HB 716 is a data privacy bill that as currently written would place an immense unfunded mandate on local governments to comply with the bill requirements. It would subject units of government to comprehensive and burdensome regulations in an effort to protect the personal information of constituents. While protecting personal information is an important function of municipal government, MML opposed the bill as state overreach.
Over the past week, MML along with MACo and other stakeholders have engaged with the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) over potential amendments. In the end, DoIT agreed to amendments to the bill that would exempt local governments from the bill. If the amendments are adopted, municipalities would not need to implement the standards under the bill but would still be subject to current law regarding data privacy; which states that local governments that collect, retain, and dispose of personal information must implement reasonable policies and procedures to protect that information.