BERLIN — While the dust is still settling and the repercussions are not fully known, the 2017 Maryland General Assembly session that expired with Sine Die at midnight on Monday will likely be remembered as a positive one for the resort area and the Lower Shore.
The 2017 session was fast-paced as usual with over 2,800 bills carefully vetted and voted upon by state lawmakers including over 1,600 in the House and 1,200 in the Senate. State lawmakers passed several bills of weighty importance statewide and locally, while hundreds of others failed of never saw the light of day.
As of mid-week, it appeared the resort area and the Lower Shore fared well for the most part, particularly with several significant state contributions to major capital projects including in Governor Hogan’s fiscal year 2018 budget. Some key public safety-related bills germane to the Lower Shore passed and are heading to the Hogan’s desk for a signature, while others did not, including a late attempt at tightening enforcement for the dangerous practice of bow-riding, for example.
The 2017 session will also be long remembered for the state’s strong commitment to battle the growing scourge of heroin and opioid addiction. Hogan made attacking the crisis a top priority, declaring a state of emergency in mid-session and appointing former Ocean City Emergency Director Clay Stamp to lead the state and local coordinated effort. Hogan also announced a supplemental budget of $10 million over the next five years to support prevention, recovery and enforcement efforts.
In terms of Hogan’s capital budget, the Lower Shore did very well with several major initiatives funded. For example, the capital budget includes $500,000 in state funding for the third phase of the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City as part of larger commitment from the state on the roughly $34 million project. The budget also includes pre-authorized funding totaling $830,000 in 2019 and finally over $18 million in fiscal year 2020, bring the state’s total contribution for the project to roughly $20 million.
Also included in the governor’s capital budget is $100,000 for the Believe in Tomorrow Children’s House by the Sea in Ocean City, $681,000 for the new Atlantic General Hospital Cancer Care Center, $50,000 for the new Worcester County Public Library in Berlin, $500,000 for upgrades to the Arthur W. Perdue Stadium in Salisbury that hosts the Delmarva Shorebirds, $630,000 for the Salisbury Animal Health Laboratory replacement and another $1 million for a Salisbury revitalization project.
Legislatively, it was an up and down session locally. One bill watched closely in the local community was the paid sick leave bill, or the Maryland Working Families Act, which will require a business with over 14 employees to provide at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours he or she works.
The bill makes all employees who work at least 90 days eligible for paid sick leave, which would encompass thousands of seasonal workers in Ocean City, for example. Delegate Mary Beth Carozza battled for a 120-day amendment, which would exempt most seasonal businesses in the resort, but the amendment was not passed.
Senator Jim Mathias was then able to get a 106-day amendment attached to the Senate version, which would loosely cover the summer season from Memorial Day to the latest possible date for Labor Day, but the full General Assembly ultimately approved the bill in its original version with no amendments attached.
Carozza had mixed results on a couple of public safety-related bills with ties to the Lower Shore. For example, House Bill 585 would increase the penalties for causing life-threatening injuries while operating a vehicle in a criminally negligent manner to a maximum of two years imprisonment and/or a $5,000 fine. Last year, a Stockton man drove through a work zone along a rural road in the south end of Worcester County, killing one county roads department employee and critically injuring another. Carozza introduced the bill after Worcester County State’s Attorney Beau Oglesby pointed out the only penalty on the books for those who cause life-threatening injuries with a vehicle was a citation carrying a maximum fine of $500. The bill breezed through the House, but failed to make it out of the Senate.
However, Carozza’s House Bill 635 increases the penalty for homicide by motor vehicle while impaired by controlled dangerous substances from three years to five years. Carozza submitted the bill after Rob Schultheis was killed by a driver under the influence of heroin. Increasing the penalty from three years to five years fixes an inequity in the current law that sets the penalty for homicide by motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol at five years.
According to Mathias, one of the bills he’s proud of that was passed after four years of trying was Senate Bill 579, which requires the POW/MIA flag fly on most state buildings to honor sacrifices made by Maryland families.
