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Maryland's legislative session ends with new laws

Posted at 9:12 AM, Apr 11, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-11 09:39:13-04

Maryland's legislative session has ended.

Lawmakers adjourned at midnight Monday before the House could pass a bill to increase the number of licenses for growers of medical marijuana. The House and Senate had differences between the number of licenses to add to the 15 now allowed under the law.

The House had sought to increase the licenses by five, to boost minority-owned businesses after a disparity study. The Senate had pushed for seven more licenses, to help settle lawsuits filed by two companies that were bumped out of the top 15 chosen by a state commission to be finalists.

Meanwhile, lawmakers passed Gov. Larry Hogan's bill to provide tax incentives to manufacturers that bring jobs to parts of the state that need them most, including western Maryland, the Lower Eastern Shore and the city of Baltimore.

"We just stayed focused on 2017 instead of [20]18 and on the people of Maryland rather than whatever fights are going on in Washington, because they didn't elect me to do that, they elected me to be here in Maryland and get things done," said Hogan.

A bill creating new limits on school testing and several bills supporting the fight against heroin use also passed.

ABC2 News contributed to this report.