When Martin O’Malley, Governor O’Malley, asked me to join his team for a Better Maryland in 2005, we had a shared vision:
A shared vision that saw a State which builds upon its strengths to create better, higher paying jobs—jobs that employ Marylanders and stay in Maryland.
We saw, and still see, Maryland as a business incubator, where small businesses can grow and meet the challenges of starting from scratch.
And we recognized, from early on, that small business, that new businesses are the big business in Maryland.
Nearly half of the State’s workforce is employed by one of Maryland’s 450,000 small businesses.
And that number grows as more start ups and more tech companies graduate from incubators like the one here at UMBC, or at Johns Hopkins, or in Montgomery County, and College Park.
As I tour the State and meet with other small businesses, and biotech and tech leaders, I realize more and more that our economic vitality, that our ability to compete in the global marketplace is no longer driven by access to iron, coal, factories—or even to geographic location.
Today, it is people—highly-trained and well-educated people—that are the tools and the currency of our economy.
For all of our success:
As one of the strongest economies in the Nation;
The second highest proportion of professional and technical workers in the workforce;
The second highest concentration of doctorate-level scientists and engineers;
And the third highest number of biotech companies and biotech employment;
For all of our success, we have to do more to keep our workforce competitive and preserve our quality of life.
We’re blessed in Maryland with an unemployment rate that is nearly a full percentage point below the national average.
And while new biotech and engineering openings in Maryland bioparks are published on Monster.com and college career listserves each day, we’re seeing more and more high-paying engineering and high-tech positions filled with out-of-state personnel and out-of-country programmers.
Despite the rich curriculum of science and math tracks at Maryland’s universities, including the renowned programs here at UMBC, far too few Marylanders are enrolling, excelling and entering the workforce in math and science-related fields.
We need to do more to sustain and invest in our workforce and bolster our workforce creation programs
Governor O’Malley and I believe that we start that process of preserving and expanding the workforce by investing in education;
By establishing a world-class educational system that teaches marketable skills from the day our children enter preschool.
We won’t teach these marketable skills by tunneling solely toward the three ‘R’s and teaching merely toward a standardized test.
No, it means that we will encourage the creation of new lesson plans that are tailored toward the skills necessary to succeed in the economy our kids will inherit;
That we’ll invest and place a renewed priority on STEM programs that get kids on the path toward careers in science and technology at an early age;
That we’ll create mentoring opportunities to expose middle school and high school students to industry leaders like you to the point that you’ll soon serve as adjuncts to our teachers;
We’ll look at innovative strategies that’ll enhance the academic curriculum, in high schools and beyond, to better prepare our students so that you have access to a workforce that meets the demands of our changing, adapting, and evolving economy.
This year, under Governor O’Malley’s leadership and in a partnership with the General Assembly, we invested in higher education.
The years of double-digit tuition hikes that taxed children of working families out of a quality college education are a thing of the past.
We understand the need for affordable access to higher education for more students, not fewer, because we understand that this economy needs smart, flexible, well-trained professionals in order to thrive.
It also means we’ll make learning a lifelong endeavor.
For years, Maryland’s four-year institutions, including UMBC, and the State’s community colleges have partnered, guaranteeing admission to associate degree graduates without dropping a single credit hour.
Governor O’Malley and I see a state that enhances such partnerships and that looks to the community colleges to help sustain our workforce and encourage further creation.
We need to make a greater commitment to adult education, to help established professionals continue their training and open new opportunities for promotion.
We need to offer greater access to online course work and distance learning in order to eliminate the distance between rural Maryland, the New Economy and a college degree.
And that’s why we increased funding for community colleges by almost 17 percent—nearly $30 million—the largest increase in recent memory.
Investing in higher education and freezing tuition wasn’t only the right thing to do for working families, it was good business.
Yet, workforce creation is about more than simply providing individuals with the skills to succeed, it can go beyond education.
It calls upon us—working as One Maryland—to preserve, promote and improve our quality of life so we don’t lose talented people to other states or to other countries.
It means investing in open spaces: parks, bike paths, ball fields.
It means working with the private sector and local governments to have the amenities—libraries, theaters, restaurants—that educated people expect from their communities.
It means renewing our unshakeable commitment to public safety.
And, it means building on the success of programs and investments we already have in place, programs that help small businesses like yours compete on the local and global stages.
The Maryland Venture Fund provides capital investments for startup businesses and enterprise investment for viable high-tech companies, and I’d bet there are more than handful of qualified companies in this room today.
To date, Maryland Venture Fund has created more than 1,500 jobs in technology and life sciences, most with salaries near $70,000.
Has helped attract more than $1 billion in private equity and has returned more than $55 million to Maryland.
We’re providing small business with more than just the capital to get started. We’re investing in the support needed to succeed.
The Strategic Assistance Consulting Fund has provided private-sector consulting services for nearly 400 small companies since 2001.
Through the no-cost services of the Procurement Technical Assistance Program, small and minority-owned businesses were awarded $60 million in state contracts this year.
And we’re going to start tracking state procurement to small businesses at StateStat to ensure that we are meeting the goals we set through the Small Business Reserve Program.
If we weren’t doing these things already:
Investing in the individuals of our workforce;
Preserving the quality of life we’ve come to love;
Creating opportunities for small and family-owned business;
If we weren’t already strengthening and growing our economy, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission would have never made the decision to send 60,000 jobs to Maryland.
Governor O’Malley and I are thankful for your service to Maryland.
We’re thankful not only for the jobs you create, but the important role you play in preserving our quality of life and expanding opportunities to a new population of Marylanders.
We—Governor O’Malley and I—will continue to support incentives and tax credits that encourage investment in Maryland’s biotech industries.
And it is our commitment and investment in communities of hard-working and self-bettering people that will keep driving us toward future opportunity.
So, I’ll close with a quote that Governor O’Malley himself borrowed from Hollywood and return to my original thought: “If we build it…they will come.”
If we build the best, most innovative and most competitive workforce,
If we invest in people and harvest their creative potential,
The best, most innovative and most competitive companies—companies in life sciences, biotech and other creative fields—will come to Maryland, will stay in Maryland, and will thrive in Maryland.
Thank you.