Politics

The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill Tuesday that would expand access to abortion by ending a restriction that only physicians provide them and requiring most insurance plans to cover abortion care without cost. The Senate gave the measure final passage on a 28-15 vote. That sends the measure to Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, whose office did not immediately comment on his position on the bill. The governor has said he personally opposes abortion, though he has called the issue settled law in the state.

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman signed an agreement Tuesday with Glenn Burnie Landfill Solar to lease about 20 acres of landfill space on Dover Road in Glen Burnie where the business will install more than 10,000 solar panels. The agreement was unanimously approved by the county council last week. “It’s a good deal for the taxpayers, and it’s a great deal for the environment,” Pittman said at an event last week.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and leaders in the legislature have reached a $1.86 billion agreement for tax relief over five years for retirees, small businesses and low-income families. Officials announced Monday that when combined with a recently enacted gas tax suspension, the legislative session will deliver nearly $2 billion in tax relief. The Republican governor called the bipartisan deal “the largest tax cut package in state history with major and long-overdue relief for Maryland’s retirees.”

The long campaign to create a Maryland paid family and medical leave program for nearly all workers has won considerable support in the Democrat-controlled General Assembly, bringing closer the goal of creating a new social insurance benefit. Top leadership in both chambers support it and legislation creating it recently passed both the Senate and the House of Delegates with wide majorities.

A Republican lawmaker is apologizing for a Tweet that included an obscenity directed at the House speaker and Senate president. Baltimore County Republican Kathy Szeliga said the tweet was a “poorly executed text message” and was meant to be a private message to a close friend. The now-deleted tweet referred to House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson as vulgarity in their response to the court decision that said the state’s congressional maps were unconstitutional.

A Maryland Association of Counties-led bill to increase the amount of Medicaid reimbursement emergency medical services providers receive when they perform their duties is making its way through the General Assembly, having successfully passed the Senate last week. The bill, SB295, looks to increase the rate EMS providers are reimbursed for the transportation and medical costs of taking a patient to a hospital, in hopes of bringing that rate up to meet the impact of inflation.

Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday issued a proclamation marking the 250th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the Maryland State House. The state house is the oldest in continuous legislative use and the only state capitol building ever to ever serve as the seat of the country’s government. “It is an incredible honor every day to serve in the oldest continuously operating State House in America, and to reflect on all the historic events that have occurred in this incredible building,” said Hogan.