Moore says lawmakers should be ready for ‘a season of hard choices’

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Wes Moore kicked off the first day of the 2025 General Assembly session by warning lawmakers Wednesday that a “season of hard choices” awaits them as the state confronts a spiraling budget deficit.

The governor made his remarks at the annual Eye on Annapolis newsmaker event that has traditionally preceded the start of the session.

The fiscal outlook was grim, but the return to Annapolis was a largely upbeat affair. The year’s first floor sessions featured some legislators sitting beside their children, partners or parents and acknowledgements for a gathered crowd of local, state and federal officials, several of whom were previously legislators.

As he begins his third legislative session, Moore said the budget plan he’ll unveil later this month will include $2 billion in cuts. “We have to rein in spending,” Moore said, noting that the budget increased by 70% in the seven years before he became governor.

Next year’s deficit is nearly $3 billion. It remains to be seen exactly how the administration will account for the remaining balance, though Moore maintained that he has a very “high bar” for tax increases of any kind to generate revenue and spur growth.

He added later in the day that, “We are not going to grow our economy on the backs of working-class Marylanders.”

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The governor noted that the state’s budget for three years was based on a flood of federal dollars that poured into states’ economies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moore touched on other topics likely to get attention this session, including transportation, public safety and a desire to drive down health care costs.

In regards to transportation, Moore said, “we are not only going to work with this [Trump] administration on transportation … we’ve got to fix the transportation business model.”

Moore also commented on a possible bill to allow grocery stores to sell beer and wine: “I just want the General Assembly to listen to the people,” he said, adding that the issue was not his highest priority.

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The governor spoke at length about Baltimore City’s recent drop in violent crime, which he said was the most precipitous decline of crime in any city in the U.S. He noted that after eight straight years of annual 300-plus homicides, Baltimore had seen that number dip below 300 in 2023 and in 2024 to barely over 200.

Moore said the decline reflected a thoughtful and comprehensive approach that included cooperation among federal, state and local police and prosecutors, as well as a host of community anti-crime initiatives and justice reforms.

House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson also fielded questions jointly, agreeing with Moore that “difficult” budget decisions will have to be made.

Ferguson contended that the deficit is not a result of government overspending, but rather a consequence of skyrocketing costs, especially for health care services.

It’s not a diagnosis that the minority party agrees with. Republican Sen. Justin Ready said in an interview later in the day that the deficit is a “self-inflicted wound” that is a direct result of Democrats overspending.

“We cannot afford to raise more costs on working families and small businesses,” Ready said. “Maryland state government needs to go on the diet and identify some things that we can do without.”

Both legislative leaders said they were willing to listen to ideas for “adjusting the implementation” of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the ambitious education plan that is straining state and local budgets.

Ferguson stressed, however, that lawmakers were not likely to abandon the plan, given the evidence that almost one-third of Maryland high school graduates were ill-prepared for jobs in the nation’s evolving economy.

“We have got to prepare our young people for a very different world,” he said.

Jones said lawmakers want to hear more from Moore about his intentions on the Blueprint and other matters. “None of us like surprises,” she said.

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Ferguson said that while he understood that expensive transportation projects are attractive targets for cuts or delayed spending, it was imperative for the state to see transportation infrastructure as a “core component” of Maryland’s economy. Jones added that transportation goals must be balanced with “fiscal reality.”

Almost any issue will take a back seat to the state’s need to get its fiscal house in order, Ferguson said. “You’ve got to figure the budget, first and foremost,” he said.

Among the first orders of business for each chamber was reelecting their respective presiding officers, including Ferguson as Senate president, Jones as the House speaker and each body’s second-in-command. The Senate’s No. 2 is President Pro Tem Malcolm Augustine, a Prince George’s County Democrat. In the House, it’s Speaker Pro Tem Dana Stein, a Democrat representing Baltimore County.

Ferguson, addressing senators after being nominated and reelected as president, made light of the difficult choices ahead — as he was recently explaining the nomination and election process for the Senate president position to his young daughter, she asked whether there was anyone else running.

His wife jumped in, saying something along the lines of, “No one else wants that job, it’s going to suck this year.”

As Ferguson was dropping off his daughter at her bus stop Wednesday morning, he said she reminded him, “Have a great first day. Don’t forget, it sucks to suck.”

Wednesday’s official business, though, largely consisted of legislators getting reacquainted with their peers, acknowledging the service of their presiding officers and welcoming several members of Maryland’s congressional delegation, current and former state officials, county executives and mayors.

Among the visiting officials were Baltimore County Executive Katherine Klausmeier, who only officially vacated her state Senate seat this week after being selected to finish now-U.S. Rep. Johnny Olszewski’s term; and Rep. Sarah Elfreth, who was also a state senator until recently. She was sworn into Congress on Jan. 3.

(This story has been updated.)