Senator Lewis Young says it was due to the state’s budget woes.
Frederick County State Senator Karen Lewis Young
Frederick, Md (KM) The dust is beginning to settle on the 2025 Maryland General Assembly which adjourned for the year on Monday, April 7th after 90 days. Frederick County State Senator Karen Lewis Young had this assessment. “It was certainly one of the most challenging one in my 11 sessions largely because of our budget challenge,” she says.
The state was facing a budget deficit of $3 billion dollars. Senator Lewis Young, who is a member of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, says some cuts needed to be made to bring the budget into balance. “I would say the biggest areas were probably positions that were unfilled,” she said. “If there were positions that we saw that were unfilled, and had been that way for a while, we just eliminated them.”
She says $1.6 billion in cuts were made.
But Senator Lewis Young says she was able to get seven bills passed. One would study whether Frederick County’s; Family Connects should be expanded statewide. That’s where a nurse makes a home visit to a woman who had just given birth, to make sure that both the new mother and her baby were healthy. This would take place before their first postpartum visit following delivery
She says this program in Frederick County is being paid for with federal money leftover from the COVID-19 pandemic. But that money is expected to run out soon
Senator Lewis Young said expanding this program statewide would cost $40 million, and $1.1 million do it locally. “So we established a workgroup that could try to identify existing programs throughout the state that might be relevant and close to the program we have,”: she said.
Another bill that made it would expand the Janet L. Hoffman Loan Assistance Program to veterinarians and veterinary assistants. It would be a way to help alleviate a shortage of these professionals in Maryland. “This will allow veterinarians and vet techs to be able to apply for tuition reimbursement up to a certain amount if they agree to practice in Maryland for five years, or donate 100 hours a year for three years to an animal shelter,” she says.
Senator Lewis Young says taking away the worries of tuition payments provides incentives to these professionals to stay in Maryland so that families, farmers and animal shelters have access to veterinary care.
Legislation dealing with data centers also passed the General Assembly. Frederick County is considering data centers as a possible source of revenue, and for good paying jobs for its citizens. But Senator Lewis Young says many of her constituents have expressed concerns about these facilities, particularly environmental issues. They also wondered if there is enough energy, and whether the number of jobs these facilities could provide is accurate. She says this bill would set up a commission to study these issues. “The University of Maryland School of Business will do the financial analysis. The Department of the Environment will do the environmental impact. And the Energy Department will do the energy forecast,” says Senator Lewis Young.
The Senator says she was also able to bring back more than $10 million in local capital projects. They include the Maryland Deaf Community Center ($1 million), Frederick County Microgrid ($500,000), Heartly House ($500,000), Frederick Youth Center ($150,000), the Frederick Center ($125,000), 7th Street Fountain Park ($50,000) and Splash Point at Baker Park ($50,000).
There was also $7.5 million for the downtown hotel and conference center. The Senator staff says that money came from the fiscal year 2026 budget, but the Senator was instrumental in keeping the amount from being reduced.
By Kevin McManus