BALTIMORE — Maryland’s next governor is setting high expectations.
Both before and after his landslide victory Tuesday, Democratic Gov.-elect Wes Moore has talked of a vast, idealistic vision for his time leading state government.
Tackling racial and economic disparities. Ending child poverty. Making Maryland a leader in technology and a state with the workforce of the future.
But for someone who’s spent his career outside government — aside from a few internships and a yearlong fellowship in Washington, D.C. — it’s not yet known how Moore will prioritize and govern both for short- and long-term goals. Also to be determined is how he’ll manage a bureaucracy of 40,000 employees, a historically depleted number that may lead to a hiring spree.
“We are going to move fast. And we’re going to be bold. And we’re going to be fearless,” Moore said Thursday when announcing his transition team. Specifics on how his team is “planning on actualizing” his agenda would come soon, he said.
In interviews and public statements over his year-and-a-half campaign, the 44-year-old Baltimore resident has offered some hints about how he will specifically govern — from the policy side to the bureaucracy to eliminating potential conflicts of interest.
“I am thrilled about what the future of Maryland is, and what the next decade for the state of Maryland is going to be, and Maryland is going to lead,” Moore said in an interview Wednesday with The Baltimore Sun.
What he’s said he’ll do
While Moore often paints his vision for the future with broad strokes, he took stances in specific policy areas that many Marylanders will expect him to make reality.
Raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour in 2023 is one that Moore has said he would make a priority. Maryland’s minimum wage for businesses with 15 or more employees is $12.50; it will increase to $13.25 on Jan. 1. The minimum wage is currently scheduled to increase again to $15 per hour for those businesses in 2025.
He’s also committed to enshrining the right to an abortion in the state constitution. Though abortion access is not at risk under a Democratic administration in Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June to strike down Roe v. Wade likely put the issue high on the legislature’s 2023 agenda.
Another early priority could be taking steps to establish a program that guarantees high school graduates a year of paid public service, if they want it. It was one of the few specific policies Moore mentioned Thursday during his news conference.
“When we say that we are going to be a state that will have the first ‘service year’ option for every single high school graduate, we mean that,” Moore said.
Other commitments — often involving large-scale investments of state and federal money — he’s spoken about in broader terms.
Some involve long-range goals, like “dramatically increasing investments in solar, wind, cleaner transportation systems” to have 80% of Maryland’s electricity be produced by “clean sources” by 2030 and 100% by 2035. That would help implement a law passed by the General Assembly this year to reduce carbon emissions by 60% before 2031 and make Maryland carbon neutral by 2045.
Others include criminal justice initiatives that would increase funding for violence interruption programs, programs for people reentering the community from prison, filling vacancies in state-run probation and parole offices, and money for local law enforcement agencies to recruit more officers, along with offering more training for police on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Those pledges came without dollar figures as a candidate. As governor, Moore will be tasked with putting a number on each.
For the first time in eight years, Democrats will control the General Assembly and the governor’s office. The powerful Board of Public Works — made up of the governor, comptroller and the state treasurer (who’s chosen by the legislature) — is also set to turn all-Democrat.
Asked about a potential lack of checks and balances, Moore told The Sun that the voters made their selections on Election Day. He also stressed that while he’s a “very proud Democrat,” he has always thought of himself as “a very independent thinker who thinks deeply about these issues.” His team, he said, will be “inclusive” of all views.
House of Delegates Minority Leader Jason Buckel said Saturday he’s sure Republicans in the General Assembly will “be taking a substantive look at the qualifications and suitability” of Moore’s cabinet nominees, and noted that the bulk of the budget oversight process takes place when the legislature is in Annapolis.
“The budget oversight process largely evolves during session and, with the change in our legislative budgeting authority, there will likely be more robust discussions than ever,” Buckel wrote in a text message. State voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2020 that gives the General Assembly a bigger role in shaping the budget, starting with the spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Getting input
Moore and Lt. Gov.-elect Aruna Miller said inclusion will be at the center of both their transition and governing strategies. Some groups are already knocking on the door.
“When Wes Moore walks into the governor’s office, his team has to be ready to go,” said Alice Wilkerson, a lobbyist and former state Senate staffer who is running a project gearing up to present the incoming administration with a litany of policy recommendations.
Wilkerson said close to 200 people associated with various Maryland policy-focused organizations have contributed to the 2023 Project, including through 16 work groups and 20 surveys. Policy proposals are being drawn up on topics like transportation, workforce development and behavioral health care. It plans to begin releasing some reports — which will run from brief overviews of the topics to lengthy recommendations.
The recommendations will focus on changes within state agencies, like “shifting the vision” of the Department of Transportation from a primary focus on roads to one on transit.
“The idea is to be a public resource, really, for the transition team, for the incoming administration, the legislature and other advocates,” said Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Montgomery County when he was in the state Senate.
Wilkerson said state agencies will be responsible for completing much of Moore’s agenda, and thousands of positions have remained unfilled under Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. The workers who remain are “not just understaffed, they are woefully underpaid,” Wilkerson said.
“This might be a place where his experience is going to be really critical,” Wilkerson said, referring to Moore’s past as chief executive of one of the country’s largest anti-poverty nonprofits. “We need someone who can come up with a plan for how we restructure and re-base our salaries for the state employees.”
Kali Schumitz, vice president of external relations at the Maryland Center on Economic Policy, one of the groups involved in the 2023 Project, said vacancies for front-line workers under the Department of Health have been one of the most pressing staffing problems since the pandemic began.
When officials announced in September there was an unallocated $1 billion portion of the state budget surplus, Moore said it was partly because of a “massive amount” of staffing shortages in state government jobs.
“This has been a concern that’s been raised to us as we traveled across the state,” Miller said Thursday when asked about filling the vacant positions.
Moore has said transportation and infrastructure projects, including schools, should also be a priority for the surplus and for the billions in unspent federal infrastructure funds.
Who’s in the mix so far
Moore, even as a first-time candidate, had the most expansive list of endorsements and connections out of anyone in the 10-person Democratic primary field or in the general election. That gives him no shortage of high-profile or experienced resumes to choose from for his cabinet and other leading state government jobs.
He hasn’t offered any preview so far of who he might tap.
Also, several of the Democrats he beat in July have a wealth of experience in government he could draw on, like former U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Tom Perez. Perez was state labor secretary under Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley and has worked in the federal Justice and Health and Human Services departments, as well as for the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy.
Moore narrowly won the Democratic nomination over Perez, who supported Moore in the general election.
In a recent interview, Moore called Perez “a friend” and said the pair “will be working together” as his team thinks about the future of his incoming administration.
His transition team, meanwhile, is a mix of big names in the private, public and nonprofit worlds.
Cleo Hirsch, who led Baltimore City Public Schools through its pandemic response, will direct the transition. Co-chairs include Miller, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, Downtown Partnership of Baltimore President Shelonda Stokes, campaign treasurer Mary Tydings, and former Howard County Executive Ken Ulman.
Alsobrooks, Prince George’s first female county executive, was potentially the most vital endorsement for Moore. She backed him early in the primary and helped deliver Moore’s largest primary victory in Prince George’s. The county is home to the largest number of Democrats in the state, and Moore won the statewide primary in July by a slim margin.
Others are making up the transition’s steering committee to develop policy recommendations. They include former Gov. Parris Glendening, state legislators such as Baltimore Sen. Antonio Hayes, two former Maryland secretaries of state, lawyers, finance and businesspeople, and religious and nonprofit leaders.
Maryland State Education Association President Cheryl Bost — whose 76,000-person union also gave Moore a pivotal endorsement in the primary — is also on the committee.
Avoiding conflicts of interest
Transitioning from private citizen to public official, Moore will face his first test of transparency when he steps away from his business and financial ties to avoid potential conflicts of interest.
Moore said during the campaign that, if elected, he would move his expansive financial interests into a blind trust. He also said he would resign from all board positions, including with Under Armour, the Baltimore-based athletic apparel company that has benefited from state grants and tax credits.
Moore told The Sun he’s started the process of the resignations and establishing the blind trust, which he called the “most aggressive framework that you can lay out, because you literally don’t have any idea of what securities you own.” Asked whether he would release the language outlining his blind trust in the coming months, he said only that “we’re going to have more details.”
As of the most recent public reports available, Moore also owned thousands of shares of different companies, including Under Armour and Green Thumb Industries, a Chicago-based cannabis company that does business in Maryland and whose board he also sat on until earlier this year. He has not specifically said he will divest his interest in those companies.
“I’m proud of the fact that, I believe that, I’m setting a new standard as to how people should view this, and giving people of this state a very real deal of confidence that the only interest that I’m going to be concerned about is theirs,” Moore said.
