Budget and Taxation Committee advances multiple concurrences, offers amendment to restore legislative review of some long-term leases

The Budget and Taxation Committee met May 14 and, during a routine read-through of bills, advanced by voice concurrence a slate of measures ranging from procedural fixes to grant and tax changes.

Clerk summarized House Bill 1346 as a measure establishing an expedited timeframe and a corresponding fee to process specified business documents through ESAT after those documents have received pre-clearance. The committee moved the item to a voice vote with no recorded roll-call tally in the transcript.

The committee also considered a measure identified in the transcript as bill 854, described as creating a nonpublic special education school renovation program administered by the IA. Clerk said the House amendment changed the appropriation language to state legislative intent that the governor include at least $5 million for the program in the annual capital budget. "It establishes the non-public special education school renovation program ... purpose of the program is to provide grants to non-public special education school facilities for renovations," the Clerk said.

On apprenticeship and prevailing-wage requirements, members reviewed a cross-file (Senate Bill 964, linked to House Bill 864). Clerk said the House had substituted a work group for the statutory changes originally in the bill; staffing for the work group was proposed as joint between MDOT and the Board of Public Works with added representatives from labor and employers. "There are no statutory changes remaining in the bill," the Clerk said, describing the item as a study/work-group vehicle rather than an immediate change in law.

The committee was also briefed on pension-related housekeeping in Senate Bill 734, a study of blockchain-based title recordation (Senate Bill 168) that the House expanded to include leases and additional stakeholders, and changes to library funding that increased a mandatory appropriation for a young-readers program from $350,000 to $450,000.

House Bill 175, the so-called venison bill, was discussed: the Senate had proposed repeal of a $300 limit on venison donations, and the House instead doubled the limit to $600. Clerk presented the House language and the committee concurred by voice.

Clerk said House amendments converted Senate Bill 163—originally written to modify the treatment of foreign earned income for state tax purposes—into a study requiring the comptroller to report how many residents have foreign-earned income. For Senate Bill 468 (described as Senator King's bill), Clerk said the bill would authorize a county to provide a grant instead of a local child tax credit; the committee moved concurrence.

On Joint Audit Bill 1557, which addresses procurement, property acquisition and long-term leases after an audit of DGS, Clerk said an amendment would restore a tailored role for the Legislative Policy Committee to review certain DGS real-estate transactions. The Clerk said the change was intended to strengthen accountability and ensure cost-benefit analyses before long-term lease commitments, and offered to share the amendment text before floor consideration: "I'd like to offer it on the floor ... this is really, I think, part of an accountability piece," the Clerk said.

Other items included Senate Bill 638 adjusting Maryland Heritage Areas Authority financing (raising fund amounts from $3 million to $9 million and adding or removing specified management entities) and a House change clarifying that sales and use tax does not apply to sales of precious metal, bullion, or coins if the sale price exceeds $1,000.

Most items were advanced by voice concurrence with no roll-call tallies provided in the transcript; the record contains at least one explicit 'I opposed' recorded during a vote but does not provide full vote counts. The Clerk noted that some technical follow-up and amendment text would be circulated to members ahead of floor action. The session concluded after the read-through of concurrences and amendments.