A Maryland board approved $148.3 million in state spending reductions to balance its budget and direct additional funds toward child care and Medicaid .
Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) has highlighted these two priorities as crucial for his administration, aiming to revitalize the state’s stagnant economy .
Chaired by Moore, the Board of Public Works implemented cuts across multiple state agencies to address increased demand for Medicaid and a state child care program.
“While it’s never ideal, the reductions that we are advancing today are necessary to ensure that our fiscal stability is going to be sound and to create long-term economic growth for our state,” Moore said.
Outside of legislative sessions, the board has the authority to reduce the state’s operating budget by up to 25%.
“Maryland’s business model was broken,” Moore said, highlighting that the state’s economy had been stagnant for more than a decade.
“That’s not politics , that’s math ,” he continued. “You cannot have something that continues to watch budgets increase but where you’re continuing to watch an economy stay flat.”
These adjustments arose due to unexpected increases in participation in a state child care program and higher-than-anticipated retention of Medicaid participants following post- pandemic eligibility reviews.
When Moore took office, approximately 24,000 children were enrolled in the state’s child care scholarship program, which grew to about 33,000 children by late 2023.
The fiscal 2024 budget anticipated 38,000 to 40,000 children participating in the state’s child care program, but that number has surpassed 40,000 as of June.
Regarding Medicaid, the Maryland Health Department processed 1,540,247 renewal applications over the past 12 months and approved more than 70% of them.
As of May 31, Medicaid enrollment reached 1,684,462, compared to 1,415,631 before COVID-19 , marking an increase of 262,303.
Helene Grady, the governor’s budget chief, emphasized to the board that prioritizing affordable access to healthcare and child care for eligible Marylanders supports economic growth by fostering health and workforce participation.
She also said these reductions aimed to reallocate underutilized funds and postpone new or increased funding initiatives.
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Maryland Republicans criticized the board’s decision, labeling it as a fund transfer rather than a true budget cut, especially as the state confronts long-term budget deficits.
“What you will find is a fund transfer and budgeting tricks akin to looking for coins in the couch cushions to make up a significant underfunding of Medicaid created by flawed projections,” Maryland Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey said in a statement.
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