O'Malley delivering his State of the State address, courtesy of The Baltimore Sun.
Today, Gov. Martin O’Malley gave his fourth annual State of the State address. And, according to Maryland Reporter, it looked like this:
So now that you know that O’Malley talked a lot about ‘Maryland,’ ‘business,’ ‘jobs,’ and ‘choices,’ you’re probably wondering what it is he said exactly. Here’s the text of O’Malley’s remarks as prepared for delivery. Don’t want to read the whole thing? First, here are some highlights. As for the higher ed arena, O’Malley said the following:
It is not by chance but by choice that – alone among the 50 states – we have made college more affordable for more families in Maryland by going four years in a row without a penny’s increase in college tuition for Maryland residents.
And that was it, except for a mention of “rebuilding community colleges” and some discussion of research and an innovation economy, in which science, technology, engineering and math are all bound to play a role. So what else did he talk about? Jobs, mostly. From Aaron C. Davis and John Wagner’s report in The Washington Post:
But, in a speech that included about three dozen references to ‘jobs,’ O’Malley said that ‘progress requires that we focus the energies of this session on three primary actions: creating jobs, saving jobs and protecting jobs…’
O’Malley’s proposals include a $3,000 tax credit for every person companies hire off Maryland’s unemployment rolls. The initiative would be capped at $20 million in the coming year.
Before the speech, Wagner predicted it would basically serve as a kick-off to O’Malley’s election campaign. And it was. O’Malley used a frame of ‘choice, not chance’ to take responsibility for various positive developments — a top K-12 education system, rock-bottom crime rates — in the state over his four years, and during the 27-minute long speech, he also said — as he repeatedly has — that Maryland is weathering the recession much better than the average state.
Unsurprisingly, Republicans didn’t give the governor the benefit of the doubt. From the Post (emphasis ours):
“Words aren’t going to solve this problem, a good speech isn’t going to make the people of Maryland have jobs tomorrow,” said Senate Minority Leader Allan H. Kittleman (R-Howard), who taped a response to the speech without having seen it.
And those Republicans look likely to rally behind the mantle of former Gov. Robert Ehrlich, who O’Malley ousted. Larry Hogan, who served in Ehrlich’s cabinet, dropped out of the gubernatorial race on Sunday, and called for Ehrlich to enter it, making Ehrlich the likely GOP nominee in 2010.