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Making Progress as One Maryland
Dear Colleagues –
I wanted to take a moment to share with you the following press release regarding a speech Governor O’Malley gave today in Prince George’s County.
When it comes to moving Maryland forward, we naturally we tend to focus on -- and communicate about -- the issues that most impact our work and our stakeholders. At times it’s easy to forget that we, too, are part of the overall progress being made by State Government as a whole under the leadership of Governor O’Malley.
This release includes brief updates on our progress in closing the budget deficit, and enhancing public safety, education and transit oriented development – progress that we can be proud of, both as members of state government and as citizens of One Maryland.
JohnGOVERNOR MARTIN O’MALLEY DELIVERS KEYNOTE ADDRESS BEFORE PRINCE GEORGE’S CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Annual Governor’s Luncheon Brings Together Local Business Leaders with Public OfficialsCOLLEGE PARK, MD (May 14, 2008) – Governor Martin O’Malley delivered the keynote address before the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce Annual Governor’s Luncheon today, focusing his remarks on the significance of minority owned business in Maryland, and the steps that his administration has taken to create and sustain a vibrant economy statewide.
“This county is a place which leads the way in our efforts to better harness the strength of our State’s diversity,” said Governor O’Malley. “Over the past 14 months, we’ve come together as One Maryland and made real and steady progress toward protecting our shared priorities. And we’ve done so in a manner that we believe has strengthened our business climate here in Prince George’s County.”
“During times of economic growth and development, it is important that we all work collectively to ensure everyone enjoys an opportunity to participate,” said James Dula, PhD, President of the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce. “Governor O’Malley is a leader that embraces this concept and we are extremely happy to have him address the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce business community.”
On fiscal accountability, the Governor highlighted the progress of this administration in the face of challenging economic times. “When we inherited a $1.7 billion structural deficit from our predecessors we did what we had to do and we tried to do it in the fairest way possible, without putting our State at a competitive disadvantage with Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other states,” he said. “Working together as One Maryland, we’ve nearly closed that deficit, cut spending by nearly $2 billion, reduced the size of our bureaucracy, left a cash balance of nearly $1 billion, retained our Triple A bond rating, and created a system of performance based governance we call StateStat to better target our resources so our State government can do more with less. We’ve done these things while strengthening our priorities, instead of abandoning them. Fiscal responsibility is not an end in and of itself – but rather it’s what allows us to make these investments in workforce creation, in transportation, in expanding educational opportunity.”
The Governor also discussed public safety, recognizing that a safe community is a community friendly to business growth. “As we make these investments, we have no higher priority than our public’s safety,” he said. “When Lt. Governor Brown and I took that oath, we said that it’s not acceptable and it’s not right that our State should be first in so many good categories and also near the top when it comes to violent crimes. While we still have much work to do, we’ve come together and made some real progress over these past 15 months. Our murder rate is down across our State, including in this county, where it has dropped 12%. And, we’ve knocked down the backlog of some 24,000 DNA samples – which has led to the arrest of 61 rapists and murderers. We’ve increased by 46% the number of CODIS match hits, doubled the size of our DNA database – and just yesterday I signed legislation which will give our police and law enforcement agencies the tools they need to resolve open investigations, weed out false leads, and continue saving lives. In addition, we’re partnering with officials here in Prince George’s County to reduce gun violence, crime and gang related activity. We’re taking this action, because we believe there is no such thing as a spare Marylander or a spare American and to lose even one life is a tragedy.”
Identifying Maryland’s workforce as its best competitive advantage among the fifty states, Governor O’Malley touted significant measures aimed at increasing opportunity for workforce development. “We’ve expanded the P-20 Leadership Council to make sure our schools are adequately preparing our kids for the demands of the workforce and of higher education. We’ve made major investments in school construction, investing $93 million here in Prince George’s County – by comparison, the previous administration allocated only $23 million in their first two years. All in all, we will have invested more in two years than the previous administration invested in four. We’ve also invested a record $150 million in facility improvements at our community colleges. And, we froze college tuition for three consecutive years, making college education more accessible for our families.”
Governor O’Malley also highlighted the transit-oriented development opportunities in Price George’s County. “There is enough land available for transit-oriented development within a half mile of our state’s 112 transit stations to theoretically absorb all the new residents Maryland is expected to gain in the next two decades – all 1.1 million of them,” he said. “In Prince George’s County alone, 14 of our 15 Metro Station properties have ample room for development. There are nearly 2,800 acres of land available for true smart growth within walking distance to these stations, and we’re working with the County to harness this potential. The University of Maryland is working on one of these projects in its East Campus, which will tie into the future Purple Line. Our State Transportation and Business and Economic Development departments have been working to bring businesses to these sites, and we’ve also been partnering with our Congressional delegation to bring federal offices – with a specific emphasis on Prince George’s locations.”
The Prince George's Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit alliance of over 900 businesses, representing over 250,000 employees, making it one of the largest chambers in the state of Maryland and the eleventh largest chamber in the Washington Metropolitan region. Founded in 1924, the Chamber works to carry out its mission of advancing the interest of business for a vibrant Prince George's County. It is recognized as the most effective voice for business in Prince George's County and has dedicated itself to fostering a sound and progressive business climate for the County, as well as assuming a leadership position in identifying and resolving community issues and concerns.
May 14, 2008