Ferguson Enters ‘Third Chapter' With A New Speaker And Old Budget Problems

By Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters

January 14, 2026

The 2026 legislative session will be primarily about the numbers for Senate President Bill Ferguson.

The Baltimore City Democrat enters his seventh session as leader of the Senate. His chamber will have the first crack at Gov. Wes Moore’s last budget of the term, and its projected $1.5 billion deficit.

But one number Ferguson will likely not focus on is the state’s eight congressional districts. Despite pressure from the governor and the House ro redraw the districts mid-cycle, the Senate leader has staked out opposition to the move, and says now it’s too late to act even if a bill lands in the General Assembly on opening day.

“I think we’re still at the same place,” Ferguson told Maryland Matters when asked if the Senate had changed its position on the issue. “And I’d say I think the window is closed. The filing deadline [for candidates] is Feb. 24, the attorney general said it’s at least 120 days to prepare for a case at the trial court level.”

Ferguson sits on a five-member redistricting advisory commission appointed by Moore. After several virtual meetings late last year, the panel considered nearly three-dozen maps Friday, and could make a recommendation when it meets again this Friday.

Any legislation that stems from that is likely to come from the House. Ferguson has been clear that his chamber would not take up the issue this close to the election, and any bill that makes it out of the House could land in the legislative purgatory of the Senate Rules Committee.

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Ferguson said a bill at this late stage would “significantly impact the election.”

“I think we’ve already missed the window,” Ferguson said.

For Ferguson, the 2026 session begins what he called his “third chapter” as presiding officer: First with former House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County), then with Jones and Moore, and now with Moore and new Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel).

“I keep saying this is chapter three, and I’m hopeful it’ll be the best chapter yet,” Ferguson said.

“I would say we probably likely agree on most issues and the outcome of most issues,” he said Monday. “it’s the means of getting there.”

One of those issues — perhaps the biggest issue — will be the budget.

The legislature wrapped the 2025 session, believing a package of one-time fund shifts, cuts and $1.6 billion in tax increases had erased a $3.3 billion deficit and left them with a projected $300 million surplus for the fiscal 2027 budget. Instead, lawmakers start the year staring at a projected $1.5 billion budget gap.

“I don’t think any of us expected us to be in the place where we are, but due to the federal uncertainty, to Medicaid costs, health care inflation, we’re back in a place where we have to do some heavy lifting to balance the budget,” Ferguson said.

“I don’t foresee us doing any revenues for it,” he said. “I think we’re going to have to really cost-contain wherever possible. We’re going to have to look deeply into the formulas to find places where we can adjust and moderate the growth that we’ve seen.”

Maryland has been the state hardest hit by the elimination of federal jobs, losing nearly 25,000 since Trump took office, according to the most recent figures.

That’s in addition to inflationary pressures and increasing costs of health care and services for persons with developmental disabilities, where Ferguson said there are “700 individuals in Maryland that account for $400 million worth of spending.”

“That’s half a million dollars of spending annually on an individual, 700 individuals … in the developmental disabilities community, where the Marylanders with the highest needs,” he said. “That is a lot, it sounds like a lot of money, but if it allows them to have a life, to be able to have basic care, you know, that is a commitment that we in Maryland have made.”

But the Senate leader warned of tough choices ahead.

Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) discusses upcoming 2026 session in his office. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters)

“It will crowd out other priorities,” he said. “We will balance the budget. There is only so much you can push in any direction, and so it is entitlement spending. So, if somebody is eligible, then we spend it.”

Changes are possible when it comes to eligibility.

“I think we are going to be adjusting our eligibility alongside of what was required with the Republican budget bill, we have to figure out how Maryland will adapt and adjust to that,” Ferguson said. “We anticipate that a number of Medicaid-eligible individuals are likely to be kicked off the rolls.”

In the short term, there’s a savings, he said. But eventually, the costs escalate as those who fall below the eligibility guidelines delay health care, show up in emergency rooms or stay longer in hospitals to treat severe illnesses.

“That’s the most expensive kind of care,” Ferguson said. “And so I think that’s why these decisions have to be looked at, not just on a year-by-year basis. It’s what is the net impact overall of policies that are underpinning a lot of the costs.”

Ferguson said the legislature will also have to focus again on broader affordability issues, including the costs of electricity and policies meant to decrease housing costs.

“It’s going to be very similar to what we said last year. It’s going to be short term, midterm, long term,” Ferguson said of efforts to rein in utility bills. “In short term, the rebates were an important feature for twice a year to provide immediate relief for people in the hardest-hit months in the winter and then … in the summer.”

The Senate leader said he expects the legislature to consider additional subsidies for electric bills. He did not provide specifics but said the money for the payments could come again from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund, which is typically used for energy efficiency projects.

Some of the funds will also be used to backfill cuts made to federal programs for wind, solar and battery projects. If those projects get knocked off schedule, he said, it will mean less power generation, “which will increase the cost of electricity overall.”

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“The long term is really to continue to push for generation here in Maryland, and that is with cleaner sources than exist today,” he said. So, if it’s coal — we want to get rid of coal — we’ve got to do it in a way that is cleaner and affordable.

“And so, in some cases, we’ll see a transition to natural gas. In other places, we’ll see expansion of opportunity around nuclear,” he said. “I think we’ll see big investments in batteries and renewables, and so we need it cleaner than what exists today.”

Ferguson said he also expects to take up legislation to counter some other federal policies including immigration enforcement. One of those bills — Senate Bill 1 – would prohibit law enforcement officers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, from using masks to obscure their faces.

“I think that … the way that we’ve seen these operations be conducted in Maryland and across the country is absolutely abhorrent and is horrifying and shocks the conscience, for I hope, the vast, vast, vast majority of American people who do not want to be living amongst a paramilitary enforcement of the law,” Ferguson said.

A second bill would ban 287(g) agreements between local police departments and federal immigration enforcement.

“We’ll do what we can at a state level,” he said. “I think that ICE has become an institution that has severely lost its way, and Maryland law enforcement, by partnering with ICE at this point, is only creating further distrust between law enforcement and the population that employ them.”