The 447th session of the Maryland General Assembly began Wednesday with its regular fanfare, though talk of the massive budget deficit lawmakers are set to tangle with marked speeches and discussions.

“We know this is going to be a challenging session,” Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, said from the rostrum. “It’s going to be very different than many of the sessions that we’ve had in our recent past — despite going through a pandemic. This will be a new challenge ahead.”

With the opening of the 2025 legislative session comes the reality of Maryland’s fiscal woes — underwhelming streams of revenue and a nearly $3 billion deficit.

Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, told The Baltimore Sun in an interview that his budget plan includes $2 billion in cuts and that he is seriously considering whether to continue existing programs based on their efficacy.

Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, a Democrat from Baltimore County, have made it no secret that this session will be the toughest in recent years, as evidenced by a story the Senate president told the chamber after he was unanimously reelected. His 10-year-old daughter, Cora, had questions about the Senate’s presidential selection process.

“She said, ‘Well, is there somebody else running?’ and my wife, who was in the kitchen — who I didn’t think was listening, said … ‘No one wants that job. It’s going to suck this year.’ That’s part one,” Ferguson said as the chamber burst into laughter. “Part two is when I was taking Cora to the bus today, I thought she had totally forgotten about it, and … she says ‘Have a great first day! Don’t forget: it sucks to suck.'”

Across the hall in the packed House of Delegates chamber, Jones acknowledged the difficult decisions ahead and how the sometimes-divided legislature will likely disagree on how to move forward. She and Ferguson, for instance, clashed just last year as House Democrats pushed ideas to more aggressively raise new revenue while Senate Democrats said it was too early to talk about tax increases.

“This work is not going to be easy,” Jones said Wednesday as she was elected to her sixth full session leading the 141-member House. “We don’t want to talk about revenues, but we have to. We don’t want to talk about cuts and prioritizing programs, but we have to. We don’t want to talk about high energy costs, but we have to. And we have to talk about protecting the investments we made for our students and teachers in the Blueprint.”

Still, both leaders projected optimism. Jones emphasized that a more limited budget can still include key investments in areas like education and transportation. Ferguson pointed to the days after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in March when, seemingly overnight, lawmakers passed the PORT Act, which provided aid to workers and businesses affected by the partial closure of the Port of Baltimore in the wake of the downed bridge.

“That is what progress looks like,” Ferguson said. “That is what’s possible when we come together to find ways to solve problems together.”

On the annual, frenzied first session day, lawmakers’ family and friends packed the historic State House. A litany of prominent officials from around the state bounced between the chambers and chatted in the halls, from Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and county executives to U.S. Reps. Steny Hoyer, Sarah Elfreth, Johnny Olszewski, Jr. and Andy Harris.

Beyond the budget, Jones and Ferguson have their eyes on other policy areas, like the rising cost of health care, civil rights protections and affordable housing policy. Both have expressed an interest in addressing the cost of energy for ratepayers, including moving away from coal and brainstorming ways to create electricity domestically through wind, solar, water and natural gas.

Republicans say business costs are ‘through the roof’

At a news conference before the session began Wednesday, members of the Republican Party slammed the Climate Solutions Now Act, which was passed in 2022 in an effort to accelerate the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals, as too costly. Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready, who represents Carroll and Frederick counties, called Maryland’s existing environmental policies “unwise” and “foolish.”

Republicans are planning to introduce legislation to add provisions to the Climate Solutions Now Act to reduce its cost.

“We’re driving businesses’ … costs through the roof because of the idea that, somehow, if we get to this net zero emissions in Maryland, we can save the planet,” Ready said. “Everybody wants clean air and clean water, but we also have to make sure that things are economically sustainable, and so that’s going to be our main focus on energy.”

Moore says beer and wine in grocery stores not a priority

Moore has not yet unveiled his specific policy agenda for this third annual legislative session but gave a few hints Wednesday about what it will and won’t include.

About a month after Moore announced he supported allowing beer and wine sales in grocery stores — saying in the process that he was “confident” that lawmakers could address any concerns and put a bill on his desk — the governor said in an interview Wednesday he will not introduce the policy himself, and that it’s “not an administration priority.”

“I have an opinion, and I just wanted to make sure that opinion was known,” Moore said in his office after The Baltimore Sun reported earlier this week that prominent legislators have significant hesitations about passing such a bill.

His slate of bills will include policies to encourage more housing development, a topic he began focusing on in 2024 as he introduced and helped pass three new laws aimed at addressing the state’s nearly 100,000-unit affordable housing shortage.

Much of his and everyone else’s time, though, will be spent on the budget, he said.

“A lot of what you’re going to see is — it’s the budget,” Moore said, stressing, as he has in the past, that where the state directs its spending is indicative of its policy priorities.

He said the public would see “historic” levels of funding for local law enforcement because of recent trends of lower crime rates in Baltimore and elsewhere, which Moore attributes partly to state funding for police and state’s attorney offices. He also hinted at investments in facilities for juvenile offenders and in communities that have been hit hardest by violence.

The governor is scheduled to unveil his 2025 budget plan on Jan. 15, kicking off a process in which lawmakers will make amendments and negotiate with Moore over its final provisions.

In the meantime, they’ll consider a few thousand other bills in a feverish annual lawmaking sprint.

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