Lawmakers have had 82 days to deal with the major issues of the 2025 General Assembly session and, as usual, most of the big issues are still hanging with eight days left to Sine Die, the last day of the 90-day session.
But if anyone is panicking, it’s not evident. Most of the big issues are progressing, if slowly, and the House and Senate appear to be talking to each other on the bills where they have disputes. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a wrench thrown into the works in the next week, or that an unexpected issue won’t arise. Or that they’ll be done before the last minute.
But with eight days left, here’s where some of the issues we’ve been following stand.
It’s always been the budget
Coming into the session, it was clear that the big issue would be the fiscal 2026 budget, which had an estimated $3 billion deficit. Uncertainty at the federal level related to budget and job cuts and agency presence in Maryland complicated what would have been a challenge in most years.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) and legislative leaders have broad agreement on a budget that must be balanced. Their plan includes more than $2 billion in cuts and $1 billion in new taxes.
“What is very clear and what is the most important to note about this budget is that it is fiscally sound,” said Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City). “It invests in all of our core priorities, like public education, public safety and health care, and it raises revenues from those who can most afford it, while protecting against the inevitable uncertainties that are coming from the administration.
“It is a sound budget that I think makes the appropriate efforts to put Maryland on as solid a footing as possible, given the level of uncertainty that we have,” he said.
The state’s General Fund budget — the portion paid for through sales and income and other direct state taxes — is about $400 million smaller than the current year.
Republicans and others note that many of the so-called cuts are accounting gimmicks that include holding open positions instead of hiring and shifting costs such as teacher pensions and the costs of property tax assessments to local governments.
Democrats take pains to note that their tax increases are targeted to high earners, and it’s true that 94% of Marylanders will see either a reduction in their income taxes or no change at all. But for many, the reduction — $50-$60 annually on average — will not bring the kind of “breathing room” Moore told reporters he wants the middle class to have.
High earners — $500,000 and above — will move into two new brackets. There’s also a new surcharge on capital gains for some taxpayers.
And any tax decreases will be offset by increases in vehicle emissions testing fees, taxes on vending machine sales, a $500 million tax on data and IT services, and others. One Republican calle the plan a “net more than it is a net less for taxpayers.”
The Senate will hold a preliminary vote on the two-bill package on Monday. The debate there may look similar to more than seven hours of back-and-forth in the House last week as Republicans unsuccessfully offered more than 20 amendments.
Ferguson said he expects a final vote Tuesday. The House and Senate can then convene a conference committee to work out what the Senate president described as minor differences — including the Senate eliminating a combined corporate income tax provision — by the end of the week.
The Senate version will also likely lower a House increase of the sales tax on car sales. In its place, Ferguson said the Senate is adding a $5 fee on the sale of each individual tire. The money would go to the Transportation Trust Fund.
“There’s been a lot of chatter around vehicle miles traveled, but there are concerns around privacy … and tires actually serve as kind of an interesting proxy for vehicle miles traveled,” Ferguson said. “The more you use your car, the more tires you use. So it’s similar to the gas tax. It is a user fee.”
The vote Monday means the legislature will miss the 83rd day requirement to complete work on the budget. That will trigger a letter from Moore invoking a requirement for lawmakers to remain in Annapolis to finish the budget if it is not finalized before midnight April 7, but so far no one expects the session to go into extra innings.
An energy package comes together
Also expected on Monday is an initial Senate vote on the leadership energy package, which includes a host of provisions intended to address high electric bills for Maryland customers, with rates expected to increase further this summer.
With utility bills rising, some sort of energy reform was also expected this session. But it was not until last week that amendments suddenly debuted, bringing pieces of several other energy bills into one large package that is expected to hit the floor today.
The legislation includes a utility bill rebate for Maryland residential customers, which is estimated to total about $80 per household, on average. But the payment, which would come in two installments, would also depend on a household’s energy usage.
“These will be immediate relief for ratepayers, who we know are feeling it harder than ever,” Ferguson said Friday.
The bill also aims to accelerate Maryland power generation — including nuclear power and potentially natural gas — and give a boost to energy storage technology, which makes use of large batteries to store energy for later use.
“We’re going to be focused on generating more affordable, reliable and cleaner energy than we have today here in Maryland,” Ferguson said. “This energy package gives Marylanders more control in the short term, in the mid-term and in the long term, to lower utility bills and address the threat of climate change at the same time.”
Environmental groups say they’re thrilled to see provisions curbing utility spending on gas pipelines, and preventing investor-owned utilities from using ratepayer dollars for private jets and trade association memberships. They’re also happy about new requirements for utilities to justify multiyear rate increases, among other provisions.
But the bill’s fast-track process for power plants gives many groups pause, with worries that the procedure will result in new natural gas-burning power plants that raise the state’s emissions, and jeopardize low-income and minority communities where power plants have previously been located.
“There are some things that concern us,” said Josh Tulkin, director of the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club. “Given how complicated and nuanced they are, these are risky things to do quickly.”
Blueprint reform slogs to the finish
Another issue that was expected to dominate the session was reform of the 10-year, multibillion-dollar Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, now in its third year.
Local school officials continued to say they need flexibility to implement the plan according to their counties’ unique needs and budget hawks saw the plan as ripe for savings, even though Democrats insist the plan has been budgeted for through next year.
The governor said he remains fully committed to the Blueprint, and the Moore administration proposed a number of cuts, most framed as deferrals or increases that were lower than orginally planned increases.
But those brought protests from advocates and pushback from some lawmakers, with the loudest opposition coming from the House.
The House earlier this month approved an Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act — the vehicle for the Blueprint changes — that rejected the governor’s call for a freeze in funding for community schools, those schools located in low-income neighborhoods, and a reduction in the growth of the per pupil fundng formula.
The House also stuck to the Blueprint’s schedule for increasing “collaborative time” for teachers, cutting down their in-class time to allow more time for planning, training and working on projects or with students. Critics said collaborative time will require hiring 12,000 more teachers at a time of teacher shortages, and the administration plan would have delayed its implementation.
The Senate this week will take up its own version, which roughly splits the difference between the House and the governor, accepting the delay in collaborative time for teachers, but siding with the House on the need for community school funding, among other changes.
The bill should go to the House later this week, which is expected to reject it, setting up a potentially contentious conference committee before next Monday.
Housing for Jobs Act lags
One of the governor’s priorities is running behind schedule compared to most other bills this session.
House Bill 503, dubbed the Housing for Jobs Act, was voted out of its first committee in the original chamber just Friday, meaning it still needs approval from the full House before it begins the process over in the Senate. There is a Senate version of the bill, but lawmakers there are letting the House steer the progress of the bill.
Lawmakers will have to scramble if they want to get it over the finish line before Sine Die.
The legislation got a late start in committee, with the first hearings not held until early thing month. Once it was introduced, county officials found many “significant” issues, including its goal of requiring counties to automatically approve new housing developments in areas with high job growth, unless officials could cite a specific reason to reject the project.
In the time since, lawmakers, county officials and the administration began working on amendments to address the raised concerns.
It took weeks to settle on the new bill language, but the House Environment and Transportation committee essentially rewrote the bill to instead create a commission that would recommend solutions to improve the state’s 96,000 housing unit shortage, among other changes.
The new language has been described as “simpler” and more streamlined, which could have a better shot of jumping through the remaining legislative hurdles in the condensed timeframe — but it’s not guaranteed that the governor’s bill can beat the clock.
New funds for abortion grant
Legislation to tap into some $25 million in insurance surcharges is on the verge of full passage, as both the House and Senate versions of the bill are waiting on final approval in the opposite chamber.
House Bill 930, awaiting a final vote from the Senate, would allow the Department of Health to use money that has been collecting dust for around 15 years. The Affordable Care Act requires that insurers collect a $1 premium per person per month that can only be used for abortion services.
Supporters of the legislation say over the course of 15 years, the fund has accumulated some $25 million, which could be used to provide abortion coverage for uninsured or underinsured individuals. HB930 would create a grant fund with those dollars to do so.
Senate Bill 848 is in the same situation on the House side, meaning if either chamber votes on the legislation this week, it will go to the governor’s desk for consideration.
Chrometastically yours, almost.
Maryland is this close to expanding its roster of state symbols.
A House bill to make chromite the official mineral of Maryland needs only a final vote in the Senate to secure its spot among symbols that include a state cat and dog, dinosaur, butterfly, cake and crustacean.
An identical Senate bill is scheduled for an April 1 hearing in a House Committee.
Since both bills flew out of their chambers of origin unaltered, there’s a good chance that David Shore, who eight years ago began his quest to have the mineral named as a state symbol, will see his efforts realized.
Chromite was first discovered in the Bare Hills area of Baltimore County. It quickly became an additive in paints and the making of steel alloys. It was shipped all over the world from Baltimore.
In a year of difficult debates on budgets, taxes and other serious issues, Shore’s “chrometastic” legislation might be the feel-good bill of the 2025 session.
And it’s fiscally responsible. Legislative analysts say approving the bill does not affect businesses or local government and “does not materially affect state finances.”
And no one is proposing a tax on it — as far as we know.
Reconsidering the Child Victims Act
Lawmakers will also attempt to pass legislation that will limit the state’s financial risks stemming from lawsuits filed by people claiming they were sexually assaulted while in state facilities.
It took a decade for the state to pass the Child Victims Act, a law that made it easier for child sex abuse victims to file claims against public and private institutions.
But the changes have exposed the state to potentially billions in claims. Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles), the sponsor of the 2023 law and the current bill to limit state liability, said failing to act this year could bankrupt the state.
Wilson and his colleagues will attempt to make substantive changes to the law in just eight days.
The bill remains in a House committee. It must pass out of committee and get through the full House before it can begin again in the Senate.
And if it manages to get through the General Assembly and be signed into law, Wilson acknowledged it will likely face court challenges. Opponents of Wilson’s efforts say the proposed changes are unconstitutional and insulting to survivors of institutionalized sexual abuse.
Another peek at Second Look
Criminal justice advocates will be focused this week on the Senate, after that chamber’s Judicial Proceedings Committee advanced the House measure known as the Second Look Act by an 8-3 vote Friday.
The bill by Del. Cheryl Pasteur (D-Baltimore County) would let incarcerated individuals who serve at least 20 years in prison petition a judge to have their sentences reduced. The measure has sparked robust debate in both chambers, which is expected to continue on the Senate floor.
“Philosophically, some of us are just probably at different ends of the spectrum when we’re talking about dealing with someone who’s in this position,” Sen. Charles Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County), who sponsored the Senate version that didn’t advance out of the committee, said Friday.
The Senate advanced a similar measure last year, but it stalled in the House. This year, the House approved the bill first that included a more than two-hour, emotional debate during a rare Saturday session March 15.
The Legislative Black Caucus has labeled the bill a priority.
Reparations moving along
Another caucus priority was discussed Friday by the House Health and Government Operations Committee, which voted to advance a Senate bill to create a Maryland Reparations Committee.
Senate Bill 587, sponsored by Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George’s), seeks to create a Maryland Reparations Commission to study the inequality African descendants faced in the state. A House version sponsored by Del. Aletheia McCaskill (D-Baltimore County) didn’t advance from that committee.
The bill would focus on “individuals impacted by historical inequality,” which means those whose ancestors were enslaved in the state or “impacted by inequitable government policies.”
The specific policies would be from the federal, state or local between 1877 to 1965, informally known as the post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. The bills say those years “have led to economic disparities based on race, including housing segregation and discrimination, redlining, restrictive covenants, and tax policies.” The commission would also examine how public and private institutions may have benefited from those policies.
Reparations could include statements of apology, monetary compensation, social service assistance, business incentives and child care costs. The commission would be tasked with submitting a preliminary report by Jan. 1, 2027, and a final report by Nov. 1 of that year.
Friday’s vote fell along party lines, with the six committee Republicans voting the bill, after more than 90 minutes of debate. Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel), chair of the committee, stressed the need for a “calm, respectful” discussion.
Del. Teresa E. Riley (R-Cecil and Harford) said the bill would “pick winners and losers.”
“It’s going to be extremely difficult who would be eligible,” she said. “I think ultimately if we do come up with something that’s substantial, it will bankrupt the state of Maryland.”
Del. Matthew Morgan (R-St. Mary’s), called the measure “political” and offered an amendment to have a report done by Sept. 1, 2026, in time for next year’s elections. But Peña-Melnyk said more time is needed, not just for the report, but to appoint the nearly two dozen members to the commission.
“This cannot be done in a year,” she said. “This would take so much time, and you want to do it right.”
Del. Kim Ross (D-Baltimore County) said the bill doesn’t create a racial divide.
“On a practical level, reparations helps level the playing field,” she said. “I would feel more pride in my state with a commission this like in place. I would feel good about living here.”
Other matters
- SB357: Expands the authority of the Prescription Drug Affordability Board’s efforts to reduce the cost of certain prescription drugs. The Senate version of the bill received some amendments in the Health and Government operations Friday, meaning the Senate will have to review the changes if the House approves it before it can go to the governor’s desk.
- HB39: Repeals a penalty for intentional transfer of human immunodeficiency virus. The bill just needs approval from the full Senate before it goes to the governor for consideration, while the Senate version of the bill is awaiting a committee vote in the House.
- SB414: creates a one-time $1,000 tax credit for parents who had a stillborn child. With no House version, the legislation is awaiting approval from the House Ways and Means Committee, which held a hearing last week, before it can move forward.
- HB102: delays the implantation of the Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program by 18-months. The House approved the bill 95-34 Friday, but it still needs Senate approval. The Senate has not moved its version of the bill out of the Finance Committee.
- SB 181/HB 1123: Both measures focus on medical and geriatric parole and have been approved by their respective chambers. A few differences in the bills include the Senate version stating that a person must be 65 years old to petition for parole; the House version set the age at 60.
