In the end, there wasn’t much for House and Senate fiscal leaders to argue about.
A conference committee between the two chambers wrapped up its work on the fiscal 2027 budget Friday in less time than the average Major League Baseball game. But the structurally balanced spending plan that heads back to both chambers for final approval Monday does little to resolve the looming gaps projected for next year and beyond.
“Every year we face some obstacle, whether it’s budgetary or something else, and every year we sit down, we do the work,” Maryland Budget Secretary Yaakov “Jake” Weissmann told reporters after Friday’s meeting.
“What you’re going to hear all of us say continuously, it’s not going to be January of next year,” Weissmann said. “We’re going to be having these conversations over the interim, working together and making the tough decisions to ensure Maryland continues to do what we have always done, which is balance the budget.”
Prior to the start of session analysts projected a $1.5 billion gap between projected revenues and expected spending in fiscal 2027. The $70.8 billion plan introduced by Gov. Wes Moore (D) in January erased that gap.
The governor’s budget — which Senate Budget and Taxation Chair Sen. Guy Guzzone (D-Howard) more than once called “pretty darn good” — contained no proposed fee or tax increases. Instead, it used a combination of fund balance transfers, cuts and swapping bonds for cash to close the gap.
Included in that is more than $282 million that was diverted from a green energy fund directly toward closing the budget shortfall. That plan repurposes another $100 million from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund (SEIF) — a pot of money set aside for green energy efforts — for paying down monthly EmPOWER program surcharges.
Lawmakers said the EmPOWER reductions will be a large part of the annual $150 in utility bill savings that homeowners can expect to see on their montly electric bills next year, a prime goal of lawmakers this year. Actual energy use and income eligibility could potentially increase that savings. Additional money will be available for other energy assistance based on income.
Other parts of the budget heading to a final vote Monday include another $20 million that will go toward child care subsidies.
The plan also calls for restricting payments for local governments and some state agencies.
It withholds $124 million in state aid to local law enforcement until each local department can certify that they’re not working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or immigration efforts, Guzzone said.
If lawmakers approve the budget as expected Monday, they will leave Annapolis with a spending plan that leaves $250 million in projected cash surplus at the end of the year. The rainy day fund will remain at $2.2 billion or about 8% of general fund revenues. The amount is greater than the statutorily required 5% of general fund revenues.
Looming in the future are billions in projected structural gaps that grow through 2030. Those structural deficits are driven primarily by rising costs of the landmark Blueprint for Maryland’s Future public education spending plan.
“To say that there isn’t a challenge and it isn’t significant would be wrong,” Guzzone told reporters after the conference committee meeting. “But that doesn’t mean that we give up on the vision and trying to accomplish what we wanted to do all along, and that is ensure that every single child can live to their potential and get the highest possible quality education they can get.”
None of the current projections take into account potential economic downturns.
Passage of the budget comes at the end of a process that comparatively speaking was without contention.
“It’ll be the fastest I have seen us pass and agree upon a budget and sent to the governor in my tenure here as a presiding officer,” Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) told reporters Friday morning.
The plan does impose some tough choices, including a $127 million cut related to the Developmental Disabilities Administration.
Families held an 11th hour rally this week and called for restoration of the funding. But the DDA is plagued with cost overruns. The exponential growth in spending has pushed the system to the edge of potentially losing eligibility for a federal waiver program, lawmakers said,
The budget this year was forced to clear $350 million in deficiency spending over two years attributable to the DDA, and lawmakers learned this week that they had to find another $40 million to make up for the agency’s overruns.
The budget also sets aside millions for fiscal compliance issues including professional staff and a review of the DDA. The report is supposed to focus on the root causes of the spending growth within the program.
Republicans scored two modest victories this year.
First, the Senate conferees agreed to accept an amendment added by the House that would restrict nonprofits’ ability to receive grants if they are behind on state-required filings. Some reports estimate that there are thousands of such nonprofits to whom this would apply.
And the minority caucus added language that makes changes to the eligibility requirements for a vehicle to get historic tags. The Senate accepted a proposal from Sen. J.B. Jennings (R-Baltimore and Harford) to make any car 25 years or older eligible.
Earlier this week, the House stripped the amendment. But by Friday afternoon, it was back.
“J.B. Jennings is a persuasive guy,” House Appropriations Chair Ben Barnes (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) joked as he announced he would agree to the change.
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by Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters
March 28, 2026
Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.