Highlighting the overdependence on property tax and budget uncertainty, the League advocated for expanding its ability to raise revenues for local governments in 2025 – seeking enabling authority to leverage a fee on the sale of food and beverages consumption, up to 3%. This bill was a priority for MML, MACo, and Baltimore City.

The measure would have allowed local governments to broaden the ways they raise revenues - for example, to help support the costs of essential services to those who utilize them when working, shopping, or visiting a jurisdiction and choosing to eat out.  Emergency services, water and sewer, to infrastructure are just a few of these services and currently, the financial burden falls almost exclusively to municipal residents, with 75% of all municipal revenues coming from property tax.

SB 324 and HB 997 were sponsored by Baltimore City Senator, Cory McCray and Delegate Ryan Spiegel, a MML Past President. Both received strong hearings in their chamber of origin and had support among committee members who recognized the growing local revenue infrastructure challenges faced by local government. Given the state’s fiscal challenges and the federal government uncertainty, MML will continue its efforts to have a meaningful revenue structural change, something the State of Maryland has not expanded since 1967.