Legislative Breakfast brings together Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano, Eastern Shore Delegation and County, Municipal Leaders

SALISBURY, Md- County Executive Julie Giordano, and the Eastern Shore delegation, met with local leaders from the Wicomico County Council, Salisbury City, Mardela, Delmar, and Sharptown as part of a legislative breakfast ahead of the legislative session.
That agenda includes upgrades to the Salisbury Airport, improvements for local schools, and getting municipalities to expand their wastewater systems.

“Our municipalities came into this thinking Salisbury or Wicomico county has this plan for us and really that plan is about asking them where are they ready to expand so it was good to hear about the issues that help us revamp things,” said County Executive Giordano.

Acting Administrative Director Bunky Luffman tells 47ABC that getting a unified sewer plan in the works is crucial for developments in the county.

“We had officials from Mardela, Delmar, and Sharpstown all bring up they had wastewater issues and the GSC is looking at this issue and we will be getting a presentation later this month, there is potential to make their system go out to county residents with failing septics so we want to highlight it’s really important for us as a state and county to help those 3 municipalities with their plants and systems and make greater partnerships,” Luffman said.

Eastern Shore Delegation member Senator Mary Beth Carozza tells 47ABC, the session helps her understand the need before the legislative session starts.

“What was good is we had everyone in the room together we have the County Executive, the Council, Municipal Leaders state delegation going through it together teeing this up before the session starts,” Carozza.

One controversial agenda item brought before the group, reforming the county’s alcohol dispensary.

Currently, the dispensaries operate a monopoly on beer, wine, and liquor sales for restaurants and bars, and liquor stores.

“There is no need for the liquor dispensary to be selling beer and wine that’s my municipality directly competing against the private sector,” said Cheers Liquor Owner Micheal J Vizzard.

However, the board generates nearly 1 million dollars of revenue for the counties, general fund which is why County Executive Giordano says her administration supports a hybrid option that will open up limited additional licenses while still allowing the dispensary to operate.

“The current dispensary stays in place and they would compete with other businesses but we would not immediately fall off of a cliff of a million dollars,” Luffman said.

Speaker Pro Tempore Sheree Sample Hughes, speaking at the meeting raised concerns over the county receiving a million-dollar-a-year disparity grant from the state and the current revenue cap on the county, saying those might be hard to reconcile in the state legislature, and make some lawmakers weary of giving the county additional support.

“Opponents will say how are they turning down this million dollar a year, but taking this grant it’s a hard sell to other representatives,” she said.

Senator Carozza says that’s why the liquor issue has to be resolved locally before the delegation gets involved, as the state will not be getting in the middle of a county dispute.

“It has to be a bill from the county and it has to reach a consensus,” she said.

Giordano tells 47ABC that hashing things out helps them help the county, and she believes that reforming the board could be a big next step.

“We need to look at something a couple of steps ahead and the revenue that is going to be driven by our small businesses and not tying their hand will generate revenue,” Giordano said.

The group also discussed launching a new airplane repair program and the airport-parenting with the existing pilot program at UMES, as well as a new library building purchase for the county for 2024.