ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Larry Hogan said his administration carved out an “aggressive agenda” on Monday, adding the 90-day session was among the most successful of his four years in office.
With just hours to go before lawmakers finished their work on some of the more than 3,000 bills filed during the legislative session, Hogan told reporters, “We’re really happy with the work so far.”
He also said lawmakers worked with his administration “in a really bipartisan way.”
When asked about the pace of lawmaking in Annapolis, Hogan said, “A lot really has been accomplished in 90 days; unfortunately it all seems to get crunched together at the very end.”
He spoke as lawmakers scrambled and worked to overcome differences on bills on school safety, including one that would provide every school in the state with either police coverage or a school resource officer.
Another group of bills targeted crime, calling for tougher penalties for repeat violent offenders while offering a vehicle for some categories of felonies to be expunged after 15 years. Hogan had called on lawmakers to crack down on repeat offenders at the start of the session.
Hogan was asked about the passage of a massive incentive package aimed at bringing the new Amazon headquarters to Montgomery County and whether that fueled the approval of a bill to create dedicated funding for Metro.
“It helps attract Amazon, but it also helps fix the problem in Washington,” he said, adding, “We did come together to save Metro which is important.”
While Hogan praised lawmakers for working with him in a bipartisan fashion, he did express frustration with the override of his veto of a bill that strips oversight authority on school construction spending from the Board of Public Works. Hogan sits on that board along with the Comptroller, Peter Franchot, and the state Treasurer, Nancy Kopp.
Referring to the bill that creates a new commission of appointees to oversee school construction spending, he said, “You can’t take away authority and accountability. It was a stupid thing to do, and it was the biggest disappointment of the session.”
The governor, who’s running for re-election, said he’d work to repeal the bill in the next general assembly session.
“We’re going to fix it,” Hogan said.
