Update: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed the $1.2 billion COVID-19 relief package into law on Monday. Prior to signing ceremony Hogan said “This emergency legislation will immediately provide more than a billion dollars in urgently needed tax relief and economic stimulus for struggling Maryland families, small businesses and those who have lost their jobs due to the global pandemic.”

The legislation was approved by the House and Senate last week and would provide relief to small businesses and direct stimulus checks to some low incomes residents over three years.

The passage of the legislation came just one day after a debate on the House floor about whether to include those without social security numbers, including those with individual taxpayer identification numbers like undocumented immigrants, in the direct stimulus relief. That proposal by Democrats was ultimately withdrawn, but advocates say that hundreds of people with  ITINs are being denied relief.

State Comptroller Peter Franchot, who previously criticized Hogan and the legislature for moving too slowly on relief, tweeted Friday that he was disappointed that undocumented immigrants were not included in the relief package.

“[Undocumented immigrants] are our friends and neighbors who are also struggling. The taxes they pay provide financial relief to others, but they are not eligible for a single penny under this bill,” Franchot wrote.

Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) pledged to introduce another bill that would provide relief to people with ITINs at a later date.

“No Marylanders deserves to wonder where their next meal will come from, how to buy their child’s diapers, or how to pay for life saving medicine–especially when they go to work every single day,” wrote the two Democratic leaders in a joint statement last week.

Update, Jan. 27, 2021: Maryland Senate Democrats introduced an additional $520 million to Hogan’s proposed COVID-19 stimulus package on Wednesday.

Ferguson  told reporters Wednesday that Hogan’s initial $1 billion package was a “broader proposal,” while theirs was a “more targeted package” that specifically aimed to benefit low-income Marylanders and small businesses.

About $59 million would go toward assistance to those most in need. That includes $22 million to restore benefits for about 7,500 people on temporary disability and a $100 increase in grants for 15,000 disabled individuals. The additional assistance would also provide $10 million to food banks to assist the almost 15% of households in the state that said they sometimes or often didn’t have enough food in December, according to a U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey.

Another $125 million would go toward businesses. That includes $40 million for the emergency grant and loan program which will prioritize businesses that have yet to receive assistance, $26 million for restaurants, $10 million in grants for hotels and hospitality businesses, and $10 million in job training for 3,600 Marylanders.

Additional assistance, $44 million, will also be extended to unemployment insurance. At least 39,000 residents had their unemployment insurance cases suspended. This would provide emergency relief grants up to $1000 per person.

For those facing eviction, lawmakers have added an additional $28 million to erase housing debt for 5,000 people and emergency housing for 30 days to more than 5,500 people.

Ferguson said he hopes to have the details of the emergency bill finalized Thursday in committee and up for vote on the Senate floor next week. After that, the bill will make its way to the House floor where Del. Eric Luedtke (D-Montgomery County), the chamber’s majority leader, said they too intend to make sure the bill targets families and small businesses.

Mike Ricci, a spokesperson for Hogan’s office, said over email that, “much of their proposal consists of things we’ve already done or are doing through $700 million in economic assistance programs, but we appreciate that they agree on the urgent need for additional relief for Marylanders, and look forward to working with them.”

Aside from the Senate’s amendment, the state received an additional $258 million in federal funding for rental assistance. Ricci tweeted Wednesday that the governor will be forming a bipartisan advisory group with legislators to “determine how to maximize resources.”

Original: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced a $1 billion COVID-19 economic relief package Monday just days before the start of the state’s legislative session.

“It’s clear to all of us that the primary focus of the 2021 legislative session must be providing additional, immediate economic relief to the hundreds of thousands of struggling families and the tens of thousands of small businesses that have been impacted by the pandemic,” Hogan told reporters.

The proposed stimulus package, called the RELIEF Act of 2021, would provide more than $265 million in stimulus payments to 400,000 low-income Marylanders to be distributed as $750 checks to families and $450 checks to individuals. An additional $180 million would go toward tax relief and unemployment for Maryland residents. Hogan is also proposing $300 million in small business tax relief. The proposal stipulates that there should be no sudden increases in unemployment taxes for small businesses.

The proposed package will be introduced as emergency legislation on Wednesday, the first day of the legislative session. The bill is funded by the remaining surplus from fiscal year 2020, budget reductions, and a portion of the state’s rainy day fund, according to a release.

“We can’t waste a lot of time,” Hogan said. “This is not something that should be debated until the end of the legislative session in April.”

However, Hogan’s proposal falls about half a billion dollars short of what state Democratic leaders have been requesting. Comptroller Peter Franchot, State Treasurer Nancy Kopp, and other state and federal lawmakers have been asking Hogan since mid-December to use about $528 from the state’s general fund and $925 million from the rainy day fund to provide relief. Their proposed stimulus package includes $2,000 stimulus checks for Marylanders making less than $50,000 for a single filer and couples making $100,000 or less. Advocates for that plan also want to allocate $250 million to help small businesses.

“There is a better day ahead for Maryland, but could we please help out our friends and neighbors right now who are suffering?” said Franchot in a press release.

But Hogan criticized Franchot’s proposal for $2,000 stimulus checks telling reporters it’s “simply not possible.”

“We don’t have the power to just write $2,000 checks,” Hogan said. “[Franchot] was talking about draining the entire rainy day fund of the state … we want to maintain our AAA bond rating and make sure that state government continues to function.”

Franchot said Monday that Hogan is delaying funding to those who need it more and passing the responsibility off to lawmakers.

“What’s being ignored is the suffering and pain that hundreds of thousands of Marylanders are going through right now,” Franchot said. “Should [Hogan] run it by legislative leaders, yes. But he has power as governor to make decisions and take action unilaterally.”

Senate President Bill Ferguson of Baltimore City (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) thanked Hogan for incorporating their priorities into the stimulus package and said in a statement, “we look forward to the governor working with us to accomplish these goals and demonstrating for the country what the true value of bipartisanship can be.”

In his own press conference on Monday, Montgomery County Council President Tom Hucker called Hogan’s proposal a “step in the right direction.”

“However, the proposal plan does not provide any immediate relief and slows down the process to getting stimulus checks to Marylanders,” Hucker said. “His package is insufficient and we hope to continue working with him.”

Additionally, of the federal government’s $900 billion stimulus package, Maryland will receive nearly $15 billion in funds to support the Paycheck Protection Program, unemployment insurance, COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, and other relief efforts, Hogan said.

Last fall, Hogan used $250 million from the rainy day fund, which left the state with $935 million in its reserves. Since the beginning of the pandemic Maryland has provided $700 million in economic relief, according to the governor’s office. The state also received $2.3 billion through the federal Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act last spring.

This story was updated with comment from the Hogan administration and information about Hogan signing the bill.