ANNAPOLIS, MD (January 19, 2011) – Governor Martin O’Malley delivered his inaugural address today after being sworn-in for a second term as Maryland’s Governor. Joined with him in front of Maryland’s State House were members of the Governor’s family, Lt. Governor Anthony Brown and his family, members of Maryland’s Congressional delegation, State leaders, Maryland’s County Executives, members of the faith community, and former Maryland elected officials.
“Today, we reaffirm that we are One Maryland, united by our belief in the dignity of every individual, and by our belief in our own responsibility to advance the greater good,” Governor O’Malley said. “In our State, there is no such thing as a spare American; we are all in this together. And as One Maryland, we ask God for His blessing, protection, and grace.”
Governor O’Malley, in his address, noted the challenging times our nation has experienced through this global recession, and our need for resolve to come through these times together.
“Four years ago, few could have foreseen the suffering so many Maryland families would endure as our national economy and global financial markets nearly collapsed,” he said. “We could not have imagined how many moms and dads would lose their jobs and homes, or how many small businesses would have to close their doors. In times of adversity, the people of Maryland do not make excuses, we make progress.”
Governor O’Malley stressed the need to come through these challenging times not only through innovation, but by rejecting the idea that we are destined to slip backwards.
“There are some challenges so large, that we can only address them together: making this new economy ours; spurring innovation; harnessing its job creating and healing potential; improving public schools, public safety, public works, the protection of our public health and our natural resources,” Governor O’Malley said. “We must move beyond the debilitating idea that our children will not enjoy a better quality of life than we have, that we are destined to decline, backslide and fail. No generation of Americans ever built monuments to their own comfort. I say our best days are ahead of us – but only if we choose to make it so.”
Governor O’Malley’s used today’s address to highlight the points of progress that, despite tough economic times, we’ve achieved together as One Maryland, including:
- Maryland employers created the best year of net new job creation since 2000, adding more than 36,000 new jobs between January and November 2010. That is a growth rate twice that of the national average.
- Record investments in public K-12 education for the last four years.
- Alone among the fifty states, kept in-state college tuition at zero percent increase for four straight years.
- Continued investment in job-creating industries like biotechnology, life sciences, renewable energy, and research and development.
- Driven crime down to their lowest rates ever recorded in Maryland.
- Extended healthcare coverage to more than 240,000 Marylanders in the last four years, half of whom are children.
- Guided by science, instituted the necessary regulations to restore the blue crab population in the Chesapeake Bay.
- Cut state government spending $5.6 billion and reduced the size of government.
Despite our challenges, Governor O’Malley outlined the positive position Maryland is in to transform our challenges into the jobs and opportunities of the new economy:
“We are at the threshold of brilliant science, innovative technology and remarkable discoveries that will transform, for the better, the opportunities and the world that we leave to our children,” Governor O’Malley said. “From the schools, laboratories, and companies of Maryland are emerging the discoveries, technologies, and jobs that will remake our world.”
Acknowledging the need to work together to achieve these goals, Governor O’Malley called on all Marylanders to recognize the unity we share as a community:
“In this search for answers and solutions, Maryland is not a random scattering of isolated individuals totally on our own. We need each other just as much as the next generation needs us. We cannot allow our individual sense of entitlement to tear apart our shared sense of community.”
“To heal our painful economic and political wounds, we must connect more of Maryland to itself,” Governor O’Malley concluded. “We must recognize the unity that already is, and find ways to work together that strengthen with that unity. This is our challenge, not of government alone or society as a whole, but of every individual who values the title of citizen.”
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