Maryland has lowered its projected revenue for next fiscal year as decreased consumer demand drives down sales tax revenue, Comptroller Brooke Lierman said Thursday.
With less projected revenue and added costs from a rapidly growing state-funded child care assistance program that closed last fiscal year with tens of millions of dollars in unpaid bills, the state’s expected structural deficit has grown in recent months.
Lierman, a Democrat entering her second year in office, said the post-pandemic economic trend is a sign that people have generally spent their pandemic savings or stimulus money. Consumers are now looking to spend less and rebuild their savings, if possible.
“It’s important to note, I think, that decreased consumer spending especially hits Maryland small businesses, and those small businesses really operate on tight margins,” Lierman said during a meeting of the Board of Revenue Estimates.
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