1 week Ago By Hannah Gaskill
Maryland legislators are poised for marathon sessions of frenzied lawmaking Monday to ensure all loose ends are tied before the General Assembly adjourns at midnight.The 2025 legislative session, marked by a structural deficit of over $3 billion and federal funding cuts, is set to adjourn on Sine Die Monday when the clock strikes midnight. House and Senate lawmakers will dodge in and out of floor and committee voting sessions and parties before confetti rains down on both chambers in Tuesday’s early hours.
Over the 90-day session, legislators debated a multibillion-dollar budget gap, their constituents’ sky-high utility bills and the impact of policies implemented by President Donald Trump, among other issues.“Marylanders across every part of the state are feeling the pinch, and we knew that from the beginning, whether it be grocery prices, utility bills or fears about the new federal administration,” Senate President Bill Ferguson said Friday. “In every case, I believe we’ve done the best we could do to address their key concerns.
”Maryland began its annual budget season in the red, with legislators looking to send Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, a balanced budget.After weeks of deliberation, members of the House Appropriations Senate Budget and Tax committees met Friday to finalize the budget and its companion bill, which are poised to bring in $1.
6 billion in new and increased taxes. Both chambers will give the budget final approval Monday.Members of both chambers also will convene a conference committee to iron out the final details of Moore’s bill to amend the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform policy.
Acknowledging the state’s fiscal situation, Moore, who testified in favor of the Blueprint in 2020, brought forth a bill to freeze funding increases to schools that receive Concentration of Poverty Grants, also known as community schools, for two years and pause the implementation of teacher collaborative time for four.House lawmakers restored the funding increases for community schools and lowered the collaborative time pause from four years to one. Meeting the House and the governor in the middle, the Senate moved to replace the community school funding but kept the delay on collaborative time implementation at four years.
In Monday’s mad dash to midnight, legislators also will give final approval to a slew of bills that have yet to be sent to Moore’s desk for his signature, including an energy bill slated to make Maryland more energy independent and lower utility bills for ratepayers.Sponsored by Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, both Democrats, the Next Generation Energy Act will require the Maryland Public Service Commission to issue a request for proposals to secure new energy generation sources to fulfill the power needs of peak summer hours, allowing the state to phase out coal and oil and maintain enough energy generation for when those plants eventually shut down.
The bill does not mandate the closure of existing oil or coal plants.Related ArticlesLawmakers pass Child Victims Act change, immigration reform in rare Saturday sessionDevelopmental disabilities community disappointed by cut in Moore’s budgetMaryland Senate battles bills, ties loose ends as session nears closeCarroll County lawmaker sends letter to AG after reparations bill passageHouse passes bill to lower caps on Child Victims Act paymentsThe legislation also would allow the Maryland EmPOWER program to issue loans in addition to grants, provide utility bill rebate payments based on usage by residential electric customers during peak winter and summer months, and bar utility companies from filing multi-year rate plans unless the Public Service Commission determines they benefit ratepayers.House lawmakers debated and passed the bill over the weekend, with Republicans asserting that the multifaceted legislation’s green energy policy will not meet the state’s needs.
Del. Brian Chisholm, an Anne Arundel County Republican, said he knew lawmakers were making a “good faith” effort to help but urged proponents of the legislation to stop.“We are the most overregulated state in the country; we are hostile to business,” he said Saturday.
“We need to attract more generation and we’re playing whack-a-mole with bills like this that shouldn’t be moving forward.”Del. Brian Crosby, a St.
Mary’s County Democrat, countered that the bill is about holding utilities accountable.“I think it is comical to say we are overregulating on this particular issue because when it’s solar, we favor more regulations from the minority party,” he said. “It is hypocritical here to sit here and say that, ‘Oh, we’re overregulating this industry just because we like it, or not overregulating it because we don’t like it,’ — that’s crazy.
”Because the bill was amended, the Next Generation Energy Act will head to the Senate on Monday for its approval before it heads to Moore.The Senate also will need to approve immigration policy that underwent significant alterations in the House over the past week.Sponsored by Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair Will Smith, the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act would limit Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ ability to enter public schools and libraries, mental and physical health care facilities and courthouses.
The bill was amended by House Democrats to eliminate existing and future agreements between local law enforcement and ICE through the 287(g) program.In Maryland, a handful of counties have partnered with ICE through the 287(g) program to run the names of incarcerated people through a database to check for immigration enforcement actions.Rather than participating in the program, the amended bill would create a statewide standard mandating that local jails hold people who have been convicted of crimes of violence, driving under the influence or engaging in gang activity for 48 hours only to facilitate ICE detainers.
If ICE does not retrieve them within that time, the individual would be released.The amendment echoes legislation sponsored by Del. Nicole Williams, a Prince George’s County Democrat.
Her bill passed out of the House but has not advanced in the Senate.The bill’s future is unclear. At a Friday news conference, Smith said his “preference” is to eliminate all current and future 287(g) agreements, but he fears the “real consequences” of a retaliatory federal government should they take that route.
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