Last week, Governor O’Malley proposed a balanced budget that takes a balanced approach to ensure that our government operates within its means but still makes the investments to prepare Maryland for the future.
The Governor’s proposal makes the difficult decisions to address our deficits, but maintains critical investments that will put Maryland in a position to out-build, out-innovate and out-compete other states and nations.
Here are 5 things you should know about the Governor’s budget:
1. Jobs
This budget places a priority on jobs. 52,000 of them to be specific. In addition, $4 billion is specifically directed towards programs that will spur job creation.
2. Education
Education is a critical investment and the Governor is committed to taking the necessary action to guarantee every child gets the skills they need. Funding for our #1 ranked public schools has increased 22% under Governor O’Malley to $5 billion.
3. Healthcare
Governor O’Malley has worked to ensure every Marylander has access to affordable and quality healthcare. This is particularly true for vulnerable citizens and children. This year we’re protecting healthcare coverage for more than 1 million people, included 400,000 previously uninsured.
4. Public Safety
Violent crime has gone down every year during the O’Malley-Brown Administration and this budget will continue that trend by improving law enforcement communications systems, targeting substance abuse and gun trafficking, and funding 2 new trooper classes.
5. Fiscal Responsibility
The budget uses a balanced approach which not only protects our AAA bond rating and stays within spending affordability guidelines, but also makes significant progress in closing Maryland’s structural deficit. The budget contains $800 million in total funds reductions, and shrinks the size of government per Marylander to the lowest level since 1973.
Budgets are about priorities and values, and Governor O’Malley’s budget makes the right choices to grow our economy, create jobs and strengthen our competitiveness.
Maryland Democratic Party Chair Yvette Lewis issued the following statement after Education Week ranked Maryland first for the fourth straight year in their annual report card on American education. Education Week grades all 50 states and the District of Columbia in six areas related to policy and performance.
Maryland’s number one ranking among all 50 states for the fourth year in a row is a great tribute to Governor O’Malley and Maryland Democrats who have made significant reforms and record investments in public education. When it comes to opportunity, competitiveness, and jobs, nothing is more important than education. Thanks to Governor O’Malley, an outstanding education is within reach of every Maryland child. In these tough times, it is more important than ever to continue to protect investments in education and to ensure we never shortchange Maryland’s children and our future.
As you probably know by now, Maryland created more than twice as many new jobs as neighboring Virginia from January to November 2011 (26,700 vs. 10,900.)
98.5% of Maryland’s new jobs were created in the private sector. Only 30% of Virginia’s new jobs resulted from private sector job growth.
So what truth are we to draw from this?
Republicans, conservative think tanks, anti-labor activists and proponents of radical anti-tax dogma have long claimed that Maryland relies too heavily on federal spending, while DC’s southern neighbor Virginia is described as a bastion of private enterprise (at least when there’s a Republican in Richmond.)
All of this predictable economic fiction is flatly contradicted by the economic reality of last year’s job creation.
Maryland created twice as many new jobs in 2011, 98.5% of them in the private sector. And while Virginia created far fewer jobs, more than two-thirds of them depended on government spending.
Virginia is a big place, and it has a larger workforce to match. Which means that job for job, Virginia must not only create as many jobs as Maryland, but significantly more if it hopes to keep pace with the rate of economic growth in Maryland and push our region forward.
Before we can do that, we must acknowledge the economic facts of a changing economy. While we’ve come to accept that Maryland’s GOP sees greener pastures in neighboring states, lately this economic fiction has taken root beyond the shadows of right-wing blogs, and has been heard from the lips of politicians, pundits and newspaper columnists.
It’s surprisingly easy to detect economic fiction when you hear it. The economic facts are simply too accessible and clear to ignore. Perhaps that’s why Bob McDonnell is hoping to flee the Commonwealth to join forces with another great perpetrator of economic fiction – Mitt Romney.
