New MD Laws that Take Affect in 2024

It's a new year and new laws are now effective in Maryland and locally in Prince George's County.  Listen in to found out what's now in place.

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Tamara Davis Brown 0:03

Hi, welcome to another episode of All Politics is Local, the Maryland Edition with me, your host, Camera Davis Brown. Happy 2024. It's a new year, and that means new laws have taken effect in Maryland. Effective January 1st. So I'm gonna spend some time in this episode going over a few new laws that have taken effect in Maryland, and we'll start in the healthcare field. The first law involves biomarker testing that relates to two types of cancer: breast cancer and lung cancer. The bill number was SB805, and it now requires health care insurance carriers to cover breast cancer exams without a co-payment, deductible, or coinsurance. That's right. We now have the ability to do biomarker testing for breast cancer exams without the requirement of having co-insurance or paying a copay or deductible. Likewise, the health insurance carriers are also required to provide coverage for lung cancer diagnosis and imaging with limited co-pays deductibles or coinsurance. So you heard me correctly, the difference between a breast cancer biomarker testing and lung cancer biomarker testing is that with breast cancer, there are no copayments, no deductibles, and no coinsurance required. However, for lung cancer, the diagnostic imaging, the insurance carriers may still require a limited copay deductible or coinsurance. So good news on the healthcare front. Then next we'll move into employment laws. And as many of you may know or remember, there's been a quote-unquote fight for 15. And the minimum wage to increase the women's minimum wage in Maryland, well, effective January 1st, employers with 15 or more employees, the new minimum wage is now $15 an hour. If employers have 14 or fewer employees, the minimum wage is now $12.80. As I said, it's been a big fight for a long time and it's finally come to fruition to raise the minimum wage in the state of Maryland. Next, we'll move to something that is a pet peeve of many people, and it has to do with robocalls. And so it is now unlawful for non-charitable organizations to do robocalls on your cell phones. A person can be charged with a misdemeanor and with a fine up to $1,000 for the first offense and $5,000 for each subsequent violation or offense. So hopefully we'll get less robocalls on our cell phone. It doesn't seem to apply. The new law doesn't seem to apply to landline phones, however, so you still may be getting those harassing calls on your home phones. Next, let's move to public safety. And the new Maryland law deals with uncertified security guards that some employers and retailers hire. So the law now prohibits employers from hiring uncertified security guards. The law also now requires the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission to identify or create training programs for security guards. The law also requires that employers or the security guard agencies to submit detailed reports within 48 hours of any use of force incidents by a security guard while on the job. So those are just a few of the Maryland state laws that have taken effect in 2024. Now I want to just jump to um a big bruja that's been brewing in Prince George's County on the Better Bag Bill. And that law also took effect on January 1st of this year. And the reason I say brouhaha is because it just seems to have caught people off guard, even though I've seen messages on social media. So effective January 1st, we can no longer receive a plastic bag from retail outlets. The retailers can also charge 10 cents, a minimum of 10 cents per bag for a paper bag that they give you. So I want to kind of go into a little bit of detail as to why the the better bag bill was enacted, and then um give you some of the exemptions that have that apply to this new law that has already taken effect this January 1st. The purpose of the ban is to protect the environment and marine life and reduce litter. A lot of us have probably seen as we drive down the road, a lot of those bags caught in trees and other debris, making it difficult to get to them and get them properly thrown away and discarded. Another rationale for the ban is that the plastic carry-out bags are actually not recyclable at the county's recycling facility. And they impose a huge cost to the county government and taxpayers in the form of removal of not only the litter but um but the repair and wear and tear on the recycling machinery due to improper disposal of plastic bags in the recycling bin. So apparently, a lot of people have been throwing those plastic bags in their recycle bin and setting them out on the curb during their recycled day, and they've clogged up those machines, costing a lot of money to actually repair them. So that's a huge reason reason for getting rid of um banning the plastic bag. But the final reason is an uh environmental one is that um the bag, the single-use bags are made from fossil fuels, and their production results in harmful greenhouse gas emission at every stage of their life cycle, from the extraction of fossil fuels to the production and disposal and contributing to climate change. So the county is trying to you know turn the corner on being a little bit more environmentally friendly and getting rid of the litter of the plastic bags that you see along our roadways and streets. And again, they also um by by banning those plastic bags, they're also getting rid of people discarding them in um their recycle bins and causing wear and tear on the machines that actually do the recycling for us in the county. So those are um the actual rationale. Let me now let me turn to a few exemptions. There are some exemptions on when plastic bags can be used by a retailer, and those include packaging of bulk items, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, greens, candy, and some small hardware items. So, you know, for example, when you go into the store, your their grapes are now already pre-packaged in a plastic bag and has a little handle on it. Those plastic bags are are fine. Additionally, wrapped frozen food or fresh meat or fish, whether packaged or not, are not considered part of this ban. Also, if you have wrapped flowers, potted plants, or um damp items that you're trying to carry in your vehicle, you don't want the vehicle to get wet. The retailer provides some type of plastic covering for those, and that's also permissible. And then finally, if you buy um unwrapped prepared food or bakery goods, a plastic bag to place those in, it's also permissible, like your donuts that you may get from Duncan or or um, you know, some other bakery. Also, if you go to your dry cleaners and the plastic bags that are used at the dry cleaners, of course, they're not gonna charge you um for that, uh, but they will can protect your garment when you dry clean or protect your suits, dresses, or formal wear. It's still fine for a retailer to provide plastic bags for those items. So not just the dry cleaners, but if you actually are buying formal wear or dresses or what have you, and retailers like Macy's, they may put them in those uh plastic garment bags, those are fine as well. And then another exemption is um the purchase of live fish, insects, live bait, and crustaceans. And you know, in Maryland we love our crabs. I generally get my crabs in a paper bag, but sometimes what they do is they put them in a paper bag and then put a plastic bag over it for you to have a type of handle to carry. Um, that exemption is fine as well. So moving now from the exemptions to the mandatory charge of 10 cents. And you're probably like, well, why are they charging me 10 cents? The mandatory charge for a paper bag carry out bag um is waived uh for the following prescription drugs. So you know you go to the drugstore, they put your prescription drugs in a paper bag, that's fine. You should not get charged from your pharmacy. Also, paper bags containing prepared food at a drive-thru window of a restaurant is also exempt from the 10 cents bag fee. Now, I saw a post on next door where someone was complaining that they were charged for the bag at McDonald's. Now, I don't recall if the person said they went through the drive-thru or not, but the new law clearly states it that if you go through the drive-thru, it's prepared food that you should not be charged the um 10 cents bag fee at your local restaurant. But um, paper bags will not also be charged at a full service restaurant after a meal for leftovers. So if you go and sit down and eat at a restaurant and you have some leftovers, they can give you a paper bag to take your leftovers, leftovers home, and you wouldn't have to pay the 10 cents fee. So remember so that we won't get confused. Plastic bags of any type are banned altogether, with the few exceptions of, you know, like I said, your dry cleaning, your baked goods, your um, your unprepared um foods like fish and meat. The retailers will give you a paper bag if you need one, but they will charge you 10 cents for that bag. So um just so you'll know, uh the 10 cents does not go to the county. It is not a tax, it goes directly back to the retailer, and they actually have to put on your customer receipt, like for any other items, a 10 cents, the 10 cents for the bag fee. So um I think I I saw some people saying on next door or some other social media outlet that it's just another tax for the county, but actually it's not. The 10 cents goes directly to the re the retailer, and it helps them to offset the cost associated with the purchase of um providing paper bags or other reusable bags at their establishment. So basically, what they want you to do is just bring your own bag. And um I saw something that was quite funny on the same post. Someone commented on the same post that regarded the McDonald's and getting the the uh food. Um, someone posted, well, just give it to me in my hand, and then somebody said, just put it in my mouth. And I thought that was quite funny. But again, if you want to avoid the free the fee, just bring your own uh reusable bag. So that's all for the new bills in the state of Maryland and Prince George's County. I just wanted to highlight and um bring some clarity on that bag bill for Prince George's County so that you'll know what's uh going on. If there's some other um new legislation that took effect on January 1st, I will um come back to you in another episode to focus on those. But what you can expect in the next episode is proposed bills, proposed laws for the state of Maryland. The Maryland General Assembly just went back in session on Wednesday, January 10th. So there are a lot of local bills that have been proposed for Prince George's County as well as the state of Maryland, and I'm going to come back and in the next episode and discuss what some of those interesting um local bills that have been introduced. So thank you for joining us today. I encourage you to like, share, and subscribe to this podcast, and especially share so that you can get this news out to other persons who live in the county and that may have not heard about um some of these new laws that have taken effect. So thanks again. Remember, all politics is local. Thanks for joining us.