Maryland Public Television (MPT) will provide livestream coverage of floor proceedings of the 2025 Maryland General Assembly legislative session, which begins today, Jan. 8, 2025, and runs through April 7, 2025. MPT’s livestream of the 447th session of the General Assembly is available at mgaleg.maryland.gov.MPT will provide the livestream in partnership with the Maryland Department of Legislative Services, which hired the television network under a three-year contract to help the department provide live, gavel-to-gavel floor session coverage of both houses of the General Assembly for the 2024-2026 sessions.The partnership between MPT and the Maryland Department of Legislative Services began in 2020 but covered only the House floor sessions. In 2022, MPT’s services expanded to helping the department also cover the Senate chambers for the entire 90-day session.Looming over nearly everything the legislature considers this session will be the nearly $3 billion budget deficit. Senate President Bill Ferguson (D – Baltimore City) predicted that both cuts and revenue increases are going to be considered. What they will be able to manage fiscally will in large part be dependent upon the incoming Trump administration and potential cuts to federal funds upon which the state relies.In addition to helping livestream sessions from both houses of the General Assembly, MPT’s long-running weekly program “State Circle” begins its 44th season in January. The program is anchored by Jeff Salkin and provides in-depth reporting on issues and happenings in the legislative session through its sine die conclusion in April. The show airs year-round, however, providing interviews with Maryland’s experts on viewpoints and actions surrounding local politics, major issues, and pending bills.Airing on Friday evenings at 7 p.m. on MPT-HD and online at mpt.org/livestream, “State Circle” episodes are also available for viewing on the free PBS app and on demand on MPT’s online video player.