On March 5, 2024, Executive Director Michael Sanderson testified before the House Environment and Transportation Committee in opposition to HB 1436- Municipal Incorporation – County Commissioners or County Council – Required Approval of Referendum Request. This bill would upend the longstanding, carefully crafted framework that governs municipal incorporation by stripping county governments of proper and necessary input and oversight.
Mr. Sanderson discussed the multiple facets of current Maryland law that change if an are were to incorporate into a new city or town – underscoring the policy rationale for the county approval process in the current Maryland incorporation process (effectively stripped by this bill). He noted the automatic effect on income tax revenues, the alteration of State roadway funding under Highway User Revenues, and the eventual changes in land use authority and effect of growth management laws relative to schools or other county-supported infrastructure.
In Maryland, county and municipal government have a different range of responsibilities. Allowing residents to, at their leisure, designate themselves for municipal treatment when it suits their whim, and without concern for the effects on the abutting areas or the county at large, merely allows the distortions in these laws to become a major policy weakness.
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