During the 2019 Maryland Mayor’s Association Conference in Annapolis, MML legislative staff, Bill Jorch and Justin Fiore, provided a presentation on several municipal issues that are likely to be debated this legislative session.
Among the topics discussed were:
- the budget, including HUR and POS dollars for 2019 ($37.9M & $48M respectively);
- opportunity zones, and the Governor’s initiative to further leverage federal dollars for this program;
- pension bills that would increase program costs statewide and locally;
- a bill that would allow plaintiffs to recuperate attorney fees in certain cases against a local government;
- legislation to switch Maryland from a contributory negligence standard to a comparative fault standard in tort claim cases;
- the Forest Conservation Act, including possible bills on no-net loss, fee-in-leu, and a new task force; and
- several bills that would limit the diversity of local government revenues.
MML staff did not discuss the League’s priority of 5G infrastructure, as a one-hour presentation was scheduled on the topic by the next panel. The presentation wrapped up with questions from the Mayors on various topics.
If you have any questions about the presentation or could offer assistance/guidance on one of the above issues, please feel free to contact a member of the legislative team at the main office.