BRAC Action Plan Release
December 17, 2007
Governor Martin O'Malley
Lieutenant Governor, thank you very much. And to the members of the cabinet who worked on this, thank you also. I know it’s countless hours of work and meetings and sometimes you wonder what was all going to come of this. What will come of this is greater progress for greater numbers of our fellow citizens that we have the privilege to serve.
And I want to thank many of you in this room who I know were also part of this effort. I want to begin with Senator DeGrange and Delegate Love and Delegate King, Delegate Malone, Delegate Bohannan, and anyone else whose critical votes I need from time to time in the Maryland General Assembly. (Laughter)
I also want to thank County Executive Leopold for taking the time to be here with us today and Mayor Fosselman from Kensington in Montgomery County, where there will also be some pressures from BRAC. And Mayor Moe from the great metropolis of Laurel for being here as well and any others who I might have left out.
I especially want to thank the Lieutenant Governor for his work and for his fearlessness in taking on this big topic, because, really, when you look at BRAC, BRAC represents a microcosm of all of the challenges that we are faced with as a State.
There are some other States where their citizens wake up every day and look at the thousands of jobs that are leaving. In our State we wake up and we read headlines about the thousands of jobs that are coming. And we realize that with those additional opportunities and additional residents also comes additional challenges.
So all of us know that BRAC has afforded Maryland a tremendous opportunity; not only to play an expanded role in the defense of our nation, but it also gives us opportunities for economic growth. Opportunities that we might have -- that we might not have anticipated would have come as quickly as they are.
We know that with these opportunities are the challenges. And I believe that Lieutenant Governor Brown, under your leadership and with the BRAC subcabinet, that you have highlighted for us where those challenges are and how we might overcome them together.
If there is anything I can take away from the draft report and your presentation, it is that Maryland is strong and that Maryland is ready for BRAC and the new responsibilities and opportunities that come with BRAC.
We are the wealthiest State in the nation, we are home to some of the top university and research institutions. We have the most highly educated and talented workforce in our country. So, of course, we are ready.
From that strength there is nothing that we cannot accomplish as a people. And, indeed, recently we saw the General Assembly rise to the occasion and rise to this challenge and voted to make historic investments in transportation, the likes of which we have not seen for a long time. Not to mention investments in the intellectual talents of our people.
We have already made a substantial investment to prepare for BRAC and because of that investment, that planning, our country and our soldiers will know that if they are relocated here to Maryland that our State is ready.
So Lieutenant Governor Brown and I believe that we are at our best when we are working together. That’s what that whole mantra of one Maryland means. I see President of the Frederick Commissioners, Jane Gardner, is with us as well today. And that’s really what this subcabinet has done and has been about, bringing together all of the partners. This isn’t something that we can just put on county Government or municipal Government or State Government or even Federal Government. It really requires us to act as one Maryland, to realize that we have to come together to find solutions that enable us to not only prepare for the growth that is coming, but to defend our quality of life and to prepare for the future at the same time.
So I want to commend the staff for the open and collaborative way with which, Lieutenant Governor Brown, you’ve led the subcabinet effort. I have run into so many people around the State who have said to me, even while confessing and scratching their head about how we are going to make these investments in as timely a fashion as all of us would like.
All of them have said to me that they really appreciate your leadership, your openness, your collaborative approach and the welcoming way that you have brought so many people to the table and that’s not easy to accomplish.
BRAC will be here in 2011, but it is not an end date, as the Lieutenant Governor underscored. We have an obligation; an obligation not just to preserve our quality of life, but to improve it. And sometimes challenges like this give you the ability to focus and bring people to the table in ways that you would never have been able to if you had just gone about seeing one another at MaCo or MML or in the normal course of business at the chamber or what have you.
So I want to thank all of you for your tremendous work. We do have a big responsibility in our nation’s defense and with the sort of asymmetrical warfare that we are going to be challenged with for the next 100 years, in terms of, you know, the potential of bioterrorism and all that that entails and the great assets we have at Fort Detrick, at Aberdeen, at NIH, and all points inbetween.
This is our time. You know, Maryland’s economy typically, historically, has always surged ahead during our times of greatest national challenge and this is also going to be a time of great national challenge. It’s going to challenge not only our capacity to churn out -- you know, as it did before, it challenged our capacity to churn out the liberty ships and the tanks.
This is going to challenge our capacity to churn out the healing sciences, the technology, the communication skills, the language skills and everything else that’s going to go into defending our country and lives here at home, as well as our moral leadership of this world.
So, Lieutenant Governor Brown, thank you for your report. Maryland, as you say, is strong and we are well positioned. And we are ready to welcome our new neighbors and our new workers who are coming now and will continue to come through 2011. And I think actually are going to come for decades and decades, even after that.
We are now in the process of formulating -- as Secretary Foster can tell you, after taking a deep breath from Special Session -- we come back up and see another wave approaching of the Regular Session.
So a lot of the good work that you have done will guide the decisions that we now have to make with our colleagues in the State Legislature on the capital budget expenditures, on the operating budget and where we invest those dollars that the hardworking people of Maryland have earned and invest to make a better future for their kids.
So, I’ll be glad to answer any questions that any of you may have.
