Making Progress for Maryland
Maryland has tremendous opportunities in the challenging times ahead of us. But working together in 2007, we were able to move Maryland forward simultaneously along three fronts: Workforce Creation, Sustainability, and Security Integration. Making government work again enables us to protect the quality of life for all of Maryland's families.
Protecting Our Families and Maryland's Quality of Life
- Fought for and established America’s first Living Wage law – providing a decent wage for a full day’s work.
- Reformed ground rent system, eliminating the creation of new ground rents.
- Made our tax system fairer by providing an income tax cut for middle class families – to offset the penny sales tax increase – and closing corporate loopholes.
- Reduced spending by $280 million in FY 08, and will reduce estimated spending by an additional $550 million next year.
- Expanded access to healthcare coverage for 100,000 more Marylanders and made healthcare more affordable for small businesses.
- Established Home Preservation Task Force to protect homeownership.
- Signed law making Maryland’s restaurants and bars smoke-free.
Making Government Work
- Established StateStat, a performance measurement system for State agencies that will improve accountability and efficiency.
- Established BayStat to coordinate public, private, non-profit efforts to save the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.
- Established BRAC Subcabinet to work with local governments and military installations to coordinate planning for base realignment. Comprehensive report completed.
- Reconstituted the Public Service Commission with independent, professional regulators.
- Closed an inherited $1.7 billion structural deficit to secure the State’s future.
- Finally settled the slots issue – that has gridlocked our government for years – by letting the people decide in a referendum.
Greatness lies in our ability to advance along these fronts as One Maryland, and by focusing our efforts on these unifying strategies, we were successful in:
Making Education Central to Economic Growth
- Froze tuition at public colleges and universities to make college more affordable.
- Invested a record $400 million in school construction, and provided the largest education funding increase in state history.
- Established first-ever Higher Education Trust Fund to stabilize tuition costs for families.
- Established the Maryland Life Sciences Advisory Board to support and attract biotechnology companies to our state.
- Made healthcare more affordable for small businesses.
- Invested $23 million in healing stem cell research.
- Created the SEED School – Maryland’s newest statewide public boarding school.
- Boosted investment in community colleges by 18% and invested a record $69 million in better facilities – strengthening a critical connection to economic mobility.
- Made Thornton sustainable to protect investments in K-12 Education.
- Helped farmers protect the land by keeping farming profitable, with record investments in cover crops and agricultural innovation.
- Proposed aid to Maryland’s Horse Racing Industry with slots referendum.
- Appointed 7 new members to Maryland State Board of Education.
Leading on Environmental & Energy Reforms
- Created the Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund to help restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay.
- Led efforts to improve the Chesapeake Bay, signing laws to improve stormwater management and require phosphorus-free detergent, and accepting regional Forest Conservation Agreement.
- Established BayStat to coordinate public, private, non-profit efforts to save the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.
- Created the Climate Change Commission to develop an action plan to address climate change in Maryland and rising sea levels in the Chesapeake Bay.
- Fought for and signed into law the Clean Cars law to clean our air.
- Launched the EmPOWER Maryland Initiative, setting the most ambitious goal in the nation to decrease per capita energy consumption 15% by 2015.
- Fought sprawl and traffic by blocking the massive Four Seasons development on the Bay, fully funding Program Open Space and restoring Maryland’s leadership in Smart Growth.
- Joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, working with 9 other states to reduce emissions and fight global warming.
- Boosted renewable energy with a law making solar energy more affordable, and the Clean Energy Schools initiative to put solar panels on schools.
- Helped farmers protect the land by keeping farming profitable, investing a record $8 million in cover crop programs and tripled annual budget for MARBIDCO and agricultural innovation.
- Passed the Oyster Restoration Act to restore oyster population of the Bay.
Keeping Maryland Safe
- Ended parole for child sex offenders with Jessica’s Law.
- Invested $2 million in monitoring child sex offenders – including GPS tracking.
- Closed Maryland’s most violent prison: Maryland House of Corrections
- Passed a tough anti-gang law to help prosecutors get convictions.
- Boosted drug treatment by $5 million.
- Began long-needed reform of Juvenile Services, opening the first new, smaller facility in years.
- Initiated a Comstat Technical Assistance program to enhance crime analysis.
- Launched a Gang Intelligence Gathering Initiative to track gang members by sharing information between State and local governmental correctional facilities.
- Forged a partnership with the District of Columbia to fight cross-border gun trafficking.
- Began sharing live arrest data with DC to enable Parole and Probation to get reoffenders off the street.
- Enabled State Police to access mental health data before approving gun purchases – in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy.
- Closed the backlog of untested and uncollected DNA samples from convicted felons, achieving, 287 matches of DNA evidence to the national FBI DNA database in 2007.
