Posted on 11/27/25
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - Nov. 27, 2025 - Maryland is facing yet another projected budget deficit next year, partly due to increases in public education spending. Maryland’s financial problems should not be a surprise to anyone. In fact, many have predicted this would happen.
Justin Ready, for 10 years, has been serving as a Maryland state senator, representing Carroll and Frederick Counties. And for much of his time in Annapolis, he’s been warning his fellow lawmakers that financial pain is coming.
“When you have exponential growth in spending, and you don't have the requisite increase in revenue you end up with deficits,” Ready explained.
So, Marylanders should not have been shocked when news broke, earlier this month, that the state budget is facing a projected $1.4 billion shortfall in 2026.
“We literally made the decision to put ourselves in this deficit by passing an unsustainable mandate of spending for over ten years,” Ready stated.
Ready is talking about the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. In 2021, state lawmakers overrode then-Governor Larry Hogan’s veto and passed the Blueprint, which pumps $30 billion additional tax dollars into public education state-wide over the first 10 years. And $4 billion additional dollars every year, after that.
The plan, in part, increases teacher salaries, expands Pre-K and bolsters career and technology training. But when the bill was passed, the legislature did not include a funding mechanism to pay for it.
Ready voted against the Blueprint. In 2020, as the law was being debated, Ready was quoted in the Baltimore Sun saying, “Based on the impact it would have on the economy it is beyond a horrible idea.”
Since then, Ready has continued to sound the alarm saying the Blueprint is unaffordable. Ready spoke with Project Baltimore in June of 2024.
“Education spending was always increasing,” Ready said last year. “This is just putting a rocket ship on it without the kind of accountability that's needed.”
This past June, the financial firm Moody’s downgraded Maryland credit rating citing, “economic and financial underperformance.” Ready spoke with FOX45 News then saying, “I want us to address the problem.”
In 2025, Maryland faced a $3.3 billion budget deficit. To help close the gap, lawmakers in Annapolis passed an estimated $1.6 billion in new taxes and fees. But apparently, it wasn’t enough.
According to the Maryland Department of Legislative Services, in 2026, Maryland faces a projected $1.4 billion budget shortfall, with education spending being a central driver of Maryland’s rising expenditures.
According to DLS, the state doesn’t have enough money to meet the demands of the Blueprint. And the deficits are expected to grow in the coming years.
“Sometimes people like to say, I told you so,” Ready remarked. “I don't take any real joy in the fact that we're in this situation.”
Ready tells Project Baltimore the solution hasn’t changed. He’s been saying it for years - The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future must be repealed, amended or significantly delayed in its implementation. If one of those things doesn’t happen, Maryland, Ready says, will continue to see budget deficits every year – meaning your taxes and fees could keep going up.
“We can't just keep thinking there's this inexhaustible well of money out there, that's with the taxpayers,” Ready said. “We have to live with what's coming in and make the choices around that, just like a family or a small business would.”
The Public Schools Superintendents’ Association of Maryland, last month, sent a letter to state education leaders asking them to consider revising the Blueprint while seeking “solutions that are educationally sound and fiscally responsible.”