State Budget Secretary Helene Grady, left, in a file photo with Gov. Wes Moore, told a joint legislative committee Wednesday that the goverrnor has opted against a hiring freeze to ease projected budget deficit. File photo by Bryan P. Sears.
An “enormous” projected budget deficit over the next five years will not slow down efforts to fill vacant state jobs, the state budget secretary said Wednesday.
Budget Secretary Helene Grady, speaking to the Joint Committee on Fair Practices and State Personnel, acknowledged the looming fiscal challenge but said, when questioned by comittee members, that those challenges will not sidetrack efforts to “rebuild state government.”
Grady said managing the need for new staff and a projected $2.7 billion deficit for fiscal 2026 “is a balancing act.”
“What I can say at this point is, agencies continue to be authorized to recruit and fill roles,” she said. “We do not have an across-the-board hiring freeze in place. We encourage agencies to be managing within their budgets and when they are seeing areas that are growing beyond budget, we rely on them to manage appropriately and prioritize all their expenses, whether it be additional hires, new contracts to be let, or purchases and procurements, etc.”
Grady made the comments in response to questions from Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Howard and Anne Arundel), the Senate co-chair of the joint committee.
“We obviously have a fair number of vacancies here in the state,” Lam said. “We’re also facing a significant budget crisis.”
Lam said filling vacancies is important even during challenging fiscal times.
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“I’m a little bit wary of the fact that this could be deprioritized, that this could be a way to address the budget shortfalls that we’re seeing through a hiring freeze,” he said.
As he entered office last year, Gov. Wes Moore (D) claimed an estimated 10,000 vacancies in state government and higher education, but promised to cut that number in half in his first year.
He fell far short of that goal.
Grady told the committee Wednesday that the percentage of vacancies has dropped from 13% to 10.4% since January 2023. That figure includes the addition of more than 1,200 new positions added to the current budget as well as more than 900 contractual jobs that are being converted to full-time state jobs.
Grady said Wednesday that a hiring freeze was a policy decision that Moore opted not to impose. The budget secretary said she considers it “somewhat counterproductive long-term to put in place freezes in light of our need to deliver government services to people.”
So far, Moore has given no hint as to how he plans to address the budget. In July, he announced nearly $150 million in budget moves to start the fiscal year. The move was less of a cut and more of a shifting of money to different programs.
Since then, however, the budget news has only grown worse.
Grady told the committee she is still working on Moore’s budget proposal for fiscal 2026.
“Obviously we are working through our plans for next year and are not prepared to share details of what the governor will roll out in January, but the administration’s commitment to rebuilding government, to recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce remains among our top priorities,” she said.
Del. Jefferson L. Ghrist (R- Upper Shore), a member of the committee, joined Lam in his concerns about state hiring, though he also raised concerns about the prudence of continuing on the current path.
“Payroll is any organization’s largest expense,” Ghrist said. “It seems like there really aren’t any caps or restraints on hiring and where we’re hiring and hiring the most needed positions.”