With the Maryland General Assembly’s three-month session kicking off this week, intense debate on the looming state budget deficit is likely to dominate discussions. While facing this challenge, Howard County lawmakers are seeking to pass several local bills.
“The thing that we’re looking forward to is really trying to provide some assurance to our community that we understand their priorities and their values, and that in spite of all the challenges that may be coming because of a transition in federal government, that we in Maryland still stand with them, and we’ll do everything that we can to uphold our values and protect those who live in the state,” Sen. Clarence Lam, Senate chair of the Howard delegation, said in an interview.
Lam said he wants to make sure residents from all areas of the county, especially those who feel like their issues aren’t always prioritized, have their needs addressed and their voices heard. After a contentious Board of Education race last year, he intends to reintroduce a bill that would allow the Howard County government to establish a system for public financing for school board candidates, a measure he says is one of the most important to him.
“It’s important here in Howard County to have the ability for our candidates that want to run to be able to be supported by public financing, so that people that have the right intentions and are willing to put in the work aren’t turned off to running for office simply because of an inability to be able to raise the funds that are needed to be able to run a strong campaign,” Lam said.
Some have called the projected $2.7 billion state budget deficit a crisis, but Sen. Guy Guzzone, a Howard County Democrat who chairs the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, said he’d rather call it a “challenge.”
There are several reasons why the state is in this position, Guzzone said, but in recent years he has noticed a “change of heart” among lawmakers when deciding how to allocate funding to tackle complex issues involving education, juvenile justice or the environment. Uncertainty surrounding the federal government compounds the challenge, Guzzone said.
“If you want to do those things and do them right, and don’t get me wrong, even when you think you’re doing them right, you may not get it right, but if you want to try to do it, it’s big and it costs,” Guzzone said during a legislative breakfast held by the Howard County League of Women Voters Saturday.
Guzzone said he suspects there will be cuts and attempts to increase revenue, but he is unsure what form they will take. Any budgetary action will be taken in the interest of protecting values and “trying to do the things that we said we were going to do, that we were going to care about,” Guzzone assured the crowd.
The 11 Democratic members of the Howard County delegation are hoping to pass their statewide and local bills within the 90-day session. Lam and Del. Chao Wu, House chair of the delegation, proposed most of the local bills, which address a number of issues, from education to housing to environmental permits. Bills that only have local impact are referred to select committees or delegations.
Local bills proposed by Lam include:
- Ho. Co. 1-25: To allow the Board of Community College Trustees for Howard County’s to expand its membership.
- Ho. Co. 2-25: This would re-stagger the terms for the Board of Education so councilmanic districts aren’t voting for new members all at once. The bill also would establish a commission to review the compensation of school board members for fairness.
- Ho. Co. 4-25: This would require homeowners associations, condominiums and cooperative housing corporations to set aside a certain amount of reserve funding within a designated number of fiscal years, among other budgetary requirements.
- Ho. Co. 6-25: After Columbia residents cited a lack of information and opportunities for public comment regarding air quality permits sought by W.R. Grace, which wants to build a plastic recycling facility, this bill would alter the Maryland Department of the Environment requirements. The bill would require MDE to provide an additional informational meeting for certain permits in the county and require the county to hold a public meeting regarding zoning and land use, as well as other requirements for air quality control.
- Ho. Co. 13-25: This bill would provide the Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning flexibility to reduce the required number of parking spaces for new construction if the construction includes more pedestrian-centered infrastructure.
- Ho. Co. 16-25: This bill was drafted after residents at an Elkridge Community Association meeting expressed concerns about certain lodging establishments offering hourly room rentals. The legislation would prevent establishments from offering rooms for less than a certain length of time.
Wu said some of the statewide issues he is focusing on are regulation of cellphone use in middle and elementary schools and management of school maintenance costs. Locally, he proposed legislation to limit severance pay for school superintendents who are terminated.
Wu also proposed local legislation with Lam to add holidays such as Lunar New Year, Diwali, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Eid Al-Adha and Eid Al-Fitr to the school calendar. A bill he proposed with Del. Vanessa Atterbeary would require the county Board of Education to study the best method for detecting deadly weapons in middle and high schools and how to quickly report any weapons to law enforcement.
“So we know, during the last several years, we got a very serious situation. Bad things didn’t happen, but it’s really scared parents and students and teachers,” Wu said during the League of Women Voters event. “So, we want to see, is there any way we can detect the deadly weapons in our school system without installing metal detectors?”
Another set of local bills comes from Del. Terri Hill who is proposing legislation to expand the use of speed cameras on county highways and to require that written leases for certain properties include a statement of rights and information on an annual surcharge assessed by the Columbia Association.
Though Del. Jessica Feldmark hasn’t put forth any local legislation, she said in an interview that she anticipates education, mental and behavioral health care and childcare will be top areas of interest for Howard County residents. Feldmark said she is also looking forward to community participation as it helps lawmakers.
“I know there’s been a lot of focus on some of the challenges, but I am confident that it will be a productive session, even if it’s a challenging one, and sometimes challenges push us to do better work,” Feldmark said.
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