Hogan Pulls Baltimore Jail Proposal Amid Criticism From Democrats

After a couple days of controversy over Gov. Larry Hogan's proposal to build a new Baltimore jail at the expense of higher education capital funding, Hogan is telling Democrats if they don't want a jail, fine, no jail.

Since legislators who voted for a new jail in Baltimore no longer want it, I'm re-allocating that $ to higher edu pic.twitter.com/PXVNrFcqG5 — Larry Hogan (@LarryHogan) February 18, 2016

The projects that would have been delayed under Hogan's initial plan would have included a student services center at Morgan State and a new business school at Coppin State, projects that would have their funding restored under Hogan's request.

Hogan's letter is in line with what he told C4 Thursday morning. He said the goal in building the jail sooner was to save several hundred million dollars by building it more efficiently. The decades-old city jail was closed last year. However, the governor said if the legislature has honest ideas about what should be done with the money instead, he's open to that discussion. Apparently, he decided not to wait.