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DENTON – Given the current pressures of a tight state fiscal environment, the three Caroline County Commissioners presented their legislative priorities and fiscal frustrations during their annual meeting with state legislators and transportation officials Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, at the Health and Public Services Building in Denton.
Commissioners described how state funding mandates continue to be shifted to the counties, especially the rural counties of the Eastern Shore.
All of the District 36 and 37 representatives to the Maryland General Assembly, except Del. Chris Adams (R-37B), attended the 9 a.m. meeting.
Caroline County Commission President Travis Breeding, Vice President Larry Porter and Commissioner Frank Bartz shared six legislative requests with State Sen. Steve Hershey (R-36) and Sen. Johnny Mautz (R-37), as well as Del. Steve Arentz (R-36), Del. Jeff Ghrist (R-36), Del. Tom Hutchinson (R-37B), and Del. Jay Jacobs (R-36).
The first request the Commissioners presented was for the General Assembly to amend a state article authorizing “Caroline County to designate its own newspaper of record through local legislative action.”
The request “mirrors existing provisions” in Maryland Article – General Provisions Section 1-113 that allow Prince George’s County to determine its newspaper of record and Dorchester County’s “unique authority to utilize digital publications when traditional print outlets are not available.”
“Caroline County is uniquely disadvantaged, as it is the only Maryland county without a standalone, county-based newspaper of record,” according to the request. The Times-Record is published as an insert in the Wednesday edition of the Star Democrat, based in Talbot County. The purpose of legislation would “enable (Caroline County) to better serve residents by ensuring transparency and accessibility in public notices while adapting to the realities of today’s media landscape.”
“What we are finding is that a lot of the residents in the county may not subscribe to our current paper of record, and there may potentially be free media sources that we can take advantage of – not only potentially free for the county to reduce our advertising costs, but also free to the residents to access those advertisements,” Breeding said. “We're not actually proposing changing our paper of record at this time. We’re just asking for that flexibility.”
Hutchinson said he would be meeting soon with the head of the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, who opposed his bill in Dorchester County. He suggested a statewide bill rather than a county-specific bill “might be a little more advantageous.” Arentz said, “Papers are going away … nobody wants to pay for something they should be getting for free.”
During the public comment segment of the agenda, Orestes Baez, regional president of Adams Publishing Group's Chesapeake region advocated for keeping public notices in the current paper of record, the Star Democrat. Deborah Bowden, owner and publisher of Caroline Review and Caroline Review.News, expressed support of the legislaiton that would allow the Commissioners to determine how to best provide public notices to residents.
Two bond bills are part of the legislative requests. The town of Denton’s wastewater treatment plant needs an upgraded sludge drying system and Sharp Road Park needs funding for a $1 million expansion to create a new community park, which would include a paved parking lot, large playground, outdoor exercise facilities, pavilion, dog park and flag court. Development of the park is a priority municipal project of the town of Denton.
Denton Town Administrator Scott Getchell said the Department of Natural Resources has provided a $300,000 grant, but it’s not enough to finish the park project.
The third section of the legislative requests document includes three “items of concern,” including restoring full funding for the Rural Maryland Prosperity Investment Fund (RMPIF), assuring the validity of a request to State Highway Administration for a future signalized intersection at State Route 404 and Gay Street, and renewing Highway User Revenue to fund the maintenance of the county seat’s streets and the county’s roads.
“As you know, the state of Maryland is one of the few states in the country where counties do not collect any revenue from motor vehicles,” Breeding said. “It's all collected by the state, and then allocations are dispersed to the county from that collection. So we don't have any taxing authority to actually raise revenue for the maintenance and construction of infrastructure in our counties. We totally rely on the state to do that, which is an oddity, I believe.”
Porter added two more legislative requests concerning solar energy battery storage systems and the Early Head Start program in Caroline and Cecil counties, “which affects a good number of families and a good number of employees,” he said.
An ongoing concern for Porter and the commissioners is the need for safety training and equipping county fire companies in the event of a fire caused by a battery energy storage system connected to a solar array or EV battery. Jacobs sponsored firefighter training legislation during the 2025 session of the General Assembly, but it died in committee.
“I know everybody's tired of hearing me talk about it, but I'm just saying that I will not allow these facilities, to come into our county without knowing what is going to happen, … and what effect it's going to have on our first responders,” Porter said. He also questioned who would enforce the National Fire Protection Association’s standard, NFPA 855, dealing with battery energy system fires.
He said county fire companies can’t sell enough chicken or sponsor enough gun bashes to pay for specialized equipment and training. “I don't think it's fair to have those fire companies out here trying to raise money to benefit solar companies.” He said he had no trouble charging fees to solar companies.
Bartz, who is a member of the board of the Mid-Shore Regional Council, said he was concerned about a $3 million cut to the RMPIF. “That money goes a long way,” he said.
The Commissioners are urging the General Assembly to restore full funding to its intended level of $9 million in fiscal year 2027.
According to the written request to the delegation, the funding cut “diminished the ability of RMPIF to strengthen rural communities by supporting regional cooperation, entrepreneurial activities, workforce training, health care access, community college programming, and nonprofit service providers.”
Bartz also urged the legislators to address cuts to the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation (MALPF) fund.
Ghrist said he tries “not to be political,” but criticized Gov. Wes Moore for gutting funding for rural Maryland. “They literally gutted a third of their budget (for rural Maryland). You don't cut a third of somebody's budget and expect them to be able to survive. He did it. You know why? Because rural Maryland is not a priority for him.”
Breeding added that shifting additional funding of teacher pensions to the counties is another fiscal burden, as well as cutting fiscal support for state-mandated Police Accountability Boards. “So there's all kinds of stuff going on – shifts on to the counties, reductions in grants, things slipped in under the radar. So that's what we're experiencing right now,” he said.
Breeding mentioned the county waiting for months for state guidance about the more than $350,000 in cannabis tax revenue. “If you're going to shift more stuff on us, let us spend it however we want,” he said.
The delegates brought up concerns they had during the 2025 General Assembly and important priorities for the upcoming session, including addressing the budget, crime, energy, healthcare on the Eastern Shore, environmental permitting and cover crop funding.
Hershey, who recently announced the formation of an exploratory committee for his possible gubernatorial candidacy, said “the work is cut out for us again” during the upcoming election year.
“Rural Maryland is not important to Gov. Moore,” he said. “The irony of all this … is that we see the counties are saying all of these costs being shifted down to the counties. Yet Gov. Moore has found every opportunity to blame the Trump administration for doing the exact same thing. …They have done the exact same thing (to the counties).”
Hershey praised the Commissioners for journeying to Annapolis to testify against the state’s solar expansion without the county’s approval. “It's a shame that the legislature did not listen to that.”
Mautz said the 2026 Maryland General Assembly is “going to be really contentious, and we're going to have headwinds.”
He said the “frustrating thing” is that the county’s issues “are all Maryland created. Most of this stuff could have been resolved, but it wasn't resolved, and it's going to take all of us, 150% committed, to work together across all these different committees.”
Breeding said that in his and Bartz’s three years on the Commission, “it has been an assault on our autonomy. … We have seen the erosion of county control.”
However, one positive assurance was provided by Ghrist. Breeding asked if the new Lockerman Middle School project was on safe ground. “As long as you guys have your local match, you shouldn't have a problem getting in that queue,” Ghrist said.
The entire Sept. 16 meeting was livestreamed and can be viewed at https://carolinecountymd.new.swagit.com/videos/355536.
