Liquor store owners win and Orphan’s Court judges lose among the bills Carroll’s state lawmakers decided to push through the General Assembly this year.

The delegation voted Wednesday to support a bill that would turn a local cap on the number of liquor licenses into state law.

In Carroll, the decade-old cap limits the number to one for every 5,000 residents per election district.

“It’s not a good influence on young kids to have so many liquor stores in town. Within five miles of my store, there are seven,” said Rosa Park, who owns Country Liquors in Westminster.

This story continues below
Advertisement

Liquor store owners requested the change after the Carroll Board of License Commissioners voted last month to add a clause to the cap to allow a license for every shopping center of at least 80,000 square feet.

The liquor cap legislation was tagged as an “emergency bill,” meaning it will go into effect as soon as the governor signs it, said Sen. Larry Haines, R-District 5.

Legislators also decided to table a request from Carroll’s three Orphan’s Court judges for a raise from $10,000 to $17,000 a year.

“We’ve got plenty of time for that,” said Haines, who typically doesn’t ask for salary increases for officials until the second or third year of a four-year term.

The delegation “misses the point,” said Judge Herbert Reisig, who has requested a raise for a decade. “They still haven’t told us the proper process for going about the request.”

More information

Other bills the Carroll delegation agreed to send to the General Assembly this year involve:

» Giving Carroll the authority to give tax credits to businesses that improve their facades

» Requiring pawnbrokers to submit electronic reports on merchandise to police

» Giving the warden the power to grant non-work-related furloughs and use electronic anklets on pretrial inmates

» Speeding up the process for dealing with property owners who repeatedly neglect to mow their lawns

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com