Money is on everyone's mind in the Maryland power structure after Gov. Moore's appearance at the Maryland Association of Counties' winter conference this past weekend. He did not bring good news about the state budget, and that was gloom-inducing among the counties that, to various extents, depend on state aid -- especially for schools. The companion story about implementing the state's ambitious Blueprint for school improvement is, as the reader might expect, also endangered. And news on the state's climate goals is not good either, as an administration that does not see climate change as a problem prepares to take charge in D.C. We wish that there were less depressing news cascading down during the holiday season, for sure, but that what we've got to offer. Marylanders, we note with hope, are good at finding their own good cheer -- we're counting on that. Twenty Twenty-Five will be an interesting year and one in which organized fight-back may be on the agenda. Enjoy your holidays but count yourselves all.in.for.2025.

HERE IN MARYLAND – MONEY DOESN’T TALK, IT SCREAMS

Gov. Moore Says State Confronting ‘Two Storms’: Gov. Wes Moore (D) has used his semiannual speeches to the Maryland Association of Counties to deliver sobering fiscal news before and Thursday night’s address, at the MACo winter conference in Cambridge, was no exception. Maryland Matters. Via MD Reporter

Moore To Maryland’s County Leaders Worried About The Budget: ‘Don’t Give Up The Ship’ During a historic state budget crisis and looming uncertainty about federal funding, Maryland’s county leaders are grappling with how to weather the storms ahead. County leaders may have to choose from unpopular options, such as raising taxes, trimming services and pinching pennies. So far, they have differing outlooks on the future of their local economies and the Moore administration’s handling of the state budget. Maryland Matters

State Revenue Outlook Improved Slightly: Maryland revenues will be slightly better than expected in the coming year, but not nearly high enough to blunt a multibillion-dollar budget deficit that will force “difficult trade-offs” as the state works through the budget, fiscal officers said Thursday. Maryland Matters. 

>>Maryland officials got a tiny bit of good news  as they prepare to wrestle a multibillion-dollar budget hole: The state is projected to have a little bit more money than expected. Baltimore Banner.  (may be paywalled) via MD Reporter

Tax Collection On Track But Officials Warn Of Potential Trump Effect: Maryland lawmakers tasked with resolving a daunting multi-billion-dollar budget deficit in the coming months will enter those negotiations without any last-minute curveballs — at least on one side of the equation. Baltimore Sun via MD Reporter

Assembly Lines Drawn Over State's 'Enormous' Budgeting Problem: Lawmakers and Gov. Wes Moore (D) are staking out budget positions with less than a month before the start of the 2025 legislative session that will likely revolve around an “enormous” budget problem. A debate over taxes, the economy and business climate, and education will all dovetail into efforts to solve billions in projected deficits over the next five years. Maryland Matters.

Moore Suggests Rollbacks To Public Ed Plan: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday proposed scaling back parts of the state’s ambitious public education improvement plan as the state faces a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit. Baltimore Banner. (may be paywalled)

County School Leaders Say Changes Needed To Blueprint School Plan: The state’s education reform plan needs some reforms itself if it’s to survive a looming multibillion-dollar budget deficit and deliver on its promises, school leaders and local elected officials said Thursday. Maryland Matters. 
School Absenteeism a Major Problem; Finding Solutions Is Too: Advocates across Baltimore City and Maryland are quick to point out why kids chronically missing school is a problem. The hard part is coming up with a solution. There’s been some discussion of chronic absenteeism in the past at City Hall and the Maryland State House, but elected leaders say there’s more work to be done.  Baltimore Sun.

State Panel Votes To Study, Rather Than Recommend, Ways To Pay For Climate Plan: One year after a state environmental agency calculated that it would cost Maryland at least $10 billion to meet the government’s ambitious climate mandates, the Maryland Commission on Climate Change took baby steps Thursday toward considering how to pay for them — but the panel didn’t go nearly as far as some members originally intended. Maryland Matters. 

Federal Hostility Could Delay Offshore Wind Projects, Derailing State Climate Goals

Numerous East Coast states are counting on offshore wind projects to power tens of millions of homes and to help them transition to cleaner energy. But putting wind turbines at sea requires the cooperation of a powerful landlord: the federal government. Soon, that government will be led by President-elect Donald Trump, who has frequently disparaged offshore wind and said he will “make sure that ends on Day 1.” East Coast states don’t have a viable way to meet their clean energy goals without that offshore production, said Maryland state Del. Lorig Charkoudian, a Democrat who authored a law last year that increased the state’s offshore wind targets. “We’ll continue to support the ongoing development of offshore wind until we have to make other adjustments,” she said. Stateline Daily

Moore Joins Political Conclave in Landover for Army-Navy Tilt

 At the Army Navy game (Northwest Stadium, Landover) lots of politicking: “the Trump War Room even put up a photo of the president-elect shaking hands with a smiling WES MOORE, the Democratic governor of Maryland and an Army vet. Moore, we should note, has been far less vocal than some of his colleagues (California’s GAVIN NEWSOM, Illinois’ JB PRITZKER) in sticking it to Trump since the Republican’s electoral romp. “ POLITICO Playbook Sunday

Group Hopes to Tackle Mass Incarceration Through Legislation: A group tackling mass incarceration in Maryland released recommendations Thursday and plans to produce a report by next month, in time for the General Assembly to possibly take up some of the recommendations as legislation during the 2025 session that starts Jan. 8. The 18 recommendations from the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative aim to fix the imbalance in state sentencings: Black residents accounted for 32% of Maryland’s population in 2023, but about 71% of those incarcerated in the state’s correctional facilities, the group notes. Maryland Matters.

15,000 Attend Virtual Meeting On Federal Workforce Future: About 15,000 people, mostly federal workers from the D.C. region who are bracing for possible workforce cuts that incoming President Donald Trump has pledged to implement, attended a virtual meeting last Thursday hosted by Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey to talk with Ivey and union leaders who will defend their jobs from elimination. WTOP-FM.

Unaffiliated, Third Party Voters Left Out Of Primaries: Unaffiliated, Green Party and Libertarian voters don’t get to participate in primary elections in Maryland, with few exceptions, but their tax dollars still contribute to paying the cost — including for special elections that run into the millions. Under state law, Maryland’s “partially closed” primary system shuts out voters unaffiliated with the state’s two major political parties, the Democrats and Republicans. Baltimore Sun.

Court Upholds Maryland Ban On Pet Store Sales Of Cats, Dogs: A federal appeals court upheld the constitutionality of a Maryland law banning the sale of dogs and cats through retail pet shops, rejecting a challenge by Missouri dog breeders and Maryland pet stores. Maryland Matters  via MD Reporter

Bladensburg Seeks To Annex 113 Acre Hospital Site: Call it the second Battle of Bladensburg. Two centuries after the Maryland town was the site of a skirmish in the War of 1812, a fight is brewing over the Town of Bladensburg’s desire to annex valuable land owned by the Prince George’s County government that the nearby Town of Cheverly was already planning to annex. Maryland Matters.

IN THE OTHER 49

ABORTION: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has sued a New York doctor, accusing the doctor of violating state law by prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to a Texas resident. The case is a first test of the tension between Texas abortion restrictions and New York’s abortion shield law that protects providers from out-of-state prosecutions. (Texas Tribune) via Pluribus

Millions Will See Rise in Health Insurance Premiums If Federal Subsidies Expire

The Trump administration is unlikely to extend aid that has cut the cost of exchange plans. States say they don’t have the money to replace the federal aid. In Pennsylvania, for example, doing so would take about $500 million per year, according to Devon Trolley, the executive director of the state’s exchange. “That is a significant amount of money, an insurmountable amount of money,” Trolley said. The disappearance of the federal help would make coverage unaffordable for millions of Americans. Stateline Daily

NATIONAL AND THE FEDS

Health Care abuses continue to dominate news for both wrong and right reasons

Here is the (last for 2024) national dispatch from Megan E, federal affairs director at our national affiliate, People's Action

The media continues to report on the problems with health insurance and the killing of UnitedhealthCare CEO Brian Thompson and the online response expressing people’s anger due to the insurer and other insurer’s delays and denials of care and driving people into medical debt. People’s Action has contributed to many articles and photos of our actions are included in others. The NY Times apparently felt the need to publish a hard-to-read opinion article by UnitedHealth Group CEO (parent company of UnitedHealthCare) titled, “the healthcare system is broken, let’s fix it.” He also says the purpose of their organization is to build a health care system that works for everyone, when in fact and by law the purpose of the publicly traded company is to maximize profits for shareholders. The WA Post has a similar puff piece but at least we’re quoted in it! 

The American Prospect has an interesting, if depressing, article about collusion between UnitedHealth and health care providers and how the courts are refusing to provide remedies to the people they harm. 

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced a bill to break up the UnitedHealth Group monopoly. Representatives Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) and Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) introduced the House companion. 

[Megan E notes that Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington State, who has been fearless as the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is term-limited out of that job and her successor is Rep. Greg Casar of Texas, presumably more endangered since his website doesn't mention that he is a Democrat -- you have to go to Wikipedia for that info.]

Van Hollen, two fellow senators nominated for Arms Control efforts

Since 2007, the independent, nongovernmental Arms Control Association has nominated individuals and institutions that have, in the previous 12 months, advanced effective arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament solutions and raised awareness of the threats and the human impacts posed by mass casualty weapons. Among this year’s nominees: Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and others for pressing the Biden administration to comply with longstanding U.S. laws and its own policies, which require suspension or limitation of U.S. arms transfers to states, including Israel, that fail to allow humanitarian assistance to civilians in conflict or that engage in acts that violate international humanitarian law. Sanders and other lawmakers argued that Israel’s conduct in its war in Gaza clearly violates these standards.

‘America First’ not only a trope of the Right

Antonio de Loera-Brust writes in Compact Magazine:  [At the 1988 Democratic convention Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had just lost a hard-fought Democratic presidential primary, got a prime podium spot and said ‘ “We’re spending $150 billion a year defending Europe and Japan 43 years after the war is over,” he said. “Let them share more of the burden of their own defense. Use some of that money to build decent housing. Use some of that money to educate our children. Use some of that money for long-term health care. Use some of that money to wipe out these slums and put America back to work!” The crowd roared.’

[Donald Trump, then a New York tabloid figure and reality-TV host, had seen advantage in mouthing  much of the same for several years in 1988. Though Jackson’s speech was overall] “a hopeful vision for a multiracial social democracy… and progressive foreign policy,” [his and Trump’s rhetorical stance amounted to an “America First” strategy. Today, the stance is seen as Trump’s proprietary Rightist posture. But] “Jackson’s [1988 DNC] speech is a reminder that reducing military spending and global commitments to invest at home has historically been a foreign-policy goal for the left—one that the left mustn’t cede to the right. … Democrats and other Trump critics looking to score quick partisan points by attacking Trump’s America First views have missed a larger truth, and unwittingly created a political vulnerability and an advantage for Trump.

“A second Trump victory is a hard way for Democrats to relearn a lesson that we should have never forgotten: Foreign policy must remain downstream of the needs of Americans at home—never the other way around. In 1988, the Rev. Jesse Jackson showed the left how to make that case,” said the author, a former assistant in the Biden State Department.