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BALTIMORE — Maryland Governor Wes Moore is expected to share his Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal and legislative priorities Tuesday as the state faces a $2.7 billion deficit, the largest in 20 years. 

The Maryland General Assembly’s 2025 legislative session got underway on January 8, during which the governor said he plans to take an aggressive approach by cutting $2 billion in spending. 

Gov. Moore said he plans to focus on government efficiency and bringing new streams of revenue to the state. 

The state is legally required to pass a balanced budget, and the legislature will likely vote on the 83rd day of the session, on April 1, 2025. 

The budget was a hot topic during the Jan. 8 meeting. Democrats called it a difficult year and Gov. Moore said he is committed to optimizing spending. 

“I inherited a structural deficit when I became the governor because the state was both spending at a clip of what that was not sustainable, and we were growing at a clip that was embarrassing,” Gov. Moore said.

A structural deficit occurs when the government is spending more money than it makes in taxes. 

Did Gov. Moore inherit a deficit? 

In 2022, former Governor Larry Hogan and state lawmakers closed out the legislative session with an estimated $2.5 billion budget surplus, which allowed for infrastructure and school upgrades along with tax relief. The state also had about $3 billion – 12% of the state’s general fund – in its Rainy Day Fund. 

Hogan met with Gov. Moore’s administration in December 2022 to share budget recommendations during which time he urged the administration and lawmakers to maintain the surplus. 

“With continued inflation and economic uncertainty at the national level, we believe this is critically important, and it would be a mistake for the legislature to use its newly expanded budgetary power to return to the old habits of raiding the Rainy Day Fund or recklessly spending down the surplus,” Hogan said at the time. 

During the 2022 meeting, Hogan also recommended more than $720 million in spending to expand community policing and behavioral health services, replace an aging hospital on the Eastern Shore and construct a new school and care center. 

Maryland went into the 2024 legislative session facing an estimated $761 million structural deficit. At that time, Gov. Moore proposed $3.3 billion in cuts.