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Wes Moore talks about Red Line and taxes, filling vacancies, and Orioles lease
Jack Hogan//September 10, 2023
“We've been very clear that we can focus on pathways to work, wages and wealth for all Marylanders. We can make sure we’re investing in industries of the now and industries of the future and make Maryland a real leader in the field,” Gov. Wes Moore said. “And, by the way, do it and not raise taxes on a single Marylander.” (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Wes Moore talks about Red Line and taxes, filling vacancies, and Orioles lease
//September 10, 2023
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is pushing back on concerns about the possibility of a Red Line bus network and said he’s been “very clear” that his administration can expand the state’s economy without raising taxes “on a single Marylander,” as demonstrated in this year’s budget.
Unlike Moore’s first budget cycle, though, the state is facing a projected structural deficit.
Moore, a Democrat who took office in January, becoming Maryland’s first Black governor and the third ever elected in the country, also spoke during an interview with The Daily Record about the importance of elected officials shifting their tone about state employment and said that differing messages from top Democrats won’t hinder stadium lease negotiations with the owners of the Baltimore Orioles.
Pushing back on concerns of a Red Line bus network
Community organizers and business leaders in Baltimore have said that a proposed bus network for the revamped east-west Red Line in the city wouldn’t be well received.
Jonathan Sacks, executive director of HUB West Baltimore Community Development Corp, has said that, if Moore announces the Red Line will be an expanded bus service, “that’s not going to be received well in West Baltimore.” Greater Baltimore Committee President and CEO Mark Anthony Thomas has said it could prompt a “lack of enthusiasm.”
Moore, though, said “there’s not much data behind that argument” and stressed that the state won’t decide on a transportation mode without community input.
“It’s naïve, at this point, until we’ve actually gone through our process of hearing from the community, to determine how the community is going to feel,” Moore said. “I don’t want to predetermine the answers that I’m getting from the community.”
The Red Line is expected to be either bus rapid transit or a light-rail system, and it likely won’t combine the two modes.
Maryland Transit Administrator Holly Arnold has said that Baltimore residents she’s heard from have had misconceptions about the prospect of a Red Line bus network.
She said that a recent series of open-house meetings highlighted a need to educate the public about the difference between bus rapid transit and Baltimore’s existing bus lanes.
The Federal Transit Administration defines bus rapid transit as more than simply an expansion of a city bus network; it includes dedicated lanes, busways, traffic signal priority, off-board fare collection, elevated platforms and “enhanced” stops and stations.
By October or November, the Maryland Transit Administration is expected to have specifics of different Red Line proposals.
Countering talks of tax hikes
Entering a budget cycle with a projected structural deficit, Moore pointed to this year’s budget as evidence that his administration can shift Maryland’s economic approach — investing in growing industries like artificial intelligence, cyber technology and quantum computing and expanding the state’s tax base — without raising people’s taxes.
The governor and members of his Cabinet, though, have shied from specifying how spending may change as the state approaches a projected structural deficit — forecasted to reach $1.8 billion by 2027 — after years of surplus thanks, in part, to several rounds of federal COVID relief and historic stock market performances.
“We’ve been very clear that we can focus on pathways to work, wages and wealth for all Marylanders. We can make sure we’re investing in industries of the now and industries of the future and make Maryland a real leader in the field,” Moore said. “And, by the way, do it and not raise taxes on a single Marylander.”
Moore said that, roughly four months from when he’s expected to introduce his proposed budget, his administration isn’t ready to outline a specific approach for balancing the budget.
“It’s too early to know what is going to be the proposed budget that we’re going to have in January,” Moore said. “These dynamics do shift. The economy shifts.”
Moore is expected to propose an operating and capital budget to state lawmakers by Jan. 17, and the legislature has until April 1 to pass a budget.
Conservatives are concerned the state will raise taxes and place more onus on counties to pay for a plan to transform public education systems and increase annual school funding by $3.8 billion for 10 years.
Responding to his critics, Moore said, “I understand partisan talking points. … But, if you look at the data, and if you look at what we’ve been able to do, I think we’ve been able to show the people of our state that we are going to be both bold and be fiscally responsible.”
Shifting the tone around state workers
Part of Moore’s push to fill roughly 10,000 vacancies in state government — for which he has blamed Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan and said repeatedly is one of the toughest challenges his administration faces — includes changing the way elected officials speak about state employees.
“Some of the language that we’ve used around state employees (has) not just been detrimental, it’s been dangerous,” Moore said. “If we aren’t careful, you’re not just going to drive people away from the profession, you’re going to make people less safe and less secure in their communities and in their own neighborhoods.
“You’ve seen a significant shift in the way that we’re going about, not just the individual incentives we put in place, but also we’re careful with our language,” he said. “I am very upfront and full-throated in my support of all of our people who choose to raise their hand and serve our society in a powerful way, because we need them all.”
The Moore administration and its allies in the state legislature have made it a point to identify state employees as public servants and have called for people to join the state’s workforce.
“I want people to be — and know that they should feel like they’re — a larger part of the democratic process,” Moore said, “which also means them being able to work and fill these seats and take on these responsibilities and be public servants in a variety of different definitions of the word.”
Among the hurdles to hiring more state workers is the competition that county governments present.
In the case of correctional officers, those working for a county get paid more and reach the top of the pay scale quicker, while also working in lower security facilities, said Patrick Moran, president of AFSCME Council 3, which represents about 45,000 public employees, including the state’s correctional officers.
For road crew workers, which Moran said is “one of the most dangerous jobs in the country,” county employees are more likely to be on roads that are less traveled and have lower speed limits.
Moran said that a retirement wave in state government is looming, too.
Those working in correctional facilities, he said, can put in 20 years and start collecting a pension. There’s a “huge chunk” working in corrections who will be reaching that point in the coming years, which could prompt a drain of institutional knowledge and a potential “tidal wave” of problems, he said.
Moran noted that the Moore administration is “aggressively trying to hire people” and that the union is participating in hiring events the state has hosted.
On the Camden Yards lease negotiations
There have been conflicting messages between Moore and top Democrats about how the state should handle its negotiations with the Baltimore Orioles for a new Camden Yards lease.
Moore has said multiple times that the stadium lease will be linked to broader plans to develop downtown Baltimore.
“You can’t separate how I think about the role that the Orioles are going to play, not just in terms of putting together a winning baseball team, but the importance of that being part of a larger conversation about the future of Baltimore and the future of the downtown corridor,” Moore said. “There was never a level of interest to talk about a short-term lease.”
While Moore has said the Maryland Stadium Authority is working with Orioles Managing Partner John Angelos to ink a long-term deal that will include revitalizing the area surrounding the ballpark, state Senate President Bill Ferguson and Comptroller Brooke Lierman have, according to reports from The Baltimore Sun and WBAL-AM, said the lease and the plans to develop the Camden Yards area should be separate conversations.
Ferguson, who represents Baltimore, and Lierman, who represented the city in the House of Delegates before assuming the role of state treasurer in January, have said the state should sign a lease with the team before discussing development plans.
Moore said his disagreement with Ferguson and Lierman won’t hinder the lease talks.
“I feel very good about our negotiating posture,” he said.
The team’s existing lease with the Maryland Stadium Authority is set to expire at the end of the year.
Editor’s note: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in an interview last week with The Daily Record that his administration has “been very clear that we can focus on pathways to work, wages and wealth for all Marylanders. We can make sure we’re investing in industries of the now and industries of the future and make Maryland a real leader in the field. And, by the way, do it and not raise taxes on a single Marylander.”
In this story, originally published on Sept. 10, The Daily Record reported that Moore planned to expand the state’s economy without raising taxes “on a single Marylander,” despite a projected structural deficit.
Spokesmen for the governor’s office disputed The Daily Record’s interpretation of Moore’s comments, saying that he was speaking about this current year’s budget and was not committing to not raising taxes next year. This story has been revised to reflect the Moore administration’s clarification.
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