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Sen. Pamela Beidle is the new chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which will be discussing changes to the recreational cannabis law. (The Daily Record file)
In 2024 Maryland General Assembly, eyes will be on key new committee chairs
Listen to this articleState government insiders and former lawmakers have high hopes for the new chairs of the General Assembly committees that will determine how Maryland carries out its climate goals, pays for and prioritizes transportation projects and changes its recreational cannabis law.
Both Del. Marc Korman and Sen. Pamela Beidle are well known and well respected in the legislature, and they’ve assumed committee chair roles heading into what is expected to be a difficult session as the state grapples with projections of growing shortfalls for both its general operating budget and long-term transportation plan.
Korman, a Montgomery County Democrat who has served in the House of Delegates since 2015, is chair of the House Environment and Transportation Committee. Beidle, an Anne Arundel County Democrat who entered the legislature in 2007 as a delegate and was elected as a state senator in 2019, is in charge of the Senate Finance Committee.
There were additional committee chair shuffles in the state Senate, with Baltimore City Sen. Antonio Hayes succeeding Beidle as chair of the Executive Nominations Committee and Baltimore County Sen. Shelly Hettleman taking over as chair of the Senate Rules Committee.
But, among the new chairs, eyes in Annapolis will be turned to the more consequential positions that Korman, 42, and Beidle, 72, now hold.
Several former lawmakers said Korman was the obvious choice for House Speaker Adrienne Jones to tap to chair the Environment and Transportation Committee following the departure of former Del. Kumar Barve, a fellow Montgomery County Democrat who served in the House for more than 30 years and chaired the committee for eight.
Barve, who in 1991 became the nation’s first Indian-American elected to a state legislature, left his seat in May to join the Maryland Public Service Commission, which oversees the state’s utilities and its transition to green energy.
Former Del. Maggie McIntosh, who for more than 30 years was a powerful Baltimore City Democrat, said, “of all the new chairs and new leadership roles in the House and the Senate, the person I have my eye on is Chairman Korman.
“He has landed in this chairship at a very opportune time. He’s smart, he’s bright, he knows transportation, he knows energy policy,” McIntosh, also the legislature’s first openly LGBTQIA+ member said in a phone interview.
Among the state climate and energy goals that Korman’s committee may tackle in the upcoming session are plans to have 100% clean power by 2035, help overburdened and fossil-dependent communities transition to clean energy and end the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
“This is the season of implementation, not the season of new goals,” Korman said in a phone interview.
McIntosh, who chaired the committee from 2003 to 2015, when it was known as the Environmental Matters Committee, said Korman will also be pivotal in the coming years for lawmakers’ push to find new funding sources for transportation budgets and projects.
Many of Maryland’s transportation priorities are in a precarious spot, as the state is projected to be short $3.3 billion over six years to pay for its transportation plans.
Korman has said that proposed cuts from the administration of Gov. Wes Moore are “obviously cause for concern,” though he said the governor’s plans are the start of a process through which the state will determine its priorities and how to pay for them.
Lawmakers last session established the Transportation Revenue and Infrastructure Needs (TRAIN) Commission to determine just that.
Among the top priorities of the 30-member commission, which includes Korman and five other legislators, is finding a revenue substitute for the gas tax — which, after a century of being a primary funding source for transportation projects nationwide, is expected to decline significantly with rising fuel efficiency and the surging sales of electric vehicles.
Proposals for new or increased vehicle fees and tolls will go through Korman’s committee, he said.
“His goal will be to salvage some of the proposed cuts to current services,” said McIntosh, who is now a senior consultant for Cornerstone Government Affairs, a national lobbying firm with an Annapolis office.
Given that Korman has for most of his time in the legislature been a key member in the House Appropriations Committee, he’ll have to adapt to no longer thinking like an appropriator and instead tackling issues from a policy perspective, said a senior official in the administration of Gov. Wes Moore, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified.
Korman won’t have a vote on the state’s transportation budget as chairman, though he’ll maintain a level of influence over the state’s decisions because of his expertise in the field.
“There’s nobody that knows more about transportation financing in the legislature than Marc Korman,” the official said.
Korman’s committee is also expected to discuss ways to make more affordable housing available to Marylanders amid a steady rise in costs for housing, borrowing and construction.
Among other proposals, the committee will take up a package of housing bills from the governor that is expected to address tenant rights, financing and supply issues.
In the state Senate, President Bill Ferguson appointed Beidle to succeed former state Sen. Melony Griffith, who recently left the legislature to become the president and CEO of the Maryland Hospital Association, a powerful trade organization for 60 nonprofit hospitals and health systems.
“She’s a great choice,” former longtime Finance Committee Chair Thomas “Mac” Middleton, who for 24 years represented Charles County in the state Senate, said of Beidle. “She’s a hard worker, she’s real bright and she takes the time to understand the issue.”
Middleton, who like McIntosh is a senior consultant for Cornerstone Government Affairs, said he’s passed on to Beidle some of what he learned during his time chairing the committee.
He said he tried to understand each policy issue to the level of those testifying before his committee.
“Consequently, I spent a lot of time with the analysts and being very open and accessible to people, because that’s where you really get a feel for the issues,” Middleton said in a phone interview. “I sense that she’s doing the same thing.”
Beidle, he said, should also be sure to establish a sense of accountability and ownership in her committee by relying on members to lead on policies in which they have expertise.
“When you testify on the floor, take a bill to the floor or whatnot, you really feel a part of that committee,” Middleton said. “That’s the kind of ownership that I think you can expect of Pam.”
Under Griffith last session, the Senate Finance Committee tackled several consequential issues, including how the state would regulate, license and tax businesses with the rollout of a recreational cannabis market in July.
This session, the committee will discuss changes to the new cannabis law, including how cannabis businesses advertise and the power that local governments have to regulate the businesses.
Maryland’s counties have already been calling for state lawmakers to grant them more control over where cannabis businesses can set up shop.
“People will be paying attention to that,” Beidle said of the potential tweaks to the law.
Beidle said her committee will revisit plans for an upper payment limit on prescription drug costs and a proposal to change the scope of practice for physicians assistants, among other behavioral health bills.
The committee is also expected to take up privacy issues, like how companies process people’s personal information, and labor policies, including potential pushes from unions for binding arbitration for state employees and collective bargaining rights for several groups.
“It’s going to be a busy session,” Beidle said.
