Job’s Not Done

Over the last three years, we’ve made damn good progress in Maryland...

We’ve created more pathways to work, wages, and wealth for Marylanders: We raised the minimum wage. We cut taxes for the middle class and for military veterans. We’ve added nearly 100,000 new jobs to the state. We made Maryland the first state in the country with a service year option for our young people.

We’ve made it easier to start and raise a family in Maryland: We funded paid family and medical leave. We created the ENOUGH Initiative to address concentrated child poverty in communities throughout the state. We’ve invested record funding in K-12 public education. We cut the teacher vacancy rates in half and have seen reading and math score improvements across virtually every grade in the state.

We’ve made our communities safer: We’ve overseen a historic drop in violent crime across the entire state. We’ve taken major actions to close the racial wealth gap. We pardoned over 180,000 misdemeanor cannabis convictions.

And made things more affordable: We’ve made significant investments to improve Maryland’s health systems. We signed into law the most comprehensive housing package of any Maryland administration in decades. We’ve connected more than 43,000 homes to high-speed internet, from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore.

The DECADE Act: The Decade Act broadens our ability to attract, develop, and grow businesses here. It makes our state more competitive – and reduces the amount we rely on the federal government – by modernizing outdated programs and processes for today’s changing economy.

The Maryland Transit & Housing Opportunity Act: You’ve probably driven through Baltimore and seen an underdeveloped lot next to a Metro or light rail station, and thought, “It’d be great if we could build housing there so I wouldn’t have to drive everywhere.” Well that’s exactly what our plan is. There are hundreds of acres of underdeveloped state-owned land throughout the state. We’re going to unlock those sites so we can build thousands of housing units and strengthen economic development in local communities, so more people can actually live near where they work.

The Protection from Predatory Pricing Act: Right now, businesses can charge you more at the cash register based on the data they’re keeping about you! People are already being stretched thin. The last thing we need are prices changing on you as you shop. This Act stops grocery stores and third-party delivery services from using personal data and automated systems to set individual prices for goods.

The VAX Act: The Trump-Vance Administration has made it abundantly clear that they’re happy to play political games with people’s health. We’re not interested in that. Instead, we’re protecting people’s health by grounding immunization and preventive care recommendations in independent medical organizations – not political pressure from Washington.

The Utility RELIEF Act: We all know that energy prices are ridiculously high. My own Mom texts and calls me every other week to tell me about how high her bills are! To lower energy bills, we worked with leaders in the General Assembly to close a loophole that’s been costing ratepayers millions, make data centers pay their fair share of energy costs instead of passing them off to Maryland families, and invest in the fastest and cheapest way to bring new energy generation online.

Maryland’s legislative session is a 90-day sprint. Everyone in Annapolis is moving at full speed as we work together to find the best path forward. But these days it’s quieter in the State House. There are fewer lanyards clanking in the halls and the student pages aren’t running around. I’ve had more time to reflect.

While we’ve made great progress, I will not rest until we’ve made this Maryland’s decade.

It’s about rural residents who now have access to affordable health care because we chose to invest millions in health care in rural areas across the state. It’s about giving a young man who served his time a second chance so he can provide for his family. It’s about the single parent who gets money put back in her pocket because we made the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit permanent and expanded the child tax credit.

That’s who this is for. That’s who it’s always been for.