The Maryland House of Delegates convened Jan 8, the first day of the legislative session in Annapolis. Photo by William J. Ford.
Handshakes, hugs, kisses and some flashy attire collided Wednesday on a cold first day of the 2025 Maryland General Assembly session, a day that typically feels more like back to school than back to work.
But the back to work could come soon enough, as lawmakers have the next 90 days to figure out how to balance a fiscal 2026 budget with a nearly $3 billion shortfall, a challenge cited by many of the first-day’s speakers.
“I know there’s been a lot of talk about our financial limitations, and there should be. We can’t deny our difficult fiscal reality,” said House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County), who was nominated to preside the chamber for a sixth session.
“Instead of talking about what our budget can’t do, I’d like to talk about what it can do,” she said. “Most importantly, our budget has the power to protect the most vulnerable Marylanders. I don’t know about you, but I think our values are something worth fighting for.”
Gov. Wes Moore (D) and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) were touting the outlines of their own plans Wednesday, which call for cuts to state spending first and new revenues second. Republican leaders, meanwhile, are insisting that the budget be balanced without new taxes.
That position was echoed by U.S. Rep. Andy Harris (R-1st), one of many visitors to the State House for opening day. Harris, the sole Republican in the state’s congressional delegation, stopped by the Senate chamber where he served for 12 years.
While Democratic reaction to the coming inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump (R) has ranged from concern to fear, Harris said he hopes the legislature will work with Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress on protecting the border.
“I do think that they [state lawmakers] have to be aware that people are … still worried about security,” Harris said. “They certainly can cooperate with the federal government. Making sure, for instance, that we deport criminal illegal aliens, and I would hope that there’s little resistance to that idea.”
Henson assigned to Judicial Proceedings Committee
While old-timers haunted the hallways, there were some new faces, too, including former Del. Shaneka Henson (D-Anne Arundel) who was sworn into the Senate on opening day, making her the first Black woman to represent Anne Arundel in the state Senate. She takes the District 30 seat vacated after Rep. Sarah K. Elfreth (D-3rd) was sworn in to Congress Friday.
“I want to uplift every woman in Anne Arundel County who was capable and able to do this job, but by way of their gender, by factor of the color of their skin, they were overlooked and weren’t given opportunity for decades and decades and generations and generations,” Henson said after taking the oath.
“I am so thankful to live in a time where you can be judged by your qualifications and not disqualified by those characteristics that you cannot change,” she said.
Henson, who is an attorney, was assigned to the Judicial Proceedings Committee, rather than the Budget and Taxation Committee where Elfreth served. Ferguson said the committee assignment was not related to a 2024 ethics investigation in the House that recommended Henson be barred from serving on the House Appropriations Committee.
That recommendation came after questions arose about Henson’s involvement in a church-affiliated nonprofit’s request for state bond money, which a legislative ethics committee said created “at minimum, the appearance of a conflict of interest.” The committee urged the Jones to “not assign Delegate Henson to the Appropriations Committee in the future.”
But Ferguson said it was his understanding that the matter “was fully handled in the House, and that it is a fresh start in the Senate” for Henson. “I think we’ve always had a good relationship, and I think she has an opportunity to be successful here.”
He said Henson landed on Judicial Proceedings because “That is where we have several openings. So, that’s where she’ll start this coming term, but we’ll see where she goes from there.”
Committee musical chairs
In addition to Henson, other new faces will be coming to the Senate soon, which meant a shuffling of other committee assignments.
Sen. Antonio Hayes (D-Baltimore City) was named vice chair of the Finance Committee, replacing former Sen. Kathy Klausmeier (D-Baltimore County), who was named Baltimore County executive on Tuesday. Sen. Clarence K. Lam (D-Howard and Anne Arundel), will take over for Hayes as chair of the Executive Nominations Committee, while Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George’s), becomes vice chair of that panel.
“Senators Hayes and Lam are essential members of my leadership team and have dedicated years to honorably serving their communities,” Ferguson said in a statement. “I am especially proud of the increasing representation of our committee leadership to match the diversity of our State’s residents, as Senator Lam makes history to become the first Asian American to serve as a Senate standing committee chair.”
Sen. Karen Lewis Young (D-Frederick City) was moved from the Education, Energy and the Environment Committee to Budget and Taxation, which Ferguson said will have a new subcommittee on procurement, chaired by Sen. Joanne C. Benson (D-Prince George’s).
Other Senate committee changes:
- Michael A. Jackson (D-Prince George’s, Charles, and Calvert) will become chair of the Budget and Taxation’s Public Safety, Transportation, and Environment Subcommittee;
- Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County) will be chair of the Pensions Subcommittee and Senate chair of the Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee;
- Arthur Ellis (D-Charles)will be vice chair of the Rules Committee;
- Sara Love (D-Montgomery), who joined the Senate in the summer, will join Henson on Judicial Proceedings;
- Klausmeier’s eventual replacement in District 8 will be go to the Finance Committee, while the eventual replacement for the recently departed District 41 Sen. Jill P. Carter (D-Baltimore City) will ber assigned to Education, Energy and the Environment.
Three new House members also got committee assignments Wednesday, while two holdover members were moved to new committees.
Among the newbies, Dels. Barry Beauchamp (R-Wicomico) and Matthew Schindler (D-Washington) will go to the Appropriations Committee, while Del. Teresa Saavedra Woorman (D-Montgomery) landed on the Health and Government Operations Committee.
Del. Robbyn T. Lewis (D-Baltimore City) is moving from Health and Government Operations to the Environment and Transportation Committee, while Del. Kent Roberson (D-Prince George’s) will shift from the Judiciary Committee to the Ways and Means Committee.
A Prince George’s ‘caretaker’
Prince George’s Acting County Executive Tara Jackson continued the tradition of county leaders laying out the county’s legislative state priorities in opening day — even though she only expects to be in the job for a few month, until someone is elected to permanently former Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who was sworn in to the U.S. Senate on Friday.
More than a dozen candidate have lined up for the special election to succeed Alsobrooks, including former County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy, At-Large County Councilmember Calvin Hawkins, County Council Chair Jolene Ivey and state Sen. Alonzo Washington. Jackson is not running.
That made Prince George’s — the state’s second-largest jurisdiction, with nearly 948,000 residents — the only county with a temporary leader on the first day of the legislature. But that did not stop Jackson, who said she’s focused on improving the county during her tenure, from showing up in Annapolis.
“I believe that my caretaker role demands that I be active and work along with our legislative team to bring home results for Prince Georgians,” Jackson said to reporters Wednesday morning in Annapolis.
She said one priority is $78 million in health care infrastructure that includes $30 million to redevelop the Adventist Healthcare Fort Washington Medical Center, $15 million to expand the University of Maryland Capital Region Hospital and $9 million to expand the MedStar Southern Maryland intensive care unit. Health care had been a priority for several years under Alsobrooks, for whom Jackson served as chief administrative officer since 2020.
“Our residents, all too often, are having to go to other counties in order to receive care,” Jackson said. “I don’t have to tell folks that if you have to go to another county, if you have to travel 30 or 40 miles to get to a hospital, then that’s going to impact your quality of life and whatever health care issue it is that you’re facing.”
Klausmeier taps three former county employees as top aides
A day after she was sworn in as Baltimore County executive, Klausmeier, the former state senator, was back in her old stomping grounds Wednesday. But she did not let that get in the way of naming three members of her senior staff including a husband and wife.
A county spokesperson confirmed that Amanda Conn will be Klausmeier’s chief of staff. Conn currently serves as general counsel for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, and was also assistant county attorney in Baltimore County.
Two other former county employees are also returning to assist Klausmeier: Patrick Roddy, a former Annapolis lobbyist who was the legislative officer for four Baltimore County executives, and his wife, Valerie, will serve in a senior advisory capacity. The county spokesperson said salaries and exact job titles had not yet been defined.
Valerie Roddy worked for the county from 1982 to 2005 as a senior operating and capital budget analyst, program administrator and a bureau chief. She later worked at the Maryland Department of Health as chief of staff to both the department’s deputy secretary for Behavioral Health & Disabilities and the deputy secretary for Public Health Services. She served as director of fiscal services and operations for the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration before retiring as director for fiscal services and operations at the state health department.
Patrick Roddy was one of several plaintiffs in a decade-old pension lawsuit against Baltimore County. The county and plaintiffs entered into a consent settlement on Jan. 2, according to online court records. Details of that settlement were not immediately available.
Attorney General priorities
County officials weren’t the only ones carrying a list of their priorities to lawmakers Wednesday: Attorney General Anthony Brown (D) was making the rounds.
Brown is co-chair, with Public Defender Natasha Dartigue, on the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative, which released 18 recommendations last month focused on mass incarceration. One proposal would increase the number of people eligible for early parole considerations “due to serious medical conditions and having reached an age where they no longer pose a threat to public safety.”
Brown said reform of the state’s parole system should include geriatric and medical parole.
“Those who have spent a lot of time behind bars [and] they no longer pose a threat to themselves or society,” he said. “They paid their debt [to society] to give them a second look.”
The General Assembly’s website said state lawmakers have tried to pass medical and geriatric parole proposals since 2022.
Sen. Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County) has pushed for such bills in the past, and is sponsoring Senate Bill 181 this session. That bill has been cross-filed with House Bill 190, sponsored for a second straight year by Del. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel). The bills would apply to an incarcerated individual who is 60 years old, has served as least 15 years and is not registered as a sex offender.
For medical parole, a medical professional would have to determine if the incarcerated individual is “chronically debilitated or incapacitated” or has “a disease or condition with an end-of-life trajectory.” Certain conditions would include dementia or a severe or permanent medical or cognitive disability that prevents the person “from completing more than one activity or daily living.”
Hettleman said she’s still optimistic the bill will pass, despite previous rejections.
“I come back every year with this because I am optimistic that my colleagues and this institution are going to see the wisdom of providing care to people who are behind bars, who are deathly ill, and that people are better than the worst thing they’ve ever done in their lives,” Hettleman said Wednesday.
“People age out of crime,” she said. “I believe that the community can be safe, and would be safe with this reform, and that people’s dignity in their final days will be upheld.”