[{"_1":2,"_100":-5,"_101":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,76,88],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},"mediaId",6684212,"mediaKeyId","2381948-c08b07830c9754d3f1bf217d132d426a","parentId",2381948,"title","Governor’s Office budget request increases; administration will fund federal affairs contract despite DLS recommendation","audioSeconds",714,"startMs",741000,"endMs",1455000,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=2381948-c08b07830c9754d3f1bf217d132d426a&start=741&end=1455","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2381948-c08b07830c9754d3f1bf217d132d426a/thumbnail_741000.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6684212/Maryland/Governors-Office-budget-request-increases-administration-will-fund-federal-affairs-contract-despite-DLS-recommendation","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6684212-f3fb7418338efb80ceed584547a8931c/orig.mp4?Expires=1771178317&Signature=FQ1b-LQMUVrPlSHZ124q~1VZdUpyLRl-677SmIaBnZfCbM4ZWoEqyvkQXiRHGiCcvJO1oPS9nymqS0dE08clepbFGi6FBBZbTK6JZFYm~dxsGf6Ay6DxGx4nmSCYStzlUqxCUDq5N7AbaJwk1IvCzjlnL8hBinz8~F-WqHk1HUgnpGueA8Si1TSZxvBv7HiZhXjqG62j8cIga6O7l9bfMPOlLssIxmQxaeacqRhFMO~KcQmpwZ14VZTf5vxLVKwx0HKg7~N7ZIcWHf8i07ki~9bOORDNvA2v0oHhyhI3Di4TgYJ5Riy4CKVVkO8S1OGs6Dd2r3EUbphw3TG3VlVV7A__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","Maryland General Assembly - Appropriations","date","2025-02-24T20:47:12.92Z","article","The Public Safety and Administration Subcommittee heard an analysis of the Governor’s Office fiscal 2026 allowance and proposals on Feb. 17, 2025, where the Department of Legislative Services recommended reducing two new positions and eliminating a requested deficiency for a federal government affairs contract. Scott Benson, an analyst with the Department of Legislative Services, told the subcommittee the fiscal 2026 allowance for the Governor’s Office “increases by 1,600,000 or 7% to 24,100,000,” and that two proposed deficiencies produced a net general fund increase of $403,712.

Why it matters: The disputed items affect the office’s ability to staff a new government modernization initiative and to maintain a federally focused contract intended to protect and pursue federal funding and partnerships — matters the governor’s office and lawmakers said have statewide implications for infrastructure and federal investments.

Benson said personnel comprises the majority of the governor’s office budget (83%), that the allowance includes funding for three new positions, and that the office received Bloomberg Philanthropies grants to seed an innovation team. “Bloomberg Philanthropies is providing $2,320,000 in fiscal 20 26 for the innovation team,” Benson said, and the innovation team’s initial project is to expand access to capital through a Maryland Community Investment Venture Fund.

Fagan Harris, chief of staff to the governor, opposed the DLS recommendation to eliminate the two positions and described them as necessary to implement a new government modernization initiative. Harris said the administration expects six current vacancies to be filled by March 2025 and that the additional staff would “play a key role in streamlining government operations, eliminating redundancies, modernizing outdated processes” and produce what the office projects as a “$40,000,000 net positive impact to the state's general fund.”

On the federal government affairs contract, DLS recommended eliminating a $480,000 deficiency for a contract to support the governor’s federal relations work. Harris said the governor’s office “concur[s] with the DLS recommendation to reduce the Federal Government Affairs contract” in recognition of fiscal constraints but then added that the office intends to fund the contract internally by using vacancy savings. “We are going to absolutely move forward on the contract,” Harris told the subcommittee, adding the office may seek additional resources next year if needed.

Subcommittee members pressed for context about the governor’s international outreach — Delegate McComas asked about a meeting between the governor and King Abdullah II of Jordan — and Harris characterized those meetings as economic-development and higher-education partnerships. Vice Chair Ivey emphasized the statewide stakes of federal engagement, naming Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade as examples.

DLS recommended several budget adjustments, including eliminating two new positions and the deficiency appropriation for the federal government affairs contract; the governor’s office accepted the DLS recommendation on cutting the contract appropriation but stated it will nevertheless proceed with the contract using existing vacancy savings and disagreed with deleting the two new positions. There was no formal vote on these recommendations at the hearing.

Context and next steps: The Governor’s Office allowance includes Bloomberg-funded staffing for an innovation team and additional personnel costs tied to salary increases. The subcommittee did not vote at the hearing; any appropriation changes would be decided later in the budget process. The transcript shows DLS’s analysis and the governor’s office responses on the record.

","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","PSA Committee Session, 2/24/2025 #1","oneSentenceSummary","The Public Safety and Administration Subcommittee heard an analysis of the Governor’s Office fiscal 2026 allowance and proposals on Feb. 17, 2025, where the Department of Legislative Services recommended reducing two new positions and eliminating a requested deficiency for a federal government affairs contract.","taxTitle","Public Safety and Administration Subcommittee, Appropriations Committee, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Committees, Legislative, Maryland","taxId",78566,"location","Maryland","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":77,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":78,"_41":79,"_43":80,"_45":81,"_47":82,"_49":83,"_51":84,"_53":85,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":86,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":87,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6684209,"Judiciary budget increases; St. Mary's judgeship request and juvenile caseload spike draw scrutiny",1626,1579000,3205000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2381948-c08b07830c9754d3f1bf217d132d426a&start=1579&end=3205","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2381948-c08b07830c9754d3f1bf217d132d426a/thumbnail_1579000.jpg","/articles/6684209/Maryland/Judiciary-budget-increases-St-Marys-judgeship-request-and-juvenile-caseload-spike-draw-scrutiny","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6684209-4591fa3cc07d2cddeb3900f97ed68728/orig.mp4?Expires=1771178317&Signature=jZV~-URZHSPDSuxoYklQTl0TbhyFISheSKGp9T0UWSy2y8HiSbntFACM6mmosHQwZo0PsA9ZABUlbEALQ3CkRxUXD67rVABAYSdXkovFGQnn4VUQuLt7mG1GMup95dIsYtVVk9CGNWfTYVH0waLts95gUaBNxHh5~y5igY6U~hg76IV6iZPwQbT9ci16AzKxNGJ31KqavFejpTj779-MY7n2S2IT-GxAX9kSfH1iEDidQsyIdHzRoal-BWuljh2hPXU~o3sbucdorcAGJrcsqanHKrmPpmIWWjfeVracf-HFBZrvT1dMFgOXg6-KaE0AjOHjNeQ5ZZa5UrkPeCexOQ__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","The subcommittee reviewed the Judiciary’s fiscal 2026 allowance on Feb. 17, 2025, where the Department of Legislative Services reported a $31.7 million increase (4.1%) over FY25 and recommended multiple reductions and reporting requirements. Jacob Polakove of the Department of Legislative Services told the committee the fiscal 2026 allowance reached “a total of $813,400,000,” and that the increase included funding for new positions, salary increases for judges and court staff, and security improvements at district court facilities.

Why it matters: DLS recommended abolishing five newly requested positions, including a circuit court judgeship for St. Mary’s County, citing DLS workload modeling and certification analysis; the judiciary pushed back, saying local trial patterns — including a sharp rise in contested jury trials — are not fully captured by the model and require an additional judgeship.

DLS recommended deleting the St. Mary’s judgeship and two positions that would support it, as well as two district court case managers. The judiciary accepted the deletion of the two case-manager positions but “respectfully disagree[d]” with deleting the three positions tied to a judgeship. Chief Justice Matthew Fader told the subcommittee, “We have experienced a 38% statewide increase in juvenile delinquency filings,” and stressed that the judiciary’s caseloads are driven by external filings and prosecutorial and local-system decisions.

Judge Joseph Stanelones, administrative judge for St. Mary’s County, described substantial increases in criminal jury trials and family merits hearings. He said contested criminal jury trials in St. Mary’s County rose significantly between calendar year 2019 and 2024, and that the court has expanded trial scheduling — using more calendar weeks and longer days — but still faces monthslong delays for scheduling family trial dates, with one-day trial openings sometimes not available until September.

Polakove and DLS also pressed the judiciary on several other areas: court performance metrics, problem solving courts, appointed attorney program costs and utilization, major IT projects, and vacancy/turnover assumptions. DLS recommended deleting the St. Mary’s judgeship, increasing assumed turnover for new positions to 25% (yielding a suggested reduction of $393,939), and adopting multiple committee narratives requesting annual and quarterly reports on performance measures, problem-solving courts, major IT projects, and the private home detention monitoring program.

The judiciary recommended selective acceptance and rejection of the DLS recommendations. On IT and license spending, State Court Administrator Judy Rupp warned that reductions could undermine system reliability and security: Rupp described completed milestones, including migration to a statewide electronic filing and case management system (MDEC). On problem solving courts and appointed attorney program questions, the judiciary and the chief judge of the district court said some requested detailed outcome data would require custom programming and manual review of thousands of cases and that the courts had already provided reports and would continue to work with DLS on report design.

Context and next steps: The DLS recommended multiple statutory-limit and appropriation adjustments that the General Assembly will consider during budget negotiations. The judgeship request for St. Mary’s County remains contested: DLS recommended abolishing it; the judiciary provided courtroom-level workload detail and urged that the General Assembly respect the judiciary’s judgeship certification process or allow reallocation authority. Several DLS reporting requests (on IT projects, PSCs, and home-detention monitoring) were accepted in part by the judiciary, which proposed clarifying the scope or the technical feasibility of certain requested data.

","The subcommittee reviewed the Judiciary’s fiscal 2026 allowance on Feb. 17, 2025, where DLS reported a $31.7 million increase and recommended multiple deletions, including a contentious St. Mary’s County judgeship request.",{"_33":89,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":90,"_41":91,"_43":92,"_45":93,"_47":94,"_49":95,"_51":96,"_53":97,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":98,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":99,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6684205,"Comptroller outlines modernization and compliance priorities; 6,735 1099‑G forms mailed to wrong addresses",879,5570000,6449000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2381948-c08b07830c9754d3f1bf217d132d426a&start=5570&end=6449","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2381948-c08b07830c9754d3f1bf217d132d426a/thumbnail_5570000.jpg","/articles/6684205/Maryland/Comptroller-outlines-modernization-and-compliance-priorities-6735-1099G-forms-mailed-to-wrong-addresses","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6684205-6d63360477e5d88f7fbafb1cdc1d990b/orig.mp4?Expires=1771178317&Signature=HQq~7aimpE99nRWq89UyQvW6z0tobSNqPDvWwzBLkXO5HcKccAkeBpTkFQY4u~Zpx0cc7nVFn8ctAMpkmXTrsOHhWjMr9odMNhpWnHIErNY5qVr9ShwhsvnLesClnqyqimvw1mVi61g3YZad-lZFLhKC01rL912UMB0jnr6N7TNwd-WtdZH~jw0OpQlD7FlWdu99XVscbbi5S6Owr98Ym6fnMNu3NqfMzxOWYDljNhw2nJ54CZlH2ii~Fuj~cWVDEH93S73LGhCr02sVm7sFuMoJoYC4kmrFbks6zEyN8Z3diU9R1SgvWRTsuMytOPup5y7Rj9GB-CDO1gQVdUkDhA__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Department of Legislative Services analyst David Probert presented the Comptroller of Maryland’s fiscal 2026 allowance on Feb. 17, 2025, reporting a $309.1 million request — a 41.2% increase over the working appropriation largely driven by major information-technology projects and personnel changes. Probert said the fiscal 2026 allowance includes 117 new positions and major-project funding for a central payroll system replacement, an integrated tax system, and financial management modernization.

Why it matters: The Comptroller’s modernization work — from a new customer-relationship-management system and call-center contracts to a multiagency Financial Management Information System (FMIS) replacement — affects state finance operations, tax administration, and interactions with millions of taxpayers and state employees.

Probert noted the FY26 allowance “increases by $90,100,000 or 41.2% compared to the working appropriation,” with $34.8 million for the central payroll system replacement and $15.7 million for FMIS modernization included among major IT costs. He reported service metrics that prompted the Comptroller’s request: call and email volumes spiked and taxpayer satisfaction with web services fell to 69.2% in FY24.

Comptroller Brooke Lierman (transcript wording corrected from the hearing) and her team defended the modernization push: they have launched a CRM (MyComm Connect) and plan temporary call-center contracts to handle spikes associated with the rollout of Maryland Tax Connect and other systems. Lierman said direct-file participation with the IRS and a new Office of the Taxpayer Advocate are part of the office’s strategy to improve services and outreach.

On compliance, the Comptroller’s office documented a staffing shortfall relative to peer states and flagged an estimated tax gap (about $6 billion of known and unassessed/unpaid liabilities reported in prior work). The office has piloted public-data mining to find unreported online-economy income (short‑term rentals, NFT trading) and is pursuing analytics and data-matching tools to locate previously unknown assets held at modern fintech institutions.

Separately, the office disclosed a printing and mailing error that mispaired cover pages and 1099‑G tax forms, exposing personal information for 6,735 taxpayers. The Comptroller’s office said a printer malfunction caused the mismatch, is offering one year of credit monitoring to those affected, and will stop placing full Social Security numbers on 1099‑G forms going forward. Comptroller Lierman said the estimated cost of credit monitoring will be about $20,000 and described additional checks (multiple reviews of large batches) to prevent recurrence.

DLS recommended concurring with the governor’s allowance; the hearing yielded questions on FMIS future costs, the implementation timetable for ServiceNow/CRM and other modernization projects, and whether increased call-center contracts will reduce average wait times. Lierman said the CRM went live internally in February and that usable service metrics will take roughly 90 days to accrue. She also described FMIS as a statewide, multiagency effort that will require discovery, requirements gathering, and a future RFP before total costs are fixed.

Context and next steps: The comptroller’s modernization and compliance proposals will be considered within the FY26 appropriations process. DLS and the Comptroller’s office will continue to exchange reports and project updates; the mailing error prompted immediate remediation and outreach to affected taxpayers.","The Comptroller of Maryland described a modernization agenda including FMIS replacement, new CRM and call-center capacity, and compliance staffing to pursue an estimated tax gap. The office disclosed a mailing error that misplaced Social Security numbers on 6,735 1099‑G forms and offered one year of credit monitoring to affected taxpayers.","actionData","errors"]

Article not found

Governor’s Office budget request increases; administration will fund federal affairs contract despite DLS recommendation

Judiciary budget increases; St. Mary's judgeship request and juvenile caseload spike draw scrutiny

Comptroller outlines modernization and compliance priorities; 6,735 1099‑G forms mailed to wrong addresses