Office of People's Counsel projects modest budget increase as casework and calls surge

The Office of People's Counsel presented a small operating-budget increase for fiscal 2026 while warning committee members that its workload has grown substantially.

Saviksha Pujal, the budget analyst who delivered the Department of Legislative Services review, told the Transportation and the Environment Subcommittee that "the operating budget for OPC increases by 35,000 or 0.4 percent to a total of 8,300,000 in fiscal 2026." She said 53% of the budget is for personnel and about 40% is for outside legal services, and that 27 positions are authorized for fiscal 2026, unchanged from the prior year.

The Office of People's Counsel’s head of representation, David Lapp, said the office has experienced a sustained rise in workload and more-complex matters. "OPC case participation levels has reached its highest point in recent years in fiscal 2024 at 288 cases which is an increase of 53 cases or 22.6% increase from fiscal 20 3," Lapp said, noting that the growth includes a large number of federal matters before FERC and multiple new state dockets arising from recent legislation.

Nut graf: Committee members heard that the budget change is small in dollar terms but comes amid a surge in cases, consumer contacts and complex proceedings — trends that OPC says require staff training and additional time before workload reductions materialize.

OPC staff said the caseload increase is driven in part by federal and regional electric market issues and by state policy changes. Lapp told the panel that roughly 60% of the average Maryland customer's electric bill reflects federally jurisdictional costs flowing through the regional operator PJM and regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He described numerous FERC dockets and new generation-capacity and transmission questions that have increased OPC's workload.

Pujal and Lapp also said consumer contacts have risen sharply: the transcript records 1,937 calls to OPC in fiscal 2024, a 41.2% increase over fiscal 2023 and the highest total since at least 2009. OPC attributed the increase largely to inquiries about reduced energy benefits from the Department of Human Services and rising utility rates.

Committee members asked OPC for clarifications about its statutory funding cap. Lapp explained the office operates under a statutory cap set as a percentage of statewide utility revenues and said OPC's cap is currently 0.074 (described in the hearing as "point 0.074"). He said that revenue increases can raise the funding available under the cap and that OPC's budget currently sits about $1,000,000 under the cap.

Members pressed OPC on specific reliability and cost-allocation matters tied to transmission projects, including the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) and projects PJM is proposing to serve data-center growth. Lapp said OPC remains "skeptical" of some project cost allocations and that OPC is a party to the certificate-of-public-need-and-necessity proceeding; he said OPC is reviewing the facts and law before taking a formal position.

The presentation concluded with DLS recommending concurrence with the governor's proposed operating budget for OPC; no formal vote was recorded in the transcript.

Ending: Committee members thanked OPC staff for the briefing and said they look forward to continued work with the office during the legislative session.