The Maryland Senate released its state spending plan for next fiscal year, accepting the majority of budget proposals from Gov. Wes Moore but also reducing and swapping some proposed cuts.

“The budget that the governor presented to us, from our perspective, was in pretty darn good shape,” Senate Budget and Taxation Committee Chair Guy Guzzone (D-Howard County) told members of the media on Friday.

The state expects to spend around $70 billion next fiscal year with around $250 million to spare.

There are no proposed tax or fee increases.

The Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) is the state department facing some of the most significant financial blows from the Moore administration with a proposed cut of roughly 10% of its overall budget.

DDA, nested within the Maryland Department of Health, helps coordinate services for people with developmental disabilities.

Moore recommended around $150 million in “cost containment” measures within DDA to help tackle a projected $1.5 billion shortfall for fiscal year 27.

The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee ended up adopting only $127 million in DDA cuts, transferring roughly $23 million from the state’s General Fund to balance the rest.

“This is what I consider the best of the worst, if you will, choices,” Guzzone said. “We came up with ways to maintain and make some cost containment but do our very best to minimize any impact on the people who rely on these services.”

The Moore administration proposed three key ways to tackle the cost containment through policy changes that would reduce DDA spend, including: capping individual budgets for those who need developmental disability care at $500,000, better enforcement of one-on-one caregiver policies and reducing wages for self-directed service providers.

The Senate opted not to implement the $500,000 cap on person-centered plan budgets, which provides discretionary funding to people with disabilities to cover the cost of support and care services.

The funding is often used to help an individual with a disability pay for accommodations and a personal care provider so they can live an independent lifestyle outside of a traditional care facility.

“That is such a relief that they heard us,” said Executive Director of The Arc Maryland Ande Kolp following the committee meeting. “That was our biggest fear that people end up back in institutional care, and that would have definitely caused issues for our community.”

The Arc is a statewide nonprofit dedicated to the rights and quality of life of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The committee also adopted a more direct policy around what’s known as dedicated hours – a one-on-one or two-to-one staff-to-person ratio for individuals with more intensive care needs.

The adopted language ensures that all other services, such as enhanced community integration, are utilized before dedicated hours are accessed, which is expected to cut DDA spending by about $27 million.

CEO of the Maryland Association of Community Services Laura Howell says she is pleased with the new language, noting the change is not viewed as a harmful cut, but rather a true cost savings measure.

The committee did vote to make some more direct slashes, like lowering wages for individuals who hire their own caregiver – self-directed care – and reducing reimbursement rates for service providers by 2 percent.

Kope notes that almost all of the services that fall under the 2 percent cut are currently not even funded at 100 percent.

“That's going to be painful. There's no question about it,” Howell said.

Guzzone says the state will be enhancing chief financial officer positions within DDA and hiring more fiscal consultants in the hopes of finally stabilizing the department after what’s shaping up to be three fiscal years of budget cuts.

Another intensive cost-saving measure proposed by the governor is providing state employees with a 1.5 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) instead of 2 percent, saving the state around $120 million.

The governor did recommend various step increase adjustments to make state employee pay scales more equitable by a small percentage, but the increases fall miles short of what AFSCME Maryland – the largest union in state government – has been asking for.

Despite the budget analyst arm of the General Assembly recommending the Senate not adopt the step adjustments, the committee did approve it, which will cost the state around $43 million in General Funds.

The changes are expected to average out to a 2 percent salary increase for state employees, but AFSCME Maryland President Patrick Moran says this is the second year in a row salary increases are coming in below the rate of inflation.

“We were told that this administration was going to come in and make sure that working people and in particular, their employees, the state employees, were not going to have to be living on the edge, and they are,” he said.

AFSCME and the Moore administration failed to reach a collective bargaining agreement by the end of last year, meaning the administration is now deciding to impose its best offer.

“The money is there. It's about priorities. You prioritize the people that do the work every single day, that put themselves in danger in many situations,” Moran said in reference to the funds needed to provide a more substantial increase.

The budget is expected to pass in the Senate early next week, and it will then head to the House for any additional modifications, although budget leaders in both chambers largely appear to be in consensus.

Moran says the union will continue to advocate for better wage increases until the end of the legislative session, as well as for legal changes around the salary negotiation process.