The bills included:

• A bill that will allow felons to vote before they have completed their sentences,
• A bill that prevents law enforcement from pulling over a driver they see smoking marijuana, and
• A bill that allows immediate seizure of property, an action that police use to seize the money of drug dealers.
  The only hold out is the Felon Voting bill in the Senate. While the veto was overridden in the House, Senate President Miller lacks the votes to override the Governor's veto and is waiting for a vacant Senate seat to be appointed before bringing it up for a vote. Vetoes must be overridden by both chambers.
  
  To see how the members voted, click the links below:
  
  
  Felon Voting:                           House Vote
  
  Marijuana Bill:                          House Vote     
   
  Seizure and Forfeiture:        House Vote     
   
  Travel Tax                                 House Vote    

Over 200 bills have been filed in the House at this point -- of the 3,000 or s that have been requested.

HB 88    You might be happy to know that some of your legislators have proposed this bill to prohibit automated cars from going out on the road by themselves.  They must be accompanied by a licensed adult, ready to take over at a moments notice. . . sort of like student driver requirements.

HB 106  This is another in the series of bills designed to expand rights of criminals.  This bill puts ex-convicts into "reentry-into-society status" and on par with all of the other "protected classes" --  race, color, religion, sex, family status, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability -- for the purpose of "fair housing."   It extends the protection of "non-discrimination" to ex-convicts to buy, rent or lease residential space anywhere -- even in an owner-occupied single family household.  For example, when your oldest child goes to college, and you need to rent his room to help with tuition, you would now be required by law to rent to an ex-felon, regardless of his or her crime.  The only "protection" written into the law is the provision that you need not rent to someone whose tenancy would constitutes a direct threat to the health or safety of other individuals, or result in substantial physical damage to the property of others.  But who makes that determination?

 

HB 109  Requires every local school system to include a la carte food and drink items on their monthly dining menus.

 

HB 111  Requires any individual who sells a dog or a cat to provide the buyer with a health certificate, dated no more than 30 days before the sale, from a licensed veterinarian, and to disclose any illness, disease, or condition that the seller knows or should have known about at the time of sale. Violating this law a criminal misdemeanor with a fine up to $1,000. Commercial, non-profit and government entities are not covered by the bill.

HB116  Delegate Tony O'Donnell has put in a bill to repeal the automatic consumer-price-index increase on gasoline that the last administration adoptedThis was one of Governor Hogan's initiatives last year. It's not likely to pass, but it's important to make the effort.

HB 197   The "Maryland Pay Stub Transparency Act of 2016."  Despite the fact that businesses - particularly small businesses - name over-regulation as their number one concern, we still see bills like this.  This bill does the following: