Maryland lawmakers gavel in Wednesday to begin their annual legislative session, and one of the top challenges for Democratic Senate President Bill Ferguson will be closing a $1.5 billion stated budget gap.

Additionally — although he has repeatedly expressed his desire to put the matter behind him — Ferguson will likely have to contemplate approving a new Congressional map for Maryland’s 2026 General Election.

Ferguson spoke with WYPR’s Sarah Petrowich about why he remains a redistricting holdout, what’s included in his affordability agenda and the possibility of banning ICE agreements in the Old Line State.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

PETROWICH: For starters, let's talk budget. We've got a couple different numbers floating around — we've seen a $1.2 billion structural deficit, somewhere around there, maybe a $1.5 billion cash shortfall. Gov. Moore has said that he's committed to not raising taxes.

Going into this session, what are some things that you're looking at as far as how can we close this gap, and what are some of the major projects you're looking at funding, but where you want to see cuts and everywhere in between?

FERGUSON: I mean, at the end of the day, we are probably not going to pursue revenues as an option here. We are going to balance the budget, as we always do, thoughtfully and responsibly while protecting the most vulnerable amongst us, and so it's going to be a dynamic year.

Of course it's an election year, which makes things always a little bit more challenging. And so, we know that we have some big questions ahead with formulas and our entitlement spending that is creating challenges for our long-term budget outlook.

I don't know that this will be the year that we tackle those big questions. I think that this year we are going to manage through, and we will do it through cost containment and cuts and so I believe that we'll be able to do it without too much pain — we will probably tap into some one-time fund uses in order to cover the gap.

But it does mean that in the coming years, we're going to have some very, very big questions about the long-term fiscal sustainability – this is not the right year to do that. We want to see what happens with the federal government and the [2026] elections, and so we're going to manage through this year.

PETROWICH: And I think one of those long-term issues that we're looking at is the Blueprint — specifically, there needs to be a lot of money pulled from the General Fund in the future to start funding an ambitious education plan. Any ideas as of now about looking at ways to permanently fund that, or any permanent changes you think that need to be made?

FERGUSON: Yeah, well I think what's really important to remember is that for us, when we passed the Blueprint in 2020, we intentionally added a mid-implementation check in. So it was at year five of implementation that got a little bit delayed because of the veto and subsequent override.

But in 2027, that is when we are expecting the fiscal and academic outcome check in, and this was always anticipated. We've fully funded the Blueprint through that point. That was always the intention was to have all of the funds of the increased investments going towards education to be fully-funded. They have been.

And this implementation check in point is for calendar year 27, and so that's going to really drive the conversation about ‘What does phase two of the blueprint look like?’ That's not this year. We're going to have to deal with some adjustments based on how we calculate poverty and some of the more technical aspects of the Blueprint. But we're not going to dive into the nitty gritty. That's for the mid-implementation check in for next year.

PETROWICH: Talking about something a little bit more immediate [where] you are the center of attention — redistricting. I recently talked to Gov. Moore about it, and his narrative around redistricting has really been focused on not a response to the Republican Party or to President Trump. He's been very clear in his messaging that he sees it as, ‘if other states are going to look at redistricting and if they have fair maps, we should just take a look and see if we have fair maps.’

Then, Chair Angela Alsobrooks of the Governor's Redistricting Advisory Commission, she made a statement that said that it's important for us to counter what President Trump, the Republican Party is doing, which I felt was kind of at odds with Gov. Moore's statement.

How do you feel about this kind of messaging that you're seeing from Maryland, about the top Democratic leaders and why they feel that it is necessary to continue pushing redistricting after what we've seen in Indiana and other states that aren't pulling through at this point?

FERGUSON: Yeah, I mean, I think it's really important to start with a place where we all agree. I think all of us agree that what's happening with the federal Trump administration is truly unbelievable and unconscionable, and what's happened in the pushing from the Trump administration of reporting that's been out there of them driving state legislators in Texas and Missouri to move forward with redistricting flies in the face of what I think we should expect out of a modern democracy, and so states have responded.

And so, we all agree that it is abhorrent, that is the process that the country, in some places, has been going down because of the insistence from President Trump and his administration. We all agree that that's outrageous, and would like to avoid it wherever possible.

The thing is for Maryland, I believe that we have to focus on the facts and the law as they exist in Maryland, especially based on the experience that we had in 2021 and 2022 the last time we went through the redistricting process. That was a challenging experience where we had a map pass the legislature, override the governor's veto, and then it was rejected by the court and thrown back to legislature to redraw in five days. The map that we have today is a product of that process — that was a settlement — has never been reviewed by the courts.

My objective is to not jeopardize the current map, where we are in a good position to stand firm against the Trump administration. Others have a different belief, and I understand, and it's contentious, but I understand that we all share the same value. That we want to be fighting back. It's a matter of ‘Where do we place our energy at this point?’

What we know is the attorney general has said that it's going to be about 120 days at least to prepare for a case in the world that a redistricting bill moves forward. That means that the window for action has already closed.

The filing deadline is February 23 for congressional races. That is well-past 120 days. And so really, we've missed the window to do anything. And if we tried to do something now, it would be even more constitutionally challenging because of the lack of timeliness of acting. And so I think at this point, you know, we really have to focus on the issues where we can protect Marylanders from this Trump administration. We can focus on growth and focus on affordability for our Maryland residents.

PETROWICH: So what you said about the filing deadline, about the current map not being court tested yet, these are all points that have been raised, and yet we're still obviously seeing a push from some top Democrats, including Governor Moore. What is your plan if you see a map come in front of you in the Senate this legislative session? If the deadline is somehow pushed back — I guess you would see that too, obviously there would need to be legislation introduced to push back that deadline — but I mean, what is your plan moving forward if you do see it?

FERGUSON: Yeah, I mean, if you move the election dates, you change and you throw all of the elections into chaos. You have to change precincts. You have to talk to local election boards, have to redraw all their precinct maps, they end up then having to redo all of their ballots and reprint all of their ballots. And so, you know, I think that this is really — I think the realities of the timeline here are really the most pressing feature, and I suspect others will see that.

I know that other members of the Senate, certainly the majority of the Senate Democratic Caucus, agrees that we really got to focus on the issues that we know are going to matter most. So we'll see. I can't speak for what will happen. I can only speak to what the Attorney General has said, that it takes at least 120 days, and that window is already closed.

PETROWICH: So you talked about Marylanders, what they want to focus on versus redistricting. You've mentioned before the poll that recently came out from UMBC that Marylanders [are] focused on affordability, not necessarily redistricting, right?

And so moving on to affordability, are there any pieces of legislation or policy priorities you see this year in directly addressing that concern, that's a top one for Marylanders?

FERGUSON: Yeah, without a doubt. So you know, as I said, affordability, growth and protecting against the Trump administration are going to be the the agenda that drives all of our actions.

For affordability, we know it's three specific areas: energy, healthcare and housing are the three areas that Marylanders are feeling the most pressure.

On energy, we've got to have more cleaner energy generated here in Maryland. We're going to build on the progress that we had from last year, where we held our utilities accountable, where we held them to account, to say that they cannot get paybacks from their three-year rate plans, which saved us about $75 million probably for Maryland rate payers.

But we've got to get more energy generated here in the state. We're going to do some more immediate things, like rebates for Marylanders, especially low-income Marylanders, to help them with their bills in the short term. That's not a long-term solution, but we have to give people some relief.

And then finally, we're going to use the flexible dollars that we have to invest in renewable energy that has been decimated by the Republican budget bill, so that we can try to backfill, where possible, these renewable energy projects that are absolutely essential for reducing costs for Marylanders overall. And so, we won't be able to backfill everything, but we have to create some level of stability so we can have more electricity generated here in Maryland to lower costs.

That's very similar to housing. We need more units on the market so that costs go down. That means we have to make it easier and faster to build. Oftentimes, that's permitting and issues that at the local level have created uncertainty or delays without timelines for remediation, and so that has got to change. And so we are going to pass a series of pieces of legislation, working with our colleagues in the House and with the governor to make it easier to build.

Similarly with healthcare, the most expensive healthcare out there is ER — emergency based healthcare. We need to have more accessible primary care and community-based clinics, and we've got to deal with prescription drug costs. And so we've passed a prescription drug affordability board. They're going to be making recommendations, we're going to be working to adopt a lot of those recommendations this year to lower prescription drug costs.

So we have steps we can take. Nothing is immediate, but we have to just keep pushing each year on the progress that we've made to lower costs over time.

PETROWICH: Another hot topic this legislative session that's likely to come up is legislation around ICE agreements, also known as 287(g) agreements. You've been public about your support for eliminating those types of agreements in some capacity. And it's interesting, because Maryland has some deep ties to these types of agreements, some of the oldest in the country.

And so there has been some, yes, outspoken public support for this, but some of the counties have also expressed disappointment in the potential for the legislature to come and interfere with these agreements. So how do you see that moving forward this session and have you talked to any of the counties about it?

FERGUSON: Certainly. Look, it was three counties for many, many years that had it. There's been a number, I think five or six, that have expanded or started in motion expansion efforts on this 287(g). What I know to be true is that the– what has become a paramilitary force of ICE law enforcement officials has gotten absolutely out of control, and it is abhorrent to see what's happening in Maryland and across the country.

To have mass law enforcement officers stealing people out of cars, out of homes, stalking people in Black Hawk helicopters… I mean, it has been truly outrageous. You look at what happened in Minnesota, and then here in Glen Burnie, we spent 10 years in the state of Maryland, since Freddie Gray in 2015, following with some of the reforms from the Gun Trace Task Force, to post-George Floyd and police reform in 2021, to really restore trust in policing in Maryland. And it's been working, and it's beared out in the results.

We've seen the lowest violent crime rates in the state of Maryland, and particularly in the city of Baltimore, in 50 years. A portion of it is because of that restored trust. What we're seeing ICE do and the way ICE is engaging in communities is abhorrent to that value of having trust in our law enforcement agencies, they are disrupting and eroding trust in every capacity, and we cannot support that in the state of Maryland.

For those who believe that these agreements have been helpful, I would say there is nothing, nothing that can justify the loss of trust and faith and responsibility that has been eroded because of the actions of ICE officials in Maryland and across the country. Something has got to give, and it's important for Maryland to have a wall around us to protect the values that we espouse, that there has to be trust between law enforcement officials and the people that they police.

PETROWICH: Winding down here, you mentioned that it's an election year. Recently, there's another candidate that came out who's claiming that he's more progressive than you, [and] is going to challenge you in the Democratic Primary.

I'm just kind of curious, with what's going on at the federal level, just so many important policy questions, budget, etc… have you reflected at all, maybe on your evolution as even just a member of the Senate, Senate president, and what would you like to see as your kind of landmark policy or just persona moving forward as some people are challenging your “establishment” — is what your challenger called you — beliefs.

FERGUSON: Sure, look, I am really incredibly proud of the work that I've been able to accomplish over the last 15 years, and particularly the last six as the president of the Senate. We've been able to navigate a global pandemic, all the while investing in some of the most aggressive and bold policies that this country has seen, from the Blueprint to Maryland's future to climate solutions, now to investing over a billion dollars in school construction in the city of Baltimore — more schools built in the city of Baltimore than any other district in the entire country — investments in our HBCUs that are of record levels, $500 million allocated to resolve what had been a decades-long case of discrimination, for program duplication for our HBCUs, to expanding healthcare to the largest or the fewest number of people that are uninsured in Maryland, was because of the work that we were able to do over the last six years.

I'm really proud of the work that I've been able to accomplish, and I still have work to do. And I, you know, I know that we have a lot of challenges that we have to deal with — affordability, we have got to find ways in Maryland to grow and we've got to protect against this lawless administration. I spent the last 15 years building coalitions to get big things done, and that's what I'll keep doing, no matter what the election cycle looks like.

PETROWICH: Senate President, anything else you want to add, any other even smaller legislative ideas, or maybe something a little bit more fun, or any other policy priorities that you have that we didn't touch on?

FERGUSON: You know, this is going to be a year where fun is going to be far and few between, except that, you know, our objective is to help people and to expand opportunity, and that's what we're going to be focused on every single day. We've got to be laser focused this year, and we will be.