Maryland’s governor and state legislative leaders reaffirmed their commitment to hiring new state government workers in a budget compromise that is now accelerating through the Maryland General Assembly to address the state’s historic projected $3.3 billion shortfall.

Hours after Gov. Wes Moore, Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones, all Democrats, announced that they had reached a “budget framework agreement” in the Maryland State House on Thursday, the House Ways and Means and Appropriations committees voted to advance the budget to the House floor for full debate.

Several House lawmakers who reviewed the proposed budget amendments have confirmed to Spotlight on Maryland that there were no current cuts to the state’s expanding government workforce in the legislation. Despite Maryland’s financial challenges, the budget draft approved by the Democratic supermajority-controlled committees also did not authorize hiring freezes or implement a furlough schedule.

Del. Mike Griffith, a Ways and Means Committee member representing Harford and Cecil counties, said he and his Republican colleagues voted against the revised budget proposal. He said that his decision was partly due to concerns about how the state will sustain funding for new workers, pensions, and other taxpayer-funded benefits after this fiscal year.

“My fear is that if we continue to hire folks with this massive shortfall, it will lead to furloughs like what happened during the O’Malley administration,” Griffith said. “I don’t want to hire people now only to potentially let them down in the near future.”

Another Ways and Means Committee member, Del. Caylin Young, a Baltimore City Democrat, said he is proud to have joined his Democratic colleagues on Thursday to advance the budget agreement. The freshman lawmaker said concerns about the state’s current hiring strategy are misplaced.

“Gov. Moore has been pushing the importance of public service his whole term, and I totally agree with him,” Young said. “[W]e should seize the chance to bring in strong local talent, especially those who’ve been displaced by DOGE.”

The state’s current workforce growth mirrors data from former Gov. Martin O’Malley’s tenure in Government House.

State records reviewed by Spotlight on Maryland showed that O’Malley’s budgets included more than 8,650 new state employee hires between fiscal years 2007 and 2010. Facing a budget shortfall and citing the impacts of the Great Recession, O’Malley, a Democrat, announced in December 2008 that he was ordering state workers to forego at least two workdays without pay.

“I have signed an Executive Order establishing a furlough and salary reduction plan for all State employees due to this deepening national recession that has us all tightening our belts at work and at home,” O’Malley announced to state employees by email. “Indeed, the best days in life aren’t always the easiest. I continue to believe that we will come out of this national recession stronger than ever thanks to the choices we’ve made together to protect our priorities and quality of life.”

Meanwhile, Jones kicked off Thursday’s budget announcement by praising the decision to keep the state government’s workforce strategy stable.

“No one up here wants to talk about cuts. No one wants to talk about revenues, but responsible governing means having the tough conversation,” Jones said. “The budget we are announcing today reflects our shared Democratic values and strikes the right balance to face our fiscal challenges head-on.”

“But as Donald Trump continues his assaults on workers, health care, and our most vulnerable, we are reserving funding for state employee salaries, cancer research, victims of crime, and DDA,” Jones added.

Spotlight on Maryland previously reported that since Moore took office, Maryland’s government workforce has expanded by more than 5,000 hired positions. The governor’s office told Spotlight on Maryland that 3,300 of these positions are associated with the state’s executive branch. The rest are attributed to hiring increases in the legislative and judicial branches.

According to calculations based on state data, these new positions are estimated to cost Maryland taxpayers an average of $427.7 million annually. The governor’s budget proposal moving through the State House currently includes funding for over 900 new state worker positions for fiscal year 2026.

Moore criticized former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, while campaigning in the Democratic primary in a crowded field in 2022. Addressing the more than 10,000 state worker vacancies later became a central theme of his first State of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly just weeks after his inauguration.

“Right now, Maryland’s government has been nearly 10,000 vacancies, with just under 6,100 in the executive branch alone,” Moore told state lawmakers and chamber guests. “This isn’t about creating ‘big government.’ This is about creating a better one.”

Moore defended his hiring strategy more recently when Spotlight on Maryland pressed him backstage after a recent event in Baltimore. He was asked if it is the right time to reduce the state’s workforce or implement furloughs as it heads into a possible recession and may struggle to balance its budget following deep federal cuts.

“It’s always time to make sure you have a state government that actually works,” Moore said. “One thing we saw when we came on board was that the state government wasn’t actually functioning, that you had depletions to the point that people were waiting 18 months to get their unemployment insurance, that you had people who were waiting for an hour for 911.”

The state’s unemployment insurance agency experienced a historic surge in claims due to mandated economic and industry shutdowns imposed by local, state, federal, and global coronavirus containment measures. Maryland records indicate that processing times were significantly shortened after months of addressing backlogged claims.

Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey told Spotlight on Maryland that he is uncertain about the sustainability of the governor’s hiring plan, which he anticipates will be amplified in the coming months.

“Nobody in their right mind would come out with a goal of hiring 10,000 new employees,” said Hershey, a Republican representing Caroline, Cecil, Kent, and Queen Anne’s counties. “If you were in a dire fiscal position, you would say we can’t hire anymore and put a hiring freeze in place.”

“Something is amiss when he talks about this,” Hershey added.

Moore’s office did not respond immediately on Thursday to a request for comment from Spotlight on Maryland regarding workforce hiring.

Follow Gary Collins with Spotlight on Maryland on X @realgarycollins. Do you have news tips on this story or others? Send news tips to gmcollins@sbgtv.com.