Maryland Gov. Wes Moore says budget plan includes $2 billion in cuts

Sam Janesch, Dan Belson and Hannah Gaskill, The Baltimore Sun on Jan 8, 2025

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BALTIMORE — Gov. Wes Moore said Wednesday he will propose $2 billion in cuts next week when he releases his plan for Maryland’s next state budget and that he continues to have a “very high bar” for tax increases.

Moore’s comments on the opening day of the annual 90-day legislative session in Annapolis were the first signs of how officials will begin negotiations around resolving a significant $3 billion budget deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Lawmakers in the House and Senate are expected to push a variety of proposals that would, for instance, raise new revenue through corporate and personal income taxes, though Moore said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun that he is focused on cuts and evaluating whether to continue existing programs.

“If things are not effective nor sustainable, then why are we funding it? And we have to be honest about that,” Moore said in an interview in his office shortly after first announcing his broad plan for the cuts. “It is an aggressive approach, but it’s one that I think is necessary because we are not just going to kick the can down the road.”

Moore declined to specify which areas of the state’s roughly $63 billion budget he’s targeting, or which programs may be impacted more than others.

He also did not answer specific questions about whether he would consider broad-based tax proposals this year or whether his “high bar” for tax hikes — which he set a year ago when the budget pressures began — has been met with the spiking deficit numbers. Asked whether he would consider changes to business-focused taxes that many Democratic lawmakers have supported, he insisted his goal is making the state more economically competitive and “business friendly.”

“We need to make sure that Maryland is competitive with our with our partners, and we need to make sure that economic growth is going to be the North Star that we’re going to achieve,” Moore said.

The governor, who is entering his third year in office, is scheduled to release his next budget plan Jan. 15. Democrats who control a supermajority of both the House and Senate will then make amendments and negotiate with the governor on a final product before the end of the session in early April.

Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, said at an event Wednesday morning that legislative leaders need to see the details of the cuts. He said “every single program” in the state will undergo a review to ensure its effectiveness as far as the budget is concerned.

“It’s going to be a challenge and we’re going to have to navigate,” Ferguson said at The Daily Record’s annual pre-session summit. “I think it’s going to look very different come March than it does today.”

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