The 446th session of the Maryland General Assembly will gavel in at noon on Wednesday, with lawmakers ambitious to tackle an election-year agenda, while also addressing a looming state budget deficit and a shortfall in projected transportation funding.
The state faces a $761 million budget shortfall projected for the fiscal 2025 budget, and the Department of Transportation recently announced $3.3 billion in cuts to proposed transportation spending that could dramatically affect every large and small political subdivision in the state over the next few years.
Lawmakers must also respond to concerns from education advocates that Blueprint for Maryland’s Future reforms be adequately funded, and from counties, where some leaders say they are struggling to meet the required local investments in the decade-long improvement plan.
Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said this week that the predicted shortfalls are serious, but not impossible to absorb within the state’s $63 billion budget.
While there may be little appetite for large-scale tax hikes, according to interviews with the legislature’s presiding officers, some more targeted increases, formula changes or fee adjustments are on the table.
State leaders are likely to set a multi-year agenda to address long-term transportation funding issues.
The General Assembly can also exercise its relatively new budgetary powers, expanded in 2023, to address the issue.
Moore must release a draft budget by Jan. 17, one week into session.
The governor has not identified so far how he will address the budget crunch while pushing to deliver on big promises made during his first year in office.
“I’ve always believed that you never learn anything about anybody when times are easy,” Moore told county officials last month. “When times are easy, they can show you anything. If you ever want to learn about somebody, watch when times are tough.”
Within weeks, the halls of the State House complex will be bustling, with advocates pressing for debates, amendments and votes on hundreds of issues. Nearly 2,300 bills were considered in 2023; more than 550 pre-filed bills will be introduced in the Senate and House of Delegates on Wednesday.
Some of the highest-profile issues to be tackled in 2024 include juvenile justice reform, health care expansion, climate change response, and housing affordability. Medical aid-in-dying could see a vote on the chamber floors this year, after failing to pass in a dramatic tie vote in the Senate in 2019.
House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) said the House of Delegates will pursue a “decency agenda” that includes addressing hate speech, combatting book bans and protecting Marylanders from discriminatory policies.
Ferguson said the Senate will focus, in part, on growing the state’s tax base and creating safer communities.
The House and Senate Republican minorities have set criminal justice reform as a top priority, though their approach could face long odds in the face of Democratic supermajorities in both chambers.
Among bills the caucus will pursue in 2024 are a measure to increase penalties for someone who commits a crime with an illegal firearm, a bill to make theft of a firearm a felony, and a proposal to eliminate reductions in prison sentences or the opportunity for bail for certain crimes.
The party is also likely to seize on the sobering state financial reports and push to rein in spending.
“Tax dollars are precious. It is our collective responsibility to make sure we are spending these dollars in a transparent and accountable way,” House Minority Leader Jason C. Buckel (R-Allegany) said in December, vowing to resist pushes for tax increases.
In December, Moore promised a robust legislative agenda, to include about a dozen bills, but the administration has been stingy with details.
The bill topics range from policies to promote data centers in the state, shortages of law enforcement officers, expand affordable housing and employment opportunities, and a focus on military families.
“This is going to be a very good, a very bold session, following up from a bold last session,” Moore said during a late December interview on WBAL TV.
The 90-day legislative session is scheduled to run until April 8.