The ninety-day 2026 regular session of the Maryland General Assembly is now underway.
There is almost universal consensus that the top priority before they adjourn is to enact a balanced state budget when a $2.6 billion deficit is currently projected. It could be more.
The options to reach a balanced budget this session are comparable to the options considered last session. Then and now, they include new taxes, tax increases, new fees, fee increases, transfers from the state’s “rainy-day” reserve fund, borrowing money, shifting the funding for state-mandated programs and services from the state government to county governments, and spending cuts. There is no consensus yet on any of these options this session.
Governor Moore has said there will not be tax increases. He said much the same last year, calling for a “high bar” on tax increases. When all was said and done, he approved a balanced budget funded with a package that included the above budget balancing options.
New to the dialogue and deliberations budget debates this year is Delegate Joseline Pena Melnyk who was unanimously elected last month to serve as Speaker of the House.
Speaker Melnyk has delivered mixed messages so far in the session. She has said she “doesn’t expect” any tax changes this session from her chamber. She followed that with, “I’m not sure about that. I hope not.” Then she said “But to be honest, I haven’t had an opportunity yet to talk to my committees about those issues. Session hasn’t even started, but I can tell you the taxes [are] definitely off the table.”
Senate President Bill Ferguson has said, “Our focus is going to be on living within our means. He has said his chamber won’t be the ones to put forward a plan to increase the cost of living for Marylanders. When asked if he’s concerned the House of Delegates may float proposals to raise taxes and fees, Ferguson said he can’t speak for the members in the lower chamber, just that he knows “where the Senate will be.”
Another matter that merits watching in the 2026 session is how the relationship between the Democratic super majority and the Republican minority in the House of Delegates may change with Speaker Penya Melnik’s approach to leadership.
One reporter covering the opening day of the new session observed that the new speaker ushered in a new era with a leadership style geared toward bipartisanship, civility, and finding solutions that involve delegates from across the state, including Republicans, to ensure everyone’s ideas are heard.
If that occurs, it will be a major change from the historic pattern of decision-making in Annapolis. Republican minorities in the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate have long endured legislative decision-making where the minority caucus has had their say, but the majority caucus has not seriously considered what the minority has to say, and the majority caucus has always had their way.
We will know soon if and how these changes play out.
Speaker Melnyk has also expressed a desire for further accountability in state government spending.
This is not surprising given recent widespread and regular media coverage of two audit reports conducted by the bipartisan Office of Legislative Audits (OLA) in the Maryland Department of Legislative Services.
In one audit, OLA auditors reported Maryland’s overpayment of $807.4 million in unemployment benefits, $760 million of which the auditors have deemed unrecoverable because the state did not act in time to pursue recovery.
In another audit, OLA auditors reported the State Highway Administration (SHA) overcharged $360 million in unauthorized expenses to federally funded projects that need to be paid back.
Last week, there were media reports that the OLA, Maryland Department of Human Services’ inspector general, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s inspector general have been made aware of allegations by two former state employees of payment errors in Maryland’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly referred to as food stamps.
Pursuing greater transparency and accountability on state spending is not new. In 2020, a Maryland Efficient Grant Application Council was created and charged with developing recommendations for greater oversight and accountability on state grants to not-for-profit organizations in Maryland. The deadline for their recommendations was originally July 1, 2024. Now the deadline is July 1, 2027. It remains to be seen if this new deadline will be met.
Last week, Maryland General Assembly Republicans called for creating a special investigative committee with subpoena power to discuss the SHA audit, the unemployment overpayment audit, and the whistleblower allegations on the SNAP program. Such a committee is not unprecedented, but the last one was put in place at least twenty years ago.
Time will tell if and how Speaker Pena Melnyk will achieve success in her expressed desire for further accountability in state government spending.
Time will also tell if and how Speaker Pena Melnyk will achieve success in ushering in a leadership style characterized by bipartisanship, civility, and finding solutions that involve delegates from across the state, including Republicans, to ensure everyone’s ideas are not only heard but are also respected and given serious consideration.
Going forward, President John F. Kennedy’s thinking on bipartisanship is a great model for Governor Moore and every member of the General Assembly.
JFK said — “Let us not seek the Democratic answer or the Republican answer, but the right answer.”
David Reel is a public affairs and public relations consultant who lives in Easton.
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