Gov. Wes Moore (D), flanked by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D), signed 275 bills into law on May 9 at his third bill signing this year. File photo by Bryan P. Sears.
Inmates might get a break, magic mushrooms might get a fair shake, more data centers could be coming here and door-to-door deliveries could include beer.
And while vending-machine contraceptives could soon be coming to a community college campus near you, a sharply higher vehicle registration bill will almost certainly be arriving in the mailbox next time you have to register your car.
Those are just some of the more than 400 new laws set to take effect Monday, among more than 1,000 signed into law this year.
While many of the laws set up task forces to study an issue or start the clock on a change in the law that will take effect months in the future, some will be felt immediately. Those include a raft of tax and fee increases – and at least one decrease.
The state’s share of the gas tax will fall by a meager 0.9 cents, from 47 to 46.1 cents per gallon, under a 2013 formula that ties the tax rate to the level of inflation. That’s about the only car-related good news for motorists, however.
The cost to register a vehicle in the state will increase 60-75% under new rates that are tied to an expanded list of weight class categories. The current fees of $137 every two years for cars weighing up to 3,700 pounds and $187 for heavier vehicles will be replaced by a new every-two-year schedule: cars weighing up to 3,500 pounds will cost $221, vehicles weighing between that and 3,700 pounds will pay $241 and those above 3,700 pounds will cost $323 for a two-year registration.
The increased fees also include a $40 surcharge earmarked for state’s emergency medical system operations – which includes the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center – and the Maryland Trauma Physician Services Fund.
Lawmakers this year also voted to implement new surcharges on electric vehicles, but those are not set to take effect until later. The surcharge – $250 every two years for EVs and $200 every two years for plug-in hybrids – are meant to replace gas taxes not paid by owners of those vehicles and could raise as much as $20 million.
A mental health shift’s ‘scary’ unknowns
Among new health laws that take effect Monday, one of the more controversial is
HB 576 , which lets circuit courts order a specified mental health treatment regimen for someone with severe and persistent mental health needs —
potentially without their consent. Backers of the legislation — including Gov. Wes Moore’s chief legislative officer Eric Luedtke, who spoke of a brother with schizoaffective disorder in his testimony in support of the bill — say it’s devastating to watch a loved one with severe mental illness cycle in and out of hospitals due to symptoms of their severe mental health needs. But some disability rights and mental health advocates say that assisted outpatient treatment programs leave out the voices of those with mental health needs and prioritizes the concerns of the family instead.
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Courtney Bergan, an Equal Justice Works fellow working with Disability Rights Maryland, said advocates are concerned that the process will be coercive and won’t adequately address the needs of those with severe mental disorders.
“There’s a lot of questions about how coercive it could become, and it’s really the unknown that I think is the most scary,” Bergan said.
The law prompts counties to establish procedures for an assisted outpatient treatment program by July 1, 2026, or they can adopt a program created by the Maryland Department of Health.
“I don’t see how it can be done in a way that’s not going to infringe on people’s rights and it will only lead to more harm,” Bergan said.
Monday also starts the clock on another health-related bill that will let community college students get access to over-the-counter contraceptives such as condoms, birth control and emergency birth control such as Plan B.
SB 527 , sponsored by Montgomery County Democratic Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan and former Sen. Ariana Kelly, gives the state’s community colleges until Aug. 1, 2025, to develop a plan that would give students access to contraception through student health centers, vending machines or retail stores on campus, among other venues. The legislation builds off of a law passed last year, which set similar requirements for the state’s universities.
Two pieces of the Moore administration’s legislative agenda will take effect Monday, targeting housing needs and childhood poverty.
The ENOUGH Act — for Engaging Neighborhoods, Organizations, Unions, Governments and Households — aims to tackle the “root causes” of childhood poverty by providing grant funding to organizations and community leaders in certain low-income areas to address the factors that lead to high rates of childhood poverty in those regions.
The administration also saw passage of HB 599 , part of its three-pronged housing package in this year’s legislative session. The bill creates the Maryland Community Investment Corp., a state entity that will make loans or investments aimed at developing and improving low-income communities.
The other prongs of the housing package will take effect later. The Renters’ Rights and Stabilization Act, which takes effect in October, creates an Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs in the Department of Housing and Community Development and expands some renters’ rights; the Housing Expansion and Affordability Act, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2025, will limit the ability of local jurisdictions to block modular or manufactured homes or limit affordable housing in single-family residential zones.
Inmates get a voice — or at least an ear
SB 134 creates an Office of Correctional Ombudsman in the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services conduct independent reviews of department programs, such as health and mental health services and educational and vocational programs. It will also work to resolve conflicts with an inmate, an employee or a contractor with the agency.
The ombudsman’s office would be allowed to interview correctional personnel, or a person incarcerated, and make unannounced visits and on-site inspections of facilities.
Sen. Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County), who sponsored the legislation, said the new office will take some time to get up and running.
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“It’s setting up a whole new infrastructure in the government to do what we want it to do. It will take some time,” she said in a recent interview.
Hettleman, Del. Debra Davis (D-Charles) and other criminal justice advocates worked on the measure for at least three years due to recent problems at the state’s prisons, including drug smuggling and a $13 million settlement on allegations of wage theft. It takes effect just one week after Maryland State Police said they are investigating the death of 80-year-old Ralph Ruark, who was incarcerated at the Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland.
Those are just a few reasons why Hettleman said the correctional ombudsman office is needed.
“This is an entity that is there to help find constructive solutions to the issues. It’s not there to find ‘Gotcha,’” she said. “This is there just as much for correctional workers as it is for people who are behind bars. So, it’s really nothing to fear. It’s really something for everyone.”
The law also moves the state’s Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit, an independent agency currently within the attorney general’s office, into the ombudsman office. That unit assesses, reviews and also conducts inspections at property owned and managed by the state Department of Juvenile Services.
College campus meets prison campus
More assistance could be coming to those incarcerated through Resources and Education for All Prisons, or REAP Act. HB 92 / SB 620 requires the department of public safety to help those in prison get access to Pell grants and would expand the schools that offer them bachelor’s degrees from the dozen institutions in the University System of Maryland to include Morgan State University, Goucher College and Anne Arundel, Hagerstown and Wor-Wic community colleges.
It would also require the department, with assistance from the state Higher Education Commission, to “establish a tracking system for the number of incarcerated individuals in postsecondary education programs.”
Higher education officials, meanwhile, will face a revised program-approval progress when they want to establish new programs at state universities.
Part of HB 1244 requires a letter-of-intent every six months from institutions that propose a new graduate program. Not only would the letter be circulated among other institutions in the state, but it will also be reviewed by a Program Review Process Advisory Committee. The committee will submit any feedback and recommendations to the Higher Education Commission, which grants final approval.
Energy and/or environment
Several significant environmental and energy bills are set to become law — including a controversial measure that combines both.
The Moore administration championed the bill that aims to make it easier for data centers to locate in Maryland. The governor has argued that the centers will bring more economic opportunity to the state but environmentalists, citing the massive amounts of energy that the facilities consume , feat that they will threaten the stability of the electric grid.
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Specifically, the new law eases the regulatory process the Maryland Public Service Commission uses to OK data center proposals and the back-up energy needed to power them if the grid goes down.
Another new law will put additional consumer protections on the state’s 25-year-old deregulated marketplace for electricity suppliers. The competitive market for electricity supply has led to bad actors who offer savings for consumers that often prove elusive. Large energy companies that compete with monopoly utilities to supply electricity to households and commercial customers have complained that the new restraints on their activities will effectively kill competition.
As extreme weather increases, a new law is designed to make state spending on flood resiliency and remediation more equitable. The law requires at least 40% of funding from the state’s flood management grant program to be used for projects in, or directly benefiting, underserved or overburdened communities. It also authorizes the governor to request up to $20 million a year for flood management.
And Baltimore City and Baltimore County move a few steps closer to a joint water and sewer system under HB 1509 , which creates a task force that is charged with making recommendations to state and local officials by June 30, 2027. The bill appropriates $500,000 for the task force to hire consultants next year, and is widely anticipated that to result in a joint city-county management structure similar to the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission in the Washington suburbs.
Mushrooms and beer, crime victims and deer
Other laws taking effect include:
- Creation of a state Task Force on Responsible Use of Natural Psychedelic Substances to study existing laws, scientific data and practices related to the use of natural psychedelic substances. The task force, which would be staffed by the Maryland Cannabis Administration, will have to recommend any proposed changes to law or policies on the use of psychedelic drugs in the state by July 31, 2025.
- The Victim Compensation Reform Act requires that victims, their family members and loved ones get faster access to money for needs such as funeral and emergency relocation expenses. It also increases eligible funeral expenses from $7,500 to $10,000; mental health counseling from $10,000 to $45,000; and repair or replacement of property damaged by a crime or a police investigation from $250 to $2,000.
- The cost for non-Maryland residents to hunt Sika deer will go up. The Eastern Shore is home to one of the largest populations of the animal that is native to Japan and parts of Asia. HB 497 / SB 508 raises the cost of a sika deer hunting stamp from $25 to $200 for hunters from outside the state.
- Marylanders could soon get beer, wine and liquor delivered in the same way they now get dinner, groceries and other services. HB 808 / SB 456 authorizes local liquor boards to create delivery permits that let third-party contractors deliver alcohol within the jurisdiction where it was ordered.
— Maryland Matters reporters Danielle J. Brown, William J. Ford, Josh Kurtz and Bryan P. Sears contributed to this report.
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