ANNAPOLIS — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed 172 bills into law on Tuesday, including a handful of bills spearheaded by local legislators.
The governor was flanked by Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Mike Busch as he penned his signature on a slew of bills ranging in focus from early voting to expanded education opportunities for Maryland youths at the State House in Annapolis.
The 172 bills he signed were significantly lower than the 350 bills he signed into law this time last year.
“Our administration’s top priority has and always will be education and we want to continue encouraging the kinds of innovative ideas that give parents the best options to prepare children for higher education and for rewarding employment,” said Hogan.
One particularly interesting education bill, Senate Bill 376, which establishes the state-funded Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools (also known as P-Tech schools) through grants to local schools or districts, aims to blend the nationally recognized approach co-developed by IBM. Students will receive college and high school instruction in a six-year program focused on 21st Century jobs. Graduates from Maryland’s P-Tech schools will earn their high school diploma and a two-year post-secondary degree in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) from an accredited community college.
“With this bill signing, we are creating educational opportunities that pave a clear path to careers and produce students who have both the skills and the opportunities they need to be successful,” said Hogan.
Locally, Senator Jim Mathias praised Hogan for signing a number of bills he sponsored and supported throughout the 90-day session including Senate Bill 145, which enables voters of Wicomico County to decide via referendum this fall whether they want a fully elected school board. Mathias was equally pleased about the signing of Senate Bill 182, which requires specific rental dwellings to have a carbon monoxide alarm outside each sleeping area and on every level of the unit. The bill comes after the tragic deaths of Rodney Todd and his seven children who succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning in their Princes Anne home in April 2015.
Additionally, Hogan signed Senate Bill 1140, which creates a specific liquor license that would allow the future alcohol sales at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center.
“This bill will enable a new revenue stream for Wicomico County while helping Salisbury to grow as a destination for touring events like concerts or off-Broadway shows,” said Mathias.
Other bills with Mathias’ name attached to them that Hogan signed included the authorization of annual salary increases for the Somerset County Sheriff and the Somerset County Commissioners and one that gives the Delmarva Discovery Center in Pocomoke City the opportunity to claim $175,000 in matching state grants.
“I’m so very pleased to see that the governor, out of hundreds of bills he could have picked to sign, decided to put pen to paper for these critical pieces of legislation to help the people of the Lower Eastern Shore,” Mathias said.
Some of the more marquee bills that made headlines throughout the state include Senate Bill 381, which allows college graduates to finance student loans when undertaking a home mortgage, and House Bill 1007, also known as the Freedom to Vote Act, which requires certain state agencies that are deemed electronic voter registration agencies to implement electronic voter registration systems and requires the State Board of Elections to register individuals whose voter registration information is transmitted to the board through an electronic voter registration system.
Similarly focused on voting was House Bill 1008, which expands opportunities for voters to participate in early voting by authorizing additional polling locations and increases the number of early voting centers.
Hogan also signed into law House Bill 437, a bill focused on his administration’s promise to curb the statewide proliferation of opioid and prescription drug usage. The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) will require mandatory registration with the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to all providers that have a license to prescribe or dispense controlled dangerous substances before obtaining a new or renewal controlled dangerous substance registration. It also requires certain providers to check the PDMP before prescribing an opioid or benzodiazepine. Mandatory registration and use will make the PDMP a more effective tool in the fight against opioid abuse.
The long list of bills in their entirety can be found here (https://governor.maryland.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Press-Release-Abbreviated-Signed-April-26-2016.pdf).