Residents strongly oppose the work of the Trump Administration’s DOGE and are experiencing negative effects of federal cuts.
Marylanders strongly support legislative proposals to close major corporate tax loopholes and require the wealthiest Marylanders to pay slightly more in income taxes to help close the state’s budget gap and avoid cutting public education and other critical state programs, new polling shows.
The poll, conducted for Maryland Rise by the highly regarded Annapolis polling firm OpinionWorks, found that 71% of respondents support a proposal to close a corporate tax loophole to prevent large corporations from creating shell businesses to lower their state tax rate, with only 18% opposed. And by a 75-19% margin, Marylanders support increasing the tax rate on people earning more than $250,000. Both of these proposals are included in the Fair Share for Maryland Act, now under consideration in the General Assembly.
Marylanders are also strongly opposed to both President Donald Trump’s job performance and the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Trump donor Elon Musk. Marylanders, by a 2-1 margin, say they oppose DOGE’s work, with 48 percent strongly opposed.
Key findings about taxes showed that:
- Two-thirds of Marylanders agree that some people in the state pay less than their fair share in taxes.
- More than three-quarters of respondents (76%) said they would feel better about paying their taxes if the system were fairer.
- A less popular revenue raiser is a proposal to impose a 2.5% tax on services used by businesses, with Marylanders narrowly in support by a margin of 45% to 38%, with 16% unsure.
“The polling makes clear that Marylanders support proposals that would require large corporations and the wealthiest among us to pay their fair share to support urgently needed public services,” said Kali Schumitz of the Fair Share Maryland coalition. “With highly unpopular budget cuts coming from Washington, Marylanders want our leaders to do more to protect people from being hurt and support fairer tax policies as a way to do that.”
On subjects related to the work of the federal government, the poll found:
- 63% of respondents disapprove of President Trump’s performance, compared to 35% who approve; 49% of respondents strongly opposed Trump’s performance.
- 45% of Marylanders personally know someone who has been affected negatively by recent federal cutbacks.
- By a margin of 55-22%, respondents said Governor Wes Moore and the Maryland General Assembly should do more to protect Maryland from being affected by the federal cutbacks.
“Marylanders are suffering now from federal job and funding cuts,” said Patrick Moran, President of AFSCME Maryland Council 3. “They are looking to Gov. Wes Moore and the state legislature for leadership and a commitment to fairly funding our state and our services.”
These findings are based on a statewide poll of 869 registered voters, conducted online and by telephone from March 11 to 13, 2025 by the non-partisan firm OpinionWorks. The poll has a potential sampling error of ±3.3% at the 95% confidence level.
Originally published by Maryland Rise.
