Thursday, February 14, 2013
Automatic cuts at the federal level could impact counties.
Howard County Budget director Ray Wacks told the County Council on Monday that if the federal government's AAA bond rating is downgraded due to federal budget problems, the county's bond rating could be downgraded as well, according to an Explore Howard report. Wacks told the council that Moody's believes jurisdictions with significant exposure to the federal government, such as through federal jobs, cannot have a higher bond rating than the federal government, reported Explore Howard. Howard County has kept a AAA bond rating, the highest possible rating, since the mid-1990s, an achievement Howard County Executive Ken Ulman touted in his recent State of the County address. The bond rating helps the county access lower interest rates on …
Thursday, April 5, 2012
It’s even higher than that in the ‘burbs.
New data shows that the average price of gas in Maryland, as of Wednesday night, has hit $4 a gallon--three days before Easter, typically a high travel holiday. Officials at AAA Mid-Atlantic said they don’t anticipate travel to lag during the holiday despite the high gas prices, as data has shown drivers have been hitting the road more than a year ago due to nice weather. Prices in Laurel are hovering below the $4 mark, with some as low as $3.97. But it won't be long until local prices hit that mark, said officials. “For the short term, consumers can still expect more incremental increases in the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel until summer fully arrives,” said Ragina C. Averella, a AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesperson. She said the pattern …
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
AAA issues its “Best and Worst” list.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Nikki Gamer
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Tuesday, January 3, 2012
In its “Best and Worst” in transportation list for 2011, AAA Mid-Atlantic praised a 10 percent drop in traffic fatalities in Maryland. AAA noted that nationwide traffic fatalities are at their lowest level since 1949, according to data released earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). That includes a 10 percent decline in Maryland, from 549 deaths to 493 in 2010, the latest year for such figures. The key factors in the improvement, according to AAA, include a reduction in deaths in crashes involving drunk drivers and a decline in fatalities of drivers of passenger cars and light trucks, including SUVs, minivans and pickups. The record-breaking decline …
Friday, May 27, 2011
Marylanders to hit the road this holiday weekend.
Here’s a first: Gas prices are falling in Maryland as Memorial Day Weekend approaches. “In all of my years with AAA, this is the first time we’ve had a Memorial Day where they’re dropping drastically,” said Lon Anderson, director of public and government relations at AAA Mid-Atlantic. He’s been with AAA for 17 years. Of course, gas prices in the area have risen more than a dollar per gallon in the past six months, according to AAA. But in the past seven days, they’ve dropped about 11 cents per gallon. Between three stations in Savage and North Laurel, regular gas averaged $3.742 on May 25. “In all my years,” Anderson said, “always, gas prices have peaked on Memorial Day or they were on their way up and peaked in June.” That means AAA’s …
Sunday, December 19, 2010
The numbers will be 'quite comparable' to last year's figures, AAA official says.
Despite a sluggish economy, officials from the American Automobile Association expect more Maryland residents to travel during the Christmas and New Year holidays this year. For Thanksgiving, more than 800,000 residents traveled at least 50 miles, an 11 percent increase from 2009, according to AAA. The projections for this year's Christmas and New Year's period have not been finalized, but AAA officials said more than 2 million residents traveled during the same period last year. "We expect the numbers to be quite comparable," said John Townsend, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. With Christmas more than a week away, "we expect a couple million more [travelers] for Christmas than Thanksgiving." The county's unemployment rate stands at 7.4 …
H.R. Pufnstuf
12:19 pm on Thursday, February 14, 2013
When things are good: Ken Ulman is responsible for our AAA rating. When our AAA rating is in jeaopardy: the Federal Government is to blame. more ›