ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - The Maryland House of Delegates voted Monday to end the statute of limitations for when victims of child sexual abuse can file lawsuits, to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21 and to require background checks anytime someone buys a rifle or shotgun.
As the General Assembly reached a milestone in their 90-day legislative session, lawmakers worked late on the day known as crossover. That’s a procedural deadline for a bill to pass either the House or the Senate to have a chance of clearing both chambers and making it to the governor’s desk. It’s not a deadline that’s written in stone, but lawmakers generally aim to have legislation they intend to pass clear one of the chambers by the end of the crossover day.
The House measure to remove restrictions for victims of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits passed 136-2. It would change the current law, which says people who say they were victims of abuse as a minor have until they reach 38 years of age to file a lawsuit against their alleged perpetrators. The bill now goes to the Senate.
The bill requiring background checks for long guns, which was approved 90-49, comes after supporters contended Maryland law now has a loophole that enables private sales of long guns without background checks. Opponents, however, said the bill wouldn’t stop people from acquiring firearms to commit violence. It now goes to the Senate.
Meanwhile, the General Assembly gave final approval to a bill to allow local school boards to decide whether to start school before or after Labor Day. That measure has been a point of contention between Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who issued an executive order to require schools to start after Labor Day, and Democrats who control the General Assembly who say different jurisdictions have different scheduling needs.
There are three weeks left in the legislative session, which is scheduled to adjourn Monday, April 8 at midnight.
Here’s a look at some other measures that have been getting attention and have passed at least one chamber:
MINIMUM WAGE
Both the House and Senate have approved measures to raise the state’s minimum wage from $10.10 to $15 an hour by 2025. They still will need to resolve some differences for the measure to be passed by the General Assembly. Hogan criticized the measure at a news conference Monday, saying it “would cost us jobs, make us incapable of competing with other states in the region and which could devastate our state’s economy.”
EDUCATION FUNDING
The House has passed a state budget plan of more than $46 billion, with an initial down payment plan to begin implementing recommendations of a state commission on education. A Senate budget committee has passed a modified version of the budget that scales back some of the education funding. After the budget legislation passes the full Senate, a conference committee of House and Senate negotiators will work on the differences.
Hogan strongly criticized a push to put the state on a path of spending billions of dollars without a way of paying for it, adding it is setting the state up for tax increases. “This is exactly the kind of reckless, unsustainable and irresponsible behavior that we have been working so hard to reverse,” Hogan said.
HEALTH INSURANCE
The House has approved a scaled-back version of legislation that would have restored a health-insurance mandate that was taken out of federal law. The House has removed the mandate provision, which would have given people without insurance a chance to either pay a penalty or make a down payment on health insurance. Instead, the uninsured will be able to check a box on their state income tax return that will enabled the state’s health exchange to determine an uninsured person’s eligibility for free or low-cost health insurance.
BALTIMORE-CAMPUS POLICE
The Senate has passed a bill to allow Johns Hopkins University to create its own armed police force.
FIGHTING POLLUTION
Both chambers have passed different versions of legislation to make Maryland the first state to ban polystyrene, the synthetic polymer often used in Styrofoam, in containers of food and drink.
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