New Department of Social and Economic Mobility outlines plans as leaders pledge faster MBE certification and SEP rollout
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Summary
Officials told the Budget and Taxation Committee the new Department of Social and Economic Mobility has a $20.8 million FY27 allowance, consolidates several offices, and plans to use a $5 million Social Equity Partnership Program (SEP) to support cannabis-related social equity efforts while pursuing faster MBE certification timelines.
The Department of Social and Economic Mobility — established by chapter 605 of 2025 — appeared before the Budget and Taxation Committee for its fiscal 2027 budget presentation. Department of Legislative Services analyst Natalia Entrade said the department’s FY27 allowance totals $20.8 million, a $4.2 million (25.6%) increase over FY26 that reflects transfers of staff and funding from the Office of Small Minority and Women Business Affairs (OSBA), the Office of Social Equity (OSE), and the Office of Minority Business Enterprises (OMBE).
Entrade noted staffing totals of 78.5 positions (71 regular and 7.5 contractual FTEs) and reported 20% of authorized regular positions were vacant as of Dec. 31, 2025. She also said DLS had identified that SEP — the Social Equity Partnership Program — is authorized at $5 million annually but that the funds were unspent in FY25 pending final regulations and a launch timeline.
Secretary Walter Simmons, appearing with senior staff, described organizational priorities and cited what he called a record year for payments to MBEs. "We actually had a record breaking year in payments to MBEs for the state of Maryland where MBEs were paid $2,200,000,000," Simmons said, and he told the committee that the small business reserve participation attained 15% in FY25 according to the department’s data.
Committee members pressed Simmons on certification and recertification timelines for MBEs. Simmons said state certifications historically averaged 12 to 16 months and the department is undertaking process changes — decoupling federal and state certification pathways, shortening mandatory interviews, standardizing documents and filling vacancies — to reduce that to a target of 3 to 4 months.
On the SEP design, Simmons said the department is planning incentives to encourage established cannabis businesses to partner with newer, disadvantaged businesses and that the $5 million allocated to SEP will be used in its initial year to implement the program and provide both partnership incentives and direct support to nascent businesses; he said 204 businesses were in the department’s SEP process. DLS also raised the Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund (CRRF) and noted limited county-level spending through March 2025 (only Baltimore and Wicomico counties had reported expenditures), asking the agency to explain timing and barriers to utilization.
The committee did not vote on the allowance. DLS recommended concurrence with the governor’s allowance and asked the department to provide further information on staff fill rates, SEP launch timeline, and anticipated CRRF county spending.