Ways and Means Committee advances a package of bills in March 3 voting session

The Ways and Means Committee on Monday, March 3, advanced a series of House bills in a voting session, approving measures on special elections and ballot handling, school funding and program changes, property tax credits for child care facilities, affordable-housing unit requirements, a family literacy pilot in correctional facilities, library automated external defibrillator (AED) rules, and other measures.

The committee’s actions moved a set of bills “favorably as amended” or “favorably” for consideration by the full House. Several measures were amended on the floor of the committee for technical fixes or to restore existing funding levels; one group of bills was withdrawn at the sponsor’s request.

House Bill 75 (election law — special elections) passed favorably as amended. The bill clarifies when a county may hold a special election for county executive or county council vacancies and clarifies procedures for special elections conducted by mail; the committee adopted an amendment that removed a provision allowing a county to cancel a special primary election.

House Bill 296 (State Department of Assessments and Taxation documentation requirement) passed favorably as amended. Committee discussion clarified that the amendment is technical in nature: it removes duplicative language elsewhere in the code and does not change the underlying exemption for persons with $20,000 or less in personal property. A staff member, Stan, explained the amendment was to repeal identical language elsewhere in statute to carry out the bill’s purpose; committee members asked whether less-than-$20,000 taxpayers would remain exempt and were told they would.

House Bill 389 (local option property tax credits for child care facilities) passed favorably. The bill expands eligibility for existing local-option property tax credits for child care facilities and raises the maximum credit amount to $10,000.

House Bill 390 passed favorably as amended after the committee reduced the minimum share of affordable units required in certain projects from 50% to 25%. During discussion, Delegate Griffith raised concern that with no explicit upper limit in the bill text a jurisdiction could require 100% affordable units under local authority, which he said could “essentially kill the projects” — a concern entered into the record during the committee’s discussion.

House Bill 415 (family literacy pilot program) passed favorably. The bill directs the Maryland State Library Agency to administer a family literacy pilot that provides children’s books together with audio recordings of an incarcerated parent reading the book; the pilot will operate in four state correctional facilities (representing regional diversity and including at least one all-male and at least one all-female facility) through calendar year 2028.

House Bill 504 (education — various programs and funding) passed favorably as amended. The committee adopted amendments that restored statutory funding levels for the target per-pupil amount and community schools, delayed the onset of a collaborative-time requirement by one year, limited certain administrative uses of restored funds, preserved the existing approach to the Grow Your Own teacher pipeline program (grants to local school systems and participation limited to school employees), expanded the academic excellence program’s structure and requirements, and removed codification of the interstate teacher mobility compact while restoring a prior interstate teacher agreement Maryland has joined. Several members spoke in favor of restoring funding for community schools; a handful recorded no votes on the amendments.

House Bill 585 passed favorably as amended; the committee struck a substitute requirement that would have required the Department of Housing and Community Development to notify SDAT when a property receives federal low-income housing tax credits.

House Bill 593 (AED program for libraries) passed favorably as amended. The committee struck a library-wide exemption and instead made the library AED program subject to joint regulations by the Maryland Department of Health and the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems; the amendments also limited the program to the Enoch Pratt Library and each branch of county library systems.

House Bill 763 (school-based awareness and prevention education) passed favorably. The measure requires that age-appropriate instruction on awareness and prevention of child abuse include middle-school-level instruction promoting awareness and prevention of human trafficking; the sponsor noted the bill repeats language from a prior session that previously passed this committee and the House floor.

House Bill 839 (election law — provisional ballots in nonpartisan Board of Education contests) passed favorably. The bill requires that when a voter casts a provisional ballot because of a party-affiliation discrepancy, votes for nonpartisan Board of Education contests still be counted.

Committee members indicated several bills were withdrawn by their sponsors during the session (a set of bill numbers read into the record). The voting session concluded after the roll calls.

Votes at a glance (committee action): - House Bill 75 — advanced favorably as amended (special elections; mail ballot procedures). - House Bill 296 — advanced favorably as amended (SDAT documentation language; technical amendment). - House Bill 389 — advanced favorably (child-care property tax credit expansion; max credit raised to $10,000). - House Bill 390 — advanced favorably as amended (affordable-unit floor lowered from 50% to 25%). - House Bill 415 — advanced favorably (family literacy pilot in four correctional facilities through 2028). - House Bill 504 — advanced favorably as amended (education funding/program changes; multiple technical and programmatic amendments restoring funding and modifying program structure). - House Bill 585 — advanced favorably as amended (notification requirement removed regarding LIHTC properties). - House Bill 593 — advanced favorably as amended (library AED program limited and placed under joint regulation; Enoch Pratt and county branches covered). - House Bill 763 — advanced favorably (adds middle-school human trafficking awareness to child-abuse prevention program). - House Bill 839 — advanced favorably (counting Board of Education votes on provisional ballots cast for party-affiliation reasons). - A set of sponsor-withdrawn bills was read and consented to be withdrawn during the session.

The committee record shows brief substantive questions or clarifications on several bills (for example, clarifying that a technical amendment would not remove an existing exemption for persons with $20,000 or less in personal property, and concerns that HB 390’s language could allow jurisdictions to impose very high local affordable-unit requirements). Where members asked for clarification, staff or sponsors provided technical explanations on the floor. The committee completed roll-call votes on the measures it advanced and recessed the voting session after the withdrawals were recorded and accepted.

Looking ahead, the bills the committee advanced will move to the House floor and further committee referrals as required by regular legislative process.