Waste of the Day: Maryland Recklessly Increases Payroll

Topline: Maryland State Sen. James Rosapepe justified the new state budget’s sweeping tax and fee increases by claiming that “Maryland is under attack from Washington,” blaming a loss of federal contracts for the state’s $3.3 billion deficit.

Maryland started it by increasing their payroll beyond all rational estimate

Most lawmakers have not mentioned that the budget deficit is at least partially Maryland’s own creation. Records show that Maryland’s payroll increased by nearly $642 million last year, the largest one-year increase since OpenTheBooks began tracking the salaries in 2017.

Key facts: In 2023, the Maryland state payroll cost $4.4 billion. There were 67,362 employees, meaning the average worker earned $65,425.

The payroll was $5 billion in 2024 —  an increase of almost 15%, even though inflation that year was only 3%. New hires and pay raises meant there were 68,947 workers earning $73,182 on average.

There were 72 state employees who outearned the President of the United States’ $400,000 salary, and an additional 1,039 people outearned Gov. Wes Moore’s $194,000 salary. The highest-paid employee was Min Yu, a Health Department doctor who made $573,000.

The numbers do not include employees of state colleges, which tacked on another $3.8 billion to the payroll last year.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com.

Experts told Maryland legislature to cut payroll

Background: Earlier this year, fiscal analysts recommended the state cut $239 million of planned pay raises for 2026, but the legislature ignored them. Instead, Moore signed a spending package this May that balances the budget with over $2 billion in cuts to state programs and $1.6 billion of increases to taxes and fees. 

In the past decade, Maryland state agencies have increased their payroll 30% faster than inflation, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Summary: There is a clear cognitive dissonance when a state is raising taxes while some employees are still earning salaries of nearly $600,000.

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This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.