The cost for those and dozens of other types of licenses or activities regulated by the state of Maryland are ticking up, according to a review by The Baltimore Sun of Maryland regulations and laws passed in the last two years.

Critics are calling the move an overstep that puts a burden on workers and families, while others say is necessary to keep up with rising costs to provide government services.

The changes are often modest: $9.50 more to renew a license to work as an electrician or architect every few years; about $1 more for a gallon of paint.

While some lawmakers are considering broader tax hikes in order to fill multibillion-dollar deficits, the increases so far have rarely targeted consumers directly, and are chiefly focused on a range of professional licenses.

But deficits and tax shifts continue to dominate conversations in Annapolis — and Republicans, wary of where those debates will go, have taken aim at Gov. Wes Moore and his Democratic allies over the fees.

House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, an Allegany County Republican, said he appreciates Moore’s self-imposed “high bar” for raising taxes.

“But you can also wind up with what we’ve seen of hundreds of millions of dollars of nickel-and-diming people,” Buckel said.

Buckel and his Republican colleagues in the Maryland State House this summer released a list of what they considered 338 new or increased taxes and fees since Moore took office in January 2023.

An analysis of the list by The Sun found about 10% of them are new, and just four of those could directly impact consumers.

The rest are increases of existing fees, though many are counted several times for either increases over multiple years or because of nuances in the law that identify multiple different fees for the same license or activity. Some were labeled as increases, but the details of the regulations or laws showed they were actually decreases, were never enacted or were never actually proposing specific fee increases, The Sun found.

Other fees, meanwhile, are entirely missing from the list, like the cannabis taxes and fees that came with the new legal industry last year.

“It doesn’t matter if it's 338 or 372 or 299. There’s just no way to get around the fact that it ultimately adds up to a lot of money and it's almost across the board,” Buckel said.

Kali Schumitz, whose work at the Maryland Center on Economic Policy involves advocating for progressive tax changes, said the list of fees represents “a very normal process” that involves issuing fees for people using specific services and then, when they haven’t gone up in a while, raising more alarm than they maybe otherwise would have.

“You can talk about fees in the general sense and make it sound like a big nefarious thing,” Schumitz said. “But it's a tool for funding public service, and not all fees are the same or have the same impact. I think you have to look at them on a case by case basis.”

Impact on consumers

The few newly created fees that could directly impact larger numbers of consumers are for transportation and paint.

The 2024 law about paint did not set a specific fee; it authorized the ramp-up of a program that could mean anywhere from a few cents to about a $2 increase, per can of paint, for a recycling initiative, according to legislative analysts and the organization that runs the program in other states.

A 75-cent fee on most ridesharing trips, from companies like Uber and Lyft, and a new $100 to $125 annual surcharge for electric vehicle registration are two of the others. The last is an optional $5 sticker for plug-in electric vehicle owners to use high-occupancy vehicle lanes regardless of the number of passengers — an incentive permitted under a 2023 law.

The rest of the direct-to-consumer items on the list are increases to existing fees — like the sales tax on electronic smoking devices jumping from 12% to 20% this year, or handgun permits increasing from $75 to $125 last year. The tobacco-related taxes, including bumping up the $3.75 tax on cigarette packs to $5, are aimed at funding the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan.

Vehicle registration costs also increased for the first time in two decades, a move aimed at staving off some of the $3.3 billion in transportation funding cuts that were announced earlier this year. The cuts affect everything from road and sidewalk maintenance to public transit services, and $1.3 billion in additional reductions were announced last week.

The raises depend on the type of vehicle and weight class. Annual costs for medium-sized passenger cars weighing 3,500 pounds, for example, were raised from $50.50 to $80.50 for the fiscal year that started July 1, and will increase to $85.50 next year. That does not include an increase in an additional registration surcharge for EMS services, which increased from $17 to $40.

Other increases through the Maryland Vehicle Administration were some of the only increases initiated by Moore’s administration; the rest started as proposals from legislators or semi-independent licensing boards.

Those included specialty license plate registration from $15 to $20, learners’ permits from $50 to $65, and the reinstatement of a revoked license from $45 to $90 (or $75 to $150 if it was revoked for a drug or alcohol violation).

Moore spokesman Carter Elliott IV said in a statement the governor has produced balanced budgets and made new investments without raising sales tax or personal and corporate income taxes. While not addressing the specific fee increases, he said the administration is continuing to “thoughtfully plan the long-term structural solutions,” including reviewing revenue and state expenses.

Fees to work

The vast majority of fee increases singled out by Republicans are for professions that require licenses to work in Maryland — and they can have little or significant impact depending on the profession.

Pamela Coleman, the director of the Baltimore Beauty and Barber School, said she’s concerned about the increases for cosmetologists and barbers. They ranged from $1 increases on $10 apprentice barber licenses to $19 increases on $150 fees related to salon inspections.

She said it’s confusing to see the hikes at the same time as officials are loosening some of the rules to obtain licenses, which she said will require fewer hours of instruction in some cases.

“It’s like, you’re increasing the price but you’re taking away half of the things they need to maintain the license,” Coleman said.

Meagan Forbes, whose work at the nonprofit law firm Institute for Justice includes research and litigation around state licensing laws, said there’s a recent trend of increasing fees in a way that can disproportionately impact less lucrative professions, like cosmetology.

“Of course, everything’s become more expensive nowadays, but really people should be looking at how to reduce these burdens because it’s so important to make these opportunities for work accessible for people and not to have barriers to entry for people who can't afford to overcome them,” Forbes said.

An Institute for Justice report on occupation licensing between 2017 and 2022 found Maryland was the ninth most-burdensome state when considering the number of lower-income occupations that require licenses, the fees involved, education requirements and more.

About 250 of the items on the Republicans’ latest list are for licenses, though less than half of them are increases on separate, individual licenses across 19 types of occupations.

Some are also for higher-paying or new career paths — like one that focuses on expanded duties for dental assistants.

Under a 2022 law, dental assistants in Maryland will be able to perform a few more procedures on patients, an “opportunity for professional growth” and, likely, higher compensation, said Dr. Charles Doring, a Rockville dentist who’s been in private practice for 37 years.

Nine of the new fees identified by Republicans are to provide or renew certificates for that work, though the regulations have not actually been finalized so the fees have not been set.

Doring said dentist offices that employ the assistants will likely pick up the cost for the new certificate as well as the educational courses needed to acquire it. The goal, he said, is to expedite care and improve patient experience.

“There's a certain excitement about it. They're just chomping at the bit to get the A-OK to really set up teaching institutions to do this,” Doring said.

From the “Change Maryland” advocacy organization he founded to his 2014 campaign and then two terms as governor, combatting state taxes and fees have been a hallmark of his brand and resonated with Maryland voters.

“This is his identity,” said Mileah Kromer, the director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Institute of Politics who wrote a book on Hogan’s rare electoral success as a Republican in heavily Democratic Maryland.

Now running for U.S. Senate at a time when voters are concerned about rising costs, Hogan hasn’t only evoked his history of cutting tolls and stifling new fees as governor. He’s railed against what he’s said are “338 new Maryland taxes and fees” enacted since he passed the torch to Democratic Gov. Wes Moore.

The fees, he’s said, are targeting workers and businesses, putting a burden on families so that “almost everything is going to cost more” — from vehicle registrations to “a fee for changing your address.”

But the list of fees — developed by Republicans in the Maryland General Assembly and picked up by Hogan as a campaign talking point — is not exactly as advertised.

An analysis of the list by The Baltimore Sun found about 10% of the fees are new, and just four of those could directly impact some consumers.

The rest are increases of existing fees, though many are counted several times for either increases over multiple years or because of nuances in the law that identify multiple different fees for the same license or activity. About one-third of the list represents fees on distinctly different licenses, permits or activities, The Sun’s analysis found.

Some were labeled as increases but the details of the regulations or laws showed they were actually decreases, were never enacted or were never actually proposing specific fee increases, The Sun found.

The “fee for changing your address,” for example, came from a proposed regulation about real estate broker business licenses, but it was eliminated from the final regulation. A separate but related fee — $5 for a brokerage firm to change the business address on its license — was proposed and enacted.

Hogan’s campaign did not answer specific questions about how the candidate has discussed the list during his campaign against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks.

His spokesman, Mike Ricci, said in a statement that the list “is an illustration of the number one problem Gov. Hogan hears about on the campaign trail (which) is the burden of rising prices, taxes, and fees.”

“If anything, with legislators already stating that more tax hikes and more fees will be passed in 2025, the report does not go far enough in detailing the additional burdens Marylanders will face in the coming years,” he said.

Kromer said she’s not surprised Hogan is leaning into that theme after his “undeniably efficient message” that propelled him to the governor’s mansion 10 years ago. In that campaign, Hogan targeted a stormwater management fee, dubbing it the “rain tax” and used it to spread a broader anti-tax sentiment after eight years of Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley.

“Republicans have been complaining about taxes and fees forever. It’s a perennial issue,” Kromer said. “But Hogan was pretty politically savvy and picked the one fee … and branded it with a clever moniker, which was really memorable. It’s amazing to me the power of that rain tax branding.”

The attempt to revive that strategy could be effective again now, when cost-of-living issues are a particularly salient topic, said Kromer, who conducts regular statewide polling in Maryland.

While year-over-year inflation has declined since it spiked to its highest modern-day level in June 2022, it remains a top concern for voters, according to recent polls.

In interviews, billboards and ads, Hogan has emphasized the increasing costs of everyday goods and said he will work in the Senate to curb government spending and tax hikes — and he’s used the list of Maryland fee increases to make his case.

A 10-second video he posted on Facebook laments the “new taxes and fees” while the list skims quickly in the background. A public letter he sent to Alsobrooks in July calls on her to oppose the fees — Alsobrooks, as the Prince George’s County executive, did not have a role in creating the state-level fees — and lists car registration, paint, barbers, salons, Uber rides and the non-existent “fee for changing your address” among a list of “regressive taxes and fees.”

The new 75-cent fee on most ridesharing trips and higher vehicle registration costs were passed by Maryland lawmakers this year to partially avoid billions of planned transportation cuts, including public transit and maintenance on roads and sidewalks.

The paint fee, meanwhile, was passed this year and could cost consumers anywhere from a few cents to about $2, per can of paint, for a recycling initiative that will eventually ramp up, according to legislative analysts and the organization that runs the program in other states.

The average increase on a variety of licenses on barbers and cosmetologists: $6.25, according to The Sun’s review of the regulations.

Kromer said Hogan has been consistent with his approach, one that focuses on a few fees and develops a larger feeling that can miss some of the nuances in terms of the actual impacts of each one.

The question for him now — facing more voters in a presidential year and a Maryland electorate that does not want to see Republicans return to power in Washington, D.C. — is whether that strategy can do what it did for him before.

“He can be as effective as he’s always been on economic messaging,” Kromer said, “(but it) doesn’t change the fact that the former president, Donald Trump, and the Republican control of the Senate are things that don’t poll very well in Maryland.”

The new “direct file” system launched as a pilot program earlier this year and Maryland is one of the first states that will make it available during its permanent expansion.

About 700,000 filers in Maryland are expected to be able to use the service, though the final eligibility requirements are not settled, Comptroller Brooke Lierman said.

Lierman called it a “game-changer” when it costs, on average, $110 and 10 hours of time for individuals to file their annual returns.

“It’s unacceptable that Marylanders should have to pay any portion whatsoever of their refund or paycheck to fulfill a mandatory requirement like filing tax returns,” Lierman said in Annapolis on Wednesday alongside a slate of Maryland Democratic officials and U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo.

The program may expand in the future but will be initially open to those who have “relatively simple” returns, the officials said.

According to the comptroller’s office, that will likely mean full-time Maryland residents whose income comes primarily from W-2 employment, who use the standard deduction and who claim common credits and subtractions.

Adeyemo said the goal is “to make sure that every middle-class American and working-class American are able to use direct file to file their taxes for free.”

“By being able to use direct file, it means that you’re going to get your tax refund far faster,” Adeyemo said.

For nonprofit leaders like Robin McKinney who help lower-income workers with their taxes, it could mean a load off their backs and the ability to help more people who seek their services.

The CASH Campaign of Maryland, which McKinney co-founded and serves as CEO, offers tax assistance for thousands of people who make up to $65,000, though most are individuals who earn less than $20,000.

“Every year we are in this supply-and-demand crunch, and so what direct file allows us to do is to be able to have a triage for the people that don’t really need us, [but] they just can’t afford to pay,” McKinney said in an interview after attending the announcement Wednesday. “Because that’s a big chunk of who we see, are people that just can’t afford it, but they could do it on their own.”

The program launched in 12 states this year and saved 140,000 taxpayers about $5.6 million in filing costs, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

It was created through the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which provided $80 billion more for the IRS to improve customer service, technology and auditing practices for tax evaders.

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, stressed the need to continue funding the free filing program, its expansion and the rest of the IRS reforms. He pointed to House Republicans’ attempts to end the program and tax filing companies’ lobbying efforts against a new government-run alternative.

“There is a risk directly targeted against the direct file system,” said Van Hollen, who is on the Appropriations Committee and chairs its Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

“This is an ongoing battle to protect taxpayers,” he said.

Hogan maintains the kind of broad popularity that he enjoyed during his two terms as governor, and while a fifth of Democrats say they will vote for him, he’d need to pull in a larger share of them in a state packed with Democrats to win in November, according to poll director Patrick Gonzales.

“For a Republican to win statewide in Maryland it always comes down to basic mathematics,” Gonzales wrote in a statement with the results of his statewide poll. “Can Hogan snatch away 30% of the Democratic vote to secure victory on November 5th?”

The poll of 820 likely voters was conducted Aug. 24 through Aug. 30 by the Annapolis-based Gonzales Research & Media Services. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

It surveyed voters across Maryland just after the Democratic National Convention, where Alsobrooks had a primetime speaking slot as a close ally of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

It follows another recent poll of voters mostly aged 50 or more by Impact Research and Fabrizio Ward that found the race to be a dead heat in that age group, which is more likely to vote, with similar signs that Hogan would need to sustain his performance as Alsobrooks becomes more known to voters through ads over the final two months of the race.

According to the Gonzales poll, 40% of voters view the Democratic Prince George’s County executive favorably while 34% do not recognize her name.

A decade after Hogan first became governor, nearly everyone has an opinion of him. Half of all voters view him favorably while 19% view him unfavorably and 29% are neutral. His appeal is similar among Democrats, Republicans and independents, or when broken down by race and gender, according to the poll.

In the head-to-head matchup, Alsobrooks leads 46% to 41% with 11% undecided, the poll found.

About 82% of Republicans said they would back Hogan, which is 2 percentage points higher than former Republican President Donald Trump among Maryland Republicans surveyed in the same poll for the presidential race.

Hogan also leads among independent voters, 41% to 31%. His 21% support from Democrats is “not bad,” though Hogan would need to perform about 10 percentage points higher among Democrats to win, Gonzales said.

Hogan is aiming to become the first Maryland Republican elected to the U.S. Senate since 1980, and the outcome of the race could determine which party holds the majority in the narrowly divided Senate.

The winner will succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin.

The cuts — totaling $1.3 billion from the roughly $20 billion, six-year transportation plan — would defer some maintenance projects like sidewalk repairs and traffic improvements, slow down the transition to fully electric state-run buses and pause the development stage of other initiatives.

They would not directly impact major projects like planning the Red Line light rail in Baltimore, completing the Purple Line route outside Washington, D.C., rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge or improving the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

But the changes, released in a draft Tuesday, could still shift before being finalized in early 2025.

They’re also a sign of rising pressure on the state’s outdated transportation funding system. Lawmakers are considering a variety of ways to boost revenue and remake the transportation funding system while at the same time facing multibillion-dollar deficits in other aspects of Maryland’s finances.

“We’re just going to have to work through it,” said Del. Courtney Watson, a Howard County Democrat who chairs a House Appropriations subcommittee focused on transportation. “It’s going to take a lot of effort, a lot of blood, sweat and tears to come to a conclusion for this.”

The latest proposed cuts come a year after Maryland Department of Transportation officials first trimmed the same six-year plan by $3.3 billion, a move that led to pausing projects where construction had not started and making 8% across-the-board cuts to transportation agencies’ operating budgets.

Some of the initial cuts were later restored when Moore tapped $150 million from the state’s “rainy day” fund and the Maryland General Assembly approved fee increases for vehicle registration and other rate hikes to raise up to $328 million more per year.

Those actions were not enough to cover the shortfall, which has increased partly because operating costs and spending continue to outpace incoming revenue, Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld told reporters ahead of the announcement Tuesday.

“That has been a historical issue, a structural issue that we’ve had in the department for decades,” Wiedefeld said. “It was obviously exacerbated with some of the growth of inflation and things of that sort, and also the construction costs and the supply-side issues.”

The list of projects deferred as part of the new round of cuts includes bus and train station maintenance — everything from lighting and cell service at metro stations to replacing old elevators and escalators — and reducing the scope of bridge and road repairs along the Interstate 695 Baltimore Beltway.

Not all the projects were outlined in the document released Tuesday. For instance, routine road resurfacing and rehabilitation would be deferred to the tune of $411 million, and bridge replacement and rehabilitation to $386 million.

Wiedefeld said thousands of those kinds of projects in the “system preservation program” — which, at $7.4 billion, accounts for the largest portion of MDOT’s plans — were being evaluated to determine which ones are at a “logical point” to defer until more money is available.

The final version of what’s known as the Consolidated Transportation Program from last year called reduced funding for system preservation “a last resort.”

Del. Marc Korman, a Montgomery County Democrat who focuses on transportation policy in the House, said “not advancing any capital project — whichever one you like — to the next stage is extremely troubling.”

“How are you going to do any of the big projects people dream about like the Red Line or the American Legion Bridge if you cannot move anything already further along in the pipeline to the next phase?” he said.

Sen. Cory McCray, a Baltimore Democrat who has also worked extensively on transportation funding issues, said he was still reviewing the details of the changes, which “require careful consideration to ensure that no single region, particularly Baltimore, bears a disproportionate burden.”

“Baltimore, which has historically faced significant challenges in public transportation, must not be sidelined during this process,” McCray said.

Another targeted area is the “development and evaluation program,” which includes projects for planning studies, preparation for environmental studies and preliminary design. Priority will go toward projects where any planning efforts would otherwise be lost if they’re deferred, Wiedefeld said.

The slower transition to electric buses, meanwhile, is both to save money on new bus purchases and because of the unavailability of electric bus manufacturing, the secretary said. A 2021 state law has required the Maryland Transit Administration to purchase only zero-emission buses since 2022, but the process also was delayed by last year’s budget cuts.

Wiedefeld said each electric bus costs roughly $1.4 million, about twice the amount of a diesel bus, though there are plans to purchase more this fall.

Another fund that elicited significant concerns from lawmakers earlier this year was not scheduled to be cut.

Many local leaders, including several in Baltimore, had pushed back against proposed cuts to local governments’ share of highway user revenues. Mayor Brandon Scott, for one, said the resurfacing of several major city thoroughfares would be in jeopardy and lobbied in Annapolis to restore the money.

Wiedefeld said lawmakers’ decision to fully fund that program and another known as the Local Operating Transit Systems was the reason for about $400 million of the new reductions elsewhere.

Among the rest of the $1.3 billion in cuts, about $350 million is because of declining or slower-growing revenues than expected — primarily the gas tax — and about $300 million is due to growing operating costs. Also contributing to the need for cuts was the lower-than-anticipated matching revenue for projects that qualify for federal assistance, Wiedefeld said.

Meanwhile, federal funding will remain critical to the fate of major projects that are not already part of the six-year plan but are expected to be costly.

The Red Line, for example, is expected to cost up to $7.2 billion. When Moore picked light rail as the mode over the less costly rapid bus option in June, he offered few details on how the state would pick up the tab, which Wiedefeld said at the time could be about 50% from each the state and the federal government. The state is planning on applying for those funds next year.

“If those federal dollars do not come through, then we would have to assess, ‘Do we have enough state dollars to deliver them?’” Wiedefeld said, when asked about projects including the Red Line.

The transportation department will now travel across the state to solicit feedback on the proposal before releasing a final plan at the end of the year. Public meetings in Baltimore City and Baltimore County are scheduled for Oct. 21.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are expected to release a final report report on recommendations to raise new transportation revenue, ahead of the annual 90-day session in Annapolis starting in January.

Korman and his House Democratic colleagues have led the charge on raising new transportation revenue more quickly. But he did not say Tuesday when asked about specific proposals that could be on the table. Some that were offered but not advanced earlier this year included increasing tolls and implementing a 50-cent “retail delivery” fee on transactions for goods that are delivered in the state, like purchases through Amazon.

“Had the General Assembly not taken actions to stabilize the transportation budget last year, this would have been even worse,” Korman said. “But this draft budget raises major red flags about the state’s ability to deliver the transportation infrastructure Marylanders want and expect.”

Harris’ job performance as vice president is viewed favorably by 55% of likely Maryland voters, up from 46% in February.

And in a state where she is widely expected to trounce former Republican President Donald Trump this fall, 56% said they would vote for her while 35% said they would vote for Trump and 9% are undecided, according to the statewide poll conducted by the Annapolis-based Gonzales Research & Media Services.

The poll of 820 likely voters was conducted Aug. 24 through Aug. 30, just after the Democratic National Convention where the party showcased new enthusiasm around Harris after President Joe Biden ended his campaign for a second term and endorsed her.

Moore, a rising star in the party who spoke in a coveted prime-time slot at the convention, has the approval of 64% of Maryland voters for the work he’s doing as governor, which was 6 percentage points higher than a similar poll in February. That includes 35% of Republicans along with 82% of Democrats and 52% of unaffiliated voters who approve of his job performance, according to the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Though the poll describes most of Moore’s support from Republicans as “soft approval” — where 28% “somewhat” approve and 7% “strongly” approve — the poll director, Patrick Gonzales, noted it’s a strong position for a Democrat.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer was the last Maryland Democratic governor to see similar overall approval levels, during his first term between 1987-1991, Gonzales said.

The two other Democrats since then, Govs. Parris Glendening and Martin O’Malley, never cracked 60% approval, Gonzales said.

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, on the other hand, sustained high marks for almost his entire two terms — a rarity in Democrat-heavy Maryland. Gonzales’ polls found Hogan had 67% approval one year into his first term and 77% approval when he left office in 2023.

Moore, who will be halfway through his first four-year term in January, had a similar 65% job approval rating in a July poll from Morning Consult, which found him to be the country’s third most popular governor.

The latest Gonzales poll was conducted mostly before a New York Times story Thursday that found Moore had incorrectly written on a 2006 application that he was awarded the Bronze Star for his military service. Moore said it was “an honest mistake” that he should have corrected at the time.

Gonzales said that while the poll results don’t explain specific reasons for Moore’s increased popularity, he suspects it’s partially due to Moore’s appearance at the DNC and his high-profile work around the collapse and rebuilding efforts of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

2024 election

In the presidential race, both major party candidates are seeing wide support from members of their own parties — with 84% of Democrats saying they’ll vote for Harris and 80% of Republicans for Trump.

Independents — who make up a large chunk of Maryland voters — said they planned to vote for Harris, but only by a margin of 2 percentage points. That result combined with the Democratic ticket’s overall 21-percentage-point advantage being the same as it was in February with Biden at the top of the ticket should serve as “cautionary signs” for Democrats, Gonzales said.

Trump’s approval rating is also higher than it was earlier this year, with 42% saying they approve and 57% saying they disapprove of the job he did as president — an improvement from 38% approve and 61% disapprove in February.

Most of Harris’ increase in popularity is coming from “within her party base,” Gonzales said.

Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse Trump will have no effect on most voters, according to the poll.

That’s because the vast majority of voters who said they were now more likely to vote for Trump because of Kennedy’s endorsement already were planning on voting for him anyway, Gonzales said.

When asked if Kennedy’s decision would make them more or less likely to vote for Trump, voters were split about 13% each way, though 74% said it would have no effect. Kennedy will remain on the Maryland ballot and still could pull in some votes himself, Gonzales said.

Transportation funding and juvenile justice reform

The poll asked voters about two major policy issues in front of Moore and the Maryland General Assembly.

After lawmakers passed stricter juvenile justice laws earlier this year, 58% of voters said they favored strict laws targeting juvenile offenders while 34% said they preferred more lenient laws.

And on a major budget issue, 95% said it’s important to invest in transportation infrastructure, though it did not ask how those funds should be raised. The state is facing billions of dollars worth of shortfalls in its six-year transportation plan, and lawmakers are considering new funding options to fill the gaps.

University President Darryll Pines wrote in a letter Sunday that only university-sponsored events would be permitted on Oct. 7 “out of an abundance of caution.”

“Numerous calls have been made to cancel and restrict the events that take place that day, and I fully understand that this day opens emotional wounds and evokes deeply rooted pain,” Pines wrote. “The language has been charged and the rhetoric intense.”

The university faced pressure from Jewish groups and individuals to specifically ban a planned event hosted by the University of Maryland Students for Justice in Palestine.

That group, in a statement Monday, said it would “not back down” and still aims to recognize the anniversary. It did not say whether that would include plans for an event Oct. 7 despite the university’s latest policy.

“Let it be clear: our request to reserve McKeldin Mall violated no policies and was fully within our rights as a recognized student organization at UMD,” the Students for Justice in Palestine statement read. “The university administration has capitulated to the racist campaign against our organization — a pressure campaign which employed charged and threatening language — as an excuse to manufacture vague safety concerns and a premise for canceling our peaceful event.”

The university’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, which planned to co-host the Oct. 7 vigil, said in a statement that its members were also “angry” and had been looking forward to the event that was “intended to create a space for all to mourn all losses without impediment or questioning.”

The Jewish Student Union, meanwhile, said it was “reassured” by the decision, noting it was also “not an ideal situation.”

“We are relieved that SJP will no longer be able to appropriate the suffering of our family and friends to fit their false and dangerous narrative,” the Jewish group wrote.

Online petitions joined the student groups’ efforts to stop the vigil, including one from End Jew Hatred that called on the banning of “antisemitic protests on Oct. 7” more broadly but singled out the University of Maryland event. It had more than 22,500 signatures as of Tuesday night.

Last year’s attack by Hamas in Israel — and Israel’s response that has led to thousands of Palestinian deaths — sparked massive and sometimes contentious debates and protests on campuses in Maryland and across the country.

The University of Maryland has outlined several policies on campus demonstrations and free speech rights under the First Amendment.

In an Aug. 26 letter, Pines and the university’s chief legal officer wrote the institution “cannot discriminate on the basis of content or viewpoint” and that activities in spaces like McKeldin Mall may include messages that don’t align with the university’s values.

But free speech is also not “boundless,” they wrote. University of Maryland policy does not allow individuals to “obstruct, disrupt, interrupt or attempt to force the cancellation of any program, event, lecture, or seminar hosted by the university or those authorized to use our spaces.”

In his latest message Sunday, Pines said safety is the top priority, and he requested a safety assessment for Oct. 7. Campus police responded that “there is no immediate or active threat” but that an assessment is a “prudent and preventive measure,” Pines wrote.

The student groups that had planned the vigil for Palestinian victims described the planned event as “peaceful.” Jewish Voice for Peace said that calling it a safety threat “is clearly rooted in racism against the majority Arab, Black and brown students who comprise SJP and perpetuates the lie that the organization is anti-Jewish.”

Pines wrote that, “out of an abundance of caution, we concluded to host only university-sponsored events that promote reflection on this day.”

A university spokeswoman said in an email that all reservations of campus space on Oct. 7 were in the process of being reassigned. She did not respond to a question about whether there would be penalties for students or groups who attempt to hold any events despite the policy.

A few of Maryland’s highest-profile politicians, on opposite sides of the aisle, applauded the university’s decision.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin said the anniversary of the attack “should be a solemn day of reflection and remembrance” and that the university should “reject potential events on that day that could cause students to feel threatened on campus.”

Cardin, who is Jewish, chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has been a staunch defender of Israel. Some graduates of the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Social Work protested during Cardin’s graduation speech in May, turning their backs to him and holding signs and waving Palestine flags.

“I personally think it is horrific that anyone would support the murderous actions of Hamas on October 7, 2023,” Cardin said in a statement Monday. “It is my great wish that the remaining hostages will be released immediately and a cease fire will take hold that will allow security and peace for both the Israelis and Palestinians and meaningful dialogue to return to the Middle East and our college campuses here at home.”

Both candidates running to succeed Cardin this year, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and Democratic Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, also said in statements that they thought the University of Maryland’s decision was correct.

Hogan said university officials were “right to reverse” what he called “a major anti-Israel protest on Oct. 7.”

“More must be done to ensure Jewish students can feel safe on their own campuses,” Hogan said.

Alsobrooks said, as someone with a 19-year-old daughter, it’s important for students “to feel safe and to actually be safe.”

“Oct. 7 is a solemn day. To have it as a day of remembrance, I think, is important,” Alsobrooks said. “I know, too, that the right to protest is foundational to our nation and that right must be protected. But I am unequivocal that any such protest must not call for violence or target any groups of people. Full stop.”

Students for Justice in Palestine said Tuesday that they considered both Hogan’s and Alsobrooks’s statements to be disrespectful of “the constitutional freedom of speech rights they performatively champion.”

Moore’s acknowledgment of what he called “an honest mistake” came moments after The New York Times reported on the error in his application, which the newspaper received through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Moore made his pitch for the prestigious fellowship while still serving in the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, claiming in the application that he was awarded the Bronze Star for his work that included strategizing and helping to “shape the face of the war,” according to the application published by the Times.

He mentioned the award based on instructions from a superior officer who had recommended him for the medal and believed it received the proper confirmations for approval, Moore said in a statement. Moore said he trusted the officer, and “that is why it was part of the application, plain and simple.”

While he said he wished he had corrected the error, the Democrat also referred to the unearthing of the document as an “attack” on his service record.

“I’ve been open and honest about my military service for my entire career, and I am deeply proud of it,” Moore said in the statement. “But it seems I must, once again, set the record straight, as people hunt for new ways to undermine my service to our country in uniform. … I sincerely wish I had gone back to correct the note on my application. It was an honest mistake, and I regret not making that correction. But do not think for a moment that this attack on my record holds any bearing on how I feel about my service, my soldiers, or our country.”

Moore’s forceful pushback on the idea that he misrepresented his military service echoed some of his response to similar claims during his 2022 campaign in the Democratic primary.

At that time, Moore fended off what he called “desperate attacks” during the Democratic primary when videos came to light that showed he failed to correct television interviewers on two occasions when they said he was awarded the Bronze Star. Political operatives also claimed Moore had embellished his childhood ties to Baltimore, indicating he was born and raised in the city when he actually spent most of his childhood in the Washington, D.C., suburbs and in the Bronx in New York before returning to the Baltimore area as a teenager.

Since becoming governor, Moore has frequently evoked his military background, which started at the Valley Forge Military Academy as a teenager and continued through his nearly yearlong deployment in Afghanistan. He introduced and signed legislation expanding benefits for retired service members during his first legislative session in 2023, and his slogan, “Leave no one behind,” he’s said comes from the lessons he learned while serving.

He’s also referred to it prominently on the campaign trail in recent weeks, while speaking on a “Veterans for Harris” call and defending Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz from attacks on his military service.

In his statement Thursday, Moore referenced those attacks on Walz, saying, “Over the last few weeks, our country has grown used to seeing what it looks like when a veteran’s integrity is attacked for political gain.”

“But those who seek to cast doubt on our records misunderstand something fundamental about true patriots, who have put on the flag of our country and put everything on the line to be called Americans: We don’t get shaken. We put our heads down, and we do the work. And that is what I will continue to do.”

Maryland election officials on Tuesday notified both Kennedy’s campaign and the Green Party — whose presidential candidate, Jill Stein, was also seeking to gain ballot access in Maryland — that each met the 10,000-signature requirement this month.

Both Kennedy and Stein are now set to join Trump, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Libertarian Chase Oliver as presidential nominees on the Maryland ballot.

Election officials must certify and publicize the ballot by Sept. 3 in order to print, audit and begin sending out mail-in ballots later in September.

Kennedy had been seeking ballot access in every state in an attempt to become the first successful independent presidential candidate in modern history. Public polls, however, indicated his chances were slim and he ultimately dropped out Friday. He said he would remain on the ballot in most states but seek to remove himself from key battlegrounds, where his presence could determine the winner between Trump and Harris, though public polls also did not provide a clear indication he would have a significant impact for either.

Still, Kennedy encouraged voters in solidly red or blue states to vote for him anyway. That includes Maryland, which is widely expected to back Harris after supporting Democratic President Joe Biden over Trump by a more than 2-1 margin in 2020.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of people vote for Mr. Kennedy. I’m going to put it in the thousands,” said Josh Mazer, an Annapolis resident who served as Kennedy’s Maryland state director.

Kennedy, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of U.S. Sen. and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, has deep family ties to Maryland. His sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend served as lieutenant governor and was the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 2002.

His campaign had been active in Maryland — including launching his nationwide ballot access campaign with a rally outside Annapolis last year.

Earlier this month, his team turned in just over 27,000 signatures from registered Maryland voters. Though the campaign vowed all of its signatures were valid, election officials verified 15,268 and rejected 11,767 as invalid, according to a State Board of Elections letter sent to the campaign Tuesday morning.

Mazer said more than 200 volunteers gathered the signatures and that there would be a “pure volunteer effort moving forward” with “some very dedicated people” who don’t want to vote for Trump or Harris.

“People out there are very discontent,” Mazer said, adding that he wouldn’t support Trump while echoing Kennedy’s statements about what he sees as the Democratic Party’s “censorship” of alternative viewpoints along with its policies around COVID-19 and foreign wars.

The Green Party, which has regularly appeared on Maryland presidential ballots but needed to regain recognition as an official party, turned in about 17,800 signatures earlier this month. Of those, 10,134 were accepted — just above the requirement, according to a separate letter from the elections board to the party.

“This is an expression of the intense desire for candidates and elected officials who will stand for our values — peace, social and environmental justice, and democracy,” Maryland Green Party Chair Brian Bittner said in a statement

As the Green Party nominee in 2012 and 2016, Stein won 0.6% and 1.3% of the vote, respectively, in Maryland. The party’s nominee in 2020 won 0.5% of the vote.

In addition to nominating Stein again this year, the party also has nominees in the 8th Congressional District, a seat now held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin since 2017; the 14th District for Baltimore City Council, now held by Democratic Councilwoman Odette Ramos; and an Anne Arundel County-based Circuit Court judicial race, according to the party.

Kennedy’s turn toward Trump comes less than a year after he originally ran for president as a Democrat, in the primary race then dominated by Biden.

Townsend had been among several members of the Kennedy family who opposed his campaign and his message, such as his longtime opposition to vaccines.

She joined four other family members in a statement calling his endorsement of Trump “a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.”

The debate is scheduled for Oct. 10 at the Maryland Public Television station studios in Owings Mills, according to a June invitation and subsequent emails obtained by The Baltimore Sun earlier this month.

It will be moderated by longtime NBC News political analyst Chuck Todd and be distributed on NBC-affiliated stations WBAL and WRC, along with Telemundo’s WZDC — though none of the media partners have announced the plan and representatives for MPT and NBC News did not return requests for comment Tuesday.

Alsobrooks, a two-term Prince George’s County executive, accepted that debate offer last month but has refused to commit to two others that Hogan agreed to soon after winning his primary in May.

Her campaign also rescheduled her preferred debate from the originally proposed Oct. 23 to Oct. 10, the same day as another debate planned by The Baltimore Sun, FOX45, WJLA and the University of Baltimore.

The Maryland Public Television option Oct. 10 would be taped in the afternoon and aired in the evening, and The Sun/FOX45 option would be broadcast live in the evening.

Alsobrooks’ campaign has said she cannot debate that night because of a scheduling conflict. Her team also wanted to agree on the Maryland Public Television debate before considering other options. Alsobrooks spokesman Connor Lounsbury said Tuesday the campaign had not yet heard from Hogan’s team about accepting the MPT and NBC News debate.

Hogan spokesman Mike Ricci said in a statement that Hogan is still “fully committed” to the other invitations he initially accepted in May and he “continue(s) to await the Alsobrooks campaign’s response to those invitations.”

“Governor Hogan looks forward to debating County Executive Alsobrooks this fall on the issues that matter most to Marylanders,” Ricci said.

The matchup to replace retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin is Maryland’s most competitive race of its kind in decades, with Hogan seeking to become the first Maryland Republican elected to the U.S. Senate since 1980.

Mail-in ballots will start being sent to voters who request them at the end of September. One week of early voting will begin Oct. 24, and Election Day is Nov. 5.