Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Maryland Muncipal Leauge
Ocean City, Maryland
June 29, 2010
(As Prepared)
Thank you all very much,…Congratulations Gary Comegys on your election as President. And Congratulations Craig Moe on wrapping up a very successful term at the helm of this great organization. Mayor Sidney Katz, thank you for your hard work and leadership as the Chair of the State Share Revenue Workgroup. Thank you to Scott Hancock and your team at MML. Congratulations on a great convention!
I also want to thank Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown for being here as well and for his participation every year with MML and for the great work that he’s done on healthcare, higher education, on job creation with managing BRAC. Anthony is the highest ranking elected official in our country that has served a tour of duty in Iraq. (Applause.) He’s not only, I think, one of the most effective Lieutenant Governors, if not the most effective Lieutenant Governor in the country, but he’s also brought to this Administration a real sensitivity on a number of scores, including the way we care for our veterans when they come home from having served us. Your State does more than any other state. (Applause.)
We’ve heard some great truths tonight from Ms. McKenzie who said that great mayors work alongside their citizens. And also from Mayor Eckman, that service is our business.
I really want to thank all of you for the tremendous work that you do. And, Craig, again thank you for wrapping up a very successful presidency at the helm of this organization.
I was going over some of my remarks from last year, I’m sure you all saved a copy of it. (Laughter.)
You may be surprised to know that I warned of the tough decisions ahead and also talked about the hope that’s going to come after these tough decisions. And I also cited the Serenity Prayer my mom always had on her refrigerator door. No doubt it could almost be the prayer of mayors, the one that goes:
God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
I want to talk with you about what I know is on all of your minds and that is how we’re going to weather this storm.
Tough Choices in Tough Times
I know that the Highway User Revenues cuts really hurt. And I want to talk about that.
I also want to talk about the storms, the back-to-back blizzards, that you fought back hard against. And I saw many of you during those weeks and you did a tremendous job. Talk about service being our business, I mean, that was a time when all of you were needed and you all stepped up. So I wanted to update you on the FEMA process.
And I also just wanted to touch on some of the very hopeful signs we’re seeing that our economy is starting to turn and that, in fact, because of your hard work and because of the tough decisions we’re making together, we’re certain to come out of this thing.
I don’t have a crystal ball, none of us do. But I do see a lot of reasons for hope out there and I hope you’re starting to see them as well.
I do want to touch on another thing, though. Mayor Eckman was talking about his leadership in La Plata and Sydney and I were talking at the table there. Sydney Katz had sent a crew from Gaithersburg and we had sent a crew from Baltimore. And I will always remember when I got a call from Mayor Eckman, telling me that our crew had arrived there in La Plata. And it makes you feel so good in those times when people are really down and they feel like they’ve been knocked flat on their back that, as Mayor, you have the power to do something about that. And that’s what happened in La Plata. And, you know, in a very real way that’s what each of you has been doing in your towns for the last two years. Not a tornado, but certainly the deepest economic recession our country has seen since the Great Depression.
You should give yourselves all a pat on the back. I mean, people look to their Mayors, they look to their municipal leaders to provide that stability, that hope for the future, even amidst the challenges of these times.
I want to thank all of you for your partnership and your friendship over these years. We’ve made some impressive progress, even in these tough times. All of you serve because you know you’re needed. And you know that it is also somewhere in your heart, you feel it’s a tremendous privilege to be able to serve when you’re needed.
If you think about the great leaders of our country, they’re remembered not because they served in easy times, but because they served in tough times. And you have been the great leaders of our State because you have served in the toughest of times.
If you want to see an example of the resilient, strong forward looking character that’s always defined us as Marylanders, look around at some of the people in this room, look around at people like Mayor Gail Carter of Glenarden, the new president of the Maryland Black Mayors, who is partnering with the First Baptist Church of Glenarden on initiatives to combat hunger in the face of these tough times.
Or leaders like Mayor Willey of Easton, who is fighting hard to save the jobs at the Postal Distribution Center.
Or Mayor Bill Gardiner and the city council of Hyattsville, who in partnership with the State are moving forward on $100 million downtown revitalization, which is supporting hundreds of construction jobs right now and will support 100 retail jobs in the future.
Look at the tremendous strides that are being made on public safety, saving lives, in Annapolis and also in Salisbury. And hats off to Mayor Cohen and Mayor Ireton for their leadership.
“The future is not a gift, it’s an achievement” and each of you is achieving that better future that all of us want for our kids.
You know, throughout our State, municipal leaders are moving our cities and our towns forward and you’re doing so in the toughest of times.
I came across this book and I wanted to share it with you and it’s by Margaret Wheatley, who some of you may be familiar with.
She said that, “It is possible to prepare for the future without knowing what it will be.” And that “The primary way to prepare for the unknown is to attend to the quality of our relationships,…”
To attend to the quality of our relationships -- I have done my very best to put in place in the O’Malley-Brown Administration a group of men and women who are competent at what they do. Who understand what housing and community development should be about, who understand the challenges that you’re facing, who are there to pick up the phone when you call them.
I have not had the pleasure to be able to serve at a time when I had two nickels to rub together to help you out with your funding. I know that and you know that as well. But you know what? Competence does count for something and I really want to thank all of you who gave me such nice comments about people like Secretary Skinner and other people in this Administration, people like Kristen Mahoney in the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention.
And I thank you for being there on the other end of the phone as beacons of confidence and hope that we can make progress, even in tough times.
Now, our State has fared better than most states fare in this national recession, but I don’t have to tell this room that that does not mean that we have gone through this without a lot of pain -- a whole lot of pain. All across our State, through no fault of their own, a lot of moms and dads have lost their family homes. They’ve lost their jobs. Family owned businesses fighting for two years just to keep the doors open, had to close the doors. Our families have been forced by the recession to do more with less, they’ve been fighting merely to survive.
And that’s also been true of municipal and the state government as well. And through the heavy lifting of that special session -- which in retrospect I’m very grateful that we were able to muster together the compromises that needed to be done, because if we hadn’t we’d have been in the category with other states like California – but through that heavy lifting session, through two General Assembly sessions, not one, not two, not three, not four, but five mid-year rounds of cuts at the Board of Public Works, I affirmatively decided not to cut the Highway User Revenues. It was my hope, it was my sincere hope -- and I don’t mind telling you it was my nightly prayer -- that we might see our economy rebound before I would have to do more cuts.
But, my friends, it didn’t work out that way. And when I made the cuts to the Highway User Revenues it wasn’t because I didn’t know how painful and difficult that would be for each and everyone of you. I used to be mayor, I was mayor of a big city, I know how those Highway User Revenues -- how important they are to you. And I hope it’s some consolation to you -- and I shared this with Scott and Sydney and Craig as well. The fact that it’s one of the very last things cut hopefully is an indication to you that as we start to see our revenues rebound, it might well be one of the earlier things that we’re able to restore. Because I know it’s important to you.
Let me touch on one other thing on that score. This is the first Administration this side of the Great Depression where the state level of spending has actually been lower now than it was four years ago. That’s never happened before.
We have cut and reduced spending by a total of $5.6 billion and that Highway User Revenue cut, the municipalities share of that, represents 1.3 percent of the $5.6 billion that we have cut. None of this has been fun. But you know what, none of us volunteered to serve only on condition that we serve in easy times, and so we move forward.
I want to compliment all of you on what you did to respond in that snow storm and let me touch on that.
The challenges that we faced with back-to-back blizzards that happened within a 72 hour period of time were totally unprecedented. And I have been personally appealing to President Obama and Secretary Napolitano, at Homeland Security, who oversees FEMA, along with our Congressional delegation -- Barbara Mikulski, Frank Kratovil and our entire delegation. And we are pushing hard to try to get the Administration to waive the 75 percent reimbursement threshold and other ceiling thresholds. For the December snow, we’ve received word that FEMA has approved more than $622,000 in direct reimbursements to municipalities – including, for example, nearly $42,000 for Elkton, nearly $35,000 for Aberdeen, and more than $29,000 for Chestertown.
We are still awaiting word on outstanding applications and we will let you know just as soon as we get word about the February snow.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Let me share some good news with you. You ready for some good news? (Applause.)
How about some good news?
When the March job numbers came out, it was the first positive month of job gains that our State has seen in some 19 months. (Applause.)
We need to keep creating jobs. Since January we’ve created 38,000 jobs. That rate of job growth, by the way, is twice what the national rate of job growth has been.
Our unemployment rate is going down. We continue to be one of only eight states with AAA bond rating. Education Week Magazine -- even in the midst of this recession, because of our protection of our children’s future and education, we were declared by Education Week Magazine to have the best public school system in the United States two years in a row. Your State, our State. (Applause.)
Because of the good work that so many of you are doing in the municipalities, in the municipal police departments, together -- even in the midst of a recession, with the joblessness and the pain that’s out there -- we were able to drive violent crime down to its lowest rate since 1975.
And recently -- in the last legislative session, I want to thank you for helping us find and pass a bill that requires defendants in traffic cases to request a trial, rather than having their trial date automatically scheduled. And I hope that that will make a difference in some of the bottom lines on municipal budgets.
But there is no more powerful place in our State -- and you know this -- there is no more powerful place in our State than a family’s house. And there’s nothing more important for protecting that home than a job.
And so all of our jobs, collectively, needs to be to do everything we possibly can to save jobs, retain jobs, improve the conditions that allow our businesses, large and small, to create and save jobs. And I know that there’s a lot of naysayers and a lot of pessimists who say there’s nothing the government can do about that. But I don’t buy that and I don’t think you do either or you wouldn’t be here.
I mean, we’re creating 5,700 jobs at the Port of Baltimore through a public/private partnership, which only happened because the State chose to do so. GM is going to be building their next generation of electric drive motor right here in Maryland in White Marsh. Not by chance, but because we had that AAA bond rating, we were able to go toe-to-toe in that competition and bring what will be about 800 jobs because of that.
The more than 700 jobs that we’re creating because of the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit that so many of you worked to pass in the legislature.
The 60,000 jobs Anthony Brown has shepherded here because of the Base Realignment and Closure process. Tech jobs, security jobs, cyber security jobs.
The jobs that have been created by our New Hiring Tax Credit -- $5,000 for any company large, medium or small, that hires one of our neighbors off of the unemployment roles.
The Small Business Loan Guaranty fund is getting the wheels of small business lending churning again and rolling again on Maryland main streets.
The thousands of jobs that -- 13,000 actually in the last quarter -- that were supported because of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The 20,000 jobs that are going to be supported because of our AAA bond rating and the capital investments being made around our State.
The jobs of tomorrow that are going to be coming here because we have the most highly educated and highly skilled workforce.
Forward, Not Back
Today, with stronger connections to one another, we are moving Maryland forward. There’s not a doubt in my mind that it is large part due to you hanging in there, each and every one of you -- hanging in there -- in these tough times.
In tough times we don’t make excuses. we make progress.
With the ability to create new jobs and secure global competitiveness as Marylanders, we move forward, not back.
With not only hope, but the true ability and better technology and better coordination with law enforcement, we’ve driven crime down to its lowest rate since 1975 and we’re going to continue to save lives. Because in Maryland we move forward and not back.
With the ranking of the best schools in America we need to make sure our kids have the best education in the world because we move forward and not back.
With the ability to lead our whole nation to a much more sustainable future in balance and better harmony with the land, the air and the water and the creation around us, with the ability to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay and the rivers and streams, we move forward, not back.
Conclusion
The best days in life are not the easy days, they’re the tough days. And I thank you all so very, very much for hanging in there on the tough days.
Our best days are ahead of us, they’re not behind us. Our best days are ahead of us. The night is darkest just before dawn. Our State is moving out of this recession and we’re doing it at a time when our country really needs to do it.
So hang in there. We are all in this together.
And again, I thank you all so very, very much for what you do.
