Hagerstown, Salisbury get funds for projects as Wes Moore signs budget bills and more

A plethora of pens, handshakes, signatures, official snapshots and selfies proceeded on Monday as Maryland Gov. Wes Moore enacted more than 100 pieces of legislation during his third bill signing of his time in office.

A team of two rotated each bill's numbers on signage, and a civil servant carried the placards back and forth while lawmakers, advocates and ordinary citizens came behind the state’s presiding officers for picture after picture, after picture. The official photographer, standing above on a step stool, conducted each staged smile. Over an hour later, the show was over.

But within the dozens of bills passed down the signature line to become law, what legislation came to be that will affect those not in the governor’s reception room at the State House?

Short answer: A lot. Two budget bills were signed, for example, that between the pair account for billions of dollars, spread to projects across the state, including millions for unspecified “infrastructure improvements” in Salisbury and millions more for a couple Hagerstown projects.

Budget bills with money for local projects signed into law

House Bill 200, the budget bill signed by Moore, Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones includes a line item for $3 million for a grant to the mayor and City Council of Salisbury for infrastructure improvements. House Bill 201, known as the state’s Consolidated Capital Bond Loan of 2023 and also signed by the trio, includes a line item for a $2 million grant for infrastructure improvements in Salisbury.

The city did not provide a comment on the infrastructure money last month when the legislation was being considered. $5 million was proposed late last year for a hotel and event center on the site of a parking lot at routes 13 and 50, according to then-Salisbury Mayor Jake Day, now the state’s secretary of the Department of Housing and Community Development.

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The two bills contained millions for a multi-use facility intended for indoor sports on East Memorial Boulevard in Hagerstown where Municipal Stadium once sat. The budget bill Moore signed included $3.75 million toward the facility, while the bond loan bill provides a $3 million grant for the field house. The complex was estimated to cost $22 million as of late last year.

Also, House Bill 201 included $2.5 million for a grant to the Robert W. Johnson Community Center in Hagerstown.

Moore signs SERVE Act, other bills relating to state government

The first bill Moore signed on Monday was not the billions in the budget bills, but rather one of his priority pieces of legislation, the SERVE Act, which creates a service year option for high school graduates and codifies a cabinet agency, the Department of Service and Civic Innovation .

Before the signing, Moore said the bill would “strengthen civic bonds,” adding that the legislation called “our fellow citizens to get to know each other again.” Maryland First Lady Dawn Moore attended the ceremony, as did the state’s new Secretary of Service and Civic Innovation Paul Monteiro, whose selection was announced earlier this month.

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“We’ve seen democracy frayed at the edges,” said Ferguson, speaking after the governor in support of the SERVE Act. “This effort will be a national leader in changing our future.”

Sen. Arthur Ellis, D-Charles, called the legislation a way of getting young people involved in government.

“There are a lot of kids not eligible for military service,” said Ellis, a U.S. Air Force veteran, in an interview before the ceremony. He called the 200 spots allocated for the first year of the service program “just right” as the service program with a range of topic areas gets underway.

The governor also signed legislation transferring oversight of the state’s college saving agency, Maryland 529, to the treasurer. The treasurer’s office will now have the responsibility of overseeing the program that left some parents aggrieved after fixing a calculation error took months, causing some parents to dip into savings.

House Speaker Adrienne Jones highlighted legislation designed to strengthen state government, including Loan Assistance Repayment for probation agents in the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. That department recorded a 16% vacancy rate late last year.

The final bill on the governor’s list on Monday caused no fanfare. No selfies, snapshots or signature pens changed hands. In fact, the bill tying the salary of the Washington County Sheriff to 90% of the salary of the Washington County State’s Attorney did not even get announced.

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County Sheriff Brian Albert, sworn in on Dec. 15, told the county’s delegation to the Maryland General Assembly last year that the sheriff’s current annual salary is about $126,900 and is currently 90% of the state’s attorney’s salary. The state’s attorney’s salary is 90% of the salary of an associate judge in district court.

The Washington County commissioners sought to solidify this arrangement for the new sheriff through state law and were successful. The legislation backed by the Washington County senators was on the bill signings list on Monday.

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.