Licensing authority in Maryland is genuinely divided. The state charters entities and licenses trades; a judicial office issues trader’s licenses; the city controls land use and the public street; the Comptroller handles tax registration. Each has a complete account of its own requirements and no obligation to describe anyone else’s.
This directory exists because of that division. Each entry says what the body handles, who it serves, and where it sits relative to the others, which is usually the piece that is hardest to find.
Entries are grouped by what they do rather than by which level of government runs them, because a business looking for a license does not care whether it is issued by a state board or a city department, only which door to knock on.