Transportation, education costs top of mind at MD state and local government conference

Looming shortfalls to pay for transportation projects and education reforms will again be top of mind for state and local officials as they — along with much of the state’s government and politics ecosystem — descend on Ocean City for the annual Maryland Association of Counties summer conference.

“A lot of people are scratching their heads wondering, ‘Is the state budget really in crisis or is this something we can wade through?’ ” Michael Sanderson, MACo’s executive director, said in a phone interview Tuesday. “If the state is in fiscal distress, that usually carries over to local services.”

The conference begins Wednesday and concludes Saturday following a speech from Gov. Wes Moore.

Government officials, staffers and private-sector employees typically spend their days attending panel discussions, briefings, meetings, networking events and exhibit shows at a large convention center before reconvening in the evening for fundraising events and receptions hosted by prominent officials, candidates and lobbying firms.

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The four-day conference offers structured settings for attendees to explore a variety of government-related topics. Sanderson said he expects a panel on Maryland’s energy policy and its plans for handling the region’s multistate electrical grid — which will feature a panel of officials who for years have been outspoken about those matters — to be the “sleeper issue” of the conference.

“That’s front-row seat kind of stuff,” Sanderson said.

Much of the allure of the conference, though, is in the unparalleled access to administration officials and lawmakers in the convention center hallways and at evening and nighttime events.

Maryland has for years faced projections of budget deficits, largely driven by a lofty education plan, but infusions of federal COVID aid led to years with surpluses and delayed the need for spending cuts or tax increases.

At the conclusion of last summer’s conference, Moore warned that, after years of lackluster economic growth, Maryland was headed for a period of belt-tightening with projected deficits.

The governor said that “as much as I want to say yes, you’re going to hear some no’s.”

Moore and top Democrats in the legislature last session avoided broad tax increases to boost revenue and forewent potentially drastic cuts to cover deficits to pay for transportation projects and services.

Supporters said the approach represented responsible budgeting while opponents saw it as using Band-Aids to provide temporary relief for growing problems.

The conference has become part of the annual planning process for the state’s Consolidated Transportation Program, a budget through which officials plan and prioritize road and bridge projects.

Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld is scheduled to meet in Ocean City with county officials representing the state’s largest jurisdictions, providing an opportunity for the local leaders to air their concerns and frustrations about state funding for their long-held priorities and for the secretary to — in all likelihood — deliver more tough news about the state’s dwindling resources to pay for those projects.

Moore has said that growing the state’s economy will generate the revenue needed to pay for a stronger education system and other state services, but the issue of raising money soon is sure to resurface in the 2025 session.

Roughly two weeks into the fiscal year, the governor cut nearly $150 million from this year’s $63 billion budget to cover child care and Medicaid costs that are rising faster than expected and threaten to add to the budget shortfall.

The cuts may have been an early indication of more challenging times ahead.

“We’re going to have to raise revenues somehow,” Sen. Nancy King, majority leader in a chamber that last session opposed broad tax increases, said in a phone interview Monday.

County officials have long raised concerns about the cost and timeline for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a plan to boost education systems and student performance statewide by starting childhood education at an earlier age, increasing pay for teachers and bolstering career and technical education opportunities.

But the roughly $40-billion, 10-year plan lacks a permanent funding stream.

Sanderson said that pandemic-induced delays and an overall rocky rollout for the plan has hurt locals more than the state government, which has benefited from a trust fund through which it has banked money to pay for the plan in future years.

Top Republican lawmakers, who’ve opposed the plan, have pushed to delay its implementation by a few years to make the cost more manageable for local governments.

Democratic Del. Vanessa Atterbeary, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and an outspoken Blueprint proponent, said that she’d be open to delaying the timeline if there is data to support the decision.

Measuring the plan’s success statewide hasn’t been clear cut, and Atterbeary said that lawmakers may push next session to require tracking of how successful certain parts of the plan have been.

“We have to look at what’s been happening and see where we are,” she said in a phone interview Tuesday, “and then possibly reassess.”