Summary

In 2024, we made amazing progress!  MLC members’ advocacy and emails to legislators really helped!!!  By the end of the 2024 session, 73 MLC-priority bills made it to the Governor’s desk vs 67 last year.  Click here for more details.

 

The Maryland Legislative Coalition’s Legislative Agenda going into the 2025 Session is just as big and bold as it was in 2024.  However, with the budget shortfalls that are predicted, this will be a tough year, and we will need all hands on deck to make things happen.  Thank you for being a part of our success and we look forward to advocating along with you in 2025

 

Criminal Justice

  • Require that all children are tried as juveniles – Yes Act
  • Sentencing mod for 20+ years incarceration and emerging adults
  • Create a commission on correctional education
  • Address solitary confinement – Limits on Segregated Housing
  • Expungement for minor convictions
  • Ensure Independent Investigatory Powers for Police Accountability Boards
  • Eliminate Criminal Penalties for Marijuana
  • Remove the Governor from Medical Parole Decisions
  • Defend Against Attempts to Repeal the Child Interrogation Protection Act
  • Rights for incarcerated trans folks – decide which correctional facility they would be in

 

Education

  • Trust Fund Shortfall – Updates to the Education Blueprint Funding
  • Recruitment & Retention of Teachers
  • Universal Student Meals
  • Certification for pre-school educators
  • Additional youth shelters
  • Eliminate book bans
  • Get rid of vouchers and the BOOST program
  • Put more requirements on Charter schools
  • FASFA Simplification Act
  • More resources for K-12 financial literacy

 

Elections

  • Rank choice voting
  • Election Law – Citizens Who Live Overseas – Right to Vote
  • Prevent elected officials serving on central committees
  • Ballot Petition Modernization Act
  • Voting rights act
  • Public campaign finance applied beyond governor
  • Allow Maryland officials to remove ineligible candidates from the ballot
  • Election Audits – scientific method
  • Charter Edgewood
  • Elections for appointees (from last year’s legislation)

 

Environment

  • Better, more sanitary confinement of hens
  • Banning lead, PFAS and PAHs
  • Creation of an office to support small business adapting to climate change
  • Data Center Study – Impacts on the GRID and Ratepayers
  • Removing incineration from getting state subsidies as a source of clean energy
  • Attorney General ‘s Right to Sue Fossil Fuel Companies
  • Prioritizing switch to electric from gas in residential and commercial buildings
  • Removing barriers to the solar siting process
  • EmPOWER Reform 
  • 100% by 2035
  • Investing in Wind and Solar
  • Energy Reform, specifically on alternative compliance payments for solar, and clean energy
  • Statewide Bag bill (ban on plastic possible fee on paper)
  • Bottle deposit bill
  • Responding to Emergency Needs due to Extreme Weather (RENEW Act)
  • Solid Waste Disposal Surcharge
  • Defining “watershed” better
  • Accountability and transparency around projects that increase GHG emissions and commuter costs
  • Reform STRIDE so spending must be cost effective, including looking at non-pipeline alternatives
  • A comprehensive energy bill that aims to build more clean energy within MD
  • No-interest loans to help cover costs for purchasing and installing renewable energy systems
  • GRID Enhancement
  • Apply a new fee on coal transport in the state
  • Make votes made by Maryland PJM representatives visible
  • Provide mechanism to speed up permit process for community solar
  • Create a riparian buffer on 2,665 acres of farmland withing 100ft of tidal waters to reduce pollution delivered to the bay
  • CHERISH Our Communities Act – Cumulative Impact Law

 

Gun Control

  • Restoring gun ownership regulation from 4th District ruling
  • Tax on Guns and Ammo
  • Requirement to relinquish firearms in a domestic violence setting
  • Comprehensive Community Safety Funding Act
  • Holding the gun industry accountable, adequately vetting firearms for sale in the state, Being able to Update our currently ineffective Assault Weapons Ban

Health Care

  • Restrict Leins by Medical Debt Collectors
  • Prescription Drug Affordability Board Expansion
  • Long-Term Care Insurance Study on Price Gouging
  • Gender Affirming Care Protection Act
  • End of Life Options Act
  • Public Health – Commission on Universal Health Care
  • Protecting access to legally protected care
  • Overdose Prevention Centers
  • Mental health access and reimbursement
  • Insurance coverage for adults up to 26 on parents’ policy
  • Maintenance of Medicaid in the face of national reductions
  • Health code modernization – replacing mental hygiene with mental health
  • The Nursing Home Staffing Crisis Funding Act
  • Home Care Search and Match Tool
  • The Safe Staffing Act
  • Form a workgroup on each model for Self-Directed Care to get input on changes
  • Legislative audit of Self-Directed Act of 2022

 

Housing

  • Fair Chance in Housing Act
  • Affordable housing and more equitable home ownership, especially for minorities
  • Just Cause Evictions

 

Immigration

  • No additional contracts with ICE
  • Limit sharing of state data with ICE with Corrections in addition to the MVA data already eliminated
  • Protecting sensitive locations from letting ICE in. Schools, hospitals, court houses, churches, paramedics. There is some federal protections but probably in jeopardy in new administration
  • Ending 287g programs that deputize police officers to act as ICE officers
  • Data privacy: prevent ICE access to state and local access databases
  • Make MD the 9th sanctuary state

 

Revenue and Taxes

  • State pension funding
  • Increase the cap on inheritance tax exemptions
  • Property Tax Credit for Retail Service Station Conversions
  • Corporate Income Tax – Combined Reporting
  • Tax on Millionaires
  • Reinstate the exemption on Estate Taxes
  • Set a 1% surtax on Capital Gains

 

Social and Economic Justice

  • Protecting LGBTQ Marylanders and Marylanders with disabilities from discrimination
  • Prohibition of auto charging for subscriptions
  • Limiting the reporting of debt to credit bureaus
  • Raise wages for healthcare workers
  • Ratepayer Protection Act
  • Extend Statute of Limitations for Consumer Protections
  • Doxing prevention
  • Privacy omnibus for consumers to opt-out of data sharing
  • Adoption of an Adult
  • Reducing water shut-offs
  • Ensuring overdue child support gets paid from estates

 

Transportation

  • MTA Funding
  • Maglev opposition
  • Against 270/495 toll lane

 

Unions

  • More funding preventing workplace violence and heat stroke
  • Binding interest arbitration for higher education workers
  • Revenues for public employees: raises for school support staff
  • Business entities for worker cooperatives
  • Collective bargaining for UM workers

 

Women’s Rights

  • Better definition of “consent” under sex crimes laws
  • Dignity in Access to Healthcare Act
  • Equal Rights Amendment
  • Universal child care
  • Abortion Care Access Fund Act of 2025
  • Stop Silencing Survivors
  • Correctional Services-Comprehensive Rehabilitative Prerelease Services-Female Incarcerated Individuals
  • Protect Domestic Survivors