But Delegate Fair believe it will be resolved before the session ends.
Delegate Kris Fair
Annapolis, Md (KM) It’s been on the minds of Maryland legislators since the 2025 General Assembly gaveled into session: the budget. The state’s projected deficit for fiscal year 2026 is over $3 billion dollars. When it come to the budget, Frederick County Delegate Kris Fair says he and his fellow legislators are “just razor-focused on figuring out how to effectively deal with this budget. So it has been a busy session since day one. It continues to be a busy session,” he says.
Last Wednesday, Governor Wes Moore, Speaker of the House Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson announced that a budget deal had been reached. It will contain $2.3 billion in cuts which is $500 million more than the Governor had proposed originally in his budget. Where those cuts will come from was not identified in the announcement.
This budget deal will also increase taxes on the state’s highest earners, but lower taxes on 94 percent of Maryland’s population.
The plan doesn’t include at a 75 cent fee on deliveries purchased on line, or a 2.5 percent tax on business-to-business services. But there is a three percent tax on data and information technology services. The Governor says that includes large website and cloud-computing services such as Amazon.
“I think it speaks volumes that prior to even the House floor reading the budget they had a press conference on Wednesday together with the Speaker of the House, the Senate President and the Governor saying ‘we have struck a deal,;” Fairs says. “‘We have the idea and the concept that we are going to move forward.'”
And Delegate Fair says he believe the legislature will pass a budget before the session ends on April 7th at midnight.. “These hardworking folks down here have been really working night and day, burning the midnight oil as they used to say. And I think they will pull it out before the last day of session,” he says.
Lawmakers are required to have a balanced budget by the end of the General Assembly session.
By Kevin McManus