Bill to be Passed Helping Las Vegas Bail Bonds Agents

Feb. 13, 2011 - PRLog -- Delegate Michael Hough doesn't like it when he hears about cases where the government competes with private business.

"I don't think the government should compete with the private sector," Hough said. "I'm from a philosophy of limited government. That's not limited government."

Take Jim Frank, a bail bondsman in Frederick. As director of Jim Frank's Bail Bonds, he helps make sure defendants appear in court as ordered.

If they don't, he tracks them down and brings them in, even if that means going to Texas, Florida or New York.

When the county started a program called pretrial release, Frank said his business took a big hit.

Under this program, judges can order a sort of probation before trial, with the understanding that defendants will return to stand trial.

The program requires government employees to manage and track defendants — something Frank would be able to do if the system relied on bail. He doesn't use taxpayer dollars to do so — in fact, he pays taxes.

In addition, the government has to work within the system, so people who flee the state aren't always extradited.

"I just find it hard to believe that the state has gone into the bail bonds business," Frank said. "They are in direct competition with bail bonds."

It's situations like these that Hough hopes to target through a bill he is introducing in the Maryland General Assembly.

The bill would establish a Council on Efficient Government to receive complaints when the government is competing with the private sector and to recommend to the state how duplicate services could be eliminated. The task force would also seek opportunities for the state to outsource to private business.

Hough said the council would be composed of members of the private sector.

Other states — including nearby Virginia, which has the Commonwealth Competition Council — are already doing this.

Hough wants Maryland to take a closer look at its own practices. Another example Hough has encountered is in the mapping industry.

John Palatiello, executive director of the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors, said MAPPS has written to the state to complain that state universities are offering mapping departments that directly compete with private businesses.

A national association of private mapping and geospacial firms, MAPPS has 12 members in Maryland that employ about 300 people.

Universities such as Towson and Salisbury have large departments with both paid staff and students. The state pays for overhead costs; the institutions don't pay taxes.

In some cases, Palatiello said, those universities get state contracts that aren't offered to the private sector for bidding. In other cases, the private sector is outbid because they don't receive the same subsidies.

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