On March 10, 2022, Legislative Director Kevin Kinnally testified before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee in support of SB 799 – Community College Tuition and Residency Waivers – Funding. This bill requires the Governor, beginning in fiscal year 2024, to include in the annual State budget for the Maryland Higher Education Commission an appropriation of $10,000,000 to fund State-mandated community college tuition and residency waivers.

From the MACo testimony: 

Counties are proud to support our community colleges as they serve as a critical piece of Maryland’s higher education infrastructure. However, current law require community colleges to charge lower in-state tuition for students that the State has mandated as eligible for in-state tuition, without any State funding to support the loss of revenue community colleges are experiencing because of this unfunded mandate.

This has proven burdensome for community colleges and the local governments that support them, as they are often faced with cutting programmatic and operational budgets to make up for the lost revenue caused by the unfunded mandate of State-required in-state tuition waivers.

MACo plans to testify on the bill’s crossfile, HB 1102, on March 15, 2022.

More on MACo’s Advocacy:

Follow MACo’s advocacy efforts during the 2022 legislative session on MACo’s Legislative Tracking Database.
Learn more about MACo’s 2022 Legislative Initiatives.
Read more General Assembly News on MACo’s Conduit Street blog.