The bill was initially opposed by The Maryland department of Environment, but was supported by a tremendous and unprecedented grassroots coalition of citizen organizations and environmentalists. The bill passed the House. YES is the correct vote. This is the House vote on the Senate bill that put the special checkoff line on the State income tax form. The line allowed taxpayers to donate directly to Chesapeake Bay and endangered species programs in the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Chesapeake Bay Trust.
Many states have similar tax return mechanisms for wildlife programs.
The bill was opposed by Maryland's Comptroller and by some charities. The bill introduced and killed many times over the years, finally passed with this vote. Not Voting is correct. This essentially do-nothing bill called for a task force study the granular carbofuran pesticide. Environmentalists argued that the task force would be studying data that already existed and was widely known.