Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. and Democratic leaders in the General Assembly have agreed to partially restore local road and bridge funding that was cut during the Great Recession.

Before the recession, counties, municipalities and the City of Baltimore received 30% of the “highway user revenues,” a fund that draws from taxes on gas, vehicle titles, registration fees, car rentals, and the state corporate income tax. The rest went to the State Highway Administration.

The split was altered to 90-10 after state revenues plummeted due to the economic downturn. Restoring the old formula has long been a priority for local leaders, the Maryland Municipal League, the Maryland Association of Counties.

Under the compromise, the localities’ share of the fund will gradually increase, reaching an 80-20 split in fiscal year 2027. In a press release, the Hogan administration said the agreement will result in a $663 million increase in local road and bridge repair funding.

“These grants will provide our counties and municipalities with vital resources to address critical needs and advance more priority projects in every jurisdiction,” Hogan (R) said in a statement. “…I want to thank our partners in the General Assembly for working with us to get this done.”

Legislation to restore the old formula was sponsored by Del. Carl Anderton Jr. (R-Lower Shore) and it attracted backing from an unusual array of conservative, centrist and progressive leaders, including many local officials who said their ability to repair local roads has been decimated by the cuts.

“This is a bill that affects every person in the state of Maryland because we all travel residential streets,” he said. “This is about having safe, clean roads.”

By Bruce DePuyt

A bipartisan coalition of local officials from every region of the state urged a House committee on Thursday to reverse steep recession-era cuts in road repair aid to the counties.

At a hearing before the House Environment and Transportation Committee, officials from rural and suburban counties and the City of Baltimore testified that a 2009 change in a key formula has severely limited their ability to keep roads and bridges in good repair.

The cuts were approved in reaction to a steep drop in revenues brought about by the Great Recession.

Laura Price, a member of the Talbot County Council and president of the Maryland Association of Counties, said localities are on a “starvation diet” as a result of the lost revenues.

Aid to Talbot dropped from more than $3 million to $160,000, she said. Despite a “slight increase in 2018, we’re still only receiving 20% of what we did before the cuts.”

“While I may not have as many zeros at the end of my budget as some of the larger counties, it does have the same impact,” Price (R) told lawmakers.

For 40 years leading up the recession, localities received 30% of highway-user revenues, a fund that draws from taxes on gas, vehicle titles, registration fees, car rentals, and the state corporate income tax.

St. Mary’s County Commission President Randy Guy (R) said that at the rate his county is repairing its roads, it will take 80 years to catch up. The cuts approved in 2009 caused St. Mary’s share to shrink from $6.6 million in FY 2009 to $612,000 in FY 2022.

“Our residents deserve better,” he said. “Our roads are actually in a disaster status.”

Local leaders want the General Assembly to approve House Bill 1187 and Senate Bill 726, measures that have attracted long list of supporters from both parties.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) and Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner (D) testified in support of the House bill on Thursday. Howard County Executive Calvin S. Ball (D) and Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman (D) testified in support of the Senate version of the bill on Wednesday.

If approved, the measures would boost local road repair funds by $431 million in Fiscal Year 2025, $436 million in FY 2026, and $442 million in FY 2027. The state’s share of “highway-user revenues” would drop from 90.4% to 70.0%. Maryland’s counties and municipalities and Baltimore would see their collective share increase from 9.6% to 30%.

In a rare appearance by a member of Republican Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.’s cabinet before a legislative committee, Transportation Secretary Jim Ports urged the committee to support rival road maintenance bills, House Bill 410 and Senate Bill 400.

Those measures would funnel an additional $83 million to local governments in FY 2025 and slightly more in the following years.

Ports warned that any increase above the amounts supported by the Hogan administration “would have a significant impact” on future projects. “We would have to remove over $1 billion of capital funding currently programmed in the (consolidated transportation program),” he said.

The House version of the bill offering more robust road maintenance funding to the counties is sponsored by Del. Carl Anderton Jr. (R-Lower Shore). It has attracted support from an unusual array of conservative, moderate and progressive lawmakers.

Anderton recalled that when he served as mayor of Delmar in Wicomico County, officials had to “scrape, borrow and plead and use coupons” to repair a damaged road.

His proposal is supported by the Maryland Association of Counties (MACO) and the Maryland Municipal League.

Local officials believe the coming infusion of federal infrastructure money makes now the ideal time for the legislature to act. “All this is doing is putting back the slices of the pie where they were back before 2009,” said MACO Executive Director Michael Sanderson.

Added Angelica Bailey, head of governmental relations at the Municipal League: “It’s an election year. We have a state surplus. We’ve got federal infrastructure money coming. This is the right thing to do. Now is the time to do it.”

by Bruce DePuyt

With new revenue estimates showing the state’s stockpile of cash growing to record levels while fuel prices keep soaring, Maryland’s top political leaders announced Thursday afternoon that they will work together to suspend the state’s gas tax for 30 days.

Efforts to shield motorists from the state’s 37-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline intensified after the Board of Revenue Estimates projected Thursday that Maryland’s budget surplus is expected to grow by another $1.6 billion, totaling about $7.5 billion over the next two years.

In a statement, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) called the surplus “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to advance substantial tax relief for our families, small businesses, and retirees.”

Aides to Hogan and legislative leaders began immediate discussions about a measure that would suspend collection of the state gas tax for 30 days. Service stations would continue to collect the levy but would be expected to reduce prices accordingly.

“[W]e are working with our legislative partners on an emergency suspension of the gas tax to help with the pain at the pump,” Hogan said. “We also support ongoing efforts in the legislature to suspend automatic increases in the gas tax,” Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) issued a joint statement a short time later, embracing the plan.

“Marylanders need help now, and we are standing together to provide that assistance by suspending the Maryland gas tax for 30 days,” the lawmakers wrote. “During the last month, Marylanders have seen gas prices increase exponentially, compounding existing rising costs.

Increased revenue projections for this year and next year give us the flexibility to provide immediate relief to families.”

A bill to suspend the gas tax could be introduced as early as Friday, an official said, with approval coming potentially by the middle of next week.

Key to the success of the tax holiday would be making sure consumers see a timely drop in fuel costs, officials acknowledged.

The announcements came shortly after the Board of Revenue Estimates voted to increase the revenue projections for the current and upcoming fiscal years by a combined $1.6 billion.

At the board’s meeting, Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D) called on the governor and General Assembly to enact a three-month state gas tax holiday and renewed his call for a $2,000 stimulus check for lower-income Marylanders. Franchot, a candidate for governor, has also called for a $500 million relief account for Maryland small businesses.

“There is still a large group of Marylanders who are not feeling or getting their fair share of the economic prosperity that the vast majority of Marylanders are experiencing,” Franchot said. “The economic fault lines that existed before COVID-19 forced our economy to shut down remain large, and for so many of our friends and neighbors who are in low-wage jobs, they continue to suffer from the devastation of this pandemic without much hope of turning things around.”

After the announcements by Hogan, Ferguson and Jones, the comptroller commended them for acting in “lightning speed,” but continued to call for more.

“The unfortunate reality is the economic whiplash at the gas pump resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine will be felt by Marylanders for more than 30 days,” Franchot said in a statement.

The Board of Revenue Estimates, which also includes Treasurer Dereck E. Davis (D) and Budget Secretary David R. Brinkley, increased the state’s tax revenue projection for the current fiscal year to $22.5 billion, an $867 million increase from the December estimates. The official revenue forecast for Fiscal Year 2023, which begins July 1, was adjusted upwards by an additional $737 million to $23.6 billion.

The new estimates are likely to impact the General Assembly’s budget deliberations; the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee could vote on a budget plan Friday afternoon.

Republicans in the legislature have been pushing the Democrats who control both chambers to enact substantial tax cuts, and those calls grew louder after Thursday’s Board of Revenue Estimates meeting. They painted a series of tax relief measures that the House of Delegates passed last week, on items like diapers and oral health products, woefully inadequate.

“Maryland Democrats have tossed a few pennies to taxpayers and expect them to be grateful,” said House Minority Whip Haven N. Shoemaker Jr. (R-Carroll). “This Marie Antionette ‘let them eat cake’ approach is an insult to struggling families everywhere. With a $7.5 BILLION surplus, there is no way anyone in the General Assembly can honestly say we cannot afford broad-based tax relief for Marylanders.”

Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County) on Wednesday evening called on Hogan to provide $1,000 in tax relief check for every Maryland taxpayer — arguing that it would only use up half of the state’s projected surplus.

By Danielle E. Gaines and Bruce DePuyt. Josh Kurtz contributed to this report.

The Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill Friday that would allow voters to decide whether to legalize cannabis.

If House Bill 1, sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chair Luke H. Clippinger (D-Baltimore City), successfully makes it through the Senate chamber, voters can expect to see the question on the 2022 general election ballot.

“We’re at the beginning of an important process where we begin to look again at how we have treated the substance — cannabis,” Clippinger told the chamber Friday. “The thousands and thousands and thousands of people we have incarcerated because of it.”

“And those thousands of incarcerations have not made us any safer,” he continued.

The measure was passed on a vote of 96-34 with no debate.

Additionally, the chamber passed House Bill 837 to study the racial impacts of cannabis legalization, create a public health fund, alter the civil and criminal penalties and create a process of expungement for possession of the drug.

The bill passed 92-37. The only dissenting Democrats were Del. Jon S. Cardin (D-Baltimore County) and Del. Gabriel Acevero (D-Montgomery). Delegates Jay Jalisi (D-Baltimore County) and Jay Walker (D-Prince George’s) were present in the chamber but did not vote.

In explaining his vote, Acevero said that he supports cannabis legalization and voters having a say, but there are aspects of legalization that he believes need to be addressed before the state can move forward.

“I’ve … made it clear that there are certain aspects to cannabis legalization that we musty also address … in order for us to move forward and, in part, to learn from what was done in the past that left not only communities behind but an industry that is now not only inequitable, but dominated by people who do not look like the people languishing behind bars and do not live in our state,” he said.

The House also passed an omnibus bill addressing juvenile justice reform.

House Bill 459 is based on the recommendations of the Juvenile Justice Reform Council, which met between 2020 and 2021 to study issues within Maryland’s juvenile justice system and make recommendations for reform. The bill would make several reforms, including establishing 10-years-old as the minimum age that children can be charged with a crime; Maryland law currently includes no lower limit for charging a child.

The bill would also set rules for when a child can be held in a detention facility before a trial and limit the amount of time a child can serve probation.

The bill passed out of the chamber on a party-line vote of 92-38.

By Hannah Gaskill

Maryland will have a new set of state legislative districts for the next election regardless of how court challenges against the recently adopted map shake out — leaving some incumbents and challengers alike wondering whether they live in the district they’re vying to represent.

Regardless of who ends up in which district, one of the questions that will face voters on their ballots in November is whether Maryland should change its rules for how to determine where a candidate “lives.” And lawmakers are considering still more tweaks in the 2022 General Assembly session.

Maryland legislators are required by law to reside in the district they represent — but whether they must regularly sleep in their district has been questioned in the past.

The Maryland Constitution requires that state lawmakers “reside” in their district for at least a year before the general election. In the case of a new district set up at least six months before the general election, lawmakers are required to have lived in that district at least six months before the general election.

In 1998, former Del. Frank D. Boston Jr. (D) filed a lawsuit arguing that then-Senate Majority Leader Clarence W. Blount (D), a trailblazing Black political leader in Baltimore City, lived primarily in Pikesville rather than in his northwest Baltimore District. An Anne Arundel County judge said Blount couldn’t run for office in his district, The Baltimore Sun reported at the time, because an “overwhelming” amount of evidence pointed to Blount not living there.

Blount kept an apartment in northwest Baltimore with no telephone and only a futon to sleep on, but the Maryland Court of Appeals later overturned that ruling, arguing that a “domicile” doesn’t necessarily mean a lawmaker’s primary residence.

“If the residency requirement for representing a particular legislative district in the General Assembly were that one must have his or her primary place of abode in that district, we would have affirmed the judgment of the court below,” Court of Appeals Judge John C. Eldrige wrote in 1998. “Under such a requirement, many prior cases in this Court would have been decided differently. The requirement, however, is that one must be domiciled in the district, and domicile is not synonymous with the primary place of abode.”

Eldrige wrote that it was “not unreasonable” for Blount, who was 77 years old at the time, to want to spend most of his time in Pikesville to be with his family and recuperate from surgeries.

“His conduct in this regard is explained by his wife’s decision to make the Pikesville condominium her sole place of abode,” Eldrige wrote. “In light of this, Senator Blount’s conduct is not inconsistent with his intent to remain a domiciliary of Baltimore City until he retires.”

The late Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D), who was close to Blount, concurred with the high court’s ruling, The Baltimore Sun reported at the time.

“You can sleep in Rehoboth, if you want, at your beach house, as long as you go to your district office every day and you vote in your district,” and pay taxes there, Miller said. “I think they are saying they are willing to look at the totality of circumstances.”

Eldridge’s decision came to be known as “the Clarence Blount Rule,” and it has come to guide some candidates’ decisions about the districts where they choose to run — and influences certain court decisions as well.

But voters could change that in November: A proposed state constitutional amendment will appear on the ballot that would require candidates to “maintain a primary place of abode” in their prospective district for at least six months before the general election.

That proposed amendment, put forward by Sen. Charles E. Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County), was passed by lawmakers last year. In testimony supporting that measure, Sydnor argued that if lawmakers spend most of their time living outside of their district, it would “prevent a true understanding of the issues that their constituents’ day to day experiences.”

Sydnor said in his testimony that the Blount ruling “harms constituents because it opens up the possibility that they may be represented by someone who does not understand the needs of their community and may not have their best interests at heart.”

If voters approve that measure, it would take effect in 2024.

Some Maryland lawmakers are also looking to require state officials to look at more factors when determining whether someone actually lives in the district.

Senate Bill 63, sponsored by Sens. Delores G. Kelley (D-Baltimore County) and Clarence K. Lam (D-Howard), and cross-filed as House Bill 320 by Del. Jheanelle K. Wilkins (D-Montgomery), would require state election officials and courts to consider a slew of additional factors when determining whether a lawmaker meets the constitutional residency requirement.

Factors included for determining residency under that legislation are:

• The address listed on a the candidate’s driver’s license or state-issued identification card.
• Whether a candidate receives mail at their claimed address.
• Whether the building claimed as a lawmakers’ address is zoned for residential use.
• Whether a candidate owns, rents or leases the property claimed as their address.
• If a candidate can prove they paid for and used utilities at their claimed address.
• If any children of the candidate are registered for school at the address.
• If a candidate’s spouse or immediate family members live at that address.
• Whether that address is also listed in records like income tax returns and employment records.
• And whether a candidate is an active-duty member of the military.

Wilkins said in an interview that the bill wouldn’t add new requirements, but rather is meant to add specific factors for officials to consider when determining whether someone actually meets the residency requirement.

“Some of the ones that are more obvious probably are considered by the courts, but nothing is in law currently around what some of those considerations are,” Wilkins said. “So I think that what this bill does, it makes it clear for all parties involved.”

If enacted, the new residency factors would go into effect on Oct. 1, 2022. That means those factors would be considered for the newly drawn legislative districts passed by the General Assembly in January. The new districts largely mirror previous ones, though the city of Baltimore includes one less Senate district and other boundary shifts increase Democratic voters in closely contested districts. The state’s new legislative map is set to be challenged in the Court of Appeals after several petitions were filed against the plan.

The Senate version of the residency bill received an airing in the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee on Jan. 26, and the House version had a brief hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 8.

At the Jan. 26 hearing, Kelley said the legislation would also be helpful for the General Assembly counsel’s annual review of lawmakers.

“We all look bad when the public thinks that we aren’t abiding by the law,” Kelley said at that hearing.

While the Maryland Constitution requires that state lawmakers reside in the districts they represent, the same is not true for Congress. The Constitution requires representatives to live in the state they represent, but not necessarily the same district.

By Bennett Leckrone

A committee that aims to elect Democrats to congress added Maryland’s newly redrawn 1st District to its 2022 target list this week.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) added the state’s 1st Congressional District to its “districts in play” list Thursday. The announcement comes after Maryland lawmakers redrew the solidly Republican district’s boundaries to be more competitive for Democrats in future elections.

The 1st District now crosses the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to include a portion of central Anne Arundel County with the Eastern Shore rather than looping up into Baltimore and Carroll counties. According to the political analysis website FiveThirtyEight, the new 1st District will still lean Republican, but less so than it previously did.

The 1st District is currently represented by Rep. Andrew P. Harris, the state’s lone congressional Republican. Harris handily won reelection in the previous district lines, but Democrats vying to unseat him hope the newly drawn district will make him vulnerable this year.

“The DCCC just confirmed what we’ve known all along: Andy Harris is one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the Congress, and we will defeat him in 2022,” Heather Mizeur, one of the Democrats running for the 1st District seat, said in a statement. “The First District is the DCCC’s newest target because of the powerful grassroots movement that our campaign has built. Harris is running scared, and it’s because this is the strongest challenge he’s ever faced. We know it, and now the DCCC has confirmed it.”

Yearly campaign finance reports for federal races aren’t due until Monday.

Mizeur, a former state delegate from Montgomery County who now lives in Chestertown, reported raising more than $1 million as of Sept. 30, a record for early fundraising in the 1st District.

R. David Harden, a foreign policy consultant and another Democratic contender for the 1st District, reported raising more than $200,000 as of Sept. 30.

“The DCCC has made beating Andy Harris a top national priority,” Harden said in a social media statement. “I’m the only candidate in the Dem field who can do it. I’m independent. A political outsider. Born and raised on a Farm. Deep ties to the Eastern Shore. I know what matters to waterman and rural voters.”

The DCCC recently filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging Maryland’s new congressional maps. That lawsuit, brought by Republican voters from all eight of the state’s congressional districts, charges that the new map violates the state’s constitution by intentionally diluting their votes.

While the new district will be generally more competitive for Democrats in 2022, one proposal that was considered by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission, a panel convened by House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) would have included a larger portion of Anne Arundel County and was generally more favorable for Democratic challengers in the 1st District.

Eastern Shore residents who testified at a November Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission hearing urged panelists to adopt that proposal, citing Harris’ vote against certifying the 2020 presidential election results after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Commission members eventually opted not to pursue that draft after Cecil County residents objected to not being included in the 1st District with the rest of the Eastern Shore in that proposal.

The final map adopted by lawmakers during a special session in December included a smaller portion of Anne Arundel County, similar to previous maps that cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

The U.S. Constitution requires representatives to live in the state they represent, but not the same district. Harris, who lives in Cockeysville, was drawn out of the 1st Congressional District. Harden was also drawn out of the district, although he previously said he’s weighing a move to the Eastern Shore.

The DCCC’s “districts in play” are 38 districts across the country that are either open or held by Republicans that the committee believes will be competitive in 2022.

by Bennett Leckrone

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby (D) spoke in defense of her innocence Friday in light of false statement and perjury charges levied against her by a federal grand jury.

“I’m here before you today to state, unequivocally, that I am innocent and I intend to do what I’ve always done since I became state’s attorney for the city and in the city that I love: fight,” she said at a news conference.

A federal grand jury indicted Mosby on four charges Thursday: two counts of perjury for falsely claiming a COVID hardship on an application to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from her retirement account, and two counts for making alleged false statements on mortgage applications for two vacation homes in Florida.

Mosby spoke for approximately 10 minutes Friday and took no questions from reporters. She said that the press should expect her defense attorney, A. Scott Bolden, to “make himself available at a later time.”

She called Thursday’s indictment a “political ploy” by her “political adversaries” to remove her from office, stating that, prior to Thursday’s indictment, she offered to make herself available to present evidence before the grand jury.

“But the U.S. attorney and the lead prosecutor in the case, who has donated to my political opponents and who has personal animus towards me, has refused to allow me to do so,” Mosby said.

U.S. Attorney Erek Barron, a former state delegate who was nominated to the post by President Biden in July, declined to comment.

Mosby is up for re-election in 2022 and two challengers, Ivan Bates and Roya Hanna, have launched campaigns.

During the Friday news conference, Mosby said that she expected her role as Baltimore’s state’s attorney to be challenging.

“I did not expect to incur, personally, more than $500,000 in legal bills defending myself from frivolous investigations and attacks on nearly every front,” Mosby said, her voice cracking. “I did not expect for an investigation into my professional travel — which I asked for — to somehow snowball into state ethics and state election board inquiries, federal investigations and, ultimately, a federal indictment.”

Mosby requested that the city’s Office of the Inspector General open an investigation following reporting by the Baltimore Brew regarding her work travel. The investigation revealed that, between 2018 and 2019, Mosby had been out of town for 144 days and was often given gifts by event sponsors. As a result of the report, Mosby submitted an amended report to the Maryland State Ethics Commission in July 2020.

“I’m so disappointed but, unfortunately, not shocked that my family and I find ourselves in this position,” Mosby said Friday.

Baltimore’s top prosecutor said she’s “had a target on [her] back” since she announced charges against the six officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray in 2015.

“As a state’s attorney for Baltimore City, I’ve used my power and my discretion to do things that a lot of people in this country just don’t like,” Mosby told the media.

She rattled off a list of actions she’s taken since she’s been in office, including prosecuting law enforcement officers, exonerating people facing life sentences and helping others secure parole.

During the pandemic, Mosby suspended prosecutions of drug possession crimes, prostitution, trespassing and nuisance offenses during the pandemic.

“​​I get it: This is not what prosecutors usually do,” Mosby said Friday. “And many people will forever hate me for it.”

Mosby has caught heat from Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) and Republican lawmakers, who accuse her of also failing to prosecute violent criminals.

In November, Hogan said Mosby’s handling of criminal prosecutions was contributing to violent crime in the city and announced he would withhold funding until her office produced statistics on prosecutions, plea deals and case dismissals.

Weeks later, Hogan criticized Mosby as a “prosecutor … that refuses to prosecute violent criminals” on Fox News Sunday.

Mosby responded in an open letter defending her record and condemning the acrimonious relationship between Hogan and city leaders.

A Hogan spokesman declined to comment on Mosby’s indictment Friday.

The charges

According to prosecutors, Mosby applied for $90,000 in retirement distributions through a CARES Act provision in 2020.

To qualify to withdraw money from her retirement account, Mosby certified on an application form that she experienced financial hardships because of the pandemic.

But federal prosecutors say that Mosby received her full gross salary of $247,955.58 in 2020. She ultimately withdrew $81,000, in two installments, from the account without a tax penalty, according to the indictment.

Bolden said on a daily online broadcast Thursday that the CARES Act provision allowed people to apply for retirement distributions if they were financially impacted “in any way,” and pointed to her travel-related businesses first reported on by the Baltimore Brew.

Mosby also faces two counts of allegedly making false statements on mortgage loan applications for a home in Kissimmee, Fla., and a condominium in Long Boat Key.

According to the indictment, Mosby neglected to disclose a $45,022 federal tax lien against her and her husband, Baltimore City Council President Nick J. Mosby (D), for calendar years 2014, 2015 and 2016 on applications for both Florida properties.

Baltimore City Circuit Court records show that the tax liens were placed in February 2020 and ultimately paid in June 2021, after the purchase of the Florida properties.

The maximum penalty for perjury is five years in federal prison; the maximum penalty for making false mortgage applications is 30 years.

By Hannah Gaskill

Editor’s note: This story was updated to include additional detail about the relations

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby (D) was indicted by a federal grand jury on four charges Thursday, including perjury for falsely claiming a COVID-19 hardship on applications to withdraw $90,000 from her retirement account.

The withdrawals, without a tax penalty, were a temporary financial option created by the federal CARES Act for people who suffered hardships during the pandemic. Mosby’s annual salary is $247,955.58.

Mosby’s defense attorney, A. Scott Bolden, released a lengthy statement after the indictment.

He said the “bogus charges” were “rooted in personal, political and racial animus five months from her election.”

Mosby faces two counts of perjury for the two separate withdrawals from the retirement account citing coronavirus-related hardships and two counts of making a false statement on a mortgage loan application.

Federal prosecutors say those false statements were made on mortgage applications for a home in Kissimmee, Fla., and a condominium in Long Boat Key, three hours to the west. As part of both applications, Mosby did not disclose a federal tax lien of $45,022 that had been placed against her and her husband, Baltimore City Council President Nick J. Mosby (D), 42.

After withdrawing the cash from her retirement account, Mosby took out a $490,500 mortgage on the Kissimmee home and a $428,400 mortgage on the Long Boat Key condo.

In each application, Mosby also responded “no” in response to the question: “Are you presently delinquent or in default on any Federal debt or any other loan, mortgage, financial obligation, bond, or loan guarantee,” even though she was delinquent in paying federal taxes to the IRS, prosecutors said.

The Mosbys jointly had outstanding federal income tax liens for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 calendar years totaling $45,022, which was paid Feb. 21, 2020, according to a filing with the Baltimore City Circuit Court clerk’s office. Nick Mosby repeatedly told the press there were no such any such tax liens against the couple by the federal government.

Bolden said Thursday that Marilyn Mosby wasn’t aware of the tax lien and so couldn’t have lied on the mortgage paperwork.

Nick Mosby has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

According to the indictment, Marilyn Mosby also signed a “second home rider” for the Kissimmee property, representing to the mortgage company that the house would be used primarily as a personal residence for at least one year and would not be rented as a vacation property. The rider was signed on Sept. 2, 2020; a week earlier, on Aug. 25, Mosby had signed an agreement with a vacation home management company to control the property, according to the indictment.

By saying the home would be for personal, and not rental, use, Mosby could secure a lower interest rate, federal prosecutors said.

The purchase of the two Florida properties first disclosed by the Baltimore Brew news website last spring.

On the perjury charges, prosecutors allege that Mosby lied on paperwork for two withdrawals from her retirement account: $40,000 on May 26, 2020 and $50,000 on Dec. 29, 2020.

To qualify for a retirement distribution through the CARES Act provision, Mosby certified that she experienced adverse financial consequences from the pandemic for one of four allowable reasons: as a result of being quarantined, furloughed, or laid off; having reduced work hours; being unable to work due to lack of childcare; or the closing or reduction of hours of a business she owned or operated.

Federal prosecutors said that Mosby did not experience any such financial hardships and received her full gross salary of $247,955.58 from Jan. 1, 2020 through Dec. 29, 2020, in bi-weekly gross pay direct deposits of $9,183.54.

On Roland Martin Unfiltered, a daily online broadcast, Bolden said the CARES Act provision allowed people affected financially “in any way” and that Mosby’s travel-related side businesses had taken a hit. “Her accountant urged her to take that money and she took that money” to buy homes, Bolden said.

“Today, we have the indictment, which are mere allegations. Tomorrow, we will fight vigorously for the truth, justice and I believe Ms. Mosby’s innocence will prevail,” Bolden said in the written statement.

The maximum penalty for perjury is five years in federal prison; the maximum penalty for making false mortgage applications is 30 years.

An initial hearing in U.S. District Court has not been scheduled.

Late Thursday, the Office of the State’s Attorney issued a brief statement saying “State’s Attorney Mosby and the office remain completely focused and wholly committed to serving the citizens of our city. Our leadership and our frontline prosecutors are some of the best in the world and we will not be distracted or sidetracked from our mission to make Baltimore a safer community.”

Mosby, a Democrat, faces reelection this year, first with a June 28 primary in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 11 to 1, making the Nov. 8 general election an all but foregone conclusion.

She held a reelection fundraiser Nov. 18, and another one, a virtual event billed as a “celebrity birthday bash,” Wednesday night. She will turn 42 on Jan. 22.

Two former assistant state’s attorneys have announced they were candidates for Mosby’s seat in the Democratic primary — Roya Hanna, 45, and Ivan J. Bates, 53, who ran unsuccessfully against Mosby in 2018.

Mosby was first elected in 2014, defeating incumbent Gregg L. Bernstein. She gained national notoriety following the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray, 25, a week after he sustained a spinal cord injury during a ride in the back of a police wagon, when she charged six officers involved in arresting and transporting the man who was handcuffed and shackled. All pleaded not guilty.

At the time, Mosby was criticized by some for overreaching when she hastily brought the charges, amid looting and rioting that swept parts of the city. One officer’s trial ended in a mistrial, and two others were acquitted before Mosby announced in July 2016 that charges against the remaining three officers would be dropped.

In 2018, with the backing of much of the city’s Black political hierarchy, she won a three-way primary against Bates and Thiruvendran “Thiru” Vignarajah, a former assistant U.S. attorney, assistant state’s attorney and deputy attorney general.

Throughout her second term, Mosby continued to carefully foster her national presence, testifying on Capitol Hill and appearing at numerous out-of-town conferences. An in-depth news story by Baltimore Brew into Mosby’s extensive out-of-town travel — much of which was reimbursed by the sponsors — prompted her to ask the Baltimore Office of the Inspector General to investigate.

The IG found that she had been away from the office 144 days during 2018 and 2019 — some of them requiring international travel — and been given dozens of gifts by event sponsors. The findings caused Mosby to file an amended report with the Maryland State Ethics Commission in July 2020.

That filing, the Brew found, also revealed that Mosby had created Mahogany Elite Travel, Mahogany Elite Consulting and Mahogany Elite Enterprises LLC in May 2019.

Nick Mosby also created a consulting company, Monumental Squared LLC, whose address was the same as a Baltimore developer and campaign contributor, the Brew later found.

Last spring, a federal grand jury subpoenaed a variety of records belonging to the Mosbys, including the couple’s business records, travel records, campaign reports and charitable donations, according to published reports at the time. FBI agents seized some of Nick Mosby’s records at his Baltimore City Hall office.

Last summer, the “Mosby 2021 Defense Fund” appeared online, soliciting money to pay legal bills for the Mosbys, after acknowledging they were under investigation by federal authorities.

Bolden said Thursday that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland had rebuffed multiple attempts to discuss their investigation. He said the indictment filed Thursday was “a far cry from criminal tax evasion and tax related charges that were at the heart of this federal investigation.”

In 2020, Marilyn Mosby initiated an experiment of not prosecuting drug possession crimes, prostitution, trespassing and nuisance offenses. A year later, she formally adopted the policy, saying the “era of tough-on-crime prosecution” was over.

The decision drew some criticism by police and some in the political arena, including Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr., and was questioned by others, including the federal judge overseeing the U.S. Department of Justice consent decree with the city police department. The city entered into the DOJ agreement after investigators found that police officers routinely violated the constitutional rights of residents.

Hoping to blunt an increase in violent crime across Maryland, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) rolled out a familiar law-and-order policy vision on Monday, including proposed sharp increases in police spending and a crackdown on repeat offenders who use firearms to prey on others.

Hogan said he will seek $500 million over the next three years to boost officer pay, increase aid to local police departments by 50%, and “fully fund” victim services providers. He will also earmark $50 million for improvements to the Maryland State Police barracks and a new tactical services building for the agency’s Special Operations Division.

The governor also announced that he will again seek General Assembly support for a variety of sentencing proposals that lawmakers have rejected — or refused to even consider — in the past.

Speaking to reporters, the term-limited governor cast the spending requests and legislative proposals as part of his “Re-Fund The Police” initiative, a counterpoint to “Defund the Police,” a movement sparked two years ago following the death of George Floyd.

“There is nothing more important than addressing the violent crime crisis,” Hogan told reporters. “Trying to reduce crime by defunding the police is a dangerous and radical idea.” Hogan spoke while standing in front of a group of policy agency leaders in uniform.

Hogan did not explain how all of the $500 million he is seeking would be used. Some details, he said, would be contained in the his proposed FY 2023 budget, which he will make public next week.

Because he is set to leave office next January, the governor said he will propose legislation to make the increase in local police aid “permanent, so that the next governor won’t be able to cut it.”

Data on the website of the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth and Victims Services run only to 2019, but numbers supplied by the office show that homicides and non-fatal shootings have increased over the last three years.

Homicides in the state increased from 498 in 2019 to 662 in 2021, a jump of 33%, while non-fatal shootings climbed from 987 in 2019 to 1,342 in 2021, a 36% increase. An official cautioned that the 2021 numbers are preliminary.

In addition to his funding proposal, which requires legislative approval, Hogan will again seek General Assembly support for two safety measures.

His Violent Firearms Offender Act would toughen penalties for offenders who use or illegally possess firearms. The Judicial Transparency Act would require the state Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy “track and publish detailed information on the sentences that are handed down by judges for violent crimes.”

As he has throughout his tenure in office, including in October, when he announced $150 million in new police funding, Hogan was critical of judges and local prosecutors who fail to sentence repeat offenders more harshly.

Maryland lawmakers begin their 2022 legislative session on Wednesday. Hogan has introduced these measures in prior sessions, without success. He said his proposals are popular with the public and he rattled off a set of poll results, though he did not identify the survey that produced them.

Hogan also said Monday that the state will begin tracking open warrants, “beginning in high-crime areas in Baltimore City.”

“We need transparency on whether judges are issuing requested warrants, and aggressive and immediate enforcement of all open warrants,” he said.

Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) said the legislature is eager to work with the administration on boosting public safety and helping under-invested communities. But Hogan “missed the moment to have an honest conversation” by engaging in bumper-sticker sloganeering, he said.

“If you look at the major jurisdictions, and the jurisdictions that he is pointing toward for increases in crime, those jurisdictions have increased their investment in public safety,” Smith said. “No one is defunding the police. It’s just an intellectually dishonest tag-line.”

Smith said any bill that includes mandatory minimum sentences — like Hogan’s firearm offenders bill — are “a non-starter.”

House Judiciary Committee Chair Luke H. Clippinger (D-Baltimore) noted that as governor, Hogan has been in charge of the Department of Public Safety and Correction Services, and the Department of Parole and Probation, for seven years.

“We need somebody who can actually take the next steps and acknowledge that — under their administration — we have seen a huge increase in murders, a huge increase in rapes,” he said. “If he wants to change the subject of funding or defunding the police, that’s fine. I’m look at what he’s doing with the money (he has) — and it’s completely unsatisfactory.”

Hogan has undertaken efforts to build a national profile for himself in recent years — serving as head of the National Governors Association, campaigning for candidates willing to buck former President Trump, and appearing on national TV interviews.

He appeared to suggest his rejection of “Defund the Police” efforts led some big-city mayors to boost public safety funding. “Even in the most progressive cities all across the country, leaders are now following our lead and admitting that instead of defunding, they need more investment in public safety.”

by Bruce DePuyt