A bill before Maryland's General Assembly would allow restaurants to have pets in outdoor dining areas. (Although many restaurants currently welcome dogs, it is actually not officially legal.) The
Dining Out Growth Act of 2011, sponsored by delegates Morhaim, Cardin, Clagett and George, was introduced on February 11.
I'll post updates as we get them, but the expectation was that the bill would not be hotly contested--"no one had signed up to speak against it."
Read more in the Baltimore Sun article,
"Diners with dogs may soon be saying 'Bone Appetit'."
The full text of the bill:
House Bill 941
Some earlier comments . . .
ReplyDeleteby Gloria 20 days ago
Do we need to write letters/emails to support this bill?
by Mary Love 20 days ago
Hey, Gloria. Good question. I'll see if I can contact my delegate (once I figure out who he/she is), and will post an update and provide any necessary links. Thanks!
by Mary Love 19 days ago
I wrote to the delegate (Dan Morhaim) who introduced the bill and am waiting to hear back. By the way, if you're like me and never quite sure who your delegates are, you can check at: http://mdelect.net/electedofficials/
(Mine are Guzzone, Pendergrass and Turner; Distric 13)Delete
by Mary Love 17 days ago
Just heard back from Del. Dan Morhaim, who introduced the bill: He says:
"Thank you for expressing your support of the legislation. Please write to your legislators expressing support of the legislation. I hope that it will be voted favorably out of my committee and will go to the floor for a vote. If it passes out of the House, it would be helpful for you to write in support of the legislation for the bill hearing in the Senate because it did not have a crossfile.
As you may know, the deadline to get bills out of committee and over to the other chamber is quickly approaching so hopefully there will be developments with the bill shortly."
Del. Dan Morhaim, M.D.
District 11
410.841.3054
410.841.3385 fax
So, I would suggest finding out who your legislators are at
http://mdelect.net/electedofficials/
and letting them know your support.
by Mary Love 10 days ago
Update: Del. Dan Morhaim, M.D., who introduced the bill, just reported that "the subcommittee that was assigned the bill voted the bill favorably with the amendments that I had proposed. I hope the full committee will vote the bill favorably soon."