Difficult Session Yields County Successes

Three of MACo’s legislative initiatives yielded successful bills this session, making our organization’s success rate significantly higher than average. Those initiatives include:

HB390 Adding a county representative to the State Pension Board of Trustees
HB1190 Authorizing counties to decouple the personal property tax rate
HB 409 Changing the local comprehensive planning cycle to ten years

As reported by the Washington Post, 766 of the 2,610 measures introduced in the Maryland General Assembly passed both the House and the Senate, a 29.3% success rate for bills in the 2013 Maryland Legislative Session. This passage rate is common in the Maryland legislature where “only the strong survive,” as described the Post.

This year, however, the Governor’s Administration counts many legislative victories. As reported, “I thank everyone for coming together and probably making this the most successful legislative session of my lifetime,” [the Governor] said. For more commentary on the legislative session, see the full story from the Post.

For more information on MACo’s legislative efforts, see the following legislative wrap-ups:

2013 End of Session Wrap Up: Business Affairs

2013 End of Session Wrap Up: Education

2013 End of Session Wrap up: Elections

2013 End of Session Wrap Up: Employee Benefits & Relations

2013 End of Session Wrap Up: Environment Legislation

2013 End of Session Wrap Up: Finance and Procurement Legislation

2013 End of Session Wrap Up: Government Liability and Courts Legislation

2013 End of Session Wrap Up: Planning & Zoning Legislation

2013 End of Session Wrap Up: Procurement Legislation

2013 End of Session Wrap Up: Public Information and Ethics Legislation

2013 End of Session Wrap Up: Public Safety & Corrections Legislation