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Department of Aging urges preservation of senior-care dollars as state analysts flag waitlist and spending issues
Summary
Legislative analysts and advocates debated the Maryland Department of Aging’s FY26 budget, focusing on a growing senior care waitlist, unspent FY24 appropriations, and a proposed cut recommended by DLS. Secretary Carmel Roque and advocates urged lawmakers to protect funds, including a dementia care navigation program facing a BPW reduction.
Victoria Martinez of the Department of Legislative Services presented the fiscal 2026 review of the Maryland Department of Aging on Jan. 29 before the Health and Social Services Subcommittee of Appropriations, reporting the department’s allowance at about $90.3 million, a roughly $869,000 decrease from the prior year.
The DLS analysis highlighted three items that dominated questioning: a growing senior care program waitlist amid declining participation; substantial one‑time ARPA and other reversions that reduced FY24 spending; and ongoing implementation of recently created initiatives, including a Long Term Care and Dementia Care Navigation Program and the Longevity Ready Maryland plan.
DLS found that the senior care program, which receives state funding that pays for services and case management intended to help older adults remain at home, had $8.5 million added by the General Assembly in fiscal 2024 to address the waitlist. The department reported actual FY24 spending of about $8.7 million but reverted roughly $5.9 million at FY24 closeout. The program is budgeted at $13.9 million in FY25 and $13.2 million in the FY26 allowance; DLS recommended reducing the FY25 appropriation by $2.5 million to better match recent spending patterns.
"The senior care funds are being fully planned for at the area agency on aging level," Carmel Roque, secretary of the Maryland Department of Aging, told the subcommittee. Roque said a DLS‑proposed $2.5 million cut for FY25 "would be very destabilizing," because AAAs have already budgeted staffing and services on the expectation the funds would be available.
Roque said the department has reduced its vacancy rate significantly over two years and added staff capacity to improve fiscal and programmatic oversight. She noted the FY26 allowance includes one new IT position and six contractual conversions, with a total of 56 regular positions and three contractual positions reflected in the request.
DLS pointed out that jurisdictions such as Baltimore City, Frederick, Wicomico and Charles counties have waitlist counts larger than current participation. Eloise Maine, assistant secretary for grants administration at the Department of Aging, said data collection and reporting varied across the 19 area agencies on aging and that the department has restored a program manager position and implemented midyear fiscal checks to improve reporting and spending oversight.
Advocates who testified after the department urged the subcommittee to restore and protect specific program funding. Megan Peters of the Alzheimer’s Association emphasized the 2023 law that created the dementia care navigation program and the program’s $2.4 million statutory mandate; she said the Board of Public Works cut $1.2 million in FY25 and the introduced Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act would reduce the recurring appropriation to $1.2 million going forward. "This program helps our caregivers navigate the complexity of dementia care," Peters said, arguing navigation reduces costs and caregiver strain.
Anne Secot, representing Maryland’s area agencies on aging, and Carol Linehard of the Maryland Senior Citizens Action Network described senior‑care programs as cost‑effective alternatives to nursing homes and said AAAs need steady, ongoing funding to hire case managers and enroll people from the waitlist.
On initiatives and task‑force work, DLS noted the Department of Aging’s Long Term Care and Dementia Care Navigation Program includes a $2.4 million mandate, reduced by $1.2 million by the Board of Public Works; the department’s longevity planning (the Longevity Ready Maryland initiative) is an executive‑order‑driven, multiyear planning effort with a final plan due to the governor and General Assembly in July 2025. DLS also asked the department to describe plans to implement recommendations from a task force on preventing and countering elder abuse; the task force submitted its final report in December 2024.
The subcommittee pressed the department for detail on why waitlist counts rose while participation fell; department staff cited inconsistent eligibility and reporting definitions across AAAs and staffing shortages that limited case management capacity in jurisdictions such as Baltimore City. The department said some jurisdictions expanded outreach and screening when waitlist funding was added, which temporarily increased the number of people identified as needing services.
The hearing ended with the department urging the subcommittee to reject DLS’s suggested midyear cut and to preserve funding that AAAs have already planned to spend. The department said it is working on regulatory changes tied to agency bills intended to modernize state programs for older adults and to standardize data collection across AAAs.
Ending: The subcommittee did not take a formal vote during the hearing. Lawmakers said they would follow up with additional questions and may examine DLS’s recommendation and the department’s implementation plans in subsequent budget deliberations.
