Politics

Billions of dollars in collected operating and transportation budget deficits will present Gov. Wes More (D) with one of the toughest challenges of his nascent administration. Ever ebullient, Moore was sworn in earlier this year vowing to move quickly to rebuild state government, end childhood poverty and leave no one behind as he promised that the state would “win the decade.” Those ambitions are about to be tested against stark budget realities that will make Moore, as with all governors, pick and choose and prioritize.

Baltimore County legislators passed unanimously Monday a pair of bills enshrining the Office of the Inspector General into county law in a highly-anticipated vote after Council Chair Julian Jones Jr. announced he was withdrawing widely-criticized amendments that would have hamstrung the watchdog agency. The county council voted 7-0 to pass two bills that codify the three-year-old office into the county charter and require public hearings and written notice to justify any future attempts to shrink the agency’s budget.

Helping Maryland’s counties afford their share of the Blueprint, the landmark plan to revamp the state’s public schools and early childhood programs, will be the No. 1 education issue before the General Assembly in 2024, Senate Majority Leader Nancy J. King said. The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, passed by the legislature in 2021, increases education funding by $3.8 billion annually for 10 years, with the cost borne by the state, the 23 counties and Baltimore City.

Gov. Wes Moore announced an executive order to “broaden” the state’s efforts to combat the the drug overdose crisis through reorganizing and expanding a state entity previously known as the Opioid Operational Command Center. Moore (D) said the order will “help broaden state and government’s approach to tackling the overdose crisis,” to reflect the ever-changing nature of the opioid crisis and overdoses in general.

In the new landscape of abortion discourse following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) and other Democrats are calling on top social media sites to combat potentially harmful misinformation related to abortion access and procedures. On Dec. 7, Raskin and 12 other Democratic members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability sent letters addressed to Elon Musk, the chairman and chief technology officer of the social media site formerly known as Twitter, now called X, and Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, calling on them to combat the spread of misinformation on abortion.

The Maryland Department of the Environment has a plan — a plan to achieve the state’s ambitious climate and clean energy goals. But the plan isn’t quite ready for prime time yet — though it should be by year’s end. Which made the timing of Friday’s virtual hearing by the House Environment and Transportation Committee on how the state plans to implement the groundbreaking Climate Solutions Now Act a little inopportune. Lawmakers’ attempts to drill down on details of the Moore administration’s plans for meeting the provisions in the bill were politely swatted away more than a few times by Maryland Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain and her top lieutenants.

Produce business owner Abigail Diehl and Severna Park nurse Kristin Lyman Nabors have filed as candidates for the seat held by Democratic Rep. John Sarbanes representing the 3rd Congressional District. Sarbanes announced in October that he would not seek reelection after 17 years in office. The Anne Arundel residents, both Democrats, enter an already crowded candidate field that includes several seasoned liberal legislators from across the region.

In spite of a reported decline in youth crime and Baltimore’s slowed murder rate, Maryland’s juvenile justice policy has left some residents fearful and angry with their representatives in Annapolis, and confused about what their state laws actually do — especially in the face of a spate of car thefts. “The facts matter, but so does the perception,” Senate President Bill Ferguson, a South Baltimore Democrat, said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun last week.