The 2010 Maryland General Assembly session ended at 12 a.m. this morning. During the 90-day session the Maryland Chamber took positions on 146 of the 2,700 bills introduced. You can view all of our bill positions here and access our legislative updates here.
Here are a few items of interest from the 2010 session:
Unemployment Insurance: The biggest issue of the session for most Maryland employers was the Administration’s unemployment insurance bill (SB 107). As introduced, the legislation would have liberalized several standards for granting unemployment insurance benefits in order for the state receive a one-time payment of $127 million in federal stimulus funds. While well-intentioned, the bill would have increased state borrowing from the federal government and increased long-term costs to employers. The Maryland Chamber stood united with other business organizations to insist on amendments to the bill that contained employer costs. The resulting compromise was enacted in a manner that will qualify the state for the federal funds, strengthen the long-term health of the unemployment insurance trust fund, reduce interest on late payments, and allow employers to use payment plans to extend unemployment insurance payments this year.
Budget: The state operating budget was again balanced through heavy reliance on fund shifts and borrowing from special funds, and federal stimulus funds. Significant downside risks continue, with an uncertain economic recovery, an anticipated further loss of over $1 billion in federal stimulus funds next year, and an ongoing gap between state spending and revenues of over $1.5 billion. This could lead to pressure for increased taxes, which we think would be ill-advised on top of the $1.3 billion of new taxes adopted in 2007. The new General Assembly will face major budget decisions.
Taxes: The General Assembly resisted efforts to adopt new taxes this session. The business community worked to defeat a number of tax proposals, including legislation to extend the duration of the 6.25 percent individual income tax bracket on high wage earners and legislation to implement a corporate income tax system of unitary combined reporting. We worked to achieve passage of legislation to extend the research and development tax credit and a bill to allow small businesses with real property tax bills of less than $50,000 to pay their taxes in semiannual installments, starting in 2011.
Workplace Regulation: There were a number of bills dealing with workplace regulation. We worked to defeat legislation that would have expanded Maryland employers’ obligations under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, prohibited employers from using an applicant’s credit history when making hiring decisions, required employers to compensate employees for jury duty and more.
Stormwater Management: The Maryland Chamber and its business allies successfully advocated changes to the stormwater regulations set to take effect in May 2010. The emergency regulations will give developers more time to complete their projects before having to meet the new, stricter stormwater management rules. The compromise will “grandfather” some additional projects that were already in the planning pipeline and also give developers additional flexibility for redevelopment projects in designated growth areas.
To review our complete 2010 session recap here.
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