It has been said that Maryland is America in miniature – if only every state had all the potential of Maryland.  Our state has one of the highest per capita incomes in the US, with one of the lowest poverty levels.  We have an impressive number of high technology enterprises in the state, which are certainly helped by our proximity to Washington, D.C., and the collocation of a large number of federal research and development activities. 

Our technology workforce is exceptional with more professional and technical people in the workforce than any other state.  Maryland tops the 50 states with the most Ph.D. biologists and an equally impressive number of Ph.D. computer scientists.  Our research professionals and entrepreneurs are responsible for bringing more health R&D into our state than any other, and our overall federal R&D awards ranked second in the nation.

My own experience has been in the business of research and development.  I am a Corporate Vice President at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a company which has grown 2400% since I joined it in the mid 1980’s. Today, SAIC has over $6B in annual revenue with over 40,000 employees worldwide.  The operation that I manage has business in defense, bioinformatics, and multi-media electronic publishing technologies. 

I have represented Maryland’s high tech industry on several state task forces and boards, including: the High Speed Network Development Task Force, the Internet Privacy Subcommittee of the Information Technology Board, and the Maryland Home Team (a position appointed by Governor Glendening, focused on making Maryland more entrepreneur friendly).  I have been an invited speaker at a number of High Tech Council and Chamber of Commerce sponsored events in the state, as well as the last three CIO Forums at the Maryland Technology Showcase at the Baltimore Convention Center.

One of my key goals as a legislator will be to champion entrepreneurial initiatives and opportunities for businesses operated in the state.  Growth of these businesses will be critical in the coming years, since we a state budget deficit of over $700M is projected next year.  An improved state economy could help to eliminate more than half of that deficit – without raising taxes.

A State Government which Serves Business and the Community

These businesses deserve a state government which is motivated the same way that they are – to serve the customer.  As tax payers, we are both the “share holders” and customer of the state government, and the government must be prepared to quickly respond to our needs.  The government must focus on legislation and programs which improve our quality of life while at the same time remaining dedicated to preserving what is unique and historically significant about our state.

The state must develop a pro-business stance which fosters cooperation between government, industry, and academia.  Collaborative ventures between these three parties will be a key theme in legislation which I sponsor.  Such partnerships should be created in order to address challenges which our state economy faces in rural, suburban, and urban areas.  Government must work to establish these partnerships in order to attract private investment, create enduring employment, and increase the efficiency with which services are delivered to citizens.  I will draft legislation procurement reform which encourages this sort of partnering.

Maryland – a cradle for small business

Maryland is a cradle for all sorts of small businesses.  Ninety-eight percent (98%) of all private business in the state are small businesses (i.e., less than 100 employees).  Over $9B in annual payrolls are generated by these 140,000+ businesses across the state.  Of course Maryland has its fair share of large companies as well (which include a wide range of business areas ranging from aerospace to biomedical to manufacturing), but it is small businesses that is the backbone of private employment in the state.

Businesses cannot work in a vacuum.  Companies need to have resources to grow – customers, a skilled work force, capital, groups to partner with, and competitive advantage.  Additionally, since the federal and state governments play such a significant role in the local economy, it is important to build on that strong base. 

With such an active small business community, our proximity to federal R&D centers, and our highly technical work force, there is an excellent opportunity to bring these forces together to create even more high tech businesses.  Maryland’s state government has worked hard to create a range of programs for small business assistance, loans, and other incentives, however I believe that more can be done.

In order to further encourage the creation of high tech jobs in the state, I will foster the creation of further programs within the Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) which provide incentives for our state’s entrepreneurs to establish new initiatives in technology commercialization.  This would be an expansion of efforts that I undertook two years ago to ensure that private industry would have a role in commercialization advances in cancer treatment and diagnostics which were paid for under state R&D sponsorship.  At that time I worked with the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) to amend the Tobacco Restitution Act so that private industry would have an explicit role in commercializing this state sponsored research and development. 

If elected, I will push for the for the creation of a new DBED program to provide tax credits to small businesses which work to commercialize technologies developed under federal or state funding.  This will complement other DBED programs which provide loans and business planning assistance.  Credits will be directly proportional to new jobs created in Maryland from these efforts.

Tomorrow’s government today

Two years ago I participated with a group of my collegues in the creation of twelve new eGovernment bills.  These bills, dubbed “the digital dozen,” set the stage for the state to embark on a range of digital government initiatives that led to Maryland being named one of the best “eGovernments” in the nation.  At that time, the legislature and the Governor set forth the goal of having 80% of state services available on line by 2004.

Since that time significant progress has been made toward that goal, however much more remains to be done.  There is still significant disparity in Internet availability within the state and the “digital divide” is no closer to be closed.  In fact, while one would think that Internet availability to the public might be the primary problem, consider the fact that some of our state agencies believe that only have 50% of their employees may have email services at work by FY2003. 

At the same time as we’re falling behind on the Governor’s plan to implement an efficient 24X7 Internet-ready government, the 2002 legislature has reduced information technology spending in state agencies by nearly $60M.  These cuts prevent the implementation of government process reforms which would both save the state money and provide more responsive government services.  We need to move forward with the process of not just creating on-line forms for businesses to fill out, but in fact give businesses and citizens the on-line tools to more rapidly and efficiently conduct business with the state (e.g., permitting, applications, payment, information exchange, bidding, etc.).

If elected I will push for the reinstatement of eGovernment funds in both the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as well as across other state agencies and insist that the state hold to its statutory deadline for these reforms (i.e., 2004), and hold the departments accountable for non-compliance with the law.

A network for change

In 1998 when I was appointed by the Governor to the High Speed Network Development Task Force, my colleagues (from government, industry and academia) felt that we had an idea which could transform the state.  That idea was the development of a high speed network which would crisscross  the state, linking state agencies with the citizens that they serve as well as provide the state the means to reduce transportation, telecommunications, and information technology costs.

Our Task Force worked diligently for two years preparing a plan for a public/private partnership which would make our businesses more competitive, our schools more empowered, and our government more efficient.  Through these partnerships and resource sharing agreements, the state deployed over 300 miles of fiber optic cable throughout the state – as far west as Cumberland, as far north as the Delaware border on Interstate 95, and as far south as southern Charles County.  Efforts were made to begin pilot programs in telemedicine, counter-terrorism, intermodal transportation, and digital libraries.  These plans were further discussed in forums which we held across the state, meeting with local government officials, citizen groups, and impacted institutions in the health, education, and business sectors.  In addition, plans were developed to cross the Bay Bridge, and provide a high speed network connection to each county and the city of Baltimore.

Since the “sunset” of our Task Force in 2000, the state has moved very slowly on further Net.work.Maryland deployment and planning.  Not only has this delayed projected savings, it has also resulted in confusion among state agencies that were counting on the network being deployed.  In addition, a considerable amount of effort went into working with the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) to establish ways that the state could subdivide its network bandwidth to sell excess capacity to network service providers.  This was not followed through, and we are still waiting for resolution of this issue.

If elected I will work with the administration to reinvigorate Net.work.Maryland as a priority in the state’s technology plans.  Full implementation of the network will save the state money and be the vehicle to deliver entirely new eGovernment services to our citizens.