2-2-11: The State of Our State
February 2, 2011 at 8:15 am 2 comments
Thursday at noon in Annapolis, Governor Martin O’Malley will deliver his State of the State address. We here at Maryland Morning thought this would be a good time to take a look at the state of the state as well. So our producers went through last year’s State of the State and found a few of the most important topic areas: transportation, jobs, homeownership, and crime.
We talk to Baltimore Sun reporter Peter Hermann about crime and violence. Pat Carroll, president-elect of the Maryland Association of Realtors, tells us about homeownership in Maryland. Richard Clinch, professor and director of economic development at the Jacob France Institute at the University of Baltimore’s Merrick School of Business, gives us his view on jobs and the economy. Fred Ducca, our transportation guru, heads the Transportation Policy Research Group at the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education.
Entry filed under: economy, Policy, Politics. Tags: crime, homeownership, jobs, politics, transportation.
Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast 
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Jim Barnes | February 2, 2011 at 9:32 am
How come people here accept that this nation is decades behind in public transportation? It takes about two and half hour to get to New York from Baltimore (approximately 200 miles). In Europe the TGV (old technology dating back to 1976) travels at an average speed of 173 mph, the Wuhan-Guangzhou train in China travels at 194 mph on average. That would cut traveling time to New York in half! It would enable people to travel between DC and New York in an hour and half or so. It is beyond my understanding why the government isn’t moving the United States into modern times with modern high speed trains like the rest of the world.
Its a great project, will employ lot of people, provide great commuting possibilities and reduces the impact on nature with greener transport alternatives.
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Jason | February 2, 2011 at 10:17 am
The ‘state of the state’ business perspective may represent what big business and the Chamber of Commerce think Maryland has to do, but it doesn’t sound like the worries I hear from small business owners.
We worry about access to credit, high health care costs, good schools, and smarter regulation. Taking on global giants like Wal-Mart or Comcast that aren’t paying their share of state taxes or health care costs is exactly the right approach.
This is the second time in as many weeks that WYPR has broadcast a ‘business’ message that doesn’t speak for many thousands of businesses in Maryland. The other was a report calling a proposed alcohol tax ‘devastating’ for Maryland’s small business. Nonsense.