Final day of bill filing sees Perdue Stadium Bond Bill, UMES funding introduced

MARYLAND- Monday marks the final day for lawmakers to introduce new bills in the general assembly including funding for local projects here on the shore.

Lawmakers had until 5 pm to pre-file bills with the session set to begin at 8 pm. Part of the last-minute submissions includes a bond bill to help boost funding for Perdue Stadium’s Museum as well as a 5 million-dollar-a-year boost to UMES as part of their land-grant payment status.

Delegate Sheree Sample Hughes tells us she is signing onto that effort, bringing the school’s total funding level up to 321 million dollars.

“We want to refit that part of the stadium when you first walk in and out some upgrades in that area, so again, that was something that came in and we planned to make the deadline today as well,” said Senator Mary Beth Carozza.

The day could also see the final push for juvenile crime reform Senator Carozza says she’s encouraged that bills parallel to her own, have moved forward.

The bills address what she calls a lack of accountability for certain juveniles and a lack of interventional or diversionary services available.

“Both versions are addressing those ten, 11, and 12-year-olds that at this point, nothing was being done when they were committing certain crimes, and some of them were referred to the Department of Juvenile Services, and nothing happened as a result,” Senator Carozza said.

But certain key needs for the shore, now have to wait until the next session.

Among them a change Senator Carozza pushed for to address Worcester County’s Funding Formula in light of added expenses as part of the state’s Blueprint overhaul.

“It’s something that I would introduce next session because this is going to be an ongoing not just for next session, but for the out years that we will be dealing with the implementation of the blueprint,” she said adding “The formula does not address the needs of those living in the district in places like Snow Hill and Pocomoke and in some cases is looked exclusively at the property value of those who do not reside in the county,” Sen. Carozza said.

She tells us that every year the session sees a scramble to fix an issue that up to that point, was not on the agenda.

Last year that took the form of the last-second pivot for student loan eligibility, and this session is working to correct a costly oversite that saw the state undercounting thousands of property value assessments costing the state millions if left unaddressed.

“The counties have already brought to our attention the disconnect between those assessments and the collection,and that may be resolved through the budgetary process, but it doesn’t rule out some type of emergency legislation,” Carozza said, adding that the emergency legislation may, if necessary, be introduced after March 4th.