A recent report by Moody’s has downgraded Maryland’s financial outlook to “negative” from “stable,” citing the state’s difficulties in achieving balanced financial operations in the coming years. According to Project Baltimore, Republican State Senator Justin Ready believes that education spending, particularly the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, is a significant contributor to the state’s financial challenges.

“It’s a self-created hole,” Ready told Project Baltimore. “We have a very high-taxed state and local governments, and so we were concerned. We saw this as being unsustainable, an unsustainable increase.”

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, also known as the Kirwan Plan, was passed in 2021 after lawmakers overrode then-Governor Larry Hogan’s veto. The law allocates an additional $30 billion in tax dollars to public education over the first 10 years and an additional $4 billion every year thereafter. However, when the bill was passed, the legislature did not establish a funding mechanism, essentially approving the largest education spending increase in state history without a way to pay for it.

As a result, many school systems are now considering budget cuts, including the elimination of teachers and programs, to afford other costs mandated by the Blueprint. Senate President Bill Ferguson acknowledged concerns from local jurisdictions over education spending and potential tax hikes during this year’s legislative session, but lawmakers chose not to revisit the Blueprint’s funding formula.

Critics of the Blueprint, like Senator Ready, are hopeful that the legislature will address the funding formula during next year’s session. Ready suggests that the Blueprint can be fully funded if it is implemented over 14 years instead of the current 10 years, a proposal that House and Senate Republicans are finalizing.

“We can shift the mandates in spending, still increase spending on an investment in education, but just slow the process down a little bit so that it’s more sustainable,” Ready said.

State projections indicate that Maryland’s expected budget deficit will grow to $1 billion by next year and more than double to $3 billion in fiscal year 2028, largely due to increased spending mandated by the Blueprint. In a recent Op-Ed in the Baltimore Sun, Republican State Senator Stephen Hershey cited budget statistics from the Larry Hogan administration, which suggest that paying for the Blueprint would require either a 39% increase in the personal income tax rate, an 89% increase in the sales tax, or a 535% increase in property taxes.

“My message and the message of, frankly, our Republican legislators in the House and Senate, is you actually don’t have to raise taxes to fix this issue. You don’t have to raise taxes, and you also don’t need draconian massive cuts. You just need to slow down the rate of growth, and we can address a lot of our outstanding budget issues,” Ready told Project Baltimore.