Senate Majority Sen. Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-Upper Shore) and House and Senate Republicans said they favor cuts to entitlements and will oppose tax and fee increases to resolve $3 billion in budget deficits. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.
Republican state lawmakers said they are prepared to offer solutions to solve the state budget crisis but that they will oppose tax increases as part of the solution.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) and the General Assembly have to solve more than $3 billion in budget deficits before the session ends in April. A three-pronged approach of cuts, government efficiencies and new taxes has been floated by Democratic leaders as a way to resolve the problem.
Republicans in the House and Senate said Wednesday, the opening day of the 2025 General Assembly, that they are resolute in their opposition to tax or fee increases.
“We’re going to have to balance this budget strictly on finding additional cuts, probably through entitlements and through programs that have not gotten underway yet,” Senate Minority Leader Sen. Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-Upper Shore). “I think it’s very important that we recognize that Marylanders are having to live within their means, and the state of Maryland has to do the same.”
Hershey said Republicans have raised the alarm about unsustainable budgets in the past when “the policies and bills that were passed created these situations.”
“There is a comment from the second floor that the Republicans ought to offer some solutions, rather than just hurling comments from the cheap seats,” Hershey said. “What’s nice to know that they finally want to listen to us.”
House Minority Leader Del. Jason C. Buckel (R-Allegany) blamed the deficits on unsustainable spending passed by “Democratic super majority — many times over the veto of the former governor,” Republican Larry Hogan.
“They have put forward programs and regulations and taxes that have depressed private-sector growth in our state,” Buckel said. “I applaud Gov. Moore for at least saying some of the things that we’ve been saying. I think that he’s in good faith, genuinely saying we need to grow our private sector economy.”
Moore will deliver the third spending plan of his administration next week.
There is a roughly $300 million deficit in the current budget that Moore and lawmakers will have to figure out how to close first, as state law requires a balanced budget.
Additionally, the state faces a nearly $3 billion hole for fiscal 2026. Those problems grow over the next five years. Legislative analysts said the deficit could exceed $6 billion by the end of the current five-year projection.
Few details about how Moore will attack the problem have trickled out.
Moore said Wednesday that his plan will include $2 billion in budget cuts and efficiencies. He said his plan will affect many in state government but that it would not mandate across-the-board cuts.
“It’s minute and it’s line by line,” Moore said. “I think we have asked all of our agencies to find those inefficiencies and be able to fix them.”
Moore called across-the-board cuts “lazy” budgeting. “I don’t think we can do lazy governance in this moment,” he said.
Sources familiar with the budget proposal said the University of Maryland System will see one of the largest single cuts — about $110 million. Universities in the system will be asked to forgo tuition increases and cover the reductions instead by not filling open positions and by using reserve funds.
The governor also appears to be leaning toward the creation of what was described as a “Maryland Stadium Authority model” for major information technology projects. The consolidation is seen as a way to maximize cost savings.
While they may oppose increases in taxes and fees, Republicans have a math problem of their own: There are enough Democrats in the House and Senate to pass any bill — and override a veto — without any Republicans.
But House Minority Whip Jesse T. Pippy (R-Frederick), said Republicans have public opinion on their side.
“A lot of you probably saw that was a Gonzales poll where the overwhelming majority of Marylanders do not support tax increases,” Pippy told reporters. “So when they get their energy bills and they’re through the roof, when they get their new tax bills or new real estate tax bills that are through the roof, you’re going to see whose side they’re on.
“There’s going to be six-and-a-half-million Marylanders and our caucuses working together, because these are the issues that are most important to everyday, hard-working Marylanders, regardless of their political affiliation,” he said.
The cuts and efficiencies Moore said his budget will contain still leave about $1 billion in deficits unaddressed, at least publicly. So far, the governor has maintained a “high bar” standard for tax increases.
“I’ll work with anybody with any type of solution,” Moore told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “But I have been very clear, and my bar is not moving. I do have a very high bar when it comes to revenues, and we are not going to grow an economy on the backs of working-class Maryland.”
The House and Senate take the lead on the budget in alternate years, and the House is scheduled to begin the work on the budget this year. So far, no tax plan has been formally proposed. One seems likely.
“We can’t just cut our way out of this,” House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) said during The Daily Record Eye on Annapolis event Wednesday morning.