Better mental health care for Iraq veterans, help for seniors needing prescription drugs, a bailout for the Prince George?s County hospital and a number of other measures relating to health care and veterans were among the 145 bills signed into law by Gov. Martin O?Malley on Thursday.
These set the health theme for the last bill signing from this year?s General Assembly session. But there were signings of controversial measures as well, including a bill permitting mixed martial arts matches ? often called “Ultimate Fighting” ? and two bills granting new rights to domestic partners, both homosexual and heterosexual.
“I personally believe that a civil unions statute is the way to go … but that was not possible in the legislature,” O?Malley said after the signing.
One bill will give domestic partners visitation rights in medical facilities, and a second exempts such partners from paying transfer and recordation taxes on real estate transfers between themselves. Domestic partners are defined as a couple who have signed an affidavit and are mutually dependent on one another as determined by several factors.
O?Malley had been heavily lobbied by Catholic bishops to veto the bills. Richard Dowling, director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, said signing the two new laws “puts Maryland on the road to becoming California East.”
The California Supreme Court ruled last week a series of domestic partnership laws was inconsistent with the state?s definition of marriage.
“We believe that every person should be protected equally” under the law, but “unfortunately wehave situations where that is not the case where it comes to gay couples raising families [and] owning homes together,” O?Malley said.
Another bill O?Malley signed will establish oversight and licensing of tax preparers, a measure Comptroller Peter Franchot, the state?s head tax collector, said would “protect taxpayers from fraudulent and misleading marketing schemes.”
