MOORE ADMIN BILL WOULD SLOW PER PUPIL SPENDING: A comprehensive education bill unveiled Wednesday by the Moore administration would slow the growth of per pupil spending beginning next year and continuing for the next eight years, raising concerns among advocates and lawmakers. Instead of growing between 4% and 5% a year for the next eight years, the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act calls for growth from 2% to 3% in the same period. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
- Moore’s bill would also put a two-year pause on increases in the grants each community school receives for fiscal years 2027 and 2028. The funding increases would resume in 2029 at the level calculated for what they would have received during the 2027 fiscal year. Hannah Gaskill/The Baltimore Sun.
END TO INHERITANCE TAX WOULD KILL FUNDS FOR 24 REGISTER OF WILLS OFFICES: Moore administration officials are vowing to find a way to fund the state’s 24 register of wills offices, after an “oversight” led to the accidental elimination of their funding with the plan to do away with the state’s inheritance tax next year. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
MOORE TAX PLAN COULD GO FARTHER, ‘FAIR SHARE’ ADVOCATES SAY: Gov. Wes Moore’s tax reform plan that would raise hundreds of millions of dollars more from Maryland’s wealthiest earners does not go far enough to offset cuts to education, child care and other programs, a growing coalition of advocates and lawmakers say. Legislation they’re introducing, called the Fair Share for Maryland Act, would expand corporate taxes in multiple ways, while hiking the highest income tax brackets even further to raise between $1.6 billion to $2 billion annually. Sam Janesch/The Baltimore Sun.
TRUMP MOVES ON FEDERAL WORKFORCE CONCERN MANY IN MARYLAND: Union leaders and elected officials who represent tens of thousands of federal workers in Maryland are reviewing what they say are potentially harmful impacts of President Donald Trump’s moves to implement a hiring freeze, end work-from-home policies and, eventually, remove thousands of workers from the federal payroll. Sam Janesch/The Baltimore Sun.
DISABILITY ADVOCATES CONCERNED OVER POSSIBLE CUTS TO SERVICES: Maryland disability advocates are worried about the more than $200 million in proposed fiscal 2026 budget cuts to the state’s Developmental Disabilities Administration, fearing that access to needed services could be decreased. The cuts are just some pieces of a larger effort to resolve the state’s $3 billion budget deficit. Natalie Jones/The Baltimore Sun.
EX LEGISLATIVE AID CHARGED WITH AWARDING HERSELF $20,000 SCHOLARSHIP: A former legislative aide who worked in the Maryland Senate is facing charges that she used her position and access to a senator’s email account to award herself $20,000 in scholarship money. Madeleine O’Neill/The Baltimore Banner.
- Charging documents do not say which lawmaker the aide, Esther Dikongue-Bayighomog, worked for during the alleged theft scheme. But Dikongue-Bayighomog’s LinkedIn profile says she worked for state Sen. William C. Smith Jr., chair of the powerful Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, during most of the timeframe prosecutors say she was stealing scholarship money. Alex Mann/The Baltimore Sun.
MOORE ADMIN TOUTS PROGRESS ON EVs BUT SAY ROAD WILL GET BUMPIER: Top Moore administration officials told state lawmakers Wednesday that they’re committed to implementing aggressive mandates for the sale of electric vehicles in the years ahead. But they acknowledged that the push to put more battery-operated vehicles on the road faces multiple challenges — and that the task just became harder now that President Donald Trump is back in office. Josh Kurtz/Maryland Matters.
STATE DELEGATE MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS: A state delegate may have inadvertently run afoul of state campaign finance law as she sought to address questions recently about a missing 2023 payment to rent a venue for a campaign event. Del. Dana Jones (D-Anne Arundel) faced questions about the Oct. 5, 2023, event during an Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee meeting earlier this month, where she was one of three candidates to fill a vacancy in the Maryland Senate. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
DEPORTATION THREAT: WHAT ICE CAN DO AND HOW LOCAL LEADERS ARE PREPPING: The rhetoric surrounding immigration and deportations is certain to set large parts of Maryland on edge. In several parts of the state, Hispanic populations and multiracial households are the only demographics that are growing. What can ICE officials do and what recourse do residents have? Cody Boteler/The Baltimore Banner.
MO CO OFFICIALS PREP FOR ICE ACTIONS: Montgomery County elected officials, school leaders and local immigration advocates are making plans and preparations following President Donald Trump’s executive order that makes it easier for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry out mass deportations. Ginny Bixby & Ashlyn Campbell/Bethesda Today.
SCOTT: B’MORE WON’T HINDER OR ESPECIALLY HELP DEPORTATION EFFORTS: Baltimore will not interfere with federal agencies carrying out President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigrant deportation plans, but the city also won’t go above and beyond to help those agencies, Mayor Brandon Scott said Wednesday. Emily Opilo and Lee O. Sanderlin/The Baltimore Banner.
FORMER CAPITOL OFFICER ON TRUMP’s PARDON OF JAN. 6 INSURRECTIONISTS: The calls kept coming. “The defendant you testified against is being released from the Department of Corrections,” the automated message said, according to former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, a Maryland resident who last year ran for office. Each of those defendants, Dunn said, assaulted his former colleague, Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who sent him a screenshot of 10 calls from the Justice Department that began rolling in before the sun rose Tuesday, some just minutes apart. Peter Hermann and Ellie Silverman/The Washington Post.
OVER PROTESTS, B’MORE RAISES WATER RATES: After saying “we absolutely hear your voices” and “we understand the concerns you raised,” City Administrator Faith Leach joined three other members of the Board of Estimates last night to approve a new schedule of charges that will raise household water bills at their highest rate in five years. Mark Reutter/Baltimore Brew.
