Some New Laws

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On July 1, many bills went into effect as law. Many of the bills were technical in nature in that they may have altered the definition of a certain statute, changed a dollar amount based on today’s money, or even helped in updating laws where technology surpassed the actual language. Careful consideration by the respective committees and the supporting staff in the legislature as well as the Senate and House Floor debates is taken into account to make these bills into law.

Below is a summary of a few bills which just became law and may impact you or your loved ones in the community.

Education

In my years in college and also during my older children’s years in college, textbooks were expensive. While you don’t think of these books (or at least our family did not) as part of college tuition while budgeting, the costs of textbooks became high. Senate Bill 667 University of System of Maryland – Textbooks – Availability of Free or Low-Cost Digital Materials (Textbook Transparency Act of 2020) requires all Maryland schools of higher education to “develop a method to clearly and conspicuously show students in the online course catalog which courses use free or low–cost digital materials and may provide access to certain low–cost print materials; and providing that certain free or low–cost digital materials include certain resources and be equally accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities.”

Senate Bill 405 Higher Education – Student Identification Cards – Required Information was passed into law, requiring that the institution where these students study must now provide the number to Maryland’s helpline on their personal ID badges. This easily available number must be the institution’s hotline in case a mental health crisis occurs either to them or to someone on the campus. Help is readily available.

A new office of telework assistance has been established to assist in creating and developing “best practices for telework policies and guidelines. House Bill 73 - State and Local Government and Public Institutions of Higher Education - Teleworking is the new law that mandates the state court administrator, the president of the Senate, the speaker of the House and the public institutions’ presidents create all programs related to teleworking.

Health care has been impacted in an unprecedented way by what has happened over the past two years. Many new laws will enhance our health care system as a result.

For example, Preserve Telehealth Access Act of 2021 (House Bill 123). This act mandates that the Maryland Medical Assistance Program provide telehealth services, with some limitations, to include counseling and treatment. No longer will telehealth be excluded as an option to a person needing assistance. The Maryland Health Care Commission is now required to submit its reports on telehealth and how they are providing these services.

Senate Bill 102 Income Tax Credits For Preceptors In Areas With Health Care Workforce allows health care workers a tax credit “requiring that a licensed physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner work at least three rotations, with each rotation consisting of 100 hours of community based clinical training in an area identified as having a health care workforce shortage, in order to qualify for a certain credit against the state income tax; requiring the Maryland Department of Health to issue a tax credit certificate for $1,000.”

Also noteworthy is the notary public stamp need not have jurisdiction information on the certain stamp, but it does require county residence and qualification information to remain. Senate Bill 212 State Government – Notaries.

Specific to Anne Arundel County, if a business owner holds a crowd control training certification, then that owner can offer “on-premises consumption” of beer and or wine. This is now considered a Class MT license thanks to the passage of House Bill 674 Anne Arundel County – Alcoholic Beverages - Class MT License signed into law by the Governor Larry Hogan and effective July 1. Please note there is a per person maximum of two servings per day.

More than 700 bills were passed during the 2021 regular session. Please refer to all the bills passed or vetoed this session: www.legiscan.com/MD. This link displays 10 years of all laws of the most viewed bills, most monitored and who their specific sponsor was, etc. I look forward to the next session and seeing what legislation will be “top of mind” for our great county and state.

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