Reply
January 20, 2021
Maryland lawmakers are planning wide-ranging election reforms during the 2021 legislative session, including requiring special elections for filling vacant House and Senate seats and expanding ballot access for incarcerated voters.
Subscribe
At a Tuesday afternoon House Ways and Means Committee hearing, lawmakers outlined some of their election-related bills. Many of the proposals, such as an attempt to improve access to voting materials for persons in jail, were offered during the 2020 legislative session, but failed to advance when legislators went home early due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other measures long predate the COVID-19 pandemic, including a renewed push to change how vacancies in the General Assembly are filled.
@BryanRenbaum
Several of Maryland’s most progressive lawmakers introduced a series of revenue bills on Friday that they say would provide the state an estimated $1.4 billion annually and make its tax system more equitable.
Many of the bills have been introduced in previous legislative sessions. The proposals include: a 1% surtax on income from capital gains, elimination of “pass-through” tax loopholes used by many businesses, lowering the threshold for when the estate tax kicks in, requiring multi-state corporations to pay more in Maryland taxes, and a fundamental restructuring of income tax brackets and rates.
“Maryland right now has an upside down tax code. The wealthiest 1% of Marylanders pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than anyone else. And that’s just really unfair to the rest of us 99%,” Del. Julie Palakovich Carr (D-Montgomery) said in an online news conference sponsored by the Maryland Fair Funding Coalition.