Win, lose, draw: how the General Assembly session ended for Howard County
In reviewing a record 3,100 bills, lawmakers set aside election-year politics to pass gun-control legislation, stave off the potential collapse of the state's Obamacare market, deliver targeted tax relief and become the first state to regulate political ads on Facebook.
Twelve county projects or organizations received funding in the state's capital budget, including
While Turner said it's still not enough to finish the transformation of the county's last all-black high school into a multicultural center and museum, he said it's "a good start" to bring his dream of the center much closer to reality. The school closed in 1965.
During his final session, Turner also had success with other projects, including legislation to help students that have earned at least 45 credit hours at a community college or 90 credit hours at a four year institution complete their programs. His bill to increase the fine for texting while driving to
"Overall it was a very good year for my last year, I can't say I'm not pleased. In
Kasemeyer, who represents parts of
In his final session, Kasemeyer said he was pleased to pass legislation protecting Marylanders amid changes in federal tax laws. Despite his final success, he said it's bittersweet to see his time in office end.
"I just felt it was the appropriate time, everybody reaches that stage where even though it's probably the right thing, that doesn't make it easy," Kasemeyer said. "It's kind of a melancholy feeling when after over 30 years doing something, all the sudden you realize there'll never be another session. You have mixed feelings about it."
Republican Del.
Flanagan, one of the delegation's four
The
"I consider this a serious health hazard, and plan to spend a lot of time and energy working on solutions," Flanagan said. "The solution that I proposed was a managed hunt under the supervision of county officials; I think that's a viable option and I'm going to look at all possible alternatives as well."
Democratic Delegate
"The issue of injuries to developing brains and what inadvertent damage we may be doing to youth is not an issue that's dying," Hill said. "And I think the science is continuing to evolve. So it will continue to be an interest of mine and I will be following the studies and data as it's presented over the next few months. The issue will stay, whether or not I'll be introducing the same bill will depend on the interim and conversations and data."
In addition to the Tubman and Merriweather,
A
"There's only so much money, there wasn't a reason other than that," Guzzone said about
Unfinished business
Two local bills left unfinished dealt with the school superintendent and developers.
A delegation-sponsored proposal to give the county's
Last year, the county school board was in a public battle with former superintendent
The legislature decided to appoint a commission to study hiring and employment practices for superintendents and make recommendations by year's end.
"Everybody agrees some changes need to be made but we just need an omnibus on them," said House delegation chairman
Also unsettled was a billing establishing surcharge fees for developers that want to build in crowded areas of the county. As proposed, the bill would have doubled developers' fees in areas where schools are between 110 and 115 percent of their capacity, and increase the fees by 200 percent in areas where schools are between 115 and 120 percent of capacity. Payment of fees allows developers to bypass a mandated four-year waiting period to build in crowded neighborhoods.
Guzzone said the delegation will continue to deal with the matter next session, and wants to have conversations about development with elected county officials, school advocacy groups and developers.
"This one was a smaller part of that big discussion; my expectation is we will be coming back next year and talking about that bill. This is not over by any stretch of the imagination," Guzzone said. "Everyone has a role and responsibility in trying to get these issues right because they are so important and so big."
--With reporting from
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