Session resources

A 90-day move-in checklist for the 2027 session

Updated September 25, 2026 · Every date, rule and figure below was read from the issuing agency’s own published document.

The 451st session of the Maryland General Assembly convenes in Annapolis on January 13, 2027 and adjourns sine die on April 12, 2027. That is the fixed point everything else counts back from, and from late September it is a little under four months away. Most of what follows is not difficult; it is simply time-ordered, and two or three items on the list stop being available if you reach them late.

This is the countdown as it actually runs for a member, a staffer, a contract lobbyist or an association that will hold a presence in Annapolis for the ninety days.

The dates you are counting back from

Milestone	Date
90 days before convening	October 15, 2026
60 days before convening	November 14, 2026
30 days before convening	December 14, 2026
Move-in week begins	January 6, 2027
General Assembly convenes	January 13, 2027
Adjournment sine die	April 12, 2027
Pack-out complete	April 20, 2027

The Maryland State Archives lists the 2027 session as running January 13 to April 12. The Department of Legislative Services has not yet published its 2027 Dates of Interest sheet — the document that fixes bill-introduction deadlines and crossover — and until it does, the procedural calendar below is the 2026 one, shown for shape rather than as 2027 dates.

90 days out: housing is the item with a real deadline

Everything else on this list can be done late at some cost in inconvenience. Housing cannot. Annapolis has a small historic district, a fixed number of whole-house rentals inside walking distance of the State House, and one buyer for all of them arriving in the same eight-week window. Whole-house session inventory is generally spoken for well before the New Year, and what is left in January is hotel nights at January rates.

If your term is a full session with room at either end — a week to move in before the opening gavel and a week to pack out after sine die — you are looking for something like January 6 to April 20, 2027, which is 104 nights. Decide the shape of the term before you shop, because a house that has been leased for the session term is not available for the three weeks around it.

Why the paperwork wants a lease, not a booking

For members, this is not a preference. The Department of Legislative Services’ Guidelines for Compensation and Expenses for Legislators, at §2-203(e), provides that “all lodging during the legislative session for a period that is known in advance must be paid directly by the Department of Legislative Services pursuant to the submission of a properly executed lease or signed invoice.” A signed lease is the instrument the state pays on. A nightly booking through a platform is not.

Two related timing rules are worth putting on the calendar now. The guidelines direct that a member “should file vouchers promptly within the fiscal year in which the expense is incurred to avoid any delay or nonpayment of reimbursement” (§2-102), and §3-604(b) requires that “all forms and vouchers must be submitted to Finance Services within 60 days of the actual expense.” Sixty days from a January expense lands in March, in the middle of session — which is the argument for getting the lease executed and filed before the session starts rather than during it.

Reimbursement is also capped. Under the Compensation Commission’s resolution, a member may not be reimbursed for lodging above the current published federal GSA daily per diem rate for lodging in Annapolis. That rate schedule has just turned over: GSA published its fiscal year 2027 rates at the start of September 2026, effective for travel performed on or after October 1, 2026, with the standard lodging rate rising from $110 to $113 and the meals and incidental expenses tiers unchanged at $68 to $92. Annapolis is one of 295 non-standard locations with its own seasonal lodging line: $130 a night for November through April under fiscal 2027, up from $125. The full schedule is in our note on the FY2027 per diem rates and the 2027 session.

60 days out: registrations, and the lobbying year that starts first

If anyone on your team will lobby, the compliance clock is not tied to the session at all. The Maryland Public Ethics Law creates a lobbying registration year that runs November 1 through the following October 31 — so the year covering the 2027 session opens on November 1, 2026, roughly ten weeks before the Assembly convenes.

The Maryland State Ethics Commission’s published guidance is that a registration must be submitted “within five days after first performing an act that requires registration,” at a fee of $100.00 per registration, and that a person lobbying for more than one employer registers on behalf of each. Reporting then follows the same year: the November 1 – April 30 period is reported by May 31, and May 1 – October 31 by November 30. The first of those reports covers the entire session, so the record-keeping habits you set in January are the ones you will be reconstructing in May.

Sixty days out is also when travel gets decided. If part of the team will commute from Washington or Baltimore rather than live in Annapolis, the MTA commuter buses are Zone 3 for the Annapolis–Washington pair, currently $6.00 one way, $60.00 for ten trips and $204.00 monthly. That is a genuine option for non-voting days and a poor one for hearing days — the service is weekday and peak-oriented. Our guide to getting to Annapolis without a car has the routes and the caveats.

30 days out: the practical layer

December is for the things that are only annoying if left: forwarding or holding mail, arranging any parking you will actually need, confirming what the house supplies and what you are bringing, and settling how the team will handle food during the weeks when the Assembly sits late. A base in the historic district changes the answer to most of these, because the State House, the House and Senate office buildings and Lawyers Mall are all a few minutes’ walk away and a car stops being part of the daily routine.

It is also the month to confirm the lease is executed and, for members, submitted to Legislative Services for direct payment — not the week of the opening gavel.

Move-in week: January 6 to January 13

The week before convening is the one people underestimate. Utilities and internet want to be confirmed working, not scheduled; deliveries want to arrive while someone is there to receive them; and the first working day is the one where you find out whether the printer, the wifi and the coffee arrangements survive a fourteen-hour day. Arriving the weekend before the opening gavel leaves no slack for any of it. Arriving the Wednesday a week earlier does.

The 2026 session sheet recorded the opening as noon on a Wednesday, and January 13, 2027 falls on a Wednesday as well.

In session: the calendar you are staffing against

The Department of Legislative Services publishes a one-page Session Dates of Interest sheet with the procedural deadlines that actually govern workload. The 2027 edition has not been posted as of September 25, 2026; the 2026 edition was first dated September 3, 2025, so the 2027 sheet is overdue, and we will update the 2027 session dates page the week it appears.

For shape, here is what the 2026 sheet set — these are 2026 dates, not 2027 dates:

2026 milestone	Date	Session day
General Assembly convenes	January 14, 2026	1st
Governor’s budget bills introduced by	January 21, 2026	—
Senate bill introduction date	February 9, 2026	27th
House bill introduction date	February 13, 2026	31st
Last day to introduce without suspending the rules	March 9, 2026	55th
Opposite-chamber crossover	March 23, 2026	69th
Budget bill passage	April 6, 2026	83rd
Adjournment sine die	April 13, 2026	90th

Read against 2027’s January 13 opening, that pattern puts bill-introduction deadlines in early-to-mid February, crossover in the third week of March and the heaviest stretch of the session in the four weeks that follow. It is the reason a term that ends the week of sine die is a term that ends badly: the last fortnight is when nobody has time to move house.

On the way out

Two things close the term. The first is the county tax. Anne Arundel County’s use or occupancy tax applies to short-term lodging, and the county’s published rule is that “the guest must pay the County use or occupancy tax for the first one hundred and twenty (120) consecutive days” and that “for any additional consecutive days, the short term rental does not need to charge the County use or occupancy tax.” The county also states that “the guest can apply to the County for a refund of the use or occupancy taxes paid for the first one hundred and twenty (120) consecutive days.” It does not publish the rate on that page, so treat the amount as a question for the county rather than a number to budget from a blog.

The second is the paperwork. Vouchers within sixty days of the expense, under §3-604(b), and for lobbyists the May 31 activity report covering November 1 through April 30. Both are easier if the receipts were filed as they happened.

The checklist, condensed

When	Do
Now – 90 days out	Decide the term shape; secure whole-house or hotel inventory; execute the lease
By November 1, 2026	Lobbying registration year opens; register within five days of the first act requiring it ($100 per registration)
60 days out	Settle commuting versus living in Annapolis; buy monthly passes if commuting; submit the lease for direct payment
30 days out	Mail, parking, deliveries, internet, provisioning
January 6–13, 2027	Move in, test everything, be working before the gavel
Through session	File vouchers within 60 days of each expense; keep lobbying records contemporaneously
April 12–20, 2027	Pack out; handle the county use-or-occupancy tax refund application; close the books
By May 31, 2027	Lobbying activity report for November 1 – April 30