County News / NACo and Federal Issues / News You Can Use / Taxes and Revenues
New Jersey Enacts SALT Cap Workaround for Small Businesses

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation Monday giving small businesses in the Garden State a workaround for the cap on state and local tax deductions (SALT) under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) -- the 2017 federal tax overhaul that capped SALT deductions at $10,000 – a move of particular import in states like Maryland. This bill permits pass-through businesses, including S corporations, limited liability corporations, and other business partnerships, to shift the…

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January 16, 2020
Maryland’s Overdose Numbers Show a Third Quarter Decline
County News / Health and Human Services
Maryland’s Overdose Numbers Show a Third Quarter Decline

The Opioid Operational Command Center's 2019 third-quarter report found an overall slight decline in opioid deaths. However, while some areas in the state saw declines other saw there overdose numbers increase. The bottom line is the work to battle the opioid crisis must continue. From the third-quarter report: Between January and September 2019, there were 1,574 opioid-related fatalities in Maryland. These fatalities accounted for 88.7 percent of the 1,774 total intoxication deaths in the same…

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January 16, 2020
Kirwan Senate Briefing: Revised Enrollment Will Change The Numbers
Education / State Budget and Fiscal Issues
Kirwan Senate Briefing: Revised Enrollment Will Change The Numbers

The Senate Committee overseeing education policy received a broad update on the Kirwan Commission recommendations - and a sense that the plan is still evolving. The Senate Committee on Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs held a briefing on January 14 with Dr. William "Brit" Kirwan, chair of the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, and the Commission's lead staffer, DLS's Rachel Hise. The briefing covered the full range of its recommendations. Watch the full…

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January 15, 2020
County News / Health and Human Services
OOCC Releases New Opioid Action Plan

The Opioid Operational Command Center (OOCC) has released the 2020 Maryland Inter-Agency Opioid Coordination Plan. From the coordination plan: Opioids have presented Maryland with a dire and unprecedented crisis – a crisis that stole the lives of more than 2,000 citizens in both 2017 and 2018. The effects of opioids on our state have been far reaching, and no jurisdiction or citizen has been spared from their wrath. We are thankful that 2019 brought Maryland…

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January 15, 2020
City Launches Office of Equity on MLK Birthday
County News
City Launches Office of Equity on MLK Birthday

Baltimore City has re-fashioned a new Office on Equity & Civil Rights, timing the announcement on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young announced the establishment of a new Office of Equity in Baltimore City government. In addition to its overarching mission to carry out activities to eliminate discrimination and protect individuals' civil rights, the newly named Office of Equity & Civil Rights will also be charged with ensuring, citywide,…

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January 15, 2020
2020 MGA Session Brings New Procedures for Delivering Testimony
County News
2020 MGA Session Brings New Procedures for Delivering Testimony

The 2020 Maryland General Assembly Session is underway - but for those delivering testimony, it's not business as usual. To offer testimony - written and/or oral - for a bill hearing, you must sign up by a specific deadline...that hasn't changed. Each Committee has its own policies and procedures determining those deadlines (see links at the end of this post). Those procedures used to involve numbers of copies to drop off by a specific time…

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January 15, 2020
Prince George’s, NAACP File Suit Against U.S. Census Bureau
County News / Government Liability and Courts / Intergovernmental Relations / NACo and Federal Issues
Prince George’s, NAACP File Suit Against U.S. Census Bureau

The NAACP and Prince George's County have sued the U.S. Census Bureau on the grounds that the agency's preparations have been insufficient for the 2020 census. From WBAL: The civil rights group and Prince George’s County, a majority African American county in Maryland, filed the lawsuit last Friday in federal court in Maryland. It claims the Census Bureau wasn’t planning to put enough workers in the field and hadn’t opened up a sufficient number of…

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January 15, 2020
Bill Hearing / County News / Emergency Management / MACo Testimony
MACo Supports Proper Oversight of 9-1-1 Trust Fund

MACo Associate Director Kevin Kinnally testified in support of  SB 61 Public Safety – 9-1-1 Fees - Audit before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee on January 15, 2020. In 2019, the General Assembly passed landmark legislation to update state laws and the 9-1-1 financing system to provide the flexibility and resources needed for the deployment of a statewide Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG911) system. Advancing Next Generation 9-1-1 Services Across Maryland was one of MACo's top priorities…

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January 15, 2020
County News
It’s Back! Governor Revives SDAT Cost Shift To Counties

The Governor’s Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act (BRFA) (HB 152) revives an attempt (unsuccessful in previous years) to shift costs of the State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) onto county governments. The BRFA is typically introduced to implement a variety of actions such as raising revenues, altering statutory formulas and mandates, and transferring various monies in special funds to the general fund to allow their use for other purposes, such as balancing the budget.…

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January 15, 2020
2020 Built to Learn Act – “Supercharged” School Construction Bill
Crofton Area High School (photo courtesy of Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Education / General Assembly News / School Construction and Capital Budgets
2020 Built to Learn Act – “Supercharged” School Construction Bill

The 2020 Built to Learn Act would drive an additional $2.2 billion in school construction funding, by leveraging casino "lockbox" revenues for bonds. Legislation creating a large new funding program for school construction has been introduced for the second year in the General Assembly. The 2020 bill has many similarities to last year and additionally, pulls recommendations from the 2019 Workgroup on the Assessment and Funding of School Facilities. The Built to Learn Act 2020…

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January 15, 2020
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