2023 Maryland legislative session housing and transportation highlights

It’s been just over four months since the dust settled on a historic, if tumultuous, 2023 Maryland legislative session. Most of the nearly 800 bills that Governor Wes Moore either signed or allowed to pass into law took effect earlier this month. Now seems as good a time as any to take stock of the biggest urbanism wins and losses during the legislative session.

Many, though not all, of these bills, were highlighted in our 2023 Maryland General Assembly (MDGA) preview, but many bills faced significant tweaks before reaching the Governor’s desk or were punted to next year’s session.

Housing: One tenant reform bill passes, second stalls

Housing policy doesn’t make for particularly easy or fast-moving legislation at any government level, including at the state, and 2023 was no exception for the MDGA. But the legislature passed two bills that will have a big impact for Marylanders.

While Del. Vaughn Stewart (D-Montgomery)’s landmark tenant rights bill, aka the Tenant Safety Act, passed the House, the bill stalled out in the Senate, pushing that particular set of tenant reforms off for another year. However, another pro-tenant bill, HB36/SB100, sponsored by Del. Mary Lehman (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) and Sen. Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County), made it across the finish line.

HB36 requires Maryland landlords to provide courts with proof of their rental licenses in order to be able to quickly evict tenants in counties that currently have rental licensing laws. It helps close a loophole left open by a 2021 Maryland Supreme Court ruling in which unlicensed landlords could retake property within days of filing with a local court, regardless of whether or not they were even claiming any money from a tenant.

Transportation: Transit fares, equity, safe streets, and TOD incentives

2023 was a mixed bag for transportation legislation in Maryland. Several landmark bills which had struggled to get through the General Assembly or were vetoed by former Gov. Larry Hogan broke through and made their way to the Governor’s desk, while several potentially transformative bills went back to the legislative drawing board.

Below is a summary of the bills that did make it across the finish line:

• “The Fair Fares Act,” or HB 673/SB 617 from Del. Mark Edelson (D-Baltimore City) and Hettleman, restored to the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) the ability to set its own fares.
• “The Transit Equity Act,” or HB 9/SB 19 from Del. Sheila Ruth (D-Baltimore County) and Sen. Jill Carter (D-Baltimore City), requires MDOT (Maryland Department of Transportation) to conduct equity analyses for its transportation plans.
• “The SAFE Act of 2023,” or HB 70 from Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Montgomery) directs the SHA (State Highway Administration) to “implement all possible incremental near-term safety improvements as soon as practicable” for certain pedestrian and bike safety projects like crosswalks.
• “The Equitable and Inclusive Transit-Oriented Development Act,” or HB 12/SB 151 from Del. Jazz Lewis and Sen. Malcolm Augustine (both D-Prince George’s), incentivizes more TOD in Maryland via a new grant and loan-based fund.
• “The State and Federal Transportation Act,” or SB 24, described in more detail below.

Four of those five bills took at least two years to successfully pass, but at least two of them, the Fair Fares Act and the Equitable and Inclusive TOD Act, have had fairly immediate effects. The Fair Fares Act directly averted what would otherwise have been a legally mandated fare increase of at least 10 cents for the MTA’s core services this summer. The TOD Act directly led to Mayor Brandon Scott and the Baltimore City Council supporting four new designations of Baltimore MARC, Light Rail, and Metro Subway stations as “State Transit-Oriented Development sites,” helping to unlock funding for TOD at each of those locations.

Arguably, the most transformative bill in Annapolis that made it across the legislative finish line was SB 24 from Sen. Cory McCray (D-Baltimore City), or the “State and Federal Transportation Act (SFTA).” Designed to allow MDOT to issue “GARVEE” (Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle) bonds backed by future federal aid, the bill had languished the past two years.

Initially introduced at MDOT’s request, this year’s effort was led by Del. Marc Korman and Del. McCray. While Korman’s House bill failed due to a Sine Die tantrum led by the Maryland Republican Caucus, McCray’s bill passed the Senate. His bill authorizes MDOT to issue the bonds towards preparations for Baltimore’s Red Line and the Southern Maryland Rapid Transit Corridor.

The Senate bill also included a modification from Senate President Bill Ferguson, creating a blue-ribbon commission to find new funding sources and structures for Maryland’s public transportation. Better gas mileage standards and the increasing popularity of electric vehicles threaten the gas tax revenue available for the state’s Transportation Trust Fund. It’s a concern Ferguson has repeatedly raised in recent years.

Lastly, the bill tasks the commission with evaluating the structure of regional transportation authorities, an issue that has gained new importance with the recent authorization of a Central Maryland transit authority. The Commission will hold its first meeting on August 24 in Annapolis and is expected to submit a preliminary report on its findings to the Governor and the General Assembly by New Year’s Day 2024.

And more transportation legislation to come?

Finally, four other potentially significant transit-themed bills were introduced during the 2023 MDGA session but did not pass into law. They could, however, feature prominently in the 2024 legislative session if reintroduced. We’ve listed them below:

• HB 819 from the Montgomery and Prince George’s County Delegations, which would have banned the Montgomery County Council from requiring off-street parking for residential developments within a quarter-mile radius of any current or planned Metro or Purple Line stations within the county. This bill passed the House 128-0 before stalling out in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee as the General Assembly session ended. GGWash worked on the bill with its three sponsors throughout the session.
• Del. Robbyn Lewis (D-Baltimore City) introduced HB 1008, which would’ve created an “Electric Bicycle Rebate Program,” but received an unfavorable report from the House Economic Matters Committee over cost concerns. With a similar bill having been reintroduced with more co-sponsors in Congress this past spring, however, it’s not out of the question that something similar might happen in the MDGA too.
• Another bill from Lewis, HB 1283, would’ve created an income tax credit for “individuals without motor vehicles.” It was introduced too late to automatically be assigned to a regular standing committee and subsequently got stuck in the House Rules and Executive Nominations Committee, which decides the fate of that chamber’s late-filed bills. It’s not uncommon for such bills to be reintroduced earlier in the following year’s session with greater success.
• A bill from Del. Dana Stein (D-Baltimore County), HB 1289, would’ve officially legalized the “Idaho Stop” for Maryland bicyclists, but it received an unfavorable report from the House Environment and Transportation (E&T) Committee, despite Stein serving as its Vice Chair at the time. Come 2024, however, E&T will have a new Chair…and Stein is currently slated to ascend into House leadership as the chamber’s new Speaker Pro Tem, which likely boosts the bill’s chances next year.

It’s only less than six months before the start of the next session. Let’s see what the 2024 term brings!