Maryland has 1.4 Billion Problems and Wes Moore is All of Them
For three years people have told Wes Moore that he cannot spend beyond Maryland's means. He didn't care, and now here we are.
In a result that will surprise absolutely nobody with any understanding of Maryland’s budget, Maryland is staring at a $1.4 billion deficit.
Lawmakers will be briefed Wednesday on a $1.4 billion budget gap they could face as they head into the 2026 legislative session, roughly five times larger than the amount predicted in April.
The briefing for House and Senate fiscal committees by the Department of Legislative Services blames the projected cash shortfall on national economic pressures, chiefly inflation and the rising costs of goods and services to state government, as well as the ever-increasing costs of Medicaid. Additionally, the state is seeing other costs driven by tariffs imposed on imported goods by the Trump administration.
The news comes after a 2025 legislative session where Gov. Wes Moore (D) and the General Assembly were able to close a $3.3 billion structural deficit through a combination of one-time fund transfers, tax increases and budget cuts. When they wrapped up the session in April, they expected the conversation over the fiscal 2027 budget would include a manageable $300 million structural deficit.
Once again, Maryland Democrats were trying to fade the heat to whom? President Donald Trump.
“The whole thing is concerning — losing up to $1.5 billion in revenue based on the negative actions of a federal government,” Barnes said. “It’s not just concerning that we’ve lost the $1.5 billion. It’s pretty concerning that they’ve [the Trump administration] only been in office 10 months.
What’s concerning is not that House Appropriations Chairman Ben Barnes is worried that it’s only been ten months, it’s the fact that LITERALLY EVERYBODY KNEW THAT THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN AND WES MOORE AND THE REST OF THE DEMOCRATS DID NOTHING ABOUT IT.
Moore and the rest of his cabal decided, instead of budgeting responsibly last year, that they would use gimmicks like one-time fund transfers, tax increases, and small budget cuts to cover the existing shortfall. None of this stopped Democrats from increasing spending, creating new pet projects, and looking to raise taxes. This, of course, cost Maryland its coveted AAA bond rating. The AAA bond rating that survived the Oil Embargo, the Old Court Savings and Loan Scandal, the Recession, 9/11, Martin O’Malley and a Global Pandemic could not survive Wes Moore.
Once again, let me remind you that all of this was entirely predictable:
“The Administration’s budget plan does not appear sustainable”, 1/31/23
The Budget Blues Are Here Again, 8/28/23
Wes Moore’s Plan from Hell, 2/12/24
A Calamity is Coming, 3/13/24
Moore’s Budget Chasm as Wide as it Was Predictable, 11/19/24
Some of us have been yelling from the rooftops that Wes Moore meant the return of O’Malleynomics, the politics of wasteful spending, and high taxes on Maryland working families that hurt Maryland’s economy. Combine that with Moore’s inability to adequately plan for the return of Donald Trump to the White House and the Democrats overreliance on federal largesse to prop up the state budget, and you have the budget disaster I’ve been warning about for twenty years.
The upcoming General Assembly session is going to be a calamity, one where Democrats continue to try to spend more and more taxpayer money while trying to extract more and more from the people left living in Maryland.
Governor Larry Hogan left Maryland in the best fiscal posture it had seen in a generation. It took Wes Moore less than a year to burn that to the ground, and less than three to put it in a spot that makes Martin O’Malley look almost competent. It is becoming clearer by the day that Maryland’s economy cannot serve a second term for Wes Moore. Our state desperately needs an adult in charge again.