(The Center Square) – Eighteen bills that passed out of the General Assembly's 2022 session have been vetoed, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said.
The Republican governor announced he was invoking policy vetoes on bills ranging from apprenticeships in the workforce to employment of minors to union dues deductions on taxes to election issues. The state's Senate and House of Delegates are each majority, Democrat.
The governor vetoed House Bill 862 and Senate Bill 163 as both pertain to election law and processing and reporting procedures for ballots. The governor pointed to maximizing voter participation and giving citizens accessible and convenient ways to cast ballots and leading to a healthy democracy.
"While this legislation allows a voter to provide a missing signature by one of several ways – including in person, mail, email, and text – it remains silent on basic security measures such as signature verification – with Maryland being one of only nine states that do not conduct signature verification – and does nothing to address ballot collecting," the governor said in the release.
Hogan cited unrealistic goals as part of the reason he vetoed Senate Bill 926. The bill pertains to apprenticeships and representation on the Apprenticeship and Training Council.
"Apprenticeship has grown significantly, and this legislation only seeks to create the duplicative and unnecessary Apprenticeship 2030 Commission which fails to recognize the expansion efforts and continued growth of Registered Apprenticeship during my administration," Hogan said in the release. "This bill tasks the Commission to propose recommendations on potentially unrealistic goals and it duplicates responsibilities assigned to the CTE Committee under the Blueprint for Maryland's Future."
Hogan vetoed Senate Bill 420 which would have addressed Opportunities to Work for minors in the state. The Republican governor said the bill doesn't expand the workforce to minors.
"The concern with Senate Bill 420 does not lie with the expansion of workforce opportunities to minors, but with the serious privacy and safety concerns that are an unintended consequence of this legislation," Hogan said in the release. "Allowing a minor the option to consent to share their personal information creates serious privacy and safety concerns, as a minor is unlikely to understand the potential consequences of doing so or the possibility that a bad actor could obtain this information.
"I would be more inclined to support Senate Bill 420 if the approval could only be given by a parent or guardian but once again, parental rights are being stripped."
In vetoing House Bill 172, which would allow union members to subtract their dues from income tax, the governor said he couldn't promote what he called an "unfair advantage" to unions and to activists.
"By using the tax code to confer political power to unions, it creates a political advantage – not only to the unions but also to the political parties and candidates supported by them," Hogan said in the release.
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