The County Executive held a town hall meeting on that package recently.
Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater
Frederick, Md (KM) Frederick County’s 2026 Legislative Package was the topic of a town hall meeting held recently by County Executive Jessica Fitzwater. One bill deals with workforce and senior housing. Fitzwater said Frederick County is a very desirable place to live and work, but there’s an increased demand on the housing supply as costs keep going up.
“With rising inflation hitting residents’ budgets harder than ever, this creates a difficult situation for those looking to buy or maintain a home,” she said. “Many of our essential workforce such as teachers, nurses, first responders and others are unable to secure housing in the county and the state due to these rising costs.”
Fitzwater says a bill in the 2026 Legislative Package is expected to address that. “So this legislation will begin to improve the accessibility by incentizing and promoting buyers of primary residences to ensure that our workforce and seniors aren’t competing with large companies to buy property,” she said. “The legislation will also ensures that housing development processes are streamlined at both the county and the state level.”
Frederick County continues to be the fastest growing county in Maryland as many people want to move here. The County Executive says that means the public school population is growing, But school construction formulas have not kept pace. “This enrollment growth is not accounted for, however, in the current state funding formula, and has left our county with hundreds, hundreds of unfunded seats that have required the county to cover both the local and state share of construction funding,” she says.
Fitzwater says the bill in the Legislative Package will create a task force to study the current education funding formula and ensure that state funding is allocated equitably, taking into account the growing student population.
Another bill in the 2026 package would allow counties to set special tax rates for certain commercial properties. Fitzwater says currently, residential and commercial properties are currently taxed at the same rate. “My Administration would use this as an opportunity to evaluate commercial subclasses, and determine what entities are not paying their fair share in comparison to residential rates,” she said. “This would provide us with a potential funding solution for our school construction needs.”
But Fitzwater says this will not mean an increase in residential property taxes. “To be clear, I’m not seeking this authority to address property tax rates within residential subclasses of property,” she said. “Instead, we will work with our team to investigate ways to bring more equity across property tax rates through special rates in commercial property.”
There’s also a bill covering school resource officers who are assigned to provide security and other needs within the county’s schools. County Executive Fitzwater says the legislation will prohibit school resource officers from having sexual contact with students. She says they cannot have sexual contact with minors, but it’s less clear when a student becomes an adult. “School resource officers are prohibited from having sexual contact with students under 18. However, this leaves a loophole in the current law for sexual contact with students over the age of 18.”
Fitzwater says this bill was drafted with help from the State’s Attorney’s Office.
The Legislative Package will need approval from the County Council before it’s presented to the delegation to Annapolis. The 2026 Maryland General Assembly begins on Wednesday, January 14th.
By Kevin McManus