The segments below provide a brief overview of MACo’s work on employee benefits and relations policy in the 2025 General Assembly session.
MACo advocates for fair state laws governing employment practices, labor representation, and employer-employee relationships. MACo becomes particularly engaged when a proposal has a disproportionate or unique effect on public sector employers or employees – frequently those affecting public safety employees or other public workers who engage in sensitive and essential functions.
Maryland’s 447th legislative session convened amidst a substantial concern over the State’s fiscal situation, with weakened revenues and cost increases for many services at every level of government. Despite the fiscal limitations, a wide range of policy issues received a full debate, with many resolutions arising from the 90-day annual process. MACo’s legislative committee guided the association’s positions on hundreds of bills, yielding many productive compromises and gains spanning counties’ uniquely wide portfolio.
Follow these links for more coverage on our Conduit Street blog and Legislative Database.
MACo opposed HB 205/SB 124 – Employment Standards – Firefighters – Payment of Wages and Payroll Information. This bill would have undermined local bargaining authority over firefighter schedules and overtime policies and instead establish a statewide mandate for uniform schedules and overtime policies. This bill is a one-size-fits-all approach that threatens to undermine local firefighting operations, place an undue financial burden on county governments, and compromise emergency response services for Maryland residents. This bill did not pass the 2025 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 102 – Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program – Revisions. This bill makes meaningful changes to the timing and implementation of the State’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) Program. HB 102 includes an 18-month delay to the FAMLI program’s implementation—a change that counties strongly support, allowing them to properly implement the program. This bill also ensures that public employers who pursue the currently authorized option to offer comparable benefits through a private offering (which nearly every local government expects to pursue) can avoid being needlessly burdened by early withholding obligations. This bill passed the Maryland General Assembly with MACo’s amendments.
Bill Information | MACo Testimony
MACo opposed HB 1509/SB 976 – Collective Bargaining – Local Government Employees and Public Employees Relations Act. This bill would have represented an unfunded mandate for collective bargaining rights for local government employees statewide, imposing binding arbitration requirements, and significantly altering local government labor relations. This legislation would have forced counties to divert resources from essential public services, undermining fiscal responsibility, operational flexibility, and local control. This bill did not pass the 2025 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 459/SB 374 – Counties – Cancer Screening for Professional Firefighters – Required Coverage (James “Jimmy” Malone Act) with amendments. This bill requires counties that employ career firefighters to provide coverage for preventive cancer screenings. The bill prohibits cost-sharing requirements such as copayments, coinsurance, or deductibles. Additionally, local governments subject to this requirement must ensure screenings align with the latest guidelines issued by the International Association of Fire Fighters. Counties requested the State make this policy a funded, rather than unfunded, mandate to alleviate fiscal and operational challenges on local governments. This bill was amended so that a county can satisfy the mandate by either providing no-cost annual medical exams to its firefighters—including cancer screenings that follow the latest guidelines from the International Association of Fire Fighters—or by applying for a state grant to fund innovative cancer screening technologies, such as multicancer early detection blood tests. This bill passed the Maryland General Assembly.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 176 – Davis Martinez Public Employee Safety and Health Act with amendments. As amended, MACo submitted a letter of information on HB 176’s cross-file, SB 26 – Labor and Employment – Occupational Safety and Health – Revisions (Davis Martinez Public Employee Safety and Health Act). This bill establishes the Public Employees’ Safety and Health Unit in the Division of Labor and Industry to administer and enforce certain duties regarding the oversight of certain public bodies, including local governments. MACo worked with the Senate and House committees to address county concerns. The bill, as amended, remedies county concerns by addressing provisions that were too prescriptive and duplicative. The bill originally had excessive penalty sections that have been removed from the bill. Counties sought provisions to provide flexibility in how local governments communicate workplace safety information to employees. This approach balances compliance with workplace safety requirements and practical implementation for local governments. This bill passed the Maryland General Assembly with MACo’s amendments.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo opposed HB 37 – Declaration of Rights – Right to Organize. This proposed constitutional amendment would have established a fundamental right for all employees in the state to organize and bargain collectively concerning compensation, hours, and other conditions of employment, a decision that historically and appropriately been made at the local level. This bill did not pass the 2025 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo opposed HB 1408/SB 1023 – Employment Discrimination – Fire and Rescue Public Safety Employees – Use of Medical Cannabis. This bill would have prohibited an employer from taking certain discriminatory employment actions against a fire and rescue public safety employee based on the employee’s use of medical cannabis, subject to certain conditions. While the bill aims to protect certified medical cannabis users, it presents significant challenges for jurisdictions tasked with maintaining public safety. Firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics operate in high-risk environments where impairment—even minimal—can have serious consequences. Although the bill prohibits cannabis use while on duty, there is currently no reliable way to test for real-time cannabis impairment. Metabolites can remain in the system long after use, making it difficult to determine if an employee is fit for duty. This bill could have increased local government liability exposure. This bill did not pass the 2025 session.
MACo supported SB 306 – Workers’ Compensation – Prescription Drug and Pharmaceutical Services – Reimbursements. An essential reform to Maryland’s workers’ compensation system, this bill would have established a clear and sustainable fee guide for the reimbursement of prescription drugs and pharmaceutical services under the Workers’ Compensation Commission. SB 306 seeks to address excessive costs by directing the Commission to develop a pharmaceutical fee guide based on actual acquisition costs, along with a fixed dispensing fee. This structure would help ensure fair and transparent pricing while promoting financial sustainability within the workers’ compensation system. By curbing excessive costs and aligning pricing with industry standards, counties would have stood to gain substantial savings that could have been redirected to other critical public services. This bill did not pass the 2025 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo opposed HB 321/SB 303 – Pharmacy Benefits Managers – Definition of Purchaser and Alteration of Application of Law. This bill sought to limit the tools Pharmacy Benefits Managers (PBMs) can use to negotiate pharmaceutical prices on behalf of their clients, including county governments. Doing so would have significantly disrupted counties’ ability to provide county staff with the best and most fiscally responsible benefits for their public service. This bill did not pass the 2025 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 1096/SB 938 – Fraud Prevention and Worker Protections – Prohibitions, Penalties, and Enforcement with amendments. This bill aimed to enhance worker protections by strengthening workplace fraud laws, expanding enforcement authority within the Office of the Attorney General, and increasing accountability for worker misclassification. Counties requested clarifying amendments to ensure that counties were not unfairly held liable for violations committed by third-party contractors or subcontractors when contracting or subcontracting services. This bill did not pass the 2025 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo opposed SB 58 – Labor and Employment – Parental School Engagement Leave Act. This bill would have mandated local governments, as public employers, to provide 12 hours of paid parental school engagement leave annually, separate from any existing leave policies, imposing unnecessary fiscal and administrative burdens on county governments, which already provide generous leave options. This bill did not pass the 2025 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 1080/SB 652 – Local Government – Local Personnel – Leave With Pay. As amended, this bill provides counties with flexibility to grant disaster service leave to employees while ensuring that local governments retain discretion over its implementation. This bill passed the Maryland General Assembly.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 424 – Prescription Drug Affordability Board – Authority and Stakeholder Council Membership (Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for All Marylanders Now Act) and its cross-file, SB 357 – Prescription Drug Affordability Board – Authority for Upper Payment Limits (Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for All Marylanders Now Act). This bill enhances the authority of the Prescription Drug Affordability Board to establish a process for setting upper payment limits for prescription drug purchases and payor reimbursements in the state, strengthening efforts to address the financial burden of skyrocketing drug prices on local governments and their employees. This bill passed the Maryland General Assembly.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 757/SB 849 – Professional and Volunteer Firefighter Innovative Cancer Screening Technologies Program – Funding. This bill enhances funding for the Professional and Volunteer Firefighter Innovative Cancer Screening Technologies Program to improve access to critical cancer screenings for firefighters across the state. This bill passed the Maryland General Assembly.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
