Rockville’s 2023 state legislative priorities include education funding, mitigating the effects of the state’s project to widen Interstate 270, support for Vision Zero, authorization of electronic legal notices and more. The legislative session runs from Wednesday, Jan. 11-Monday, April 10 in Annapolis. Under priorities approved by the Mayor and Council in November, the city will advocate for:
- Increased state aid for school operations and construction to support education from birth through community college, including child care.
- Vision Zero legislation that promotes safety and engineering improvements to state roads. The Mayor and Council adopted a Vision Zero plan in 2020 to eliminate traffic- and pedestrian-related deaths and serious injuries. Learn more at www.rockvillemd.gov/visionzero.
- A repeal of the state’s contributory negligence law, as it relates to compensating pedestrians, bikers and drivers injured in vehicle crashes, replacing it with a comparative negligence law.
- The mitigation of environmental, social justice and other impacts, including local traffic, from the state’s proposed I-495 and I-270 Managed Lanes Project. The Mayor and Council remain strongly opposed to the project and will seek to work with the incoming administration of Gov.-elect Wes Moore to rethink the project.
- An amendment to the state’s “P3” public-private partnerships law to require a comprehensive financial analysis before large-scale infrastructure projects are approved.
- Legislation that addresses excessive noise cause by illegally modified vehicle exhaust systems.
- Increased funding for senior transportation services, recreation and wellness programs, senior programs in neighborhoods, aging-in-place and village initiatives, and outreach to increase awareness of these services and programs.
- Jurisdictions to be allowed to post electronic legal notices. With no local print newspapers in Montgomery County, Rockville is forced to post costly print notices in “The Washington Post.”
- $500,000 for gender-neutral restrooms at Twinbrook Community Recreation Center as part of the Mayor and Council’s priority of providing a welcoming and socially equitable community for all.
Rockville is also supporting Maryland Municipal League-backed legislation to revise state law so that municipalities have the option of creating their own police accountability board and administrative charging committee.
For more information, find video of the Mayor and Council’s priorities discussion and staff reports at www.rockvillemd.gov/AgendaCenter, or contact Linda Moran at [email protected] or 240-314-8115.