Politics

Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot on Thursday urged the state’s General Assembly to pass emergency legislation to make a state income tax credit that would incentivize donations from residents and businesses to Ukraine. In a letter to Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones, Franchot the state is in a “sound fiscal position” to provide an income tax credit because of the state’s historic $4.5 billion budget surplus.

Maryland lawmakers will introduce legislation to direct the state’s $70 billion pension system to divest its relatively small and rapidly declining assets in Russia in response to the war in Ukraine, a legislator said Thursday. Del. Brooke Lierman, who is the co-chair of the General Assembly’s Special Joint Committee on Pensions with Sen. Sarah Elfreth, discussed plans for the legislation in an interview after a committee hearing with state pension system officials, who gave an update on the system.

Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby won approval Wednesday to hire a consultant to assist the City Council with Baltimore’s redistricting process as the city awaits the mayor’s own redistricting proposal. The City Council will spend $33,750 to retain the Virginia-based company CensusChannel to assist with compiling the city’s demographic information and producing several maps based on the data, according to the contract.

Members of the General Assembly rolled out a package of bills to offer more protections to state and local government online networks on Wednesday following the discovery of myriad vulnerabilities in the state’s cybersecurity systems. “Vulnerabilities in our IT systems will continue to cost our taxpayers and that cost is high,” House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) said at a House news conference Wednesday.

Public health advocates are pushing for a bill that would provide up to $45 million in subsidies each year for Maryland’s small businesses and nonprofits to provide their employees with health insurance. SB632, which is sponsored by Sen. Katie Fry Hester, D-Carroll and Howard, aims to establish a Small Business and Nonprofit Health Insurance Subsidies Program to be administered by the Maryland Health Benefits Exchange.

Gun advocates blasted firearm safety legislation on Wednesday, saying it seeks to criminalize and penalize licensed firearms dealers. Sponsored by House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County), House Bill 1021 would implement minimum security requirements for licensed firearms dealers to prevent stolen guns from reaching the streets by installing video surveillance and alarm systems, putting metal bars on doors and windows and placing barriers on the outside of their stores so cars can’t break down their walls.

The Harford County Council approved several new county appointments at its meeting Tuesday. Philip McCall and Iris Barnes were appointed to the Historic Preservation Commission; Sierra Keys was named to the Harford County Cultural Arts Advisory Board; Pamela Pape-Lindstrom was appointed to the Environmental Advisory Board; and David Kunes was reappointed to the board of directors of the Harford Center.

Two former county health officers told state lawmakers that pandemic policy-making in Maryland has become dangerously politicized and that the state Department of Health routinely failed to support health officers who come under attack, even though they are state employees. Former Harford County Health Officer David Bishai, who was fired by the Harford County Council in October, told a legislative panel that he was let go without cause after he provided sound health guidance.