Investment in Maryland’s colleges and universities remains lower than before the recession, according to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. With student loan burdens increasing and recent college graduates facing a tough labor market, Maryland should continue to make investments in higher education so it remains a source of opportunity for residents working to improve their lives and to continue the state’s tradition of producing a highly-skilled workforce. Since the start of the Great Recession in 2008, state investment in higher education in Maryland has decreased by 12 percent – over a thousand dollars per student. As states invest less in their higher education systems, students take on more debt to finance their education.  Even as Maryland has kept tuition steady, recent graduates are taking on high levels of debt to pay for college. Maryland residents have the highest average student debt in the nation at…

While the General Assembly should be commended for taking several steps to improve the lives of working Marylanders and their families, it also  enacted some potentially harmful policies and left a pile of unfinished business that should be  on the agenda for the 2015 session.   Though lawmakers helped strengthen working families by boosting the state’s minimum wage and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, they failed to take another crucial step:  requiring employers to provide earned sick leave. Allowing employees to take time off to tend to health matters would improve public health and benefit Maryland’s economy, and should be a priority in the 2015 legislative session.   Lawmakers also failed to pass other smart policies that would have made the state’s government more efficient, saved taxpayer dollars, and benefited Marylanders. This includes legislation that would automatically enroll individuals in Medicaid if they are eligible  for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance …

With the 2014 legislative session in the books, it is time to assess the General Assembly’s achievements as well as take stock of the work left undone. Today, we focus on several measures the legislature passed that will help move the needle toward broadly shared prosperity in Maryland.   1. Minimum wage increase. The General Assembly’s high-profile passage of legislation to raise the minimum wage in Maryland to $10.10 by 2018 will benefit nearly half a million workers and their families as well as boost the state’s economy (though compromises made by legislators will leave others behind). Maryland is now a leader in the nationwide effort to lift the stagnated earnings for workers, becoming the second state after Connecticut to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.   2. Expansion of tax credit for working Marylanders. Less noticed, but just as important, the expansion of Maryland’s Refundable Earned Income Tax Credit…

Tax Day is a good day to remind ourselves that taxes allow our state to make investments that benefit our economy and all Maryland’s residents, and that we must continue to work to make our tax code fairer.   What Do Our Taxes Pay For?   Taxes pay for important public services such as schools and health care that also help the state’s economy thrive. Residents and businesses alike depend on roads, bridges, and safe communities. Taxes make these investments possible.   Residents’ federal taxes mainly pay for national defense and major public programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The largest items in the state budget include education, health care, transportation, and public safety.   Who Pays?   While the investments that taxes pay for play a large role in the lives of Maryland residents, the tax code itself plays an equally important role in determining who pays…

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Some of the very people who could use a raise the most – workers who rely on tips and young workers just getting a start in life – will be left shortchanged when Maryland’s minimum wage begins to rise next year.   While the General Assembly’s recent passage of legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2018 is an important victory for working Marylanders, lawmakers made some unwise and unnecessary compromises that will significantly weaken its ability to help some workers and the state’s economy. We have previously discussed  why lawmakers should have kept a provision to allow the wage to automatically rise with inflation. Today we look at the new law’s other costly compromises, including a base-pay freeze for tipped workers and a ‘‘training wage” that will allow employers to pay workers under 20 years of age only 85 percent of the minimum wage for their…

The legislature’s decision to extend until 2018 the phase-in period for raising the minimum wage to $10.10 will needlessly delay a boost in earnings for Maryland’s workers and demonstrates why automatic increases based on inflation are the right way to ensure that the minimum wage keeps pace with the cost of living in the future.   As we have argued before, the minimum wage is too important to too many workers to leave at the mercy of the periodic whims of lawmakers. Even slight inflation steadily erodes the value of the minimum wage relative to the cost of food, housing, and other necessities, so workers continue to fall behind until lawmakers agree to increase the minimum wage, often at a lower level relative to the cost of living.    Sources: Minimum wage data: Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation, “History of Minimum Wage in Maryland,” February 22, 2010,https://www.dllr.state.md.us/labor/wages/minwagehistory.shtml; Inflation data: Bureau…

Many Maryland residents can continue to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act even though the first open enrollment period for the state’s health insurance exchange – Maryland Health Connection –ended this week. In the meantime,  the state is  turning toward doing a better job of managing things for the next  open enrollment period, which begins on November 15.   While there are various deadline for getting health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, there are also several exceptions. Medicaid enrollment is available year-round. As a result of Maryland’s decision to expand Medicaid under the new law, thousands of residents are newly eligible. Though many have already enrolled, those who  have not—or did not previously qualify—don’t  need to  wait for the next open enrollment period to do so. They can enroll at any time.   Second, many others are still eligible to enroll in private coverage through Maryland’s exchange.…

Maryland lawmakers negotiating a final state budget for building projects should restore more than $5 million they have proposed to cut from affordable housing, community health facilities and renovations for non-public schools. The funding could come from cuts elsewhere in the budget and reserves.   As the General Assembly makes final decisions on the state’s operating budget, which pays for education and most other state services, legislative negotiators are also working out  differences in the Senate and House versions of the capital budget, which funds things like building projects.  Using the example of a family budget, monthly bills for food, gas, utilities and health care would correspond to the state’s operating budget.  The capital budget would be equivalent to a family taking out a loan to buy or build a new house or to put an addition on its home. Most of the capital budget — about 78 percent of funding…

After a freezing winter, warmer weather has finally arrived and budget action heats up this week in Annapolis. On Tuesday, the Governor released a $172.2 million Supplemental Budget, with $162.7 million in net new spending, including $55 million for debt service, $32.4 million to deal with the effects of the extreme winter, and $32 million for the Maryland Children’s Health Program (MCHP). More than three-quarters of the Supplemental Budget is funded by state sources, with special funds, such as added money to the Annuity Bond Fund for debt service and $32.5 million in transferred money from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund, making up the majority of new funds. The Governor’s Supplemental Budget incorporates last month’s lowered state revenue projections from the Board of Revenue Estimates (BRE), adds new fund transfers, and relies on additional revenue sources, with $19.8 million in new General Fund revenue, including $10 million from Medicaid False…