
In the 2022 Midterm Elections, the Democratic Party’s candidate, Wes Moore, became the first African American elected Governor of Maryland (and only the third ever in the U.S.). In the 2023 Maryland Legislative Session, he’ll be working with a House of Delegates where Democrats now have a 99–42 advantage and a new State Senate reflecting a 32–15 Democratic majority. “It’ll be a very different year,” State Senate President Bill Ferguson predicted. “All four state constitutional officers will be new (Governor, Lt. Governor, Comptroller, Attorney General). It’s a generational shift.”
Recap of the 2022 Legislative Session
The incoming Governor and General Assembly will have a tough act to follow after the 2022 session produced what then-Gov. Larry Hogan called “our best session yet.” New laws reformed the criminal justice system, including juvenile sentencing; strengthened cybersecurity; banned many types of “forever chemicals” (aka PFAS) that cause a range of health issues from obesity to cancer; increased access to abortion; decreased the use of fossil fuels; restricted “ghost guns”; and approved a new congressional boundaries map. Democrats won seven of Maryland’s eight House of Representatives races (and the one U.S. Senate seat being contested, held by Chris Van Hollen; Democrat Ben Cardin, who holds Maryland’s other U.S. Senate seat, wasn’t up for re-election).
Topping the 2023 session’s agenda: The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic recovery, developing a strategy for handling a national inflation rate that has reached a 40-year high and is expected to generate an economic recession, and the implementation of Proposition Four, the voter-approved ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana. To gain insight into what lies ahead, we spoke to Democrats Bill Ferguson (D-46), State Senate President and Co-Chair of the Senate Legislative Policy Committee; Sarah Elfreth (D-30), a member of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee; Shaneka Henson (D-30A), a member of the House of Delegates Appropriations Committee; and Dana Jones (D-30A), a member of the House of Delegates Ways and Means Committee. We also consulted with Republicans Brian Simonaire (D-31), Senate Minority Leader and, like Sen. Ferguson, a member of the Senate Legislative Policy Committee; J.B. Jennings (D-7), former Senate Minority Leader and now a member of the Senate Finance Committee; and Jeff Ghrist (D-36), the House of Delegates Deputy Minority Whip and, like Del. Henson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee.
Issues That the 2023 Legislative Session Will Focus On

Health
Covid-19: Worldwide, as of January 1, 2023, there have been approximately 650 million total Covid-19 cases with almost seven million deaths—an increase of 150 million cases and one million deaths in the past twelve months. The United States has had about 100 million cases with roughly a million deaths, comparable to a year ago, but in Maryland, an estimated 1.3 million cases have left 16,000 dead, a 25 percent increase since last January, after a surge in cases just as the 2022 legislative session was underway. A year prior, the 2021 session had produced the Covid-19 Testing, Contract Tracing, and Vaccination Act requiring that the Maryland Department of Health, in coordination with local governments, set up a two-year response plan to create a Public Health Modernization Workgroup tasked with evaluating the state’s overall public health infrastructure, especially in the underserved and minority communities that have suffered disproportionately.
By the time the 2023 legislative session wraps up in April, the two-year planning period will have ended, yet Maryland still averages about a thousand new cases daily as a seemingly never-ending variants list—Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma, Omicron, and others—generate a succession of descendant lineages like BA.2, BA 4.6, BA.5, BF.7 BQ.1, and BQ.1.1; the latter two are now responsible for nearly half of all new cases, both in the United States and elsewhere in the world.
While the fully vaccinated account for about 20 percent of all new cases in Maryland, deaths are rare compared to the unvaccinated. Furthermore, many legislators remain concerned that lower test scores recorded since the start of the pandemic reflect a learning loss that began when students started attended school online. “We have to make sure that enough resources are dedicated to ensuring that this is addressed,” Sen. Simonaire said.
Reproductive Rights: Although abortion remains legal here, many legislators believe that Maryland will be impacted by the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision overturning Roe v. Wade. “People from other states may come here for an abortion, since we’re the northernmost ‘line’,” Sen. Elfreth said. “I co-sponsored the abortion care access bill last year, so this term we’ll be exploring adding abortion provider protections,” Del. Jones said. “I say just leave that issue alone,” Del. Ghrist cautioned. “There are bigger issues facing us.”

Mental Health: Last August, the Maryland Department of Health unveiled a telehealth equipment pilot program to offer additional “clinically appropriate” services in ten different parts of the state for people who need mental health and substance use support, including funding for necessary videoconferencing tools ranging from tablets and high-speed Internet access to smartphones. “Over the last three years, Marylanders have had to cope with mental health challenges but the current system is strained; we must keep finding more ways to provide the resources that can help,” Ferguson said.

The Economy
A Possible Recession: The national debt now tops $31 trillion; the American debt-to-GDP ratio is around 125 percent (the third highest in the world; it was 95 percent ten years ago and only 82 percent as recently as 2009); the economy grew only slightly in the last quarter after two successive quarters experienced contraction; the inflation rate has climbed to around 9 percent nationwide, the highest in 40 years; and stock market value plummeted almost 20 percent between October 2021 and October 2022. While the unemployment rate in both the U.S. and Maryland is below 4 percent—significantly lower than the pandemic high of 15 percent in 2020—after four consecutive three-quarter point interest rate hikes that have seen mortgage rates rise to over 7 percent, most economists are predicting a recession in 2023, with the only disagreement being how bad it will be. Maryland’s $52.4 billion Fiscal Year 2022 Budget led to a revenue surplus that allowed for the gasoline tax to be temporarily lifted and bolstered the state’s rainy day fund, but it won’t be known until later this year if there will be anything left over from the $61.1 billion Fiscal Year 2023 Budget, approved last May 16. “We have to be very careful and put money aside over the next 12 to 18 months,” Ferguson advised. “We need to put up a warning sign that all spending has to be carefully planned long-term, past just this year.” Simonaire added, “It’s also important not to overspend. Inflation is still over 8 percent so there are a lot of challenges out there. Republicans will be focusing on protecting the taxpayer by acting as a fiscal watchdog.” Sen. Jennings agrees: “We may not end up having the expected revenue, but the last thing we should do right now is increase anybody’s taxes; that would just escalate the situation. Letting businesses do their job is the best approach that government can have to prepare for what’s coming.”

Rental Housing: Del. Henson says that rental housing remains a concern, in regard to both escalating costs and the level of quality available, especially if a recession is around the corner. “We’ve made significant strides with Covid-19 relief funding for tenants facing eviction; now that they can stay in their homes, there has to be a focus on mold and indoor air quality. Mold is not currently listed as a ‘dangerous defect’ but anything that is a threat to life, health, or safety must be part of that definition in order to encourage landlords to complete necessary repairs.”
Employee Wages and Training: “We have shortages in the K–12 system, nursing, and skilled trades,” Ferguson explained. “People have to be able to move up the ladder in these fields so we’re launching an advisory focus on apprenticeships to explore how we can develop more employment opportunities in all sectors.” Henson wants to raise wages for home health care workers. “We’re seeing a need for such services across the board because competitive wages contribute to a more sustainable market.”

Legal Issues
Recreational Marijuana: Maryland Question Four, supporting legalizing cannabis for adults age 21 and older, was approved by the voters last November and is scheduled to take effect this July. The measure authorized the Maryland General Assembly to legislate its “use, distribution, possession, regulation, and taxation” so the next step is the creation of a licensing system, according to Ferguson. “How do we go to an equitable and well-regulated marketplace, where the two sectors—recreational and medicinal—work together? We’ll have a bill ready to go early in the session. Models for us to look at include what Illinois is doing as well as some components of the New York system.” Elfreth also wants to ensure a fair regulatory and licensing process. “We must ensure that women, minority, and veteran-owned businesses have an equal opportunity to participate. We also need to expunge the criminal records of people serving jail time who did anything that is now legal,” she added, although that may take some time. “Remember, marijuana is still illegal at the federal level,” Ghrist warned.
Violence: “Ghost guns are now banned but we have to monitor enforcement mechanisms related to things like online sales, which are difficult to deal with at the state level,” Ferguson said. “We’ll have to have assistance from the federal government.” Jones is alarmed at the volume of threats made against election judges. “To protect them, we’ll impose penalties on those who make such threats, even online, and to recruit and keep them, we should increase their pay. I introduced a bill last year to raise their wages, but it didn’t pass; there was a hesitancy to do that during an election year,” she said. In light of the Supreme Court decision on New York’s concealed carry law, “I want to bring back prior bills, like not allowing even permitted guns to specific places such as voting sites,” Henson said. “Hopefully such a proposal will be met with a different response this time.”
Marriage: In last year’s session, Elfreth pushed hard to successfully raise Maryland’s legal age of marriage from 15 to 17 with the permission of each parent or legal guardian, except in pregnancy cases. Additionally, minors must provide evidence of self-sufficiency and attend a hearing to establish the voluntary nature of the union. “I’d like to see us get to 18 as the legal age to marry,” she said.
Electrification: “While Maryland has to develop a robust environmental system to monitor carbon emissions, we also have historic investments coming in from the federal government that we know will prioritize electric vehicles, which are crucial, so we’ll plan how the related infrastructure development will proceed,” Ferguson said. “We must get to a 50 percent renewable energy policy by 2030,” Elfreth emphasized. “However, our tax code is not keeping up with the pace of a large-scale conversion. Different incentive levels will encourage development of solar power and other renewable energies.”
Education: “We’re going to meet with our school superintendents to see how the school boards are implementing the Kirwan Commission’s policy recommendations,” Ghrist said. “Are there any parts that are untenable? Should anything already passed be tweaked?” Jones wants to increase funding for Maryland’s regional libraries. “We need to close the digital divide among our marginalized communities.”

Conclusion
As both Maryland and the United States move gingerly into 2023, where economic uncertainty awaits, and then 2024, which has a presidential election that could further complicate the already highly tense political climate, it is more important than ever that state governments work together, both within their ranks across the aisle and with other states, to create broad, comprehensive, and most of all, effective policies that will improve the lives of all Americans.
“After eight years of Larry Hogan, Maryland is in good fiscal shape,” Simonaire observed. “Now we’ve got a new administration coming in with new ideas,” Jennings said. Even so, Simonaire—the Republican Minority Leader—is optimistic: “It is my hope that we’ll be able to work with the incoming administration.” Senate President Ferguson agrees. “I’m very excited to get to work with all of the new people.” States are often referred to the “the laboratories of democracy” where best practices—successful solutions that can be replicated—are formulated and exported to other representative bodies facing similar problems. Only when both political parties see each other as potential partners, rather than representing isolated and competing bases, will this nation collectively move past the many complex challenges that threaten to unravel all that has been accomplished since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mark Croatti, who teaches courses on Comparative Politics and Public Policy at George Washington University and the University of Maryland, has covered state and local politics since 2004.