Read more about the article SCOTUS Orders List Includes Under-the-Radar Decisions With Broad Impact
Courts / Government Liability and Courts
SCOTUS Orders List Includes Under-the-Radar Decisions With Broad Impact

Tracking decisions during a US Supreme Court term is vital to staying on top of implications for counties, but not all decisions with local government impacts make the headlines. The orders list can be a very useful tool to catch the most recent decisions quickly, particularly those where sweeping guidance for lower courts is issued without argument. Recent activity at the U.S. Supreme Court underscores why local governments need to closely track not just major…

Comments Off on SCOTUS Orders List Includes Under-the-Radar Decisions With Broad Impact
May 5, 2026
Read more about the article 2026 Session: Recap and Wrap-Ups
Business Affairs / County Budgets / County News / Courts / Economic Development / Education / Elections / Emergency Management / Employee Benefits and Relations / Energy / Environment / Feature / Finance and Procurement / General Assembly News / Government Liability and Courts / Health and Human Services / Housing and Community Development / Human Resources / Information Technology / Intergovernmental Relations / MACo Testimony / Parks and Recreation / Pensions & Public Funds / Planning and Zoning / Public Information and Ethics / Public Safety and Corrections / School Construction and Capital Budgets / State Budget and Fiscal Issues / Taxes and Revenues / Tourism / Transportation and Public Works
2026 Session: Recap and Wrap-Ups

Catch up on all of the latest outcomes of the 2026 Maryland General Assembly session with wrap-ups on important county-related bills in each policy area. Maryland’s 448th legislative session unfolded under significant fiscal pressure. Lawmakers closed the fiscal 2027 gap, preserved reserves, and fully funded principal commitments, such as the Blueprint, but did not resolve the larger structural deficits projected for the years ahead. That budget pressure shaped debates across nearly every policy area, from…

Comments Off on 2026 Session: Recap and Wrap-Ups
April 17, 2026
Read more about the article #MACoCon Recap: County Officials Highlight Financial Risk From Wrongful Convictions Cost Shift
County Budgets / Courts / Government Liability and Courts / Winter Conference
#MACoCon Recap: County Officials Highlight Financial Risk From Wrongful Convictions Cost Shift

State legal experts discuss exactly how wrongful convictions cases are processed in Maryland, with county officials highlighting that "there's not a single county actor that is involved in this" process, despite the State shifting 50 percent of the cost to counties. This shift came last session along with a number of other state costs to counties, as the General Assembly sought to once again correct for perennial gaps in state revenue. During the 2025 MACo…

Comments Off on #MACoCon Recap: County Officials Highlight Financial Risk From Wrongful Convictions Cost Shift
December 18, 2025
Read more about the article Roadmap for Maryland Recordation and Transfer Taxes Compliance
Courts / Government Liability and Courts / Policy Deep Dive / State Budget and Fiscal Issues / Taxes and Revenues
Roadmap for Maryland Recordation and Transfer Taxes Compliance

The Maryland State Bar Association has developed a revised guide to the multiple facets of Maryland's system of recordation and transfer taxes, as an aid to practitioners in real estate and land records. The 2025 revision updates documents last prepared in 2002, and covers both State and county-level tax systems, and the varying administration across the state. Maryland levies both State and county taxes on real estate transactions, both those that effect a sale (the…

Comments Off on Roadmap for Maryland Recordation and Transfer Taxes Compliance
December 4, 2025
Read more about the article MD General Assembly Seeks Guidance to Modernize Two-Party Consent for Recording Audio
Courts / Government Liability and Courts
MD General Assembly Seeks Guidance to Modernize Two-Party Consent for Recording Audio

The Judiciary Committee in the Maryland House of Delegates is looking to update laws requiring two-party consent to record audio in order to grapple with the explosion of cellphone and Ring cameras.  In a hearing last week, the Judiciary Committee in the Maryland House of Delegates discussed existing two-party consent requirements for recording audio and how to modernize those standards to potentially capture consent for video recording. As the law stands audio requires consent but…

Comments Off on MD General Assembly Seeks Guidance to Modernize Two-Party Consent for Recording Audio
November 25, 2025
Read more about the article MD Office of Overdose Response Demystifies Opioid Restitution Fund
County News / Courts / Health and Human Services / News You Can Use
MD Office of Overdose Response Demystifies Opioid Restitution Fund

Maryland’s Office of Overdose Response has released a new Opioid Restitution Fund Primer to help explain how opioid settlement funds are used statewide. The Maryland Office of Overdose Response's (MOOR) Opioid Restitution Fund (ORF) Primer helps counties, partners, and the public better understand how settlement dollars from opioid litigation are being managed and distributed across the state. The Primer offers a comprehensive, plain-language overview of the state’s opioid restitution structure, tracing the origins of settlements…

Comments Off on MD Office of Overdose Response Demystifies Opioid Restitution Fund
November 5, 2025
Read more about the article MD Supreme Court Hears Case on Court-Ordered Sanctions Against MD Health Department
Courts / Public Safety and Corrections
MD Supreme Court Hears Case on Court-Ordered Sanctions Against MD Health Department

A case before the Maryland Supreme Court will weigh whether monetary sanctions are permissible in order to compel legal compliance by the Maryland Department of Health. The agency has been regularly found in contempt of court for lack of adherence to a state law that requires them to admit, within a certain time, individuals found not competent to stand trial.  In a case between plaintiffs represented by the Maryland Office of the Public Defender (OPD)…

Comments Off on MD Supreme Court Hears Case on Court-Ordered Sanctions Against MD Health Department
November 5, 2025
Read more about the article Maryland Sues To Block New FEMA Grant Restrictions
Courts / Emergency Management / NACo and Federal Issues / News You Can Use / Winter Conference
Maryland Sues To Block New FEMA Grant Restrictions

Maryland moved to protect emergency management funding and continuity this week as Attorney General Anthony Brown filed a lawsuit challenging new federal restrictions on FEMA preparedness grants that counties rely on to plan, respond to, and recover from disasters. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown filed suit this week, joining a coalition of states pushing back on new conditions tied to FEMA’s core preparedness and homeland security grants. State attorneys general argue the federal government cannot…

Comments Off on Maryland Sues To Block New FEMA Grant Restrictions
November 5, 2025
Read more about the article Problematic Policy: Passing the Buck on Wrongful Convictions
County Budgets / Courts / Winter Conference
Problematic Policy: Passing the Buck on Wrongful Convictions

Earlier this year the Maryland Board of Public Works approved the first wrongful conviction settlement payment that will fall under the new cost sharing structure between state and local governments. Wicomico was the first jurisdiction to be charged, resulting in an almost $300,000 cost for a jurisdiction considered resource scarce enough to merit disparity grant funding from the state. This is the result of provisions in the 2025 Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act (BRFA) that…

Comments Off on Problematic Policy: Passing the Buck on Wrongful Convictions
November 3, 2025
Read more about the article Appellate Court of Maryland Rules on Scope of Local Government Tort Claims Act Damage Caps
Courts / Government Liability and Courts
Appellate Court of Maryland Rules on Scope of Local Government Tort Claims Act Damage Caps

Chief Justice of the Appellate Court of Maryland, Judge E. Gregory Wells, issued an opinion removing certain claims from the damage caps provision of the Local Government Tort Claims Act. An opinion was released yesterday by the Appellate Court of Maryland that seeks to clarify the scope of damage caps in the Local Government Tort Claims Act (LGTCA). The case giving rise to the issue is Joseph Watts v. Prince George’s County, Maryland and was…

Comments Off on Appellate Court of Maryland Rules on Scope of Local Government Tort Claims Act Damage Caps
October 30, 2025
Older Posts