With the Maryland General Assembly’s three-month session kicking off this week, intense debate on the looming state budget deficit is likely to dominate discussions. While facing this challenge, Howard County lawmakers are seeking to pass several local bills.

“The thing that we’re looking forward to is really trying to provide some assurance to our community that we understand their priorities and their values, and that in spite of all the challenges that may be coming because of a transition in federal government, that we in Maryland still stand with them, and we’ll do everything that we can to uphold our values and protect those who live in the state,” Sen. Clarence Lam, Senate chair of the Howard delegation, said in an interview.

Lam said he wants to make sure residents from all areas of the county, especially those who feel like their issues aren’t always prioritized, have their needs addressed and their voices heard. After a contentious Board of Education race last year, he intends to reintroduce a bill that would allow the Howard County government to establish a system for public financing for school board candidates, a measure he says is one of the most important to him.

“It’s important here in Howard County to have the ability for our candidates that want to run to be able to be supported by public financing, so that people that have the right intentions and are willing to put in the work aren’t turned off to running for office simply because of an inability to be able to raise the funds that are needed to be able to run a strong campaign,” Lam said.

Some have called the projected $2.7 billion state budget deficit a crisis, but Sen. Guy Guzzone, a Howard County Democrat who chairs the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, said he’d rather call it a “challenge.”

There are several reasons why the state is in this position, Guzzone said, but in recent years he has noticed a “change of heart” among lawmakers when deciding how to allocate funding to tackle complex issues involving education, juvenile justice or the environment. Uncertainty surrounding the federal government compounds the challenge, Guzzone said.

“If you want to do those things and do them right, and don’t get me wrong, even when you think you’re doing them right, you may not get it right, but if you want to try to do it, it’s big and it costs,” Guzzone said during a legislative breakfast held by the Howard County League of Women Voters Saturday.Any budgetary action will be taken in the interest of protecting values and “trying to do the things that we said we were going to do, that we were going to care about,” Guzzone assured the crowd.

The 11 Democratic members of the Howard County delegation are hoping to pass their statewide and local bills within the 90-day session. Lam and Del. Chao Wu, House chair of the delegation, proposed most of the local bills, which address a number of issues, from education to housing to environmental permits. Bills that only have local impact are referred to select committees or delegations.

Local bills proposed by Lam include:

Ho. Co. 1-25: To allow the Board of Community College Trustees for Howard County’s to expand its membership.

Ho. Co. 2-25: This would re-stagger the terms for the board so councilmanic districts aren’t voting for new members all at once. The bill also would establish a commission to review the compensation of board members for fairness.

Ho. Co. 6-25: After Columbia residents cited a lack of information and opportunities for public comment regarding air quality permits sought by W.R. Grace, which wants to build a plastic recycling facility, this bill would alter the Maryland Department of the Environment requirements. The bill would require MDE to provide an additional informational meeting for certain permits in the county and require the county to hold a public meeting regarding zoning and land use, as well as other requirements for air quality control.

Wu said some of the statewide issues he is focusing on are regulation of cellphone use in middle and elementary schools and management of school maintenance costs.

Wu also proposed legislation with Lam to add holidays such as Lunar New Year, Diwali, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Eid Al-Fitr to the school calendar. A bill he proposed with Del. Vanessa Atterbeary would require the Board of Education to study the best method for detecting deadly weapons in schools and how to quickly report any weapons to law enforcement.

Another set of local bills comes from Del. Terri Hill who is proposing legislation to expand the use of speed cameras on county highways and to require that written leases for certain properties include a statement of rights and information on an annual surcharge assessed by the Columbia Association. Though Del. Jessica Feldmark hasn’t put forth any local legislation, she said in an interview that she anticipates education, mental and behavioral health care and childcare will be top areas of interest for Howard County residents.

“I know there’s been a lot of focus on some of the challenges, but I am confident that it will be a productive session, even if it’s a challenging one, and sometimes challenges push us to do better work,” Feldmark said.

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