Child Sex Offenders, Farmer’s Markets, Tax Breaks, Breast Cancer Are Targets of Latest Harford Legislation

The latest round of legislation churned out by Harford County’s representatives to the Maryland General Assembly include bills to make sure child sex offenders serve their full prison sentence, create new seasonal farmer’s market licenses, provide a $3,500 tax credit to certain emergency responders, encourage counties to provide digital copies of laws, and require insurers to provide coverage for breast cancer screening.

Sen. Nancy Jacobs’ Child Protection from Predators Act, a bill she introduced this week in the Maryland General Assembly, would prevent convicted child sex offenders from being able to have their length of imprisonment reduced.

Senate Bill 170, which is co-sponsored by Harford senators Barry Glassman and Andy Harris, would prohibit “the earning of dimunition credits to reduce the term of confinement of a specified offender or a child sexual offender committed to the custody of the Commissioner of Correction or sentenced to a term of imprisonment in a local correctional facility; and applying the Act prospectively.”

Glassman has introduced a pair of bills which restructure the operation of farmer’s markets – absolving them from food service facility license and creating a new seasonal farmer’s market producer sampling license.

Senate Bill 198, which is co-sponsored by Harris and Jacobs, would alter the definition of “food service facility” to “exclude the sale of specified raw agricultural products at a farmer’s market from regulation as a food service facility; prohibiting a local jurisdiction from requiring a license for the sale of raw agricultural products at a farmer’s market; clarifying that a license is not required to deliver prepackaged food products; requiring the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to establish a producer mobile farmer’s market license; etc.”

Senate Bill 199 would authorize a county to “establish a seasonal farmer’s market producer sampling license to allow a producer of a farm product to prepare and offer samples of the product at a farmer’s market; requiring the license to be valid at all farmer’s markets in the county for a specified time period, for a single fee; limiting a licensee to offering samples only of a farm product produced by the licensee; and requiring a county issuing the license to adopt specified ordinances.”

Also this week, Glassman introduced a bill allowing counties to provide digital copies of local laws when requirements previously mandated the county produce printed copies.

Senate Bill 174 would authorize a charter county to “make a digital copy of a specified compilation of laws or a specified code of local laws available on the Internet as an alternative to requirements to provide copies to specified entities; altering a specified requirement that a charter county provide a copy of a specified compilation of laws to the Department of Legislative Services to authorize the copy to be in either a digital or printed form; etc.”

Another bill introduced this week by Glassman would provide a $3,500 income tax break certain local emergency responders.

Senate Bill 197, co-sponsored by Jacobs, would provide “a subtraction modification under the Maryland income tax in the amount of $3,500 for qualifying members of a Community Emergency Response Team; providing that an individual may not qualify for the subtraction modification based on membership in a Community Emergency Response Team unless the Community Emergency Response Team maintains specified records and provides specified reports; applying the Act to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2009; etc.”

Del. Donna Stifler introduced a bill this week requiring insurers and health service providers to cover breast cancer screenings.

House Bill 182, co-sponsored by Harford Dels. Mary-Dulany James, J.B. Jennings, Susan McComas, Pat McDonough, and B. Dan Riley, would require insurers, nonprofit health service plans, and health maintenance organizations to “provide coverage for breast cancer screening in accordance with screening guidelines of the American Cancer Society, as the screening guidelines existed on January 1, 2010.”