car and Metro, is among the more than 60 percent of Prince George's residents who travel out of the county for work, according to a new analysis of statewide commuting patterns between 2000 and 2008 that the Maryland Department of Planning released this month. The data highlights the county's struggle during the past decade to attract employers -- especially federal agencies -- and jobs that appeal to the county's professional work force.

Young said she is willing to make the two-hour round trip each day to and from work so that she can continue to live in the quiet, rural community south of Upper Marlboro.

A lack of cohesive leadership continues to be a major impediment to job creation and quality growth in Prince George's County, business leaders told presumptive County Executive Rushern L. Baker III on Thursday night.

"We need the highest quality development we can get," said Dan Smith of Cheverly, one of about 90 people who attended Baker's last "listening session" with residents at Friendly High School in Fort Washington. "But we need some leadership here."

More Marylanders entered the workforce last month, causing both unemployment and employment to rise, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released last Friday.

The rate of unemployment in Maryland last month reached its highest point since April, 7.5 percent, up from 7.3 percent in August. And 4,200 more people were unemployed last month than in the same month of 2009.

Maryland transportation officials said they will be spending more than $12 million on new Prince George's County road projects next fiscal year — but added that they still do not have money for many of the county's top priorities.

Prince George's County Council members are planning to vote on several controversial bills just before many of the members leave office in December because of term limits.

The measures would offer tax breaks to developers, implement new stormwater management regulations, make bond financing contingent on minority business participation and give pay raises to nonunionized employees.

U.S. Senators Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski (Both D-MD) today announced that the Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission, in partnership with the Prince George's County Department of Public Works and Transportation and Economic Development Corporation, has been awarded $800,000 under the HUD Community Challenge Planning Grant Program. Funds will be used to plan for the expansion of the corridor around Prince George's County's four southern Metro Green Line stations. The goal is to attract new federal and spin-off office tenants and mixed-income housing, facilitated by an efficient and effective multimodal transportation system.

Frustrated members of the Prince George's County Council said Wednesday that they will take a final look next week at a proposed 2 percent pay raise for non-unionized county employees but said that top county officials had not made basic financial data available to help them determine whether the county can afford the increases.

The fiscal policy committee unanimously voted to send the bill, proposed by County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D), to the full council Tuesday. The vote came a day after council members had opened the door to potential salary increases for incoming council members and the county executive, already the highest-paid county government officials in Maryland.