Local projects across Eastern Shore funded as Capital Budget bill passes in final hour of Sine Die

MARYLAND – Several bills including the statewide Capital Budget Bill passed at the 11th hour in Annapolis on Sine Die, securing funding for several shore priorities.

HB1439, to help better fund Tidalhealth’s Trauma Center moving forward, working to increase staffing and help them deal with the higher capacity and influx of summer travelers on Delmarva.

The state’s Capital Budget bill also puts funding towards local priorities including $250,000 to renovate the Wicomico Humane Society building in Wicomico County, $800,000 to build a competitive sports complex in Ocean City as well as funding for a new roof for Parkside High School.

Delegate Carl Anderton says it’s a remarkable amount of funding in the face of the state’s budget challenges.

“So many different things, that we were able to secure in the budget and hold tight in a year of budget cuts, that’s the most important piece, is that we didn’t lose anything. we were a net gain,” Delegate Anderton said.

Senator Carozza says she believes the sports complex can help drive more travel and tourism to the region, pushing for the funding to move forward.

“Sports tourism is huge and it’s such a draw, and we have families that are coming from all over the East Coast, the Midwest, coming to Ocean City to compete in these tournaments. And we need more facilities to accommodate that.,” Senator Carozza said.

Senator Carozza says all 4 of her priority bills passed within the final hours of the session including Physician Assistants Modernization, 9-11 operator recruitment funding, Anerobic Digestors for farming, and two bills co-filed with Delegate Wayne Hartman to help boost the retail RV show industry in Ocean City.

Her bills would allow out-of-state dealers to display and sell products, which she says would remove a bottleneck that was stopping the show from growing in attendance and scope.

“Out-of-state RV dealers can display only what they cannot sell, but when you increase the number of people coming through to see the show and to see all the RV displays, the in-state Maryland RV dealers benefit because their sales increase,” she said.

She says she was encouraged by the bipartisanship displayed across the session from Juvenile Crime reform moving forward, to help for port workers, saying she believes that energy can help re-shape priorities moving forward.

Crucially a measure to increase state taxes by over 1.2 billion dollars failed to move forward, setting up a budget battle for the next session.

However, Senator Carozza tells 47ABC she believes the Port Disaster will still be top of mind for lawmakers and hopes that momentum can sway democrats to push deadlines on the state’s environmental long-term plan as well as Blueprint for Education Reform deadlines moving forward to the next session.

“This is the first session where we’ve made adjustments to the Kerwin Blueprint plan. And so by making those adjustments, I think that we started the Maryland General Assembly, started to listen to the locals more, something that all of some of us have been advocating for the whole time,” Senator Carozza said.