Politics

The General Assembly proposed a bill last session to reverse an arcane welfare policy limiting cash assistance for low-income families. Maryland was one of only a handful of states with this rule. The Department of Human Services told lawmakers it would change the policy without need for legislation. A year later, it still hasn’t. The inaction has confused legislators and advocates alike, who said the policy change could be funded through a multimillion-dollar surplus in federal funds set aside for Maryland’s cash assistance program.

The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee voted Tuesday to move forward a bill to address the rise in certain crimes among juveniles by providing more diversion and rehabilitative services to children alleged of committing crime. The bill, now headed to the Senate floor where it is likely to face debate, was amended to closely match its companion bill in the House. The legislation brought in response to constituent anecdotes regarding youth crime and a rise in car thefts, carjackings and firearms charges among Maryland children passed on a vote of 7-2. Sens. Jill P. Carter, a Democrat representing Baltimore City, and Charles Sydnor, a Democrat representing Baltimore County, were the only opposition votes.

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.

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.

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’s Wes Moore, the nation’s lone Black governor and only the sixth in U.S. history, declared 2024 his state’s “Year of Civil Rights.” At an event commemorating the state initiative, the 45-year-old rising Democratic star urged Marylanders to “get out into our communities” and “practice our history … [and] protect our history.” While delivering the 2023 commencement address at Morehouse College, Moore chastised Republican lawmakers for leading statewide bans and questioned their motivations.

A controversial bill for medical aid-in-dying, which would allow qualifying terminally-ill patients to prompt their own death with the help of a physician, will likely be stalled for a least another year, as some senators “continue to wrestle” with the issue, Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair Will Smith (D-Montgomery) said Monday night. The issue has come to Maryland lawmakers before, and some find it hard to decide whether to allow a physician to aid in the intentional death of a terminally-ill patient at the patient’s request.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has the fate of a democracy and a people in his hands. It’s not the United States, which will survive – even if the coming general election results in another existential test for the constitutional system. The country Johnson has the power to save is Ukraine, two years after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded, decreeing that it didn’t have the right to exist.