“Welcome to the Grand Illusion
Come on in and see what’s happening
Pay the price, get your tickets for the show…”

•  Styx, “The Grand Illusion”

In a barn nestled among the rolling hills of Boordy Vineyards, Governor Wes Moore took the stage this week to address angry residents about a 70-mile power line project threatening farms, forests, and private property across northern Maryland. The project, known as the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, has ignited fierce backlash from landowners. But instead of leadership, Moore delivered a performance rooted in political evasion. He claimed the project was entirely in the hands of PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator, declaring that PJM is managing it, not the states.

That statement is not just misleading. It is wrong. 

PJM may have initiated the planning for the transmission line, but PJM has no authority to decide where or whether it gets built. That power rests with the Maryland Public Service Commission. The PSC must approve a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity before the first shovel can hit the ground. And the PSC, in turn, is controlled by five commissioners who are all appointed by the Governor. 

Over the past two years, Moore has reshaped the PSC into an entity largely of his own design. Four out of five current commissioners are his appointees. He even installed a new chair. The commission may operate with some procedural independence, but it is not politically insulated. It takes its cue from the governor.

If Moore truly wanted to influence or halt the project, he could. He could appoint commissioners who share his supposed concerns about landowner rights. He could direct his PSC chair to apply heightened scrutiny. He could call for delay or outright denial. 

State Senator Justin Ready, who represents communities along the route, has said as much. The PSC is appointed by the governor. A very clear message could be sent that the state is not doing this right now. However, Moore refuses to send that message. He claims to stand with the people, even as farmers are being dragged into federal court by corporate lawyers seeking forced access to their land.

Just this month, a federal judge granted the developer access to 117 properties across three counties. These landowners now face the prospect of strangers walking their fields, drilling test holes, cutting trees, and staking towers before the project has even been approved. The judge ruled that the developer’s need to perform surveys outweighed the landowners’ rights to say no. Survey crews can now enter with as little as 24 hours’ notice. 

And Moore? He responded by mouthing concern. He said he understands the judicial branch. He said he stands with the people. But he has done nothing. His administration could file amicus briefs. His PSC could delay hearings. His agencies could withhold cooperation. None of that has happened.

Moore continues to peddle a second fiction. He says his administration follows an “all of the above” energy strategy. That phrase implies pragmatism and balance. However, in Moore’s world, “all of the above” excludes natural gas, coal, and in practice, nuclear power. 

Moore boasts of Maryland’s clean energy transformation, but under his watch, reliable baseload plants are being shut down without a serious plan to replace them. He has committed to closing fossil fuel facilities, even as demand rises and new generation stalls. The result is a steep drop with in-state power production and an increasing reliance on imported electricity from other states. 

Maryland now imports roughly 40 percent of its electricity. Much of that imported power is generated from fossil fuels in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

While Moore publicly celebrates Maryland’s green energy profile, he is perfectly willing to let out of state plants burn gas and coal to keep our lights on… and we pay much more for the privilege. 

PJM’s recent capacity auction saw future energy prices for our region spike over one thousand percent in two years. This surge was attributed to a shrinking pool of reliable generation capacity as older plants retire faster than replacements are built. For Marylanders, this will translate into significantly higher electric bills. So much for Moore’s claim that there is no data showing his energy policy is costing ratepayers.

You may ask, “What does the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project actually provide?” Not power for Marylanders, not cheaper bills, and not a boost in local generation.

The proposed 500 kilovolt line would run approximately 70 miles from a substation near the Pennsylvania border through Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick counties, eventually crossing the Potomac River into Virginia. Its primary purpose is to feed massive data centers in Northern Virginia… not to help Maryland homes or businesses. The project cuts through farms, forests, and communities.  The project does not serve them, it merely bypasses them.

To construct the line, the developer would need to secure permanent 150-foot-wide easements through hundreds of properties. That includes over 500 acres of active farmland. Towering steel pylons would rise more than 140 feet over fields and homes, preserved lands and historic properties would be disrupted, viewsheds would be marred, wildlife habitats will be fragmented, and private property values will diminish… and all of this to move electricity through Maryland for Virginia and not for Maryland.

Grassroots groups like Stop MPRP have pointed out that this nearly half billion-dollar project offers no direct benefit to Marylanders. In fact, Maryland ratepayers will shoulder part of the cost through regional cost sharing rules. The project is to serve Big Tech data centers, yet ordinary Maryland families will help pay for it. That is the definition of a raw deal. 

Notwithstanding, Governor Moore says nothing. He watches this happen and shrugs. Or worse, he smiles pretty at the cameras and says he stands with the people.

The contrast with other states is revealing. In New York, regulators recently terminated a transmission line permitting process to avoid sticking ratepayers with premature infrastructure costs. They exercised their authority. They protected their consumers. They hit pause. 

Maryland’s PSC could do the same. It has never been done before, but it could.  The PSC could reject the project, delay it, or demand alternatives. 

Governor Moore could also demand as much. But he will not.

Instead, he sits on the sidelines pretending to be a powerless observer. He tells crowds that his hands are tied, that the process is broken, and that he is just as frustrated as they are. But the PSC ultimately answers to him. His appointees hold the votes, his agencies hold the keys and Moore’s political posture shapes the entire review. 

Moore is not a bystander. He is the quarterback pretending to be the waterboy.

What we are witnessing is not leadership. It is amateur theater. Behind the curtain of good intentions and polished rhetoric is a governor unwilling to confront the failures of his own energy agenda. He talks about equity and sustainability, while letting rural landowners be steamrolled. He claims solidarity with the working class, while approving a system that raises their bills and sacrifices their farms for out of state corporations. He invokes justice, while refusing to act when justice demands intervention.

At times, watching Moore explain his position feels like watching a Jon Lovitz sketch from Saturday Night Live. He says something you are supposed to believe just because he is the governor and the darling of the national Democratic Party. The only thing missing is if he wrapped up each fictitious claim with a wink and said, “Yeah… that’s the ticket!”

The truth is that the authority, the responsibility, and the consequences of this transmission project all trace back to the Governor’s desk. He cannot dodge it. He cannot delegate it. He cannot hide behind acronyms like PJM. The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project is being built under his watch, on his terms, and with his consent.

This is not an “all of the above” strategy. This is ideological extremism cloaked in political spin. And it is the people of Maryland who will pay the price… in their bills, in their property rights, and in the erosion of trust. Governor Moore may claim otherwise. 

For those of you still buying what he is selling, please… enjoy your electric bills.

“‘Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again…”

• John Denver (“Leaving on a Jet Plane”)

They call it Billionaires Summer Camp. Tucked away in the rarefied air of Sun Valley, Idaho, the annual gathering of moguls, media titans, and monied elites is a weeklong networking bonanza for the ultra-wealthy. That is where Governor Wes Moore spent last week with his family in tow, while Marylanders opened their electric bills in stunned disbelief, sweating through the heat of July and the heat of a budget crisis his administration refuses to confront.

While Moore rubbed elbows with Jeff Bezos and other billionaires discussing tech investments and personal branding, back in Maryland his government was unraveling. Maryland’s Transportation Secretary, Paul J. Wiedefeld, announced this past week that he will step down from his position effective August 1. This was not a scheduled transition or a quiet retirement. It is the kind of departure that raises red flags about internal dysfunction, looming failures, or sheer exhaustion with the direction, or lack thereof, of state leadership.

For those keeping score, there have now been five Cabinet-level departures under Moore. That is not just turnover. That is instability. It is a clear sign that all is not well inside the walls of the Government House, even if the press releases pretend otherwise. The Moore administration has barely passed the halfway mark of its term, yet its inner circle looks like a game of musical chairs.

In addition, Maryland Labor Secretary Portia Wu warned that the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund may be in danger of insolvency, with federal workers and contractors being laid off amid uncertainty in Washington. This is not some hypothetical crisis. It is a flashing red warning sign that thousands of Maryland businesses could be left with higher unemployment taxes if the economy sours. 

And once again, while the alarm bells were ringing, Moore was in Idaho sipping cocktails with financiers.

Meanwhile, state agencies face hiring freezes. School districts are staring down Blueprint mandates they cannot afford. And Maryland families? They are getting battered. 

Electric rates, driven higher by Moore’s ill-conceived energy policies and our increased dependence on out-of-state power, have left residents stunned. Some Marylanders have told me their bill had nearly doubled compared to the same time last year. My electric bill was up 25%.  But Moore would not know. He was not here.

It is the start of a new fiscal year, and the budget is already fraying. Moore’s idea of fiscal discipline is smoke and mirrors. The Rainy-day fund is draining. The structural deficit continues unabated. What is the administration’s solution? Raise taxes again, push the burden onto counties, and hope the federal government bails us out. This is not a strategy… it is desperation wrapped in press releases and photo ops.

What message does it send when the Governor flees to a luxury retreat while his state teeters on financial instability? It tells us exactly who he is. 

Wes Moore is more comfortable with the Davos set than with working families in Dundalk, Salisbury, and Lexington Park. He is fluent in the language of venture capital, not the realities of paycheck-to-paycheck life. His presidential fantasy has taken hold of him while Maryland is left holding the bill.

Moore loves to say, “leave no one behind”, but last week, he left all of Maryland behind. He left us behind for the billionaires, for the backslapping and keynote panels, for the glint of cameras and canapés on white tablecloths. 

If you are wondering whether he paid for the trip himself or if donors chipped in, good luck getting a straight answer. Transparency is not exactly a hallmark of the Moore administration.

We have seen enough. Wes Moore promised transformation. Instead, we have gotten vanity, virtue signaling, and vaporware. Maryland deserves better than a Governor who escapes to the mountains every time the temperature rises at home.

The cameras may still be rolling, but the people of Maryland are steadily tuning out the Wes Moore Show.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues. 

 

“Speak out, you got to speak out against the madness
You got to speak your mind, if you dare.”

• Crosby, Stills, and Nash (“Long Time Gone”)

By any measure, the Democratic primary for governor in 2026 should be a contest and not a coronation. Yet some political observers have rushed to dismiss Ed Hale’s future candidacy with smug certainty. They claim he has “no shot” citing age, novelty, and conventional political wisdom. 

Such elitist snobbishness ignores the fact that Maryland is heading toward a convergence of an unaffordable fiscal deficit emergency and an expensive energy crisis. Democratic voters deserve an honest debate about who is best suited to navigate it, not a stage-managed walkover for Governor Wes Moore.

Ed Hale may be new to electoral politics, but he is no stranger to leadership or Maryland. As a business executive who built 1st Mariner Bank from scratch, revitalized Baltimore’s Canton waterfront, and brought the Baltimore Blast into national prominence, Hale has created tens of thousands of jobs, stewarded capital, and invested in communities without government bailouts or tax increases. He has succeeded in the arena where results matter, where failure costs more than just lost votes. 

Governor Moore, by contrast, has presided over a self-inflicted failing fiscal environment. His latest move, a hiring freeze and buyout program for State employees announced behind closed doors and away from reporters’ questions, reveals the depth of Maryland’s financial strain. According to reporting by The Baltimore Banner reporter Pamela Wood, Moore’s administration is scrambling to claw back one hundred twenty-one million dollars just to keep the next budget year in balance. 

This is the same governor who once boasted about solving the state’s structural deficit. He flooded state agencies with over 5,000 new hires and increased spending, only to later shift blame and quietly trim the ranks once the fiscal pressure he had created became undeniable.

Worse yet, Moore’s green energy agenda has thrown Maryland’s electric grid into crisis. Power plants are being shuttered prematurely while new domestic power generation lags far behind. To avoid rolling blackouts, PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator, was forced to keep the Brandon Shores power plant open until at least 2028 under an emergency reliability contract because Moore’s energy policy lacked the basic grounding in engineering and economics. The cost? Over one billion dollars… with every dollar to be borne by budget-strapped ratepayers. 

These are not abstract concerns. They are real life consequences of Moore’s appalling, absentee leadership. 

Moore’s tax hikes, fees, and surcharges – from digital advertising to real estate recordation to vehicle registration – are draining Maryland families and businesses. And as the structural deficit reemerges next year (and again the year after and the year after that), there are already whispers of a Special Session to address the budget’s shortfalls in the next few months.

Voters should ask: If this governor is as visionary as he claims, why is Maryland in a fiscal and energy panic under his watch?

Those quick to write off Hale’s candidacy also overlook a basic fact. Governor Moore’s supposed invincibility rests on political inertia, not popular mandate. The notion that Prince George’s County and Baltimore City alone will secure Moore’s nomination presumes that voters in those jurisdictions are satisfied with their new high energy bills, surging taxes, and shrinking government services, which were all created during Governor Moore’s watch. That is a patronizing assumption. 

Maryland Democrats, whether they are Black, White, Hispanic, urban, suburban, or rural, are paying attention. They all know “BS” when they see it.

As for Hale’s age, the concern is overwrought. No one seemed bothered by Donald Trump’s or Joe Biden’s age until the political winds shifted. What voters are increasingly seeking is not youth, but competence, stability, and candor. Ed Hale offers all three. 

Hale is not running to burnish a resume or test presidential waters… he is not looking for a political career. He is running because he is deeply concerned about the state he loves and believes it is being mismanaged by an administration long on slogans and short on solutions.

Finally, the idea that this election cycle is all academic unless Larry Hogan jumps in the race is more of the same Beltway punditry that always overestimates name recognition and underestimates timing and message. The Democratic primary is the only fight that matters. It will determine whether Maryland Democrats continue marching toward tax and spend progressivism without brakes or rediscover a sane path of fiscal moderation and honest, competent governance.

No, the gubernatorial contest will not be a coronation for Wes Moore. Not if voters have a say… and not if Ed Hale has anything to do with it.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues. 

“And it really doesn’t matter
If I’m wrong, I’m right
Where I belong, I’m right
Where I belong.

See the people standing there
Who disagree and never win…
And wonder why they don’t get in my door.”

• The Beatles (“Fixing A Hole”)

Less than three years after promising to rebuild Maryland’s government by staffing up thousands of long-vacant positions, Governor Wes Moore is abruptly slamming the brakes with a statewide hiring freeze, voluntary buyouts, and a quiet dismantling of the same workforce he spent most of his term rebuilding. It is the kind of maneuver that only a technocratic spin doctor could try to dress as “responsible, deliberate, and innovative,” as Moore declared in a staff memo… a memo that conveniently avoided on-the-record questions from the press.

Thanks to Pamela Wood’s reporting for The Baltimore Banner, we now know the Moore administration is planning to eliminate jobs, freeze hiring, and consolidate offices, all to patch together $121 million in savings for the upcoming fiscal year. 

But let us not forget how we got here. Moore and his confederates in the General Assembly are scrambling to paper over the consequences of their own lamentable budget decisions.

This is not fiscal responsibility. This is window dressing. The $3 billion in total cuts being trumpeted by Moore’s legislative allies, such as House Appropriations Chair Ben Barnes, are a direct reaction to a budget that exploded in size under Moore’s watch. The very structural deficit the governor now claims to have “put in order” was fueled by his own free-spending, tax-hiking agenda. This is the same agenda that grew the government faster than Maryland’s economy and imposed long-term obligations with no long-term plan or stable sources of revenue.

When Moore took office, he repeatedly criticized the Hogan administration for leaving the government too lean and hollowed out. He promised to hire at least 5,000 workers to fix what he described as “chronic understaffing.” He called it a moral mission to restore public service. He even launched a program to funnel laid-off federal workers from the Trump administration into Maryland’s civil service. 

What happened to those promises?

Pamela Wood’s Banner report notes that the Moore administration will not say which vacant positions are being eliminated or who will be eligible for buyouts. They will not even disclose the terms of the buyouts. 

That silence is telling. 

The truth is likely inconvenient: many of the jobs Moore so proudly filled are now being quietly erased, and the state has nothing to show for them except a ballooning payroll and worsening public services.

AFSCME Maryland Council 3, which represents more than 26,000 state workers, warned about “chronic understaffing, dangerous working conditions, and unsustainable workloads.” It turns out the Moore administration’s hiring binge was a mirage. It was indeed a public relations effort masquerading as governance.

Republicans, for their part, are crowing about this U-turn. Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey correctly labeled the move a “textbook example of how Republican fiscal discipline ends up saving the day.” House Minority Leader Jason Buckel went further: “The level of government employee growth under this administration is unaffordable and unsustainable.”

They are right… but this was no accident. Wes Moore is not reluctantly cleaning up someone else’s mess. He is cleaning up his own mess with a broom made of broken promises.

The Moore administration blew out the budget with permanent programs and short-term thinking, pretending federal COVID dollars and accounting gimmicks would somehow carry the day. They oversold Marylanders on the fantasy of expanded government and undersold the cost. 

And now, barely sixty days after declaring victory over the deficit, the Moore administration is quietly hollowing out the government again. This time it is not for ideology, but out of sheer desperation.

The same governor who campaigned on a message of “leaving no one behind” is now turning his back on the very workforce he promised to rebuild. The Moore administration’s so-called turnaround is no triumph.  It is a cautionary tale of reckless expansion followed by quiet retreat, all packaged in the language of innovation.  

I hope his supporters see the irony of Moore’s DOGE program.  This mismanagement from our part-time governor is not acceptable.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues.

The annual report from the Social Security and Medicare Trustees is a sobering reckoning. It is also a warning. 

According to the Trustees, the Social Security trust fund, the bedrock of American retirement security, will be insolvent by 2033. That is not a distant abstraction. That is when today’s 59-year-olds retire. And if nothing is done, retirees will receive an automatic 23 percent benefit cut under current law.

Put plainly, if this system is not fixed now, you are not going to receive what you were promised. This is not political hyperbole. It is math. And math does not lie.

The Old Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund, which pays benefits to most retirees, will be depleted in eight years. If temporary reallocation from the Disability Insurance trust fund occurs, that buys one more year, until 2034, before both are drained. At that point, every beneficiary will see a 19 percent across the board cut in benefits, growing to 28 percent by the end of the century.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget warns, “Social Security is barreling toward insolvency. If policymakers fail to act, they will effectively be supporting a 23 percent across the board benefit cut for all retirees in just eight years.”

The scale of the imbalance is staggering. 

The Trustees project 3.6 trillion dollars in cash deficits over the next decade. Over 75 years, the shortfall grows to 26 trillion dollars in today’s dollars. The actuarial deficit has nearly doubled since 2010. You cannot wish that away.

Congressional inaction has consequences. Each passing year removes more policy options from the table. In 2010, the system could have been saved with modest adjustments. Now, restoring solvency requires the equivalent of a 22 percent reduction in benefits, a 29 percent payroll tax increase, or some combination. 

Wait another decade, and the pain becomes even sharper. A 34 percent tax hike. A 26 percent benefit cut. No room to phase in things gently. No time for people to prepare.

Social Security is not some discretionary social program. It is a contract between generations. Workers paid in, trusting that what they contributed would be there for them. But those promises were made without fiscal discipline. What began as a pay as you go system has been stretched by demographic realities, longer life expectancies, lower birth rates, and a shrinking ratio of workers to retirees.

The math no longer works. Today, fewer than 3 workers support each retiree. By 2035, that number falls to 2.3. Revenues have not kept pace with costs, and the shortfall widens every year. Social Security costs will rise from 14.7 percent of taxable payroll today to 17 percent by 2050, while revenues remain stagnant.

And while recent legislation like the so-called Social Security Fairness Act was passed with noble intentions, it made the problem worse. That law allows some workers to double dip between Social Security and separate state or local pensions, adding billions to the imbalance.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget notes that “half of the deterioration in Social Security’s 75-year shortfall is due to the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act.” Another part of the shortfall is due to regulatory changes that made it easier to qualify for disability benefits and to demographic trends like lower fertility rates.

The worst lie told to the American people is the one that says reform is not necessary. That everything will be fine if we simply tax the rich or cut waste. Those slogans are political comfort food. The Trustees’ math tells a different story. You cannot solve a 26 trillion-dollar hole with bumper stickers.

Both parties are complicit. Democrats refuse to acknowledge that current benefit formulas are unsustainable. Republicans too often run from any mention of taxes. Meanwhile, the clock ticks and retirees will pay the price for Washington’s cowardice.

In truth, there are many options available. Lawmakers could gradually raise the retirement age. They could redesign benefits to better target those most in need. They could broaden the tax base or tweak the payroll cap. But they must act soon. Every year of delay means steeper cuts, higher taxes, or more abrupt changes. The window to implement thoughtful phased reforms is rapidly closing.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, “Delaying action until 2034 would increase the size of necessary adjustments by 15 percent. Changes to benefits for new beneficiaries alone would be insufficient to restore solvency to the program, even if benefits were eliminated entirely.”

If you are under 60, hear this clearly: 

• You will not receive the benefits you were promised unless something is done now. That is not speculation. That is federal law.
• When the trust fund runs dry, benefits are cut automatically. 
• Congress does not have to vote. No one has to pass a bill. It just happens.

But that fate is not inevitable. It is a choice. Policymakers can choose to act while time, flexibility, and political goodwill remain. Or they can continue to delay until a crisis forces their hand, at which point your future will be carved up by a butcher’s cleaver, not a surgeon’s scalpel.

We have a decade. Barely. The math is in. The alarm is sounding. The question is whether our elected leaders will answer it or continue to pretend that arithmetic is a partisan opinion.

If they do nothing, the trust fund will fail, and the promise of Social Security will fail with it. 

You paid into the system. You earned those benefits. But unless leaders act now, you will not get what you were promised.

And that is a promise from math… and math does not lie.

Who doubts me?

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues.

“There’s something happening here,
what it is ain’t exactly clear…”
— Buffalo Springfield, (“For What It’s Worth”)

I am willing to bet that most Marylanders reading this article have never heard of the “AHEAD Initiative.”

You are not alone. There was no bill introduced. No legislative hearing was held. There was no floor debate. No up or down vote in the Maryland General Assembly. 

Despite its sweeping scope and massive potential cost, the AHEAD Initiative, short for Advancing All Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development, entered Maryland’s policy bloodstream with barely a whisper. And yet, it may prove to be the most consequential and financially burdensome healthcare program Maryland has undertaken since the creation of Medicaid.

So… what is AHEAD?

AHEAD is a new federal health reform model designed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It aims to control healthcare costs, improve equity, and restructure how states deliver and pay for care by blending clinical services with social programs, such as housing assistance, food access, transportation support, and behavioral health integration.

In other words, it transforms the traditional health care model into a sweeping platform for population-level social engineering.

In early 2024, Maryland became the first state in the country to be approved for participation in the AHEAD program. The Moore administration signed onto this large spending commitment without legislative approval. Incredibly, none was required. The agreement was struck between Governor Wes Moore, then-Health Secretary Dr. Laura Herrera Scott, and the Biden Administration. Its goal is to redesign substantial portions of Maryland’s health care infrastructure and deliver specific cost savings and “equity outcomes” over the next decade.

Maryland is now the pilot project. The national laboratory. The guinea pig.

It is important to understand that AHEAD is layered on top of Maryland’s existing and already unique “all-payer” hospital system. Under the all-payer model, Maryland is the only state in the country where all insurers (including private plans, Medicare, and Medicaid) are required to pay the same fixed rates for hospital services, which are set by a state regulatory commission. This unified payment structure reduces administrative complexity, limits cost growth, and stabilizes hospital revenues. 

In return, Maryland receives billions of federal dollars and holds a rare federal waiver to set Medicare rates independently. It has worked successfully for decades.

Notwithstanding, AHEAD goes far beyond hospital billing and payment reform. It obliges Maryland to integrate a much broader range of social services into its health care delivery model, with services not previously covered by the longstanding all-payer system. 

These additional social services include publicly funded non-clinical programs such as permanent supportive housing for chronically ill individuals, food delivery for at-risk populations, ride services for medical and non-medical appointments, expanded behavioral and addiction services, and community-based care coordination efforts. 

The state is now responsible for building the infrastructure to manage and fund these services on a large scale.

But here is the part that should give every taxpayer pause: this new framework was not enacted through the democratic process. AHEAD was not introduced in a bill. It was not voted on by your elected representatives. It did not pass through a committee, nor did it undergo rigorous legislative fiscal impact analysis reviewed by the Legislature’s budget analysts or the public.

Instead, it was adopted through an executive agreement. And with it, Maryland has committed to a nine-year comprehensive transformation of its healthcare delivery system, with an unknown and potentially unsustainable price tag.

AHEAD requires Maryland to build out new regional bureaucracies, expand primary care subsidies, and integrate state-funded social services into Medicaid and other payer systems.

Looks like window dressing for a Moore presidential campaign at your expense, doesn’t it?

While federal startup money is modest (just twelve million dollars over several years), the actual long-term obligations for the state are wide open. While no official fiscal note has been released, and no regulations have been proposed, it is reasonable to expect that Maryland’s obligations under AHEAD could reach hundreds of millions, and potentially over one billion dollars annually, as the state expands its responsibility for housing, transportation, and other non-medical services tied to federally mandated “health equity” goals.

This is all happening while Maryland already faces a projected multibillion-dollar structural deficit, compounded by unfunded education mandates under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. AHEAD may be the second fiscal time bomb waiting to explode in taxpayers’ wallets, this time buried in the health care budget instead of the schools.

The state will be required to meet stringent federal performance benchmarks. If Maryland falls short, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services can revoke its waiver authority to set Medicare rates, a unique power Maryland has held for decades. That could destabilize hospital revenues across the state.  Hospitals could potentially close.

Things could be worse… the Trump Administration could discover the one-of-a-kind deal Maryland has with its all-payer system and question why Maryland (a deep blue state) gets billions of federal dollars to pay for the uninsured, underinsured, and hospital write-offs, and eliminate our decades-old successful system. The AHEAD program and all the traditional costs all other states bear will then fall back onto Maryland taxpayers… and insurance premium payers. 

If the Trump administration decides to retreat from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ AHEAD model, Maryland could be left with massive programmatic costs and no federal backstop to help fund them. All of this is happening under the radar, without public scrutiny or proper transparency. 

Sometimes the guinea pig gets slaughtered.

Does anyone remember the Governor or the Secretary of Health discussing this on the news or in any open forum where questions may be asked of them? 

I do not recall any town hall, public briefing, or televised announcement explaining the goals, the risks, or the cost. A program that obligates the state to spend this much tax money over a decade should have been widely advertised with the enthusiasm of an elementary school ribbon cutting… especially if it is such an “impressive” revolutionary program.

I once remember a Governor who said he believed in transparency. I remember promises of open government, listening tours, accountability to the people, and governing in the sunlight rather than behind closed doors. 

Transparency, however, is not what you say after the fact. It is what you practice before the commitment is made. Transparency requires that you trust citizens enough to tell them what you are doing before you obligate their tax dollars, especially on a massive scale.

So here are a few questions worth asking; questions that Governor Moore and his team should answer.

• How much will the AHEAD Initiative cost Maryland taxpayers annually by the year 2033?
• What services or programs will be reduced or eliminated to pay for it?
• What guardrails are in place to prevent uncontrolled spending growth?
• Why was the General Assembly bypassed entirely for something of this magnitude?
• What specific services is the state now obligated to provide under AHEAD that were not previously offered?
• How will AHEAD’s success or failure be publicly measured, and who will be held accountable if it falls short?
• What bureaucratic infrastructure is proposed, and what regulations are being promulgated for this initiative?

Marylanders deserve an honest discussion about the costs and tradeoffs of this initiative, not just slogans about “equity and innovation.” Because eventually, someone will have to pay for it. And that someone will be the Maryland taxpayer.

If the Governor believes this is a sustainable, transparent, efficient, and affordable approach to health care reform, he should make the case openly, publicly, and with quantifiable numbers.

Until then, the AHEAD Initiative will remain what it already is: the largest state spending program you have never heard of.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues.

“He’s a real nowhere man,
Sitting in his nowhere land,
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody.”

–  The Beatles (“Nowhere Man”)

Electric bills across Maryland are set to rise again this July. This is not an isolated spike or a seasonal adjustment – it is part of an ominous emerging trend that increasingly burdens working families. 

The cost of energy continues to climb, and yet the state’s current energy policy offers no immediate relief. In fact, the policies promoted by Governor Wes Moore may very well make the problem worse.

Baltimore Gas and Electric customers, for example, are expected to see an increase of about $16 per month, with other utility providers facing similar jumps. This news comes from reporting by Christine Condon of Maryland Matters, who has tracked the legislative and regulatory developments behind these hikes. 

Condon notes that while consumers brace for higher costs, state leaders, including Governor Moore, are promoting a sweeping energy reform package as a step forward. But for many Marylanders, the direction forward is unclear, and the destination looks increasingly unaffordable.

The centerpiece of this new agenda is the Next Generation Energy Act, which aims to increase in-state energy production and battery storage while capping certain utility expenditures. The law’s stated goal is to curb rising rates and modernize the grid. Yet even supporters of the bill admit that the state has not built up enough alternative energy sources to replace the fossil fuel infrastructure it is retiring. 

The imbalance is already evident – and it is Maryland ratepayers who are left to pay the price.

To mitigate some of the cost pressure, the law pulls $200 million from a renewable energy compliance fund to issue partial rebates to consumers of roughly $80 per household, split into two payments. But as Condon points out, this rebate is merely a temporary cushion against what is becoming a long-term problem: a shrinking energy supply and an unstable regulatory strategy.

One of the more controversial aspects of Moore’s energy agenda is that the Renewable Energy Certainty Act overrides local zoning rules to streamline the siting of commercial solar farms. The law has drawn strong bipartisan opposition, especially from rural legislators who argue that it threatens productive farmland and local autonomy. 

It raises a serious question: why is the state preempting local land-use decisions to accelerate an energy plan that has yet to demonstrate reliability or affordability?

The pushback has not only come from rural Republicans. As Maryland Matters reports, 87 state legislators signed a letter urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to block the rate increases tied to a flawed PJM energy auction held last year. The auction failed to account for two Maryland fossil-fuel plants that were still in operation, leading to inflated prices that will now be passed on to consumers, along with an additional charge to keep those same plants online. 

According to David Lapp, Maryland’s People’s Counsel, ratepayers are effectively paying twice: once for the energy and again to preserve emergency capacity.

Oddly, while Governor Moore supported sweeping legislation on energy infrastructure, he chose to veto one of the least controversial components of the broader package: the creation of a Strategic Energy Planning Office. 

The veto surprised many in the legislature, including Senator Katie Fry Hester, who sponsored the bill. Moore cited costs as the reason. Yet the office would have been funded by the same revenue source that supports the Public Service Commission and the People’s Counsel – offices directly responsible for protecting consumers from excessive rate increases. 

This decision undermines the idea that the Moore administration is serious about long-term planning.

Environmental and consumer groups have offered mixed reactions. Some, like Maryland PIRG, have applauded new limits on natural gas expansion and excessive utility spending. Others, however, have expressed concern over provisions that may fast-track new fossil fuel infrastructure, or weaken oversight of incineration subsidies.

The solar energy bill has generated vehement backlash in areas like the Eastern Shore, where local governments are now sidelined in favor of a one-size-fits-all approach to renewable development. This top-down strategy disregards local needs and sacrifices flexibility in pursuit of policy goals that remain unproven at scale.

It is important to stress that most Marylanders support renewable energy when it is implemented responsibly. The concern is not with the concept of cleaner energy, but with the current pace and structure of implementation. Governor Moore’s energy policy appears more focused on headlines than outcomes. Ambitious goals are paired with insufficient infrastructure, and the burden is repeatedly shifted to households that are already financially stretched thin.

Maryland is not yet prepared to meet its energy needs with renewables alone. By accelerating the retirement of traditional power sources without building sufficient alternatives, the state risks chronic instability in both energy supply and pricing. Until those gaps are addressed with pragmatic, data-driven solutions, no legislative press release will change the facts on the ground… or the numbers on a utility bill.

If the goal is truly energy affordability, then Governor Moore’s policies must be re-evaluated not by political aspiration, but by economic impact. As it stands, the average Marylander is being asked to fund a policy vision that has not been grounded in practical realities. That is not leadership. That is risk without accountability.

So again, I ask: does anyone really believe Governor Moore’s energy policies will work for anyone outside the politically connected class in Annapolis?

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues. 

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know…
We’d all love to see the plan
      – The Beatles (“Revolution”)

Governor Wes Moore would like the public to believe that he is the adult in the room. That after another tax-and-spend session of the General Assembly, he alone had the resolve to pull out the veto pen, allegedly for the good of the State.

But the question deserves to be asked plainly: Where was he during the legislative session? And why did he not speak up when his voice was needed?

Throughout the ninety days of session, the Moore administration stood silently while progressive legislators pushed forward a wave of fiscally reckless, ideologically indulgent, and structurally unsound legislation. And now, with the session over and the headlines fading, the Governor wishes to appear as the calm, reasonable figure reining it all in. It is a performance, not a demonstration of leadership.

Governor Moore’s vetoes are not acts of principle; they are acts of political theater. He allowed flawed legislation to move through both chambers, knowing full well their implications, only to veto a few select measures at the eleventh hour.

This is not courage — it is choreography. He is attempting to build a narrative in which he is seen as moderate, measured, and judicious. In reality, he chose to say nothing while his allies in the legislature carried the weight, and now he throws them under the bus to elevate his own image.

This strategy is as cynical as it is transparent.

By remaining quiet during the formation of policy and emerging only at the end to cast vetoes, Governor Moore sidesteps the difficult work of governing. He wants the credit for responsibility without accepting the burden of responsibility. He prefers the applause of pundits to the trust of the people.

Let there be no mistake: real leadership requires presence. It requires engagement during the debates, not grandstanding after the fact. The Governor had every opportunity to voice objections, to shape legislation, to lead.

He chose instead to build a Potemkin village of moderation—a facade of fiscal sensibility and pragmatic governance, constructed on a foundation of silence and passivity.

Marylanders are not fooled. They understand that vetoes made in May do not erase the absence of leadership in January, February, March, and April. They know that the Governor’s failure to confront his party’s excesses during the session is not redeemed by carefully orchestrated vetoes months later.

Governor Moore is not governing—he is auditioning. These late-stage vetoes are not acts of statesmanship but steps in a calculated rebranding effort, designed to position himself for future ambition.

He is more concerned with national optics than with the day-to-day consequences of his inaction on working Maryland families.

And so the question remains: Where were you, Governor? Why did you not speak up when it mattered? Why did you wait until your Democratic colleagues did the heavy lifting before deciding to distance yourself and abandon them?

This is not leadership. This is image management. And I say once again… Maryland deserves better.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr., is a lifelong Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and the former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals. He is also the co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast, which discusses politics, business, and cultural issues. 

For years, Democratic voters in Maryland have been asked to fall in line. You are told who the frontrunner is. You are handed the talking points. You are expected to get excited about style over substance, slogans over solutions. And if you question the machine’s chosen candidate, you are labeled a traitor to the cause.

But not this time.

This time, you may have a real choice.

Veteran businessman Ed Hale is not a polished career politician or a darling of the Annapolis donor circuit. He is a businessman, a job creator, and a Blue Dog Democrat who knows how the real world works. He has balanced budgets in the boardroom, not on a spreadsheet filled with gimmicks. He has met a payroll. He has had to make hard decisions when the economy turned south, not issue a press release and wait for someone else to clean up the mess.

In short, Ed Hale is the adult in the room.

While Governor Wes Moore continues to govern by press conference—rolling out sweeping mandates like the state’s 100% clean energy deadline without a viable plan to protect working families from skyrocketing utility costs—Ed Hale brings a practical, clear-eyed approach. Moore tells Marylanders what sounds good. Hale tells them what will actually work.

As sure as the sun rises in the morning, the structural deficit will rear its ugly head again in January 2026. Governor Moore has not shown the intestinal fortitude to cut the budget to levels in proportion to economic reality. On the opening day of the session in 2026, the governor will open up the cash drawer and find it empty. 

Governor Moore faces increasing mandatory Kirwan funding obligations, mounting payments for child-abuse settlements stemming from juvenile justice failures, and ballooning energy costs due to the importation of electricity from other states—a consequence of his misplaced green energy agenda. Ed Hale will not put up with this. He understands that government must live within its means, just as families and businesses do.

Moore soared into office on the wings of charisma and a compelling personal story—but he has governed like a progressive influencer rather than a practical executive. His administration has prioritized performative politics and lofty rhetoric while working families in Maryland struggle to keep up with rising costs, broken schools, and a state government increasingly out of touch with rural, suburban, and even urban voters alike.

Moore talks about “leaving no one behind,” yet he has governed with a narrow, ideological lens that leaves many Democrats… and Republicans… feeling invisible. His energy mandates and labor programs are designed for headlines, not households. And under his leadership, the gap between state priorities and ordinary people’s needs has only widened.

Ed Hale represents a different path. One grounded not in theory, but in results. He is not beholden to the activist wing of the party or the donor class. He answers to the people who wake up early, go to work, raise families, and simply want a government that functions. 

Ed Hale is a voice for ordinary Democrats who still believe in fiscal responsibility, economic opportunity, and common-sense governance.  A government that does not overpromise, underdeliver, and engage in academic frolics that end with the middle-class taxpayers paying the tab.

He will not promise you the moon. He will promise you something better: a governor who listens, works, and understands that leadership is about service, not self-promotion. I believe that Ed Hale has the capability to stabilize not only the Democratic Party, but also an out-of-control state bureaucracy.

Maryland Democrats deserve more than a coronation. They deserve a contest. They deserve a choice.  

This time, you will more than likely not just have a candidate. You will have a real choice.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues. 

If you try to drive… I’ll tax the street
If you try to sit…  I’ll tax your seat
If you get too cold… I’ll tax the heat
If you take a walk… I’ll tax your feet
… Taxman!

-The Beatles

Governor Wes Moore once said raising taxes in Maryland would be a “high bar” for him. After this year’s legislative session, it seems the bar was not merely lowered, it was rolled into a ditch.

In a single session, Moore and his Democrats managed to assemble the most sweeping array of tax increases and new fees in a generation. They taxed your paycheck. They taxed your investments. They taxed your car, your ride-share, your vending machine snack, and your delivery package. They taxed your rental property, your cannabis, and—just for good measure—your next data and IT service invoice. Marylanders can be forgiven for wondering whether they will soon be taxed for breathing air east of Hoye-Crest in Garrett County.

The justification for this assault on taxpayers? A $3 billion budget shortfall. But rather than look inward—at the flabby mass of Maryland’s administrative bureaucracy, its duplicative programs, its gilded agencies—the Moore administration reached, predictably, for the taxpayer’s wallet. 

Not once in this budget cycle did we witness a serious effort to reorganize or reform government. Not one cabinet agency was consolidated. Not one sacred cow slaughtered.

Instead, the General Assembly raised income taxes on so-called “high earners”—code for small business owners, professionals, and retirees who saved a lifetime and now find Maryland penalizing them for their prudence. A 6.5% tax on income over $1 million may sound just to some, but don’t be fooled: when government needs more, that threshold will creep lower.

Capital gains? Now surcharged. Recreational cannabis? Taxed at a rate that would make a bootlegger blush. Even the Maryland Vehicle Emissions Inspection fee—previously a tolerable $14—was doubled, a punishment for the privilege of owning a car. And if you were trying to go green with an electric vehicle, congratulations: the state now charges you up to $182 a year for using fewer fossil fuels. That’s not policy. That’s predation.

All this might be more tolerable if these dollars were dedicated with discipline. Instead, they are poured into an ever-growing web of programs designed less to reform Maryland’s foundations than to cement political coalitions. A taxpayer-funded abortion fund. A reparations commission. A permanent young adult health subsidy. More consultants. More commissions. More bureaucracy.

What’s missing from all of this is the simple, bracing discipline of doing more with less. Maryland’s government has not been right-sized. It has not been restructured. No brave hand has reached into the bloated machinery of state to blare out, “Stop!”

And so, the taxpayer is asked again—and again—to carry the burden of Annapolis’ indulgences. The danger for the Governor and his Democrats in the Legislature is not only in what they’ve done… it’s what they’ll do next. 

Because if, in 2026, Governor Moore’s Democrats return to the citizens of Maryland and ask for more—more taxes, more fees, more patience—they will find none. They will find something else. They will find a voter who is fed up. A business owner who is closing shop. A retiree headed for Delaware. They will find a reckoning.

And when it comes, it will not arrive with a whisper—but with a roar loud enough to shake the marble columns of the Government House.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues.