MARYLAND SENATOR RON WATSON -- 2025 End of Session Letter

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Dear Neighbor:

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The 447th Legislative Session of the Maryland General Assembly (MGA) officially concluded on April 7, marking the end of one of the most consequential 90-day periods in a generation. We entered the 2025 Session with two overarching tasks: (1) tackling a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit amidst federal chaos: and (2) advancing policy to reduce Marylanders’ energy bills in the short-, medium-, and long-term.  

 

I am pleased to report that the Maryland Senate met the moment. At a time of economic uncertainty, federal dysfunction, and rising energy costs, we chose to lead—with clarity, compassion, and a commitment to protecting the future of every Maryland family.

 

Accomplishing those objectives while passing legislation to improve the lives of all our state’s residents required honest and difficult conversations about our fiscal responsibilities and enduring priorities. From the moment we gathered in Annapolis on January 8, our work focused on adapting to new realities while maintaining the stability Maryland individuals, families, and small businesses rely on.

 

In the wake of the transition to a new presidential Administration in January, the MGA faced seismic shifts in policy coming from Washington, culminating in a nearly $350 million reduction in expected personal, corporate, and sales tax revenues over a two-year period due entirely to federal chaos and job losses. In addition, the State learned of up to $418 million in federal funds being withheld from our public schools, $305 million of which school systems had already spent, in addition to $330 million in transportation funding summarily pulled back despite grant agreements.

 

These drastic and unprecedented actions spurred the MGA to redouble our commitments to core Maryland values including reinforcing Marylanders’ constitutional protections, safeguarding access to health care, enhancing protections for Maryland’s immigrant communities, and accelerating the State’s transition to cleaner, cheaper energy. When federal support wavered, we provided clarity and a vision for the future.

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Throughout it all, we remained focused on delivering results for the people of Maryland. Now, with the 2025 Session behind us, I look forward to continuing the work in Maryland’s 23rd Legislative District until the MGA reconvenes next.

 

Below is an overview of key measures and legislative priorities the MGA addressed during the 2025 Legislative Session:

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Passing a Balanced Budget that Maintains Core Commitments to Marylanders: The MGA met its constitutional obligation to balance the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) budget (HB350 and HB352) by cutting spending while protecting schools, law enforcement, and health care services. The legislature approached the State’s budget deficit with a strategic mix of nearly $2 billion in necessary cuts and $1.2 billion in new revenue proposals, including changes to personal income taxes which will result in 94% of filers paying the same or a lesser amount. While I am not a fan of any tax increase, this targeted and balanced approach allowed us to avoid other revenue options like a $.75 delivery tax, a broad-based business-to-business tax, or the elimination of itemized deductions for Maryland taxpayers. 

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Despite disruptions in federal funding streams, we committed to preserving core services and protecting Maryland’s most vulnerable residents. Our $66.9 billion FY26 Operating Budget, which was $400 million less in general funds than the FY25 budget,  includes:

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• $15.6 billion in funding for Medicaid, covering about 1.5 million residents;

• $594.4 million in new funding for our public schools, representing a 7.3% increase from FY25;

• $500 million in new revenues to support the State’s transportation and aging infrastructure needs;

• $181.5 million restored in Fiscal Years 2025 and 2026 for community services for those with developmental disabilities;

• $139 million invested in growing the private-sector economy;

• $121.8 million in police aid, $46 million above the statutorily required amount, in addition to $60 million in victim services funding and $5.5 million for community-based services for young people;

• $100 million for climate pollution reduction efforts at the State and local levels; and

• $2.4 billion in cash reserves, including $2.1 billion in the Rainy-Day Fund and $317 million in the General Fund to protect against continued federal uncertainty in the year ahead.
   

Lowering Energy Bills by Promoting the Affordability, Reliability, and Predictability of our Electric Grid: As the MGA entered the 2025 Legislative Session, Marylanders started receiving unacceptably high energy bills. We had to take immediate action. Demand for electricity in Maryland and throughout the country is rising at an untenable rate. At the same time, coal and oil electric generation stations are retiring; while this is good for slowing climate change, it also has led to increased energy prices. To curb rising prices, the MGA introduced a leadership energy package to lower bills as quickly as possible. As passed, the package advances a comprehensive solution to enhance energy affordability and reliability. This is the most aggressive energy affordability package for Marylanders in decades.

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• The Next Generation Energy Act (SB937) provides a $200 million refund (averaging  $80 per customer) to residential electric customers in two installments (once in the summer and once in the winter), expedites new and cleaner in-state generation to decrease our reliance on power from surrounding states, creates cost containment mechanisms around utility companies’ spending on gas infrastructure, ensures multi-year rate plans provide a tangible benefit to customers while capping costs, removes waste incineration from Maryland’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard subsidy program, and ensures large load customers like data centers pay their fair share. 

• The Renewable Energy Certainty Act (SB931) makes it easier to build renewable energy projects like solar and battery storage by removing unnecessary local roadblocks, places a first-in-the-nation 5% cap on the amount of agricultural land which can be used for solar, and allows local governments to participate in community solar programs. 

• The Energy Resource Adequacy and Planning Act (SB909) creates a new Strategic Energy Planning Office to streamline energy forecasting and reduce dependence on external grid operators, ensuring Maryland’s energy grid is more resilient and reliable. 

 

Fighting Back Against Federal Government Chaos and Overreach: Maryland is one of the most vulnerable states in the country to the fallout from the chaos in the federal Administration, with an outsized number of federal employees and contractors, a large number of federal agencies physically headquartered here, and billions-of-dollars granted to our research institutions. In response to the mass and indiscriminate firings of dedicated federal public servants, the MGA advanced SB749 requiring the Maryland Department of Health to expedite license approval for fired federal health care workers who have been licensed in other states. Through HB1424, we created a financial assistance program for laid-off federal workers outside of the normal unemployment insurance system and created an expedited process for hiring those workers into State government roles. And we created a bipartisan, Senate and House Joint Federal Action Oversight Committee to monitor how ongoing federal actions are impacting the State so we can respond quickly and as needed. We also took steps in HB1222 to protect our immigrant communities from lawless and warrantless actions by preventing immigration enforcement in sensitive locations like schools, hospitals, and religious institutions, in addition to making it easier for immigrants who are victims of crime and aiding police investigations from facing deportation with SB608.

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Developing World-Class Public Schools for All Maryland Children: The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future remains one of the most transformative education investments in our State’s history. It is already expanding access to publicly funded Pre-K, strengthening teacher pipelines, and building clearer pathways to college and career readiness as students graduate. The Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act (HB504) builds on those efforts by giving local school systems increased flexibility around some State funding, extending career counseling services, creating a school leadership training program for administrators, building pathways for more school professionals to enter the teaching profession, and strengthening the community school model. Moreover, through SB68, we required the State Department of Education to create a restorative practices plan, ensuring all schools are adequately supporting children’s socioemotional well-being. Finally, we took steps to strengthen the Truancy Reduction Pilot Program (HB1442) as we seek to address chronic absenteeism following the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Reducing Crime and Maintaining Safe Neighborhoods: Enhancing public safety so individuals and families feel safe in their communities remains of paramount importance. Two years ago, County Councilmember Ingrid Watson held our Community Crime Summit at Bowie State University.  This year I was able to successfully pass the Organized Retail Theft Act of 2025 (SB11). This is one of the bills we worked on as a community and we should all take pride that our district has set the state-wide standard for community engagement and has enabled prosecutors to aggregate multiple theft offenses by the same individual in multiple counties.  With SB360, we created avenues for individuals who are victims of revenge porn generated by artificial intelligence to seek justice as we navigate this new technology and its consequences. We will continue providing police and prosecutors with the resources and tools needed to protect Marylanders.

 

Preserving High-Quality Health Care Our Residents Rely On: Access to affordable healthcare and prescription drugs is critical to the wellbeing of all Marylanders. One of the most important tasks for the MGA this Session was to strengthen these programs regardless of potential federal cuts. We passed the Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for All Marylanders Now Act (SB357) to empower the Prescription Drug Affordability Board to set price limits on vital medications, offering relief to families struggling with high costs. We also know that telehealth remains a critical tool in the toolbox for Marylanders seeking care, which is why we passed the Preserve Telehealth Access Act of 2025 (SB372) to ensure its availability in the future. By advancing SB5, the General Assembly made permanent the State-Based Young Adult Subsidies Pilot Program, ensuring young people continue to have the ability to purchase affordable health insurance through the Maryland Health Benefits Exchange. We know that health outcomes are too often determined by race, class, and other societal factors, so we mandated the Maryland Department of Health to create a health equity dashboard to better track these disparities so that we can hold health professionals more accountable to outcomes through SB684. Building a healthier Maryland saves lives. No one should have to choose between access to affordable care and putting food on the table.

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Funding Our Local Economies and Anchor Institutions: Given our severe budget constraints, your 23rd District Team was able to secure over $10 Million in funding to provide vital support to our local institutions and invest State dollars in our community. Our projects funded this year include:
 

• BSU PerVista Firearm Detection Platform                              $200,000

• Bowie Center for the Performing Arts                                     $20,000

• Inncuvate – Old Bowie Renovation                                          $75,000

• Bowie High School – Security System                                      $100,000

• Bowie Racetrack – City of Bowie                                               $6,200,000

• BSU Thurgood Marshall Library                                              $2,239,000

• Fraternal Order of Police 89                                                      $1,500,000

• Samuel Ogle Middle School – Digital Signage                        $21,000

• Diamond Foundation of Prince George’s County                  $100,000

• PG Youth Empowerment Project – Blake Bozeman              $10,000

Total Investment in the 23rd District for 2025 = $10,465,000

 

Supporting Maryland’s Public Servants: Maryland’s government has a responsibility to protect and support those who dedicate their lives to serving the public good. Following the murder of Davis Martinez, a parole and probation agent killed while on duty, the MGA held multiple hearings in 2024 to get to the root of the problem. Those legislative oversight hearings led to the introduction of the Davis Martinez Public Employee Safety and Health Act (SB26), which establishes a new unit within the Maryland Department of Labor to oversee the safety of public employees. This unit will enforce regulations, set penalties for public bodies and elected officials who fail to comply, and strengthen the overall safety measures for public employees. We also know firefighters throughout our State are exposed to caustic chemicals while on the job, too often leading to long-term health issues including cancer. We advanced the James “Jimmy” Malone Act (SB374), which requires counties with self-insured employee health benefit plans to provide free preventive cancer screenings for firefighters according to the latest guidelines from the International Association of Fire Fighters. These reforms are long overdue.

 

Strengthening Apprenticeships and Skills Training: Meeting the demands of a 21st century economy means developing alternative pathways to our state’s workforce through opportunities. Our economic future depends on Maryland employers' ability to build a dependable and skilled labor force. The traditional method of workforce development heavily relies on school-based learning, which often leaves students with burdensome college debt and a lack of practical on-the-job experience. Apprenticeships shift our workforce training paradigm to allow individuals to earn a living wage while they learn their necessary trade skills, which is why we passed the Registered Apprenticeship Investments for a Stronger Economy (RAISE) Act (SB431) to modernize the State’s apprenticeship system. The law will expand the definition of a qualifying apprenticeship, ensuring more Marylanders can access career training programs that align with industry needs. Marylanders need more than a job after school–they need accessible and sustainable careers.

 

Supporting Maryland’s Seniors and Nursing Home Residents: Maryland’s seniors and nursing home residents are some of the most vulnerable in our society, and we have a heightened duty to meet their needs. We passed SB223 to expand the Senior Call-Check Service and Notification Program as the Social Connections Program. This initiative provides older adults at risk of isolation with regular check-ins through phone calls, text messages, video chats, and in-person visits. Beyond wellness checks, the program fosters purposeful social engagement by connecting seniors with local volunteer networks, community events, and peer support groups. Further, we recognized the Maryland Department of Health lacks sufficient capacity to conduct inspections and complaint investigations of nursing homes throughout the State. To compensate for this staffing shortage, we authorized local jurisdictions to take on this responsibility upon a county's request though SB376.

 

Advancing Basic Consumer Protections: Far too often, consumers get locked into costly subscriptions they never meant to renew—buried in fine print or auto-renewed without clear notice. This year, we took action. The Maryland General Assembly passed SB49 which requires companies to clearly disclose the terms of any automatic renewal offers, including the post-trial price and a simple way to cancel — no more surprise charges months later. This law ensures Marylanders are fully informed and in control when they sign up for services, protecting both their wallets and their rights.

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Protecting the Chesapeake Bay and our State’s Natural Resources: Maryland’s identity is inseparable from its waters—the Chesapeake Bay, our rivers, and countless streams and estuaries that nourish our ecosystems and communities. But climate change, driven by rising seas and decades of unchecked corporate pollution, threatens this legacy. In 2025, we acted decisively. We passed the RENEW Act (SB149) to confront Maryland’s largest polluters by studying their emissions and assessing the long-term environmental costs they’ve created. This lays the groundwork for holding them accountable and shaping future environmental policy.

 

We also advanced the Chesapeake Bay Legacy Act (HB506) to fund regenerative agriculture, oyster aquaculture, and water quality improvements—proven strategies to restore the Bay’s health and resilience. And through SB901, we expanded Maryland’s framework for producer responsibility, making corporations—not taxpayers—responsible for recycling the packaging waste they create. Once fully implemented, this policy will reduce litter, improve recycling outcomes, and relieve local governments from an unfair financial burden. These steps aren’t just about conservation—they’re about protecting Maryland’s future.

 

Finally, I take very seriously the trust you have given me to understand our issues and challenges, and to craft meaningful legislation to positively impact our community.  Below is a list of bills that I personally sponsored this year after listening to your input.

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