Technical errors and faulty projections in the administration of Gov. Wes Moore have resulted in a $236 million shortfall to cover Medicaid expenses in the state, further exacerbating an already tight state budget. The shortfall may prompt the Department of Budget and Management to propose drawing from the state’s rainy day fund, and/or propose a supplemental budget, which could include moving cost savings or cutting from another government program.

For Baltimore City eighth graders, there’s a rite of passage that comes around this time every year when they learn what high school they will go to in August. It’s a bit like getting college acceptance letters, but everyone gets theirs on the same day. This year, anticipation grew on Presidents Day when families checked online for the results. But when results were finally posted late in the evening, for 199 of the 5,129 students, they were, well, quite confusing. Some students had been waitlisted everywhere, or they hadn’t gotten in to schools they were pretty sure they should have.

 

The goal was to make it simpler and faster for prospective college students to apply for federal financial. Cue chaos. The rollout of the new 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has been anything but simple and fast. Normally available for families to fill out by Oct. 1 of the preceding academic year, this year’s revised FAFSA was not available until the start of January 2024.

TRIBE, an innovative movement and wellness school that is the brainchild of co-founders Lola Manekin, Barri DeFrancisci and Gary Grisham, is set to open April 6 at 107 E. Preston St. in the Mount Vernon section of Baltimore.The group signed a full-building lease with MCB Real Estate for 6,000 square feet of space and expects to employ between 20 and 25 people at the space formerly occupied by Charm City Yoga.

A Maryland State Highway Administration contractor has started an $8.9 million project to improve the U.S. 40 bridge decks over Interstate 70 east of Hagerstown. Weather permitting, the project is expected to be finished next year, according to a state highway release. The project involves detours while barriers are put in place and closing a lane in each direction so crews can work safely.

 

After calling out the Maryland Judiciary last week for skirting responsibility for a pretrial private home detention monitoring that recently ran out of money, Senate President Bill Ferguson said Tuesday that he’s “confident” the judiciary will be able to cover the program until the legislature can backfill costs. Ferguson said that Supreme Court of Maryland Chief Justice Matthew Fader “reached out very quickly” and that he appreciated their conversation about how to move the program forward.

For more than two decades, Billy and Soy Mettawiparee refused to take a day off from running their Waverly Thai Restaurant. Then, in December 2023, they were forced to vacate. What followed were two months of anxious cleaning and restless nights, as the couple behind one of the neighborhood’s longest-serving restaurants struggled to chart a path forward. Now, as of Tuesday, they have it figured out.

 

A bill from state Del. Kris Fair (D-3) would enable Maryland’s 23 counties and the city of Baltimore to establish special tax rates for different categories of real property. Under the current state law, county jurisdictions are authorized to set a single tax rate for all real property. For fiscal year 2024, Frederick County’s property tax rate was set at $1.06 per $100 of assessed value. If enacted, HB919 would grant county jurisdictions the authority to set a special tax rate of up to 12.5 cents per $100 of assessed value for six different categories of real property, including:

 

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maryland is speaking out against a proposal that would offer more protections to renters seeking to challenge landlords in court over housing quality. The Hon. Matthew J. Fader, an appointee of former Gov. Larry Hogan, said in a memo to lawmakers that several elements of the Tenant Safety Act bill “cause concern” and asked them to block it from advancing. At its core, the measure seeks to increase the number of “rent escrow” filings, or the number of tenants who pay rent to the court until landlords make needed repairs.

Maryland voters would decide in a special election whether people who are appointed to vacancies in the state legislature keep their seats in the first two years of a term, under a proposed constitutional amendment approved by the state Senate on Tuesday. The measure, which passed on a 43-2 vote, now goes to the Maryland House. If the House approves, it will go on the ballot for voters to have the final say in November.