Wes Moore signs bills with fanfare. His budget tells a different story.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
ANNAPOLIS — There is a version of Maryland governance that lives in press releases and podium remarks. In that version, Governor Wes Moore stands before cameras, signs transformative legislation, and delivers remarks about what Maryland is doing for its people. The ceremonies are polished. The quotes are quotable.
Then there is the version that lives in the Department of Legislative Services fiscal notes — and in the gap between what Moore says at those ceremonies and what his own state analysts have been warning for two years.
On April 14th, hours after the General Assembly adjourned sine die, Moore joined Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk in the Governor’s Reception Room to sign 146 bills into law. All three touted a legislative session focused on lowering costs and pushing back against the Trump administration. “What we are watching just South of us is, for the past 90 days, we watched chaos unfold,” Moore said. “But why I am so proud of Maryland is that in this moment we did not just push back, we pushed forward.”
What Moore did not mention at the podium: Maryland is heading into FY2027 carrying a structural deficit that his own budget addresses largely through fund swaps and one-time maneuvers — not structural reform. Fiscal experts warn that those one-time shifts only defer difficult decisions.
The Podium vs. The Ledger
This is not a new pattern. It is the operating rhythm of Moore’s tenure.
When Moore signed the FY2026 budget in May 2025, his office declared the legislation “turns the state’s budget deficit into a surplus.” The ceremony framed it as a fiscal turnaround. Moore called it “weathering two storms: a fiscal crisis and a new White House that attacks our economy.”
What the ceremonies glossed over: DLS projections showed the structural deficit would grow to $3.4 billion by fiscal 2030, with the primary driver being Blueprint for Maryland’s Future costs continuing to outpace available revenues. The surplus Moore celebrated was built on transfers and one-time measures — not a restructured spending trajectory.
By November 2025, the gap had widened further. DLS reported that general fund spending would rise about 5% in fiscal 2027, led by Medicaid, behavioral health, local education aid, and debt service, with analysts warning the state’s cash balance could fall into the red by fiscal 2027.
DLS estimates that the FY2027 general fund outlook worsened by $1.6 billion since the close of the 2025 session — roughly half from lower revenues and half from higher spending. The Blueprint alone is on track to exhaust its dedicated trust fund. DLS projects Blueprint spending will exceed $3.7 billion by fiscal 2031, while its dedicated fund will run out by fiscal 2028 — meaning the general fund will bear growing costs in the out-years.
DLS estimates ongoing revenues will cover only 89 percent of ongoing spending by fiscal 2030. That figure did not appear in any signing ceremony remarks.
The FY2027 Budget: Fund Swaps as Fiscal Policy
This session’s budget — a $71 billion spending plan — closed the projected $1.5 billion structural deficit largely through fund swaps and modest cuts, without any tax or fee increases. Moore called it responsible governance. His own budget secretary acknowledged that conversations about FY2028 — which faces the same structural pressures — were already underway.
House Minority Leader Del. Jason Buckel (R-Allegany) put it plainly on the floor: “You’re going to have to reform the Blueprint. We can’t afford the Blueprint — I’ve said it 5,000 times. I don’t understand why my Democratic friends and colleagues can’t just admit it.”
Moore did not directly answer whether FY2028 could be balanced without tax increases.
Ferguson’s Role
Moore does not govern alone. Senate President Bill Ferguson controls what the chamber considers, what it buries, and what gets rushed through in the final days of the session. He has been the institutional architect of every budget that has passed since Moore took office — budgets that DLS has scored, consistently, as insufficient to address Maryland’s long-term structural imbalance.
Ferguson has described the recent sessions as among the most challenging of his 15 years in Annapolis. What he has not described: a serious legislative effort to restructure the spending commitments driving the deficit. The Blueprint was trimmed at the margins. The structural problem was deferred.
At this year’s sine die signing ceremony, Ferguson stood at Moore’s side and touted the session’s accomplishments. The fiscal notes for those accomplishments are available at dls.maryland.gov. They are less celebratory.
What the Numbers Say
Moody’s downgraded Maryland’s credit rating from its top Aaa to Aa1 — the first time the state has not held Moody’s highest rating since 1973. The downgrade came despite the signing ceremony Moore held, declaring the FY2026 deficit solved.
Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey said the deficit “didn’t just appear — it’s the direct result of choices made by one-party rule in Annapolis,” warning that “these programs are growing faster than our economy — and the bill is coming due.”
That warning is easy to dismiss as partisan noise. It is harder to dismiss when DLS is saying the same thing in technical language, in documents that don’t get mentioned at signing ceremonies.
Maryland’s bills are signed. The ceremonies are over. The fiscal notes are still there.
SOURCES: Maryland Department of Legislative Services, Fiscal Briefing 2025 and 2026 session documents (dls.maryland.gov); WYPR, “Gov. Wes Moore signs $71B Maryland budget,” April 8, 2026; WYPR, “Moore signs over 140 bills into Maryland law,” April 14, 2026; Maryland Matters, “Budget concerns resurface as state faces projected $1.4 billion gap,” November 2025; Conduit Street/MACo, “Fiscal Reality Check: State Projects $1.4B Shortfall,” December 2025; Office of Governor Wes Moore, Bill Signing Ceremony remarks, 2025 and 2026; Moody’s credit rating downgrade, cited in Maryland Matters.
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