This Friday 2/27 at 1:00 the Maryland House Environment and Transportation committee will hear two bills with the same intention, to roll back damaging changes made to Historic Vehicle conditions in the State of Maryland during the 2025 legislative session. We won’t go into the politics here, but HB0004 is sponsored by Delegates April Miller (R) and Matthew Morgan (R) and HB0125 is sponsored by Delegate Steve Johnson (D).
MCAA strongly supports both bills (with slight preference for HB0004, see below) and will be sending representatives to testify.
When both bills were first offered, MCAA strongly favored HB0004 over HB0125 due to a lack of a grandfathering clause for Historic Plate owners with vehicles model year 2000-2005, however Delegate Johnson’s office has furnished MCAA with evidence that an Amendment will accompany the final version of HB0125 to include this provision. MCAA now moderately favors HB0004 over HB0125 because HB0004 states that the MVA “shall” automatically reinstate Historic Vehicle status to owners that lost it because of 2025 definition changes, whereas HB0125 simply suggests that MVA “may” reinstate status to these owners.
These bills are complementary to the Senate Bills covered earlier in the month (We Took the Fight to Annapolis | Saving Maryland Historic Plates), with HB0125 corresponding to SB0452 and HB0004 corresponding to SB0566.
If you’re interested in testifying in support of these bills, you’ll need to register for a MyMGA account (https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Account/Login?returnUrl=%2Fmgawebsite%2FMyMGATracking%2FWitnessSignup®isterId=Tracking) and submit your intention to testify (written, in-person oral, or virtual oral) from 8AM-6PM on Wednesday 2/25. If you’re planning to testify in person or online, you’ll need to be available from 1PM to ~5PM on Friday 2/27 for the hearing.
