A number of bills were passed during the Maryland General Assembly's 2011 legislative session that will impact certain sectors of the construction industry. Ober|Kaler has put together brief summaries of certain bills from information supplied by the Maryland Department of Legislative Services. For assistance in determining how these developments affect your operations, contact the author, Jack Boyd, the Construction Group chairs, Joe Kovars and Jack Morkan, or your Ober|Kaler attorney.

Senate Bill 120 / House Bill 456 (Procurement – Minority Business Participation)

This bill extends the State’s MBE program for one year (until July 1, 2012) and maintains the program’s current overall participation goal of 25%. However, the bill repeals (1) the program’s subgoals for women- and African American owned businesses of 10% and 7%, respectively, and (2) the exemption from MBE provisions for construction contracts valued at $50,000 or less. In place of the 10% and 7% subgoals for women- and African American-owned businesses, the bill authorizes the Governor’s Office of Minority Affairs, in consultation with the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Office of the Attorney General, to set guidelines for each unit to consider when deciding whether to set subgoals for individual procurements based on existing categories for minority groups. This bill will take effect on July 1, 2011.