Overview
- Comptroller Brooke Lierman published a General Assembly–requested report assessing a statewide baby bonds program for children in low-wealth families.
- One scenario seeds $7,000 for each of roughly 30,000 Medicaid births annually, requiring about $567 million in state funding over five years.
- The report estimates a $7,000 deposit could exceed $22,000 by age 18, with total investment earnings of about $1.86 billion enabling $2.4 billion in distributions to roughly 80,000 beneficiaries ages 18 to 30.
- The proposal is framed as a tool to address Maryland’s racial wealth gap, citing median net worth of about $409,000 for white households versus $110,000 for Black households and homeownership rates near 80% for white households versus about half for Black households.
- Administration could fall to a state financial agency, eligibility could be determined via Medicaid, ENOUGH Act ZIP codes or SNAP data, and Maryland’s effort would follow programs adopted in Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Rhode Island and Vermont.