By Steve Crane | Editor-in-chief
“This is another astonishing failure of basic government responsibility and unfortunately, will further support the administration’s eagerness to raise tolls in the near future. Before Gov. Moore even considers raising tolls on Marylanders, he should do the hard work of managing his administration and collecting the money it’s already owed. He needs to stop treating new taxes, higher fees and increased tolls as a substitute for governing.” - Sen. Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-Upper Shore), on news that the Maryland Transportation Authority has failed to collect $818.1 million in tolls and penalties.
A new family leave program launches to mixed reception, a new highway planning document reins in ambitions and a new audit says the state has failed to collect hundreds of millions in tolls. Welcome to Wednesday.
An audit of the Maryland Transportation Authority said the agency has failed to collect $818.1 million in tolls and penalties it is owed — an amount a state official called expected leakage, but Republican lawmakers blasted. Bryan P. Sears has that story.
Bryan is also reporting that state officials are scaling back expectations for the Consolidated Transportation Program, the six-year plan for projects in the state. Faced with falling revenues and steady inflation, state officials are telling counties that the CTP will focus on priority projects already in the pipeline, not new projects.
After years of arguing and waiting, the state officially kicked off the Family and Medical Leave Insurance program Tuesday, which will guarantee paid leave for workers in the state beginning in 2028, once reserves in the fund have built up. Advocates welcomed it as an important worker benefit, but businesses say it will hit them, and their employees, in the pocketbook at exactly the wrong time, as Danielle J. Brown reports.
Those stories, plus news of settlement of a lawsuit between AFSCME and the university system, are below, along with headlines from the week to help get you over this hump day. Enjoy!
A Maryland Transportation Authority toll plaza in 2020. (Photo courtesy Maryland Transportation Authority)
By Bryan P. Sears
The agency that oversees the state's toll roads and bridges has failed to collect more than $818 million in tolls and fees it was owed, according to a new audit.
The audit released Tuesday finds the Maryland Transportation Authority failed to collect the tolls and fees and did not take steps to have other states help collect from out-of-state motorists.
The audit found that nearly $669 million in tolls and fees went uncollected for a year or more. More than half that — $386.3 million — had gone uncollected for more than three years. The audit showed that a little more than a quarter of the lost total was in tolls, but the bulk of the money owed was in uncollected penalties. Virginia drivers were the biggest scofflaws, owing a total of $234.7 million.
State officials say they are aware of the issue and that improving collection is "something we've been focused on for a while," but the complexities of getting other states to enforce Maryland toll payments has slowed the process.
Maryland Labor Secretary Portia Wu. (File photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters.)
By Danielle J. Brown
State officials announced the launch Tuesday of the long-awaited family leave policy that will let Marylanders take up to 12 weeks of paid leave to nurture a newborn baby, take care of loved ones or manage their own significant medical challenges.
Starting Tuesday, employers in Maryland are expected to register with the state to declare how they plan to provide the new Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) benefit required by state law, either by joining the state plan or submitting plans to go with a private option instead. Businesses will start paying into the FAMLI fund quarterly in January, with the benefit available to workers starting in 2028.
The launch, which comes after several years of delays since the 2022 legislation that created the paid family leave program, was met with mixed responses Tuesday.
Some business leaders are asking if this is the right time to launch what they call “a payroll tax” on Maryland employees and business owners going through a challenging economic period. But supporters see it as a long-awaited benefit that will help families take care of their loved ones during important and serious medical challenges. The employer registration that started Tuesday is the “first step” to finally getting the program off the ground after several delays, they said.
State transportation officials said an updated draft of the six-year plan for road and transit projects will focus on core areas of safety, maintenance and economic development and will include no new projects. (File photo Maryland Matters)
By Bryan P. Sears
Maryland will spend marginally fewer dollars on roads and transit projects in the coming six years, when funds will be directed at existing projects as well as those in the pipeline prioritized for safety, maintenance and economic development.
A proposed $21.9 billion six-year transportation plan is $200 million less than the version of the plan released this time last year. The decrease in available funding — a drop of just under 1% — comes amid a growing backlog of maintenance projects and inflation that has increased the cost of some projects as much as 40%.
"It is essentially flat-funded," Transportation Secretary Katie Thomson said during a Monday briefing with reporters. "We're moving some of the dollars around where they're most needed for safety or state of good repair."
IN OTHER NEWS
Union, university system reach deal: A state employees' union reached an agreement Tuesday with the governor and state university system after the system agreed to pay negotiated raises that it had threatened to withhold, the governor’s office said.
Postal panic: The U.S. Postal Service rushed development of electronic tools to comply with a White House policy placing new restrictions on mail-in voting, and defied a court order to stop work on the system, says a whistleblower complaint published Tuesday..
House passes bill to keep government open: The House approved a short-term government funding bill Tuesday that would avoid a shutdown this fall once President Donald Trump signs it, keeping the government open until at least Dec. 11.
Site eyed for national Latino museum: The Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents has designated the existing, historic Arts and Industries Building as the future home of the National Museum of the American Latino on the National Mall.
MATTERS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Care providers at ‘financial breaking point’: After two years of erroneous Medicaid disenrollments, communication challenges and slow responses from the state, companies providing developmental disability services say they are near a financial breaking point.
Taking on Amazon: Maryland joined 21 other states and the FTC on Monday to sue the giant online retailer Amazon for allegedly using artificial bids to inflate costs for advertisers, bringing in tens of billions of dollars. Amazon denies the charges.
Holes in the food safety net: A summer of food recalls, including the cyclosporiasis outbreak that has sickened thousands, has raised fears of foodborne illness, and focused attention on the White House's cuts of funding and staff at several public health agencies.
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