Greater Baltimore Committee 2024 Legislative Update
The Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) is the leading voice for the private sector in the Baltimore region, providing insightful economic and civic leadership to drive collective impact. GBC is comprised of more than 400 businesses, nonprofit organizations, and educational and healthcare institutions. GBC’s work centers on a multi-year agenda organized around the core pillars of Economic Opportunity, Transportation & Infrastructure, and Collective Impact.
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
GBC aims to advance policies, programs, and investments that encourage transformative economic development in the Baltimore region. In 2024, GBC will support policies that grow the region’s economy by strategizing around its unique assets, improving the region’s brand, ensuring strategic investments are successful, winning game-changing federal opportunities, and growing and retaining businesses and talent.
Maryland Protecting Opportunities and Regional Trade (PORT) Act (HB1526/SB1188)
The PORT Act provides immediate financial assistance to the families of the fallen transportation workers, more than $30 million in benefits for workers and businesses affected by the bridge collapse and extends unemployment benefits for impacted workers through the Department of Labor.
Pava LaPere Legacy of Innovation Act of 2024 (HB0582/SB0473)
This bill establishes the Pava LaPere Innovation Acceleration Grant Program at TEDCO to provide grants to technology-based startup companies that are founded by students of postsecondary institutions in the Baltimore Region and launches the Baltimore Innovation Initiative Pilot Program.
Critical Infrastructure Streamlining Act of 2024 (HB0579/SB0474)
This act will make it easier to build data centers and other critical infrastructure to empower Maryland’s economic future. Specifically, the act exempts the construction of certain generating facilities used to produce electricity for the purpose of onsite emergency backup from some public approval processes.
Baltimore Convention and Tourism Redevelopment and Operating Authority Task Force (HB0897/SB0896)
This task force will study and make recommendations regarding the renovation, revitalization, financing, and ongoing maintenance and management of the Baltimore Convention Center, a crucial component of Baltimore’s economy. The task force’s report will be submitted on or before December 1, 2024.
Horse Racing - Racing Facility Ownership and Construction - Racing Operations (HB1524)
This act enables the State to accept donation of Pimlico Race Track and authorizes bonds up to $400 million for the reconstruction of the grandstands, improvements to surrounding areas, and the construction of a new horse training facility. This bill keeps the Preakness and horse racing in Park Heights for generations to come.
Transparent Government Act of 2024 (HB0581/SB0472)
This bill enables continued improvements to Maryland’s environment for entrepreneurial growth by requiring State departments catalog information relating to permits, licenses, and certificates issued by the department by October 1, 2024, for review and completion of necessary updates and revisions in the following year.
Maryland Department of Labor - Report on Apprenticeship Mentoring Ratios (HB0650/SB0511)
This act requires the Department of Labor to submit a report detailing the apprenticeship mentoring ratio for all nontraditional occupations in the State, with recommendations for strategies to streamline the expansion
Greater Baltimore Committee 2024 Legislative Update
of apprenticeship ratios in order to meet the goals of the Apprenticeship 2030 Commission.
Maryland Econ. Dev. Assistance Authority and Fund - High Impact Development Project Program (SB0030)
This act would have established the High Impact Development Project Program within the Department of Commerce to provide financial assistance to industrial development agencies or enterprises undertaking high impact, placemaking projects that will support manufacturing activities.
Public Assistance to Entrepreneurship (PA2E) Program – Establishment (HB0106/SB0265)
This act would have established the Public Assistance to Entrepreneurship (PA2E) Program to train participants on how to establish and run a small business, including by providing up to $10,000 in business start-up funding to each participant who successfully completed the Program.
Economic Development - Entrepreneurial Leave Tax Credit Program (HB0033)
This act would have established the Entrepreneurial Leave Tax Credit Program to encourage employers to implement leave policies that provide unpaid leave for employees for the purpose of establishing or expanding an employee business in the State.
Governor Moore’s $6.4 million funding commitment for the Baltimore Tech Hub, including funds for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, TEDCO, and GBC’s Regional Innovation Office.
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Robust, reliable transportation and infrastructure networks are critical to the economic vitality of the Baltimore region. In 2024, working with the Greater Washington Partnership as co-leads of the Baltimore’s Transit Future coalition, GBC will advocate for both transformational system expansion and renewal of existing rail and bus services.
Baltimore City - Motor Vehicle Off-Street Parking Requirements Near Mass Transit Stations (HB0038)
This act prohibits Baltimore City from adopting or enforcing a local law that requires the creation of new motor vehicle off-street parking for a development that includes residential use and that is located within a 0.25-mile radius of a present or planned MARC, Baltimore MTA Light Rail, Red Line, or Metro station.
Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act of 2024 (HB0352/SB0362)
Altering or repealing certain required appropriations; authorizing the use of certain funds for certain purposes; altering the funding formula for community colleges and the State aid program for private nonprofit institutions of higher education; authorizing or altering the distribution of certain revenue; requiring interest earnings for certain special funds to accrue to the General Fund of the State for fiscal years 2024 through 2028; authorizing the transfer of certain funds; etc.
Maryland Road Worker Protection Act of 2024 (HB0513/SB0479)
Altering the distribution of revenue from civil fines collected through the use of work zone speed control systems; altering the highways on which a work zone speed control system may be used; clarifying that a system operator does not need to be present when a work zone speed control system is in use; altering the maximum penalty for a civil citation issued as a result of an image from a work zone speed control system; requiring the State Highway Administration to make a certain report; etc.
Better Bus Service Act of 2024 (HB0107)
Greater Baltimore Committee 2024 Legislative Update
Prohibiting a person from parking or standing certain vehicles in a dedicated bus lane; making statewide the authority of a local jurisdiction to use, in accordance with certain standards and procedures, a bus lane monitoring system to enforce the prohibition against driving, standing, or parking a motor vehicle in a designated bus lane; etc.
GBC supports implementation of the TRAIN Commission’s interim recommendations to increase funding in the 2024 Legislative Session, the full restoration of MTA capital funding, the alleviation of the MTA’s state of good repair backlog, and the preservation of transit expansion plans (including the Red Line and North-South Line), with the goal of pairing a new revenue-generating mechanism with a multi-billion-dollar expansion plan in the 2025 Legislative Session.
COLLECTIVE IMPACT
By design, the GBC is strategically positioned to take the lead in fostering collaborative efforts around priority issues for the region. GBC Partners and Members are collaborating to identify ways to reduce gun violence, support police officer recruitment and retention, and invest in communities and housing vacancy reduction. Moving forward GBC will also focus on improving local hiring and procurement efforts and making it easier to start and sustain a business in the region.
Vacant Housing and Community Development
Housing and Community Development - Just Community Designation (HB0241/SB0308)
Authorizing the Governor, on the recommendation of the Secretary of Housing and Community Development, to designate certain areas as Just Communities based on certain criteria; and providing for the prioritization of State funding for Just Communities to increase racial, economic and health equity in the State.
ENOUGH Act of 2024 (HB0694/SB0482)
Establishing the Governor's Office for Children and the Special Secretary of the Governor's Office for Children as the head of the Office; requiring the Special Secretary to establish the ENOUGH grant program, subject to certain requirements; requiring the Office to assign certain staff for a certain purpose; establishing certain reporting and evaluation requirements; establishing the ENOUGH Grant Fund as a special, non-lapsing fund; requiring the Governor to appropriate $15,000,000 to the fund for fiscal year 2026; etc.
Housing Innovation Pilot Program Act of 2024 (HB0007/SB0203)
Establishing the Housing Innovation Fund to provide loans for local housing authorities to develop mixedincome, cross-subsidized housing; establishing the Housing Innovation Pilot Program in the Department of Housing and Community Development; requiring the Governor to include an appropriation of $5,000,000 to the Fund in the annual operating or capital budget bill for fiscal years 2026 through 2029; etc.
Housing Expansion and Affordability Act of 2024 (HB0538/SB0484)
Prohibiting a local legislative body from prohibiting the placement of a certain manufactured home in certain residential zoning districts under certain circumstances; prohibiting a local jurisdiction from using an element of an adequate public facilities law to deny certain permits for certain State-funded affordable housing projects or other qualified projects or to restrict or limit the development of the projects in a certain manner; etc.
Greater Baltimore Committee 2024 Legislative Update
Housing and Community Development Financing Act of 2024 (HB0599/SB0483)
Establishing the Maryland Community Investment Corporation as an independent unit to make investments and financial assistance available in certain low-income communities in the State; expanding the eligible uses of the Strategic Demolition and Smart Growth Impact Fund to include grants and loans for credit enhancement for certain projects; requiring that members of the investment committee to be geographically representative of the locations of low-income communities in the State; etc.
Authority of Counties to Set a Special Rate for Vacant and Abandoned Property (HB0002/SB0138)
Authorizing the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City or the governing body of a county to establish, by law, a subclass of real property consisting of vacant lots or improved property cited as vacant and unfit for habitation or other authorized use on a certain violation notice and to set a special property tax rate for certain vacant and abandoned property; requiring the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City or the governing body of a county that enacts a special tax rate to submit a certain report by December 1 each year; etc.
GBC endorses key provisions of Governor Moore’s Housing Plan, including increased funding for Project CORE ($50 million per year, with added flexibility and bonding capacity) and the Baltimore Regional Neighborhoods Initiative ($27 million per year).
Public Safety
Growing Apprenticeships and the Public Safety Workforce (GAPS) Act (HB0597/SB0470)
Altering the Law Enforcement Cadet Apprenticeship Program in the Maryland Department of Labor to be the Public Safety Apprenticeship Program; expanding the purpose and scope of the Program to promote careers with certain public safety agencies; altering the eligibility criteria and the types of grants to be awarded under the Program; requiring the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission to develop certain mental health wellness policies to be implemented in certain law enforcement agencies and correctional facilities; etc.
Center for Firearm Violence Prevention and Intervention – Establishment (HB0583/SB0475)
Establishing the Center for Firearm Violence Prevention and Intervention in the Maryland Department of Health to reduce firearm violence, harm from firearm violence, and misuse of firearms in the State by partnering with federal, State, and local agencies and affected communities to implement a public health approach to firearm violence reduction; requiring the Center by May 1, 2025, to submit to the Governor and General Assembly a preliminary State Plan for a Public Health Approach to Reducing Firearm Violence; etc.
Juvenile Law – Reform (HB0814)
Altering certain provisions relating to the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging and Best Practices; altering the jurisdiction of the juvenile court over a child of a certain age alleged to have committed a certain offense; altering certain provisions relating to the taking of a child into custody by a law enforcement officer; expanding certain provisions of law relating to the entry onto certain school or other property by, and the education of, certain sex offender registrants; etc.
Police Recruitment and Retention Workgroup (HB0618/SB0380)
Establishing the Police Recruitment and Retention Workgroup to study issues and factors potentially contributing to recruitment challenges and the decline in police officer retention statewide; and requiring the
Greater Baltimore Committee 2024 Legislative Update
Workgroup to report its findings and recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly on or before December 30, 2025.
Public Safety - Law Enforcement Agencies - Positive Community Feedback (HB0973/SB0007)
Adding positive community feedback to the list of records that are not considered personnel records for certain purposes; requiring the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission to develop a process for citizens to submit positive community feedback; requiring each law enforcement agency to adopt the uniform citizen positive community feedback process; and requiring a law enforcement agency to maintain a certain record that is subject to public inspection.
Violent Firearms Offender Act of 2024 (HB0316/SB0028)
Establishing that a violation of a condition of probation, parole, or mandatory supervision that involves the use or possession of a firearm is not a technical violation for certain purposes; requiring the Commissioner of Correction to provide a certain inmate with a certain reentry kit and assistance in obtaining Medicaid benefits under certain circumstances; altering the elements of certain prohibitions against using a certain firearm in the commission of a certain crime; etc.
GBC supports Governor Moore’s public safety budget, which includes a $5 million increase for local law enforcement agencies and a $4.4 million increase to the Department of Juvenile Services to expand intervention and rehabilitation services to at-risk youth.
