With the over $70 billion state operating budget on track to pass in the House this week, the Senate gave initial approval to Maryland’s capital budget on Tuesday.
The capital budget authorizes the state to incur $1.8 billion worth of state debt to be used for various statewide infrastructure projects — that debt will be repaid over time through state property taxes and general funds.
While the almost $2 billion will be delivered through state general obligation bonds, the capital budget will also include close to an additional $3.8 billion in special, transportation and federal funding.
“This $6 billion economic investment will ultimately create thousands of direct and indirect jobs and generate billions in economic activity,” Chair of the Capital Budget Subcommittee Craig Zucker (D-Montgomery County) told reporters on Friday. “The capital budget is the largest infrastructure and job creation bill of this session.”
Zucker says roughly half of the budget will go toward economic growth, neighborhood revitalization and access to affordable housing.
During debate on Tuesday, Sen. Arthur Ellis (D-Charles County) raised concerns over funding that was intended for projects within his district being deauthorized.
Those line items included transferring $100,000 from a Willing Helpers Society renovation project to the Boys and Girls Club of Southern Maryland, as well as deauthorizing $300,000 worth of funding for a new Boys and Girls Club in Waldorf.
Zucker said both projects were not using the authorized money, so the subcommittee reallocated the funds to more immediate projects.
“There's a time limit on capital budget grants that if they're not utilized, they revert, and then the authorization [expires]. That was the case for, I think at least two of these specific situations,” Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) told members of the media on Tuesday.
Ellis argued that transferring the funds would “disenfranchise” Black people within Charles County and that the decision is a retaliatory move against him.
“Is this way of treating the people of Charles County? To take away things, to punish their leaders who dare represent their constituents?” Ellis said on the floor. “This body wants, and its leaders want, to punish people who speak up for their constituency by defunding projects, defunding projects of boys and girls — punish me.”
Ellis’s remarks tie back to early February when the Democrat left the Senate floor in protest over the body’s decision to not bring a Congressional redistricting map to the floor for a vote.
The bill — which has sat in purgatory ever since gaining final approval in the House last month — would likely result in Maryland sending another Democrat to DC on Maryland’s behalf, which Ellis believes would be a way to fight back against Trump administration policies.
Ferguson has largely cited election deadlines and legal concerns as his reason for not bringing the bill forward, and the majority of his Democratic colleagues concur.
Ellis’s protest was confined only to not physically voting “yes” when a quorum vote was called within the chamber, but he still continued to vote on bills — he began voting during quorum calls again two weeks ago.
Ferguson reiterated Zucker’s comments, saying the decision to reallocate the funds was purely a procedural move.
“I understand the senator's frustration, and hopefully he understands the explanation that the money was reallocated for Southern Maryland so that those authorizations could move towards projects in Southern Maryland that are going to move forward in a more timely fashion,” he said.
Sen. Mary Washington (D-Baltimore City and Baltimore County) introduced an amendment that would reallocate money from a Johns Hopkins University data center project to a re-entry center in Baltimore City for formerly incarcerated women.
The governor opted to strike just over $6 million worth of funding to begin construction on the women’s pre-release center, but $5 million was added to the Hopkins grant on top of an already allocated $5 million.
“I just want to put before the body the financial record because especially in this very difficult time, and especially given our commitments to focus on communities that need the resources, I want us to fully understand what the governor chose to subsidize,” Washington said.
Washington pointed out she herself is a Hopkins alumna but argued the university has enough funding to cover the data center project.
“My hope is that we would just put the amendment aside for now, with the commitment that we're going to make this a priority, continue to focus on it,” Zucker said on the floor.
Washington ultimately decided to withdraw the amendment under the condition that budget leadership would work on restoring the funding.
The Senate gave initial approval to the $1.8 billion capital budget, and it needs one final vote before heading to the House for consideration.
