Sen. JB Jennings: Septics Bill Thwarts Maryland's Economic Recovery

By Sen. JB Jennings

In this installation of “How to Thwart Economic Recovery in Maryland” I draw your attention to the Governor’s call to enact even more restrictions, regulation, and poorly conceived policy on developing areas of Maryland.  The Governor’s State of the State speech included a call to regulate and restrict what he called ‘septic systems that leak sewage into the Chesapeake Bay’.  I feel that this is an egregious misnomer, and chose instead to inject a questionable description of a time-tested environmental system into his speech.   

Restricting rural residential development will stunt the growth of badly needed construction and construction-related jobs in this state.  Earl Preston, the owner of a well respected Fallston, MD based septic system company was quoted by the Baltimore Sun as saying that “he would have to lay off up to a third of his employees” if these regulations were enacted.  The Home Builders Association of Maryland has stated that this could be ‘devastating’ to the residential construction business in Maryland.  This is not the message that we wish to send to the businesspeople of Maryland. 

The Governor has stated that he wishes to steer growth towards areas with existing infrastructure; in effect telling our citizens and potential new citizens of Maryland where they have to live in the state.  This is clearly not a very welcoming attitude to take.     By the same token, it is simply not reasonable in many of these situations to require public sewage systems to be installed.  The infrastructure costs could run into the billions; a cost the taxpayers of Maryland should not be burdened with, and a cost that the private sector simply could not bear without driving the cost of residential homes out of reach of most of the citizens of Maryland.

Enacting these restrictions nearly anywhere in the state has the unintended consequence of potentially shifting development to neighboring states, where there is a less ponderous regulatory environment; and most, if not all of these areas still feed the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.  Maryland has two competitors on the Eastern shore alone in Delaware and Virginia. In the Western reaches of the state we have as many as 3 competing states, with Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia all ready to capitalize on our over-regulation of industry.  It may be useful to point out that other neighboring states saw how the slots and gaming efforts were playing out, and seized opportunity to collect valuable revenues from gaming, long before Maryland ever had a chance to realize a dollar from our efforts. 

I encourage the Governor to study the impacts of what he is suggesting more carefully.  The private sector has always demonstrated a willingness to work with State and Local Governments on reasonable regulations.    As history shows us time and time again that when heavy-handed Government regulations are enacted, the usual loser is the consumer.  I feel strongly that this policy, if enacted through legislation would be a loss to the State of Maryland.  Driving economic development and tax revenues, to other states is not a winning policy.