Maryland’s Reparations Commission Is Taking Shape. It’s Also a Different Commission Than Lawmakers Passed.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — A state commission that took years to authorize is finally close to...
Budget & Taxes
Moore Administration Orders Two Dozen Agencies to Model 10% Budget Cuts as Deficit Deepens
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews State agencies across Maryland have been ordered to show how they would absorb cuts they...
The Delegate Whose Own Business Fled the Tax Won’t Be Around to Revisit It
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews LEONARDTOWN — This week's news that Maryland's IT services tax collected 77% less than...
Maryland’s New Tech Tax Brought In 77% Less Than Promised. Business Groups Want It Gone.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — Maryland's new tax on business IT and data services closed its first full...
Maryland’s Next Payroll Tax Is Coming in 2027 — A Year Before Benefits Begin
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland workers and businesses have another mandatory cost coming, and it will show up...
Moore Says Families Shouldn’t Go Into Debt for Back-to-School. His Own Tax Holiday Doesn’t Cover the Supply List.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Gov. Wes Moore used his personal X account Monday to tell Maryland families that...
Maryland’s Digital Ad Tax Just Got Thrown Out. Here’s What Happens to the Money.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland's first-in-the-nation tax on digital advertising is dead, at least for now, and...
How a $375 Million Plan Became a $715 Million Problem
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews | Maryland on the Map Before Churchill Downs. Before the Preakness IP. Before the NBC deal...
The $4,000 “Crisis” Is Mostly Sandwiches. The Real Maryland Affordability Story Is in Annapolis.
By Michael Phillips | Maryland Bay News The Maryland Democratic Party wants you to believe Donald Trump personally raised...
Power Over People: How Annapolis Rewrote the Rules — and What It Ignored to Do It
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews The Maryland General Assembly closed its three-day special session Tuesday night having...
What Maryland Actually Gets — and Gives Up — By Saying No to Data Centers
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews National coverage of the data center backlash tends to run one of two ways: either data...
A Government Chosen By 5 Percent Is Taxing The Other 95
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Montgomery County's property tax bills have been landing in mailboxes for two weeks, and...
Maryland’s Hidden Bill: A Supreme Court Ruling Just Told Annapolis to Find the Money It Never Set Aside
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland's Supreme Court handed the state a win on June 23 — and used the occasion to...
Governor Moore’s Disability Pride Month Message Runs Into His Own Budget Record
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Governor Wes Moore's official account marked the start of Disability Pride Month with a...
Who Pays for the Data Center Boom? In Maryland, the Answer Is Already You.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews The question was never whether Maryland wanted data centers. The state answered that years...
Six Figures, Still Struggling: Maryland Ranks Third in Nation for Eroding Middle-Class Purchasing Power
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews A household earning $100,000 a year in Maryland is now classified as lower-middle class...
What $400 Million Bought: Mapping the Prestige Gap Between the Masters, the Derby, and the Preakness
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews | Maryland on the Map, Part 3 The numbers are not flattering, and they are worth sitting...
Maryland Celebrates Balanced Budget While Staring Down a $4 Billion Cliff
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — Governor Wes Moore signed Maryland's fiscal year 2027 budget into law...
Maryland’s Top 10 Policy Battles of 2026: What Annapolis Doesn’t Want You to Notice
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — Most Marylanders can name their favorite NFL team's starting lineup. Far...
Maryland Passes Budget With $126 Million in Disability Cuts. Advocates Say the Damage Is Done.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — It is official. Senate Bill 282, Maryland's fiscal year 2027 budget, passed...
Maryland Counties Revolt Against Moore’s Disability Cuts as $150M Reduction Sparks Statewide Backlash
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews A rare bipartisan backlash is building across Maryland as counties push back against...
“Leave Nobody Behind?” Moore Budget Plan Targets Disability Lifeline and Risks Losing $300 Million
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews When Maryland Governor Wes Moore ran for office, one phrase defined his campaign message:...
Maryland Democrats Bash Trump’s Jobs Report While Ignoring the Economic Mess in Their Own Backyard
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland Democrats never miss a chance to seize on a weak national headline and turn it...
Montgomery County’s FY26 Budget: No Tax Hike — But Higher Bills Anyway
By MDBayNews Staff Montgomery County leaders are touting their Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) budget as a model of fiscal...
Governor Moore Demands Tariff Reimbursement — Maryland Families Demand $5,000 Back
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Governor Wes Moore has joined Comptroller Brooke Lierman and Treasurer Dereck Davis in...
Maryland’s TANF Shell Game: $833 Million Spent — Only 24% to Families
By MDBayNews Staff Credit: This article is based on reporting by Tessa Bentulan for Spotlight on Maryland, a collaboration...
Maryland’s Behavioral Health Push: Compassion, Cost, and the Coming Budget Fight
By MDBayNews Staff As Maryland heads deeper into the 2026 General Assembly session, state legislators and mental health...
55 Ways Maryland Has Been Pillaged Under Gov. Wes Moore
By MDBayNews Staff When Wes Moore took office in January 2023, he promised to “leave no one behind.” Three years later,...
REPORT CARD POLITICS: Senate Republicans Blast Moore Over Audit Failures and Growing Deficit
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland Senate Republicans are sharpening their attacks on Governor Wes...
Maryland Counties to Annapolis: Trust Us With Our Own Tax Policy
By MDBayNews Staff As the 2026 session of the Maryland General Assembly unfolds, a familiar tension has resurfaced in...
Nearly 500 Maryland Health Employees Out-Earn the Governor — As Disability Services Face $150M in Cuts
By MDBayNews Staff As Maryland lawmakers debate cutting roughly $150 million from disability services, a new payroll...
Moore Promises “Affordability” — But Marylanders Are Still Waiting
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews When Wes Moore testified before the Maryland Senate Finance Committee this week, he framed...
Lawmakers “Frustrated” — But Maryland’s Foster Care Crisis Is Years in the Making
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland lawmakers say they’re frustrated. They should be. But what unfolded in Annapolis...
Grammer Slams HB 55 as “Extortion Cameras.” Supporters Call It Public Safety.
By MDBayNews Staff Robin Grammer is not mincing words. In a sharply worded social media post this week, the Baltimore...
Maryland’s Latest “Fiscal Accountability” Push Isn’t Nearly Enough — or New
By MDBayNews Editorial Board On the surface, Governor Wes Moore’s latest press release on audit reform looks like an...
Maryland Cuts Sports Event Funding — And Pimlico Is Paying the Price
By MDBayNews Staff Maryland lawmakers are once again tightening the budget—and this time, the cuts are landing squarely...
Maryland Ranks 46th for Taxpayers — And the Reasons Are Structural, Not Accidental
By MDBayNews Staff Maryland has landed 46th out of 50 in the Tax Foundation’s latest State Business Tax Climate Index,...
MACo Pushes Back on Annapolis Revenue Grabs, Warns of Local Tax Hikes and Service Cuts
By MDBayNews Staff Maryland’s counties are drawing a clear line in the sand. The Maryland Association of Counties (MACo)...
Maryland Cuts Tobacco Control, Then Acts Surprised by the Consequences
By MDBayNews Staff Maryland has once again proven that it can talk a good game on public health—right up until it has to...
Maryland Can’t Track Nonprofit Spending—As a Billion-Dollar Deficit Looms
By MDBayNews Staff As Maryland stares down a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit, a troubling reality is coming into focus:...