by Jane Seigler, MHC Government Relations Committee Co-Chair (first published in the February 2025 Equiery)

The 2025 Session of the Maryland General Assembly convened at noon on Wednesday, January 8. Between then and when the Session adjourns on April 7, the legislature will consider about 2,000 bills, holding hearings on almost all of them. This Session will be a particularly fraught one, as the Legislature grapples with a looming three billion dollar deficit projected for the next fiscal year. At least one Committee Chair has warned legislators not to put in any bills that will have a significant price tag. In addition, in an attempt to rein in the oppressive workload during the Session, the Senate adopted a new rule on the first day, limiting each Senator (with some exceptions) to 20 bills (down from 30).

Hitting the ground running, the Maryland Horse Council’s Government Relations Committee provided testimony at a hearing the first full day of the Session, on SB 152, a bill that would impose stricter sentencing procedures for crimes of animal cruelty. The cross-file bill is HB 89.

As of this writing, we are less than a week into the new Session. By the time you read this, many more bills will have been introduced, and MHC members will have been receiving regular updates. By joining MHC at mdhorsecouncil.org/join, you can stay up to date on everything that may affect you, your horses, and your horse business.

Another bill about penalties for animal abuse is SB 80, which raises penalties of imprisonment for up to three years and a fine not to exceed $5,000 or both for the abuse or neglect of an animal if the abuse or neglect results in the death or euthanasia of the animal; and authorizing the court, as a condition of sentencing a certain defendant, to prohibit the defendant from owning, possessing, or residing with an animal for a period of time determined by the court. This session, MHC is proposing a bill (SB 380/HB 162) that would require licensing of breeders (except for “horse racing and standardbred stables or farms using horses for working or cultivating the soil or herding or cutting livestock”) by the Maryland Horse Industry Board. MHIB already licenses boarding, lesson and rental stables, and rescues and sanctuaries.

Here are some other bills we are following and/or acting on as of this writing:

  • HB 113* – repealing the cap on noneconomic (commonly referred to as “pain and suffering”) damages in civil actions for personal injury or wrongful death. These damages are currently capped at $950,000 in Maryland. Repealing the cap could result in higher liability insurance premiums.
  • SB 240/HB 262 – Replacing the “horse breeding” seat on the Maryland Agricultural Commission with a seat for a “representative of the equine industry.”
  • HB 7* – Authorizing a person operating a bicycle that is approaching a stop sign at an intersection on a highway with two or fewer lanes for moving traffic to cautiously make a turn or proceed through the intersection without stopping if the person reduces the speed of the bicycle to a reasonable rate and yields the right-of-way to vehicles in the intersection and vehicles near enough to the intersection “to pose a danger” to certain vehicles under certain circumstances.
  • HB 337 – requiring the Comptroller, each fiscal year, to distribute from the State Lottery Fund a certain amount (up to $500,000) of supplemental local impact aid to Anne Arundel County, Howard County, and the City of Laurel for health and mental health services; individual and family counseling; drug and alcohol addiction awareness, support and treatment; social services; nutrition and wellness programs; transportation, if necessary, to off-site medical and wellness services.
  • SB 105/HB 145 – establishing a Green and Renewable Energy for Nonprofit Organizations Loan Program in the Maryland Energy Administration to provide financial assistance in the form of no-interest loans to small nonprofit organizations for the planning, purchase, and installation of qualifying energy systems.
  • SB 321/HB 352 – authorizes the Maryland Horse Industry Board (MHIB) to impose late fees and reinstatement fees to licensees who are late (within 60 days of renewal date) in renewing their stable licenses, or who let their licenses lapse (beyond 60 days of renewal date). This provision is part of a broad budget bill. A similar provision was included in an MHIB bill last Session, but that bill failed to pass.

    The following bills are most likely related to the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project proposed transmission line:
  • SB 189 – Prohibiting the State or political subdivision from taking property by eminent domain that is subject to a “perpetual agricultural or conservation easement.”
  • HB 81 – Requiring that the fair market value of property actively used for farm or agricultural purposes in a condemnation proceeding be 350% of the highest appraisal value of the property, and that the requirement be retroactive. The following bills relate to hunting, which we follow because of the effect they may have on recreational riders on their own property and on public lands.
  • SB 272 – Authorizing the Department of Natural Resources to allow a person to hunt deer on each Sunday of the deer bow hunting season in Prince George’s County; and adding Prince George’s County to the list of counties in which the safety zone for archery hunters extends a distance of 50 yards from a dwelling house, residence, church, or any other building or camp occupied by human beings (reduced from 150 yards).
  • SB 100 – Authorizing hunters who wound a deer during legal hunting hours to pursue and kill the deer after legal hunting hours.
  • HB 173 – Requiring the Department of Recreation and Parks of Baltimore County to establish a deer management program to manage the deer population on county parklands.

Bill numbers marked with * indicate that they were introduced in a prior Session, but failed to pass.