As the first county leader to endorse Wes Moore’s candidacy for Governor, I watch like a hawk and try to read the room when he attends the annual gatherings of the Maryland Association of Counties (MACO). Last week at the winter MACO meeting, he made me proud.
The main course was his speech to 1000-or-so at the evening dinner, but earlier that day the Governor met privately with the MACO Board of Directors - a group of sixteen County Executives, Commissioners, and Councilmembers - to share his thoughts and address concerns.
We’re a tough audience. We do governing, we do politics, and we do budgets in our counties. We’re evenly divided by political party, and we all have been impressed with how responsive, respectful, and attentive this Governor and his team have been to our local issues.
There were hugs all around when he entered the room, but we wanted answers. All of us were aware that the structural budget deficit that the Department of Legislative Services has been writing about since 2017 is now upon us, and that some combination of state cuts and revenue enhancements would soon be impacting what we do.
The Governor jumped right in. His comments were a preview of what he would say publicly that evening, and I was impressed in both venues. His grasp of macroeconomic forces and how they impact everyday people brought me back to his lesser-known book titled, The Work. It describes his own career and those of other do-gooders that he admires, including his time on Wall Street during the Great Recession. Knowing that he weathered that storm in the belly of the beast and speaks fluently on economic matters gives me confidence that we are sailing into this storm with the right captain.
His frustration is real when he notes the absurdity of a 70% increase in state government spending between 2017 and 2022, during a time when Maryland’s GDP grew only 3%, far slower than the country’s 11% growth in the same period. I suppose our collective excuse is that we were made to feel financially secure, first by the surpluses generated by Governor Hogan’s failure to fill thousands of positions in agencies that serve our most vulnerable residents, and later by federal COVID recovery funds.
Governor Moore spoke to the experience of most county leaders when he said that this long-delayed budget crisis is too big to address just with cuts or just with taxes. The forthcoming budget will have things for all of us to dislike. We get that.
But his data point that intrigued me most was that if Maryland had nurtured its economy as other states had, and had managed even an 8% GDP increase, three points below the national average, we wouldn’t be dealing with a deficit today. That, he said, is fixable.
He talked about targeting growth in the industries where we have advantages: life sciences, IT, and aerospace and defense. He also talked about coordinating economic development strategies with counties, since we know best what works locally. OK. I’m listening, Governor. Makes sense, but…
I’ll be honest here. I’ve heard a lot of politicians who promised that economic growth would solve budget challenges. It’s usually part of a package of tax cuts for the rich, and deregulation. Sometimes it comes with what I call “corporate welfare,” and it almost always accompanies cuts to programs that serve vulnerable groups. Trickle-down economics created the kinds of deficits and disparities that I’m not down for.
But I walked out of the MACO meetings inspired about Governor Moore’s emerging plan. Here’s why.
This governor is a student and a practitioner of the post-trickle-down, inclusive, and sustainable economics that are essential to growth in an economy that has more jobs than qualified workers. Wes Moore knows that the only way we can grow our economy in this era is with housing that workers can afford to live in, childcare that allows parents to work, education that delivers qualified workers, and by addressing the social determinants of health, starting in the communities with the highest levels of poverty.
He won’t walk away from that work, not only because his values won’t let him, but also because he understands what our businesses depend on - a reliable workforce.
The Governor’s approach resonates with me. I share his belief in the power of private businesses to solve problems in partnership with the public, and public institutions. Our state, our county, and our country have the assets to end childhood poverty, house every family, educate every person, and create enough wealth to fund public agencies. But I believe that we will have to sacrifice some things and delay some gratification to get on that path to progress.
Governor Moore listened well these last two years. He watched carefully as opposing forces debated the best way forward. He made modest cuts to get us to this day, and now he must present a budget. As he said in his speech, there will be plenty of things that folks won’t like, even things that he doesn’t like. But this budget won’t have a deficit. It will be balanced.
My hope is that during the upcoming session, Annapolis will show this Governor the grace that he has shown us, that the Democrats, Republicans, lobbyists, and advocates see common ground in the concept of a new kind of growth - economic growth that is inclusive, sustainable, and capable of generating the wealth that can fund the services that our people deserve.
I’ll be working toward that end in the coming months, and I’ll share what I hear in this letter.
Until next week …