Maryland Institutes Hiring Freeze And Buyouts To Remedy $121 Million Gap

Hiring Freeze, Maryland, Wes Moore — LANDOVER, MARYLAND – JUNE 7: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore goes to greet guests during a campaign event … More 2024 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

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Governor Moore, who advocates for recruiting fired federal workers, now faces the challenge of retaining his state government employees due to Maryland’s budget shortfall.

In just a few days, beginning July 1, the state of Maryland will institute a state hiring freeze (of sorts) and offer voluntary employee buyouts to employees nearing retirement or otherwise eligible to accept the state government buyout offer.

Governor Moore announced the hiring freeze and funding predicament.

Moore announced Tuesday that the state will implement a hiring freeze for fiscal year 2026 (from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026) in response to the “historical fiscal challenge” that the current economy and budget present.

Governor Moore stated that his administration is “committed to engaging with our public sector unions as we work through these difficult decisions. We are moving with care and intentionality to minimize impact on current employees and be transparent throughout the process.”

A union representative for Maryland’s public service workers indicates that the union has remained in communication with the governor’s office and will continue to advocate for resources for union workers.

Some key tenants for the hiring freeze and buyout plan.

State government leaders express that the administration will act with transparency and intentionality so as to limit confusion, minimize disruptions and avoid public service delays and interruptions for taxpayers.

Basically, the administration intends to fix the budget shortfall by using a soft-hand approach with hiring, personnel and operational matters. The key tenants of the plan are as follows:

Offer voluntary buyouts (separation packages) to eligible employees and employees nearing retirement.
Leave vacant positions vacant for as long as possible.
Completely eliminate vacant positions wherever possible.
Stabilize state services, programs, workflows and processes by maintaining current staffing levels to the extent possible and reasonable (excluding some buyouts).
Continue to recruit and fill positions identified as high-priority.
Attempt to solve the funding issues without conducting layoffs. Layoffs have not currently been identified as part of plan.

Wes Moore’s chief of staff clarifies details about the hiring freeze.

Moore’s chief of staff, Fagan Harris, discussed the plan for moving forward to remedy the budget shortfall while simultaneously recruiting and hiring skilled new workers for priority roles. During the interview with WTOP News on Wednesday, Harris clarified a few key points about the administration’s plans.

Regarding it being an actual full-blown hiring freeze, Fagan Harris says:

I want to unpack that a little bit for your listeners, the hiring freeze does not mean that all hiring and state government stops. What it does mean is that we raise the bar of what qualifies as a priority hire, and that we slow our hiring down to accrue savings, so that the state is tightening its belt and being fiscally responsible, but also we have to continue to be strategic about hiring.

Regarding buyouts and collaboration with unions, Harris says:

We are working with the various unions across state government. We’re conferring with them to design the voluntary separation package, or the buyout, as you put it. That will roll out in the coming weeks. So we’re doing that in collaboration with the workforce. The unions will help promote those opportunities to the workforce for those who are, for example, nearing retirement and ready to step back from state service, those represent opportunities for the state to honor that service, but also save money. And so, those details are forthcoming, being actively negotiated with the union, and we’ll have more soon.

Regarding continuing to recruit and hire federal workers while dealing with a $121 million budget shortfall, Fagan Harris says:

As you all know, we’ve been on a really determined mission to recruit federal workers into the government; that will continue in these really high priority functions. We need really technical professionals across state government, for example, in finance or IT, to do important work for the state. So the goal of the hiring freeze is simply slow down the hiring, raise the bar to make sure that you’re only hiring the most important and critical functions, save money for the taxpayer, but continue to get the best personnel to do the work of the state.

The messaging from the Moore administration is that they intend to identify and remedy inefficiencies and eliminate vacant positions where possible so as to limit the negative impact to services and programs as well as current government employees and citizens.