Legislative Advocacy

Each year, the City Council develops legislative priorities ahead of the Maryland General Assembly’s session in Annapolis to advance the City’s interests at the state level. The City contracts with a legislative advocate who assists with these efforts. The legislative advocate identifies legislation of interest to the City to monitor, provides information on the status and likelihood of passage of bills, supports the City’s efforts in having legislation adopted or amended, provides guidance to Council and staff in delivering timely and effective testimony, and has a good knowledge of the General Assembly’s leadership, legislators, committees, staff, and how they function and work together.

The City provides testimony on numerous bills each year in writing and in person. While there are many – possibly hundreds – of bills each year that are of interest to the City, we typically only take an official position and submit testimony on bills that directly align with the legislative priorities established in advance of the legislative session by Council each year, including priorities established by resolutions passed by Council in previous years. This is a function of political strategy, staff time, and the often unpredictable timing of hearings, among other factors.

Legislative Priorities for the 2019 Session of the General Assembly include:

The table below includes testimony submitted to date, going back to the 2016 General Assembly session.