Dear Friends, 

Today, April 7th, the Maryland General Assembly is going to adjourn "Sine Die," which is Latin for "without a day." Colleagues who have served far longer than I have describe this session as the most challenging they have experienced and I would agree that it's been one for the history books. We faced numerous issues, beginning session with a $3 billion deficit and then continuing adversities of having an additional write-down, the Trump Administration's DOGE effect on our federal workforce and expected impact on our revenues. 

We are compiling our customary End of Session Report that we will send in the next week or so to highlight some of the most important issues before us this session, but I wanted to send a quick newsletter to let you know about how our budget agreement came together and thought you might be interested in knowing what issues we've heard about most from the district. 

I've had a fantastic team this year - our 3 fabulous interns as well as our fantastic Legislative Liaison, Janet Eckman (learn more about Janet below), and amazing Chief of Staff, Maura Dunnigan. I'm sure many of you have spoken with them or been assisted by their incredible constituent service and I'm incredibly grateful for their patience, kindness, and dedication to public service.

Please be on the lookout for our wrap-up and in the meantime, I look forward to finishing up our 2025 session -- and am hoping to get a few bills over the finish line on sine die - drama I always try to avoid but was unable to this year. 

Sincerely

Shelly L. Hettleman
Senator, District 11

• In the Community
• Legislative Updates
• Budget Update
• Intern Spotlight
• Community Events & Updates
• Contact Information

Top left: I was paid a surprise visit by Senator Ben Cardin- it was so great to catch up with him!

Top right:  Celebrating Irvine Nature Center's 50th anniversary with Executive Director, Brooks Patternote.

Bottom left: Meeting with representatives from AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees). I'm grateful to these public service workers and their dedication in often challenging jobs. 

Bottom right: Two of my outstanding interns, Davon and Corinne, met Governor Wes Moore!

The one piece of legislation we must pass each legislative session is a balanced budget. Unlike the federal government, we are constitutionally required to pass a budget. And, we cannot print money. I’ve written before about the challenges we faced at the beginning of this budget process (a $3 billion shortfall), and much has been reported in the news about the means we have considered to address these issues.

As you may recall, early in session the Governor introduced his budget and the Budget Reconciliation Financing Act that included a variety of revenue proposals and spending cuts that the General Assembly’s budget committees have worked on over the past many weeks. These included significant cuts to the developmental disabilities budget, paring back funding for certain aspects of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a .75 cent delivery fee, the elimination of itemized deductions, an additional tax bracket at the upper income levels, a capital gains tax and other initiatives.

The House and Senate spent virtually the entire session working on how best to restore cuts that hit certain vulnerable communities particularly hard and to address the fallout, as best we could, from certain Trump Administration actions. We also closely examined our current spending and made roughly $2 billion in cuts to the budget. To that end, on this last day of the legislative session, we will vote on the operating and capital budgets that meet our constitutional obligation to responsibly balance the budget by cutting spending while protecting our schools, health care and public safety services. Most Marylanders, (94%) can expect no increase in personal taxes or receive a tax break and we will expect wealthier Marylanders to pay their fair share.

A few things to note about the budget:

• meets our goal of attaining a structural surplus in FY26 of $15m;
• retains a fund balance of $354 million;
• maintains $2.1 billion in general fund reserves (8% of general funds);
• reduces spending in the general fund by over $400 million compared to this year;
• cuts $1.6 billion in general funds and adds $1.2 in ongoing revenues to address a projected structural deficit (shortfall in future years).

A few things about revenues:

• creates a data and information technology (IT) sales tax on services at 3%, including subscription services and applies to individuals as well as businesses;
• creates two new high-income brackets - $500,000-$1 million (6.25%) and $1 million + (6.5%);
• phases out itemized deductions above $200,000 with a 7.5% multiplication factor (ie. a person making $350,000 would be able to write off/itemize $37,500);
• increases the standard deduction by 20% ($2,800 to $3,360) for a single filer;
• creates a surcharge of 2% on capital gains for those with $350,000+ of income;
• increases the tax rate on sports wagering from 15% to 20%;
• increases the tax rate on cannabis from 9% to 12%;
• increases a variety of vehicle excise taxes, registration fees, short-term vehicle rentals, tire fees, etc. to be directed to the Transportation Trust Fund to support critical infrastructure projects in our Consolidated Transportation Program.

 If yes, please check out these Maryland resources for assistance.

For more information and to register, please visit https://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/departments/police/community/citizen-programs.

Check out the OPC'S most recent newsletter here!

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

10 a.m. - 12 noon

Check out your schedule here.

The U.S. Department of Labor is urging workers who believe they might be owed unpaid wages to check out the department’s Workers Owed Wages, or WOW, database to see if the agency has money for them.

For more information, please visit https://ow.ly/pJzc50UBmju

Unsubscribe from future updates