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Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signs bills aimed at helping veterans and their families

Baltimore Sun - 5/12/2023

In an airport hangar home to the state’s Air National Guard, the first veteran to serve as governor of Maryland in 36 years signed into law a half-dozen measures aimed at helping retired and active service members and their families Friday.

The bill signing was Gov. Wes Moore’s sixth such event as he moves through the process of finalizing more than 800 bills state lawmakers passed during the annual 90-day legislative session that finished last month.

Deviating from the routine ceremonial signing events at the State House in Annapolis, this group of bills became law with a backdrop of military aircraft and uniformed members of the Army and Air national guards at Martin State Airport in Middle River.

“It’s not just that they deserve our support. It’s that they’ve earned it,” Moore, a Democrat, said Friday. “We need them to keep serving and to keep calling Maryland home, and the best way to do that is to show our veterans that they’re appreciated.”

Moore, who served as a U.S. Army captain, sponsored two of the bills on the agenda — one that offers new health care coverage for members of the Maryland National Guard and another that expands tax cuts for retired veterans.

Moore has called that pairing “the most aggressive push” to support those communities in “generations,” though lawmakers scaled back the benefits he originally proposed and publicly lobbied for.

The Keep Our Heroes Home Act (House Bill 554 and Senate Bill 553) was one of three bills the governor sponsored and personally testified in support of on two separate occasions during the session.

It will allow Maryland residents earning military retirement income to exempt up to $20,000 of that income from state taxes if they are age 55 or older and up to $12,500 if they are younger than 55. Previous law exempted $15,000 for the older age group and $5,000 for the younger one.

State officials estimate the change will benefit about 33,000 military retirees and cost the state about $11 million in the next fiscal year and slightly more in the following years. Moore’s original proposal called for exempting up to $40,000 of military retirement income from state taxes regardless of age, which would have cost the state about $31 million in the first year and $50 million annually afterward, according to an initial legislative fiscal analysis.

The Health Care for Heroes Act (Senate Bill 554), the other Moore-sponsored bill on the agenda, will establish a program to reimburse Maryland National Guard members up to $60 per month for premiums paid under health care and dental plans for its members.

Just 8% of the roughly 5,600 eligible Maryland National Guard members are enrolled in the TRICARE Reserve Select health care plan that’s available for certain non-active duty service members and their families, according to a legislative fiscal analysis that estimates the rate could increase to around 15% and ultimately cost the state about $616,000 per year under the new program. Moore’s original plan called for full health care and dental coverage reimbursement.

Four other bills made their way into law as the governor, House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, Senate President Bill Ferguson and others gathered at the airport Friday.

One of those (Senate Bill 286 / House Bill 480) will require the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs to provide free burial services to a veterans’ spouse or eligible dependent, including a child or parent. The department already covers the burial costs for veterans.

“It helps the families. They want to be buried with their spouse and it gets expensive at times,” said Sen. Bryan Simonaire, an Anne Arundel County Republican who sponsored the bill in the Senate.

Simonaire said there was a strong bipartisan effort in Annapolis this year to support military families, and it’s especially meaningful that his bill was signed on National Military Spouses Appreciation Day.

The other new laws will require a study be conducted on an existing process that expedites state licenses for military personnel, veterans and their spouses; require state income tax returns to mark a spot allowing a contribution to a trust fund for veterans; and require children with autism who receive care through a state waiver program continue to receive eligible care if the child’s family is relocated out of state for military service.

Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, called the focus on veterans “strategic” for helping retain the roughly 378,000 veterans who live in Maryland — and who he said own nearly 7,400 businesses — and the nearly 48,000 active military personnel who work in the state.

The General Assembly session ended April 10, and Moore has already signed more than 600 of the 810 bills, including the other top priorities in his own 10-bill package. At least one other bill signing is scheduled before the end of the month, when the governor faces a deadline to sign, veto or let bills pass without his signature.

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