Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said he has instructed the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee to “pull out the scalpel” as it reviews Governor Moore’s proposed $63.1 billion fiscal 2025 budget. Legislative budget analysts call the state’s budget shortfall “historic” because such a predicament is typically only seen when the state is in a recession or coming out of one. Those same analysts told House and Senate fiscal leaders that Moore’s budget does little to attack those out-year problems.
Spending reprioritization: Senator Ferguson says there are other steps that can be taken before raising taxes, and that spending needs to be reprioritized. “This is a time to really focus in and find places where there are adjustments that are possible that we are normalizing again,” he said.