Maryland lawmakers are wrapping their 2025 legislative session Monday after a tumultuous year, marked by President Donald Trump’s administration’s government layoffs, global tariffs and a $3.3 billion budget hole.
The state is raising taxes on its information technology sector and the state’s wealthiest residents to address the deficit, along with incorporating new initiatives on reparations, criminal record expungement, and price limits on prescription drugs.
The state is also looking at forming a panel to be responsive to developments from the administration, noting the state’s close ties to federal workers and contractors.
Gov. Wes Moore spoke with WTOP’s Shawn Anderson and Anne Kramer to reflect on the session and share more about the tax increases, the Trump administration’s tariffs, the latest updates on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and bringing more businesses to the state.
Read and listen to the interview below.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Wes Moore: Tariffs are an economic tool, but this administration is using them as an ideology, and it’s a disastrous ideology at that, because we are seeing how these tariffs that they are putting on board, these universal and reckless tariffs, are actually essentially going to be a national sales tax. Everyone is going to pay more for everything. That’s the way this is going to show itself.
And so I think how erratic this behavior has been, and how destructive it’s been for the markets, for people’s retirement, for our small businesses, for our farmers. You know, I cannot stress enough what a chaotic environment this is creating for the people of the state of Maryland.
Anne Kramer: Before we get to sine die and the end of the General Assembly, I want to take an opportunity to get your reaction to the Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts pausing the order for the White House to return Kilmar Garcia, the Beltsville man who was mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador. What are your thoughts on that?
Wes Moore: Well, I’ve said before, Kilmar needs to come home. There was no due process that made this happen. I come from an immigrant family, so this is a very personal thing for me, and I also know that there is no higher priority for me or anyone else, for any chief executive, than to make sure that your people are safe. So we will always work with our federal authorities to ensure that we’re getting violent offenders off of our streets.
But I also know that believing in public safety just should not curtail believing in the Constitution, and due process is an important is an important thing for us to be able to hold on to. Kilmar needs to come home, and there needs to be a due process around him.
Shawn Anderson: Let’s talk about the General Assembly. Down to the final hours before sine die, you’ve had a lot of work to do this time around with a $3 billion budget hole. Where does the budget stand right now, with the time running down?
Wes Moore: This has been a very challenging environment where we inherited a $3-plus billion deficit, but also we know now turned a $3 billion deficit into a surplus. I also know that middle class Marylanders are about to get a tax cut. 94% of Marylanders are either going to get a tax cut or see no changes to their taxes at all. And that’s happening at a time when you are seeing things like a national sales tax.
That’s happening because of the Trump administration’s arbitrary tariffs, because when you’re watching unemployment spike because of Elon Musk’s DOGE, and so I just believe that in Maryland, we’re showing there’s a different way where we can actually focus on growing the economy, investing in industries of the future, and also give Marylanders, middle class Marylanders, the tax cut that they need.
Anne Kramer: Governor, there were sticking points when the legislature worked through the weekend, and I understand maybe the house has approved its side of those sticking points. Now, when it comes to the budget, how involved were you in trying to make sure this could get through? And then, if you can also take the opportunity to tell us about that business tax that you were talking about for services, that fee that was going to be on there, is that getting approved?
Wes Moore: We’ve been very involved in this process, and I had three very clear goals. One is we needed to reform our tax code, and you could not do it on the backs of middle class families. We needed to give the middle class a tax cut. I said that we have to make Maryland more business-friendly and more economically competitive. It’s the reason that I said things like the business to business tax that was being proposed was not going to fly. I would not sign it.
And it’s also saying the reason why we champion things like making sure we’re having procurement reform and regulatory reform and permitting reform and making over $100 million in investment in new industries of the future. That’s the largest pro-growth package that a Maryland governor has proposed in over a decade. And I said, we’ve got to invest in our people, even while we’re making some of the largest cuts in a Maryland budget that we have seen now in 16 years.
And so those are the guidelines that I laid out at the beginning of session, and the guidelines that I stayed on. We’ve been very involved inside of this process, but I think we’ve been able to show that by making investments in growth industries, by making sure that we could actually reduce regulatory red tape, and making it easier for businesses to grow in the state of Maryland, while also modernizing our tax code, we can continue the trend lines that we have seen in Maryland, which is the state is finally having a growth in new business starts and a growth in population. Those are two facts that we have not seen in our state in over a decade.
Shawn Anderson: Governor shifting gears just a bit, we understand you’re getting ready to go to Asia. Why are you making this trip? What are you hoping to accomplish?
Wes Moore: Well, because I believe in growth, and I believe we need to make sure we’re going anywhere and everywhere where we can accomplish it. So I will be accompanied by business leaders in the state of Maryland who are either already doing business in Japan and Korea, or those who are hoping to do business there, and we’re going to be meeting also with governmental and business leaders in Asia, to be able to bring them to the state of Maryland.
I believe deeply that the answer to every single both challenge and opportunity that our state has is one word: Growth. And the biggest challenge that we faced as a state is if you look at over the seven years before I became the governor, spending increased in our state by 70% and we grew at 3% when the average state grew by 11%. So we were growing at less than half the national average because our economy had essentially flatlined.
One thing we’ve been focusing on, and we’ve been able to see some real results thus far is, how can we get this economy going again? And now we’re finally seeing a start, a jump in new business starts, that we are finally seeing some economic growth, and we’ve got to make sure we’re going after it wherever it lies, and so I’m eager to spend this time overseas with a lot of our business leaders to ensure that we can keep our economic engine going.
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