County attorney outlines 2025 General Assembly priorities, flags bills with potential county impact

The office of the county attorney briefed St. Mary's County commissioners on Jan. 14 about legislation filed for the 2025 Maryland General Assembly session and identified roughly 49 bills the county is tracking for potential operational or fiscal impacts.

County attorney staff said there are 83 days remaining in the session and described the volume of prefiled bills: roughly 500 prefiled measures and about 150 additional filings as of the briefing. The staff memo included bills of particular interest to the county and identified where the county may need to take positions or monitor developments.

Key items flagged by county staff and discussed by commissioners included:

- Judgeship (HB 125): A local bill filed by Delegate Crosby would create a fourth circuit court judgeship for St. Mary's County. County staff prepared a fiscal-information request for the Department of Legislative Services; the county attorney said recurring local costs could include security and staffing associated with an additional courtroom and estimated recurring personnel costs for court security in the range of $400,000 to $500,000 annually, depending on staffing needs. Commissioner comment indicated Delegate Crosby might withdraw the bill in favor of a judiciary committee bill; the appointment and filling process would still follow the Judicial Nominating Commission and gubernatorial appointment timelines.

- Transportation scoring (HB/SB — large omnibus transportation bill): Proposed changes would require the Maryland Department of Transportation to score projects in the Consolidated Transportation Program using criteria such as safety, accessibility, climate impacts and equity. County staff noted scoring could disadvantage rural counties when projects are prioritized by quantitative scores.

- Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances (HB 38): Proposed language would require counties to renew adequate public facility ordinances every four years or the ordinances would lapse. County staff and commissioners expressed concern that a fixed four-year reset could create planning and implementation challenges; staff noted that the county's comprehensive plan and zoning processes already review infrastructure needs on longer schedules.

- Statewide homeless shelter certification (HB 93/SB 234): Legislation to create a statewide shelter certification program raised questions about effects on faith-based providers and temporary warm-weather church-based programs. Staff warned the bill's statutory definition of "homeless shelter" could encompass short-term church programs and that nondiscrimination provisions might conflict with faith-based program missions.

- Cannabis on-site consumption and cannabis events (HB 132 and related bills): The county attorney briefed commissioners on bills creating event licenses and on-site consumption establishments at the state level. Staff noted counties retain local zoning authority over whether to allow on-site consumption facilities, but some event license authority may be handled at the state level. Commissioners and law-enforcement representatives discussed enforcement challenges tied to determining impairment from cannabis while driving, and whether per-se limits or field procedures exist; staff said Maryland currently lacks a universal per-se impairment metric for cannabis analogous to blood-alcohol limits.

- Short-term rentals (HB 87/SB 132): Economic development staff asked commissioners to consider opposing legislation that would apply hotel-like health and safety standards and taxation to short-term rentals; staff said applying commercial hotel codes (e.g., sprinkler systems, ADA modifications) to residential short-term rentals could force many hosts out of the market and noted the county currently collects hotel/accommodations tax from short-term rentals.

- Public employee safety standards (HB 176/SB 26): A proposed public-employee safety and health act could create inspection and enforcement duties for local governments; county HR estimates the law could require two additional full-time employees to implement and enforce standards across county workplaces.

County attorney staff said fiscal and policy notes prepared by the Department of Legislative Services often require local data and that the county routinely responds to DLS information requests to inform state fiscal notes. Commissioners asked staff to keep monitoring bills and to coordinate with the county's delegation and Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) lobby staff. The county attorney's office said it will provide links to fiscal notes as they become available.

No board votes on the legislative positions were taken at the Jan. 14 meeting; commissioners scheduled further discussion through MACo and future county meetings.