By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) provided an update on the fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget negotiations on March 17 as lawmakers face a March 31 deadline to finalize the state’s spending plan.
Moore reaffirmed his commitment to tax code reforms, economic competitiveness and investment in Marylanders, pressing that he will not waver from those guidelines.
“We have not moved and will not move from those three guidelines,” Moore said, according to a recording from the March 17 press conference. “We have had productive conversations with the general assembly, with both the House and the Senate, to ensure that we’re going to accomplish and hit every single one of those benchmarks by the time we get to the close of session.”
The state currently faces a $3 billion budget deficit and an uncertain future with little to no federal financial support.
During the press conference, Moore clarified that certain revenue measures, including a sugary drink tax and business-to-business (B2B) taxes, would not be included in the budget.
“When I laid out that we had to make ourselves more economically competitive and more business-friendly, that meant creating and opening up pathways for businesses to be able to grow and stay in the state of Maryland,” Moore said. “That is why the broad business-to-business (B2B) tax will not be in the final budget.”
He also noted that excluding the sugary drink tax aims to support Maryland’s working class by not adding to grocery costs.
Maryland House Republicans responded to Moore’s budget update with skepticism.
“While we are pleased that Governor Moore has finally voiced his opinion on two significant revenue measures under consideration, we remain cautious,” said House Minority Leader Jason Buckel (R-Md.-1B) in a statement. “There is much he did not say, and he did not answer any questions. I would submit to you that neither Maryland’s businesses nor our taxpayers are entirely off the hook quite yet.”
Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey (R-Md.-36) raised alarm about the potential for the B2B tax to “mutate into something potentially worse.”
“In the general assembly, nothing is ever truly dead until Sine Die,” Hershey said in a statement. “We are now hearing that Democrats may charge a higher sales tax for a smaller number of services that will be paid by both business and consumers alike. This is not an improvement.”
“The general assembly should refocus its efforts on cuts – making deeper reductions to the Blueprint, implementing a state workforce hiring freeze and right-sizing government before we ask businesses and individual taxpayers for a bailout,” he added.
Deeper cuts are already under consideration in the Maryland Senate.
“In the budget that we’re contemplating in the Senate, we are already talking about an additional 400 to 500 million of cuts on top of the $2 billion of cuts that the governor has proposed,” Senate President William “Bill” Ferguson (D-Md.-46) said in a live-streamed press conference on March 14. “As we are doing all of this, we know that we will still have to invest in core priorities–and we will.”
If the budget bills are not passed by April 7, Moore has the power to extend the session.
“I’m looking forward to these next weeks, but this would be a hard session in normal times, and these are not normal times,” Moore said. “This administration, we’re going to meet the moment of crisis with courage.”