Updates from the Governor

January 25

Dear Friends, 

This week, I had the privilege of delivering my second annual State of the State Address to the Citizens of Maryland and the Maryland General Assembly to assess our strengths and weaknesses as a community and to decide how we will come together to meet the challenges of our time. 

Maryland has been a strong state.  In many respects, we are a stronger and safer state today than we were at this same time last year, but the future of our State is very much determined by the strength and the security of the families of Maryland.

Today, with wages stagnant and a national economic downturn on the horizon, the vast majority of Maryland's families are finding it harder and harder just to pay their bills and maintain their quality of life.  This is not just a Maryland problem; it is a national problem, which is why we met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday on the federal government's economic stimulus package to strengthen our middle class. 

I believe that the way we come through these tough times together as One Maryland - and the way we get through them more quickly than other states - is not by abandoning our priorities, but by protecting them:

• To strengthen and protect our middle class, our family owned businesses and family farms,
• To protect our commitment to improve public safety and public education in every single part of our State, and;
• To protect opportunity - the opportunity to learn, to earn, to enjoy the health of the people we love, as well as the health of the land, the water, the air and the Bay that we love - for more people rather than fewer.

Last year, we came together to restore fiscal accountability to our State after inheriting a crushing structural deficit, and working together this year, we have put forward a fiscally responsible budget to protect the priorities of our people.

As we work our way through the important days ahead, let's not forget the good in our lives, our family and friends, our neighbors, our fellow Marylanders.  Together, we know that Maryland is a stronger state than most and we can get through these tough economic times if we continue to come together to protect the priorities that make us strong.

Sincerely,

 

Martin O’Malley
Governor

 

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