MARYLAND (WBFF) — Many longtime Maryland residents say they are being squeezed by a growing list of costs, even as state leaders argue they are protecting families and keeping the budget in check.
In the past three years, taxpayers have been hit with hundreds of new taxes and fees, including doubling many fees at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA).
“I’m just at my wits end about it. I’m like when do we, the taxpayers get a break?” Baltimore resident Tony Joshua asked.
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The concerns come as the legislative session in Annapolis ended Monday night, with the governor insisting the state had been fiscally responsible while managing what was described as the largest budget in Maryland history.
“We were going to make sure we brought costs down for Marylanders, protect them from the ravages of the Trump admin and make our state more economically competitive and I said we’d do it without raising taxes and fees,” Gov. Wes Moore said in an interview with Maryland Public Television.
While the state’s new budget may not include new taxes and fees, the governor’s budgets over the past three years have included hundreds of new fees.
“The governor did more than his share of tax and fee increasing during the 2025 legislative session,” Anirban Basu, economist with the Sage Policy Group, said.
“One of the things you’ll no longer hear the governor say is ‘while I’ve been governor I’ve created 100,000 jobs,’” Basu said. “We need much better leadership from Annapolis. Much wiser leadership to reposition the state’s economy to attract more investment., create more jobs.”
The governor insists he’s worked to protect Maryland families.
“We have to make sure we’re not only balancing our budget, but not doing it on the backs of working families as well,” he said.
The latest cost-of-living survey ranked Maryland as the sixth most expensive state in the country, with average household expenses hovering at just over $93,000 a year.
Basu said the state’s high costs are pushing residents away and increasing the burden on those who remain.
“Many Marylanders are moving out they can no longer Marylanders and that means the rest of us carry this heavy burden of financing state government expenditures, meanwhile, fewer of us, have jobs,” he said.
Basu believes it could be a long while before the dark economic cloud leaves the state.
“I just don’t see Annapolis with an appetite to right side state government and bring down our tax burdens. They want to spend more money and they’re gonna make us pay for it,” Basu said.
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