Happy Holidays and December Update

As we bring 2025 to a close, I want to take a moment to wish you and your family happy holidays. I hope you are able to find some time to take a breath and enjoy the ones you love this holiday season. Read on for my last update of 2025 and I will be back to my weekly updates for the 2026 legislative session early next year

SPECIAL SESSION
​Earlier this week, the Maryland General Assembly held a rare special session. You can see my short video about it here. In the House, we had two main orders of business.
First, we elected a new Speaker of the House, Joseline Peña-Melnyk. Speaker Peña-Melnyk represents a district in Prince George's and Anne Arundel Counties that is connected to our District by the Beltway and, in a few years, the Purple Line. She has the personal background and policy expertise to ably lead the House.

Second, the House and Senate both overrode a number of the Governor's vetoes from the 2025 legislative session. Some of the notable overridden vetoes include:
The RENEW Act, legislation to study and calculate the impacts of climate change on our state.
The Energy Resource Adequacy and Planning Act, which establishes a new Strategic Energy Planning Office to help guide us through recent energy and electric market challenges.
Data Center Study Bill, legislation to study the potential impacts of new data centers on our state.
Youth-Centric Technology Legislation, a bill from my District 16 colleague, Delegate Sarah Wolek, to publish a technology and social media resource guide to help families make better decisions related to young people and technology.
Reparations Commission, which will study issues related to reparations in Maryland.
As we look towards the regular legislative session, you can get up to date with the Department of Legislative Services Issue Papers for the 2026 session.
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LEGISLATIVE SEND-OFF
And another way to get ready for the 2026 legislative send-off is to attend the District 16 Delegation's send-off at the Bannockburn Clubhouse at 3:30pm on January 10th.

BUDGET UPDATE
The state Board of Revenue Estimates met recently and slightly increased the revenue estimate for fiscal year 2026--the current fiscal year--based on collections and for fiscal year 2027. Corporate income tax and sales tax have come in lower than expected but most other sources have been even or a little higher than estimates. I would not necessarily call it good news, as the estimates have been conservative due to the economic headwinds, but it is not bad news.
Review the Presentation.
Read the Report.
Watch the Meeting.
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The Spending Affordability Committee (SAC)--on which I used to serve as House chair--sets the overall budget guidelines the General Assembly follows each year. SAC recently met and you can watch their meeting here and read their recommendations here. The meeting provided a brief update on the budget situation based on the budget projections described above and the latest school system projections. Both benefited the budget picture but there is still an over $1 billion deficit projected for the coming budget. The main recommendations of SAC are:
-In recognition of the fiscal outlook, the committee recommends that the fiscal 2027 budget, as introduced and enacted, reduce the gap between general fund revenues and ongoing spending by 50% ($600 million).
-A Rainy Day Fund balance of at least 8% of General Fund revenue should be maintained with the possibility of going down to 7.5%.
-Since the federal government appears less likely to provide disaster assistance in the future, the State should maintain a combined balance of at least $15 million in these two funds beginning in fiscal 2027. The Treasurer’s Office should also explore the cost of purchasing disaster recovery insurance to cover at least 
a portion of the cost of assisting communities impacted by natural disasters.
-The committee recommends that the Executive Branch maintain current levels of authorized positions, fill vacancies in mission critical positions, and increase vacancies overall to meet budgeted turnover.
-A fiscal 2027 target closing balance of at least $550 million for the Transportation Trust Fund, which is $50 million greater than the target closing balance assumed by MDOT in its draft September 2025 financial forecast. The committee is recommending a larger TTF fund balance to ensure the continued ability of MDOT to meet its cash flow needs in the case that federal fund attainment, including federal reimbursement for capital projects, is less than currently projected by the department.

DELEGATION UPDATE
Each fall, the Montgomery County Delegation holds bill hearings on local bills that only affect the county or bicounty agencies like Park & Planning. Here is the slate of local bills for the upcoming legislative session.
Click here for the first night of bill hearings. The second night of bill hearings can be watched here.

COMMITTEE UPDATE
The Environment & Transportation Committee, on which I serve, held two recent pre-session briefings. The first was on the Ins and Outs of Residential Development and can be watched here. The second was An Update on Recent Federal Actions Impacting Climate and Energy Policy in Maryland and can be viewed here.

TRANSPORTATION UPDATE
The first bill I passed in the Maryland General Assembly was HB 300 (2015), which requires an annual report by WMATA/Metro regarding Maryland's use of the system. The report is released every five years and the latest report was just released.
Marylanders' Metrorail usage is down from 2020 (135k riders a day now versus 236k pre-COVID), but Metrobus usage is up (133k Marylanders now versus 106k before). This is consistent with the overall post-COVID trend, but Maryland's share of Metrorail riders has dropped from 37% to 30% of overall ridership. Some of this may be attributed to the Silver Line opening.
65% of Montgomery County Metrorail riders get to their stations on foot, compared to 40% of Prince George's riders. I think that says something about land use and has not really changed in five years.
11% of Marylanders' Metrorail trips are from non-Montgomery or Prince George's County residents. Anne Arundel County accounts for a plurality with Howard County coming in second. Frederick and Charles Counties have notable numbers but have less riders than those two counties. A lot are probably arriving at Union Station via MARC Rail, because that is the heaviest used station (end of line stations with a lot of park and ride like Greenbelt are also heavily used) by other Marylanders and 18% of those weekday riders connect to Metro via rail.
Dig into more details here.
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The United States Department of Transportation has issued a Request for Information regarding the American Legion Bridge/495/270 project for which the state already has approved environmental documentation. Review it here.
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Each year, Metro allows riders to look at their ridership profile for the year. Visit Metro Rewind 2025 to check yours. My stats are below.

COMMUNITY NEWS
​I recently had the chance to participate in The Built World Around You Podcast. Listen to it here.
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Congratulations to Miu Edson, on being named to the Citizens Review Panel for Children. And congratulations to Lynn Nozer, on her nomination to the Adult Public Guardianship Review Board.