Maryland state government payroll has outpaced inflation over the last decade, with the department under Gov. Wes Moore’s direct purview seeing a 20% jump in compensation paid to employees in the last two years, according to an analysis of payroll data by The Baltimore Sun.

The Executive Department represents about 200 full-time employees who work in the governor’s office and nine other boards or commissions — a small slice of the Maryland government. But its $22 million price tag last year is not insignificant in a state facing a $3.3 billion budget deficit.

The increase was driven by staff raises and new positions, some of which were paid not by taxpayer dollars but by a private grant, The Sun found.

Tisha Edwards, the outgoing secretary of appointments, had a $246,000 salary in 2024 that was the second-highest in the office and 20% more than what the same person who held the position under the last year of former Gov. Larry Hogan’s tenure would have received through raises that matched inflation, according to The Sun’s analysis.

Amanda LaForge, the governor’s chief legal counsel, earned a $224,000 salary that was 5% more than inflation from 2022, which mirrored the increase for the same position between the last years of Hogan and former Gov. Martin O’Malley and Hogan.

Moore’s chief of staff, Fagan Harris, earned a 2024 salary of $278,000 that put him at a level higher than his counterparts in far larger states, including the nine most populated states in the country, The Sun found. California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff in 2024, for instance, made about $236,000 in a state that has about five times the number of state government employees and almost 10 times the general fund budget.

But while Harris also earned more than Hogan’s last chief of staff, it was an increase on par with inflation, The Sun found. The former Republican governor’s chief of staff, meanwhile, made 22% above inflation compared to the chief of staff in O’Malley’s last year.

Moore’s own salary of $188,000 has not kept pace with inflation. It would have hit about $196,000 in 2024 if it had risen with inflation after former O’Malley made $150,000 and Hogan made $180,000 during their last years in office, The Sun found.

“Folks in public service at any level, they’re not really motivated by money,” said Patrick Malone, a professor of public administration and policy at American University.

Still, he said while evoking an analogy, if a university employee is told the budget is tight while the dean’s office is continuing to grow at a faster rate, that’s going to raise questions.

“Is that where the real need for the state of Maryland lies? If so, great. But it’s something that needs to be pretty clearly communicated,” Malone said.

Moore and state lawmakers chose to largely cut from areas outside state salaries in announcing a final budget deal Thursday.

The framework they settled on included about $2.3 million in cuts across government programs. A $239 million cut to salary enhancements for a large portion of the 51,000-person state workforce, which independent state fiscal analysts had recommended, was not among them.

“We see what’s happening at the federal level with this draconian slash and burn cuts [approach] under the federal workforce by the Trump administration,” said Del. Ben Barnes, who leads the budget negotiations for House Democrats. “Marylanders are saying, ‘We’re going to go a different way, that we value our state workforce.’”

Republicans like Caroline County Del. Jeff Ghrist disagreed, citing years of raises and the most drastic financial hole in decades.

“I’ve voted for the last 10 budgets, which also included a tremendous number of salary increases, in particular over the last several years,” Ghrist said while voting against keeping the cost-of-living and other compensation raises. “We’re in very difficult financial times, and many of our folks back home aren’t getting increases in their salaries.”

Moore did make some adjustments to planned salary increases. An amendment he proposed to his own budget earlier this month eliminated merit increases and step increments in the next year for about 12,000 state employees who are primarily managers and executives, saving $37 million. Another 1% cost-of-living increase for those employees stayed, as well as the increases for the larger group of union-backed workers.

Those decisions came after a decade in which gross pay across Maryland agencies rose 30% higher than inflation, according to The Sun’s analysis.

Moore spokesman Carter Elliott IV, in a statement responding to The Sun’s questions for this story, noted the governor’s decision to cut merit increases and increments for governor’s office employees as well as his support of both widespread spending cuts and new government efficiency efforts this year. He also said the governor put his assets in a blind trust after entering office, “a clear example of his commitment to transparency and accountability to taxpayers.”

“In what has been an incredibly difficult budget season, Gov. Moore is cutting back on government spending, implementing programs to save the state money, and working with state legislature, local leaders, and all partners involved to ensure that we pass a budget that will give middle class families a break, grow our economy, and protect and invest in our people,” Elliott said.

‘Rebuilding state government’

The Sun’s analysis was based on data obtained through public records requests that show regular, overtime and other earnings for all state government workers in 2014, 2022 and 2024.

It does not show other perks sometimes received by public officials, like catered meals for lawmakers, the governor’s mansion in Annapolis or an assortment of other expenses. Edwards, for example, was also the most frequent visitor to the governor’s reserved suite during Orioles games at Camden Yards during his first season in office, The Sun previously reported. Before her appointment in the administration in 2023, Edwards served in top roles on Moore’s campaign and previously at an education-focused startup he ran.

Moore has made “rebuilding state government” a priority since he became governor, which followed eight years in which Hogan routinely clashed with union leaders asking for better pay and conditions for state workers.

The payroll data reflects those frustrations. Between O’Malley’s and Hogan’s final years in office, total payroll for jobs within the Human Services and Education departments rose at 6% lower than inflation. Under Moore, compensation rose 16% above inflation within Human Services and 19% above inflation in Education.

The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services rose at 4% above inflation under Hogan and 13% above inflation under Moore, though its staff have been the most vocal in pleading with the Democratic governor to improve what they say are still dangerously low staffing levels.

The Executive Department, meanwhile, rose 2% less than the rate of inflation under Hogan before seeing a bump under Moore.

New hires or positions created by Moore were among the reasons for the recent increase, The Sun found. The largest group of such positions for the current fiscal year, however, was paid not with the taxpayer-fueled general fund but with a $2.15 million private grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Moore announced the partnership with billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s organization last June. It funds an “innovation team” aimed at developing new ways to accomplish the governor’s priorities — mainly reducing child poverty.

At least four members of the eight-person team were hired by the end of 2024, with the chief innovation officer, Francesca Ioffreda, earning $161,000, according to the payroll data. Bloomberg is set to provide another $2.32 million for the team in the next fiscal year, according to state budget documents.

Government efficiency is the focus of a few other new positions under Moore, which he has said will ultimately save the state money. That includes the addition of Asma Mirza as the governor’s chief performance officer, who earned a $164,000 salary in 2024.

The innovation team was the primary reason for Moore’s original request to increase the Executive Department budget by $3.4 million, or 20%, in the current fiscal year that began last July.

Facing a much larger budget deficit this year, Moore proposed a $1.6 million increase, or 7%, for the next fiscal year that he and the legislature are finalizing now. His proposal sought $954,000 for increasing salary and benefits, as well as $506,000 for three new positions. Two of the new positions were for additional efficiency initiatives, though fiscal analysts within the nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services recommended filling those roles by reclassifying existing positions rather than adding new ones.

They also recommended against another ask from Moore to spend $480,000 on a contract that would help his office advance its interests while facing an increasingly hostile federal government. Moore’s office spent $240,000 on a similarly described contract already.

The Maryland General Assembly and its staff, meanwhile, are also in line for salary increases in the coming year after seeing their compensation collectively rise 39% above inflation in the last decade — far more than the 17% increase for the Executive Department during that time, The Sun found.

Lawmakers themselves have not seen the largest raises. As part-time legislators who work a marathon three-month session at the beginning of every year, their base salary increased from $44,000 to $54,000 from 2014 to 2024, which was 6% lower than inflation.

Pay for the top legislative leaders rose slightly faster — with Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones making a $71,000 salary in 2024, about 3% less than inflation would have taken them from their predecessors’ $56,000 salary in 2014, The Sun found.

Recruitment and retention

Maryland isn’t alone in boosting state salaries in recent years.

Brian Sigritz, the director of state fiscal studies for the National Association of State Budget Officers, pointed to his organization’s surveys showing 39 states adopted “across-the-board pay increases for at least some employee categories” in the current 2025 fiscal year.

Maryland’s 3% “across-the-board” raise was the median among those states, and it was one of 14 states that also passed merit raises, which were 2%, according to NASBO.

“We’ve seen states prioritize employee compensation over the past few years in an effort to recruit and retain workers in a time of rising wages and tighter labor markets,” Sigritz said.

Not all state employees have seen the same increases, though, and union leaders had urged Moore and lawmakers since late last year not to sacrifice their members’ raises to balance the budget.

Among the tens of thousands of state employees represented by American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, cost-of-living adjustments had risen only 28% while inflation had risen 40% since 2010, Maryland Chapter President Patrick Moran told lawmakers last month as they weighed cuts.

“The recent increases do not justify cutting our hardworking state employees’ modest COLA and merit increases for fiscal year 2026,” Moran said. “Our members are really struggling to make ends meet right now.”

Steve Earley contributed to this report. Have a news tip? Contact Sam Janesch at sjanesch@baltsun.com, 443-790-1734 and on X as @samjanesch.