Opinion - Centreville Spy

Character Rot: Sounding the Alarm by Johnny O’Brien

May 15, 2025 by Opinion Leave a Comment

Most of us are aware of the damage Donald Trump is doing to government service, freedom of expression, our universities, and democracy. And the moral decay our “national role model” is inflicting upon America with his daily lying, greed, spite, and vindictiveness.

But most of us are less aware of the grave threat Trump and his spineless minions represent to our precious children, just by broadcasting his malignant narcissism every day. It is not too early to sound the alarm.

For starters, just picture our vulnerable teens bombarded by their commander-in-chief, who rules as a greedy, lawless king—where kindness, honesty, humility, and cooperation are for “suckers and losers.” Our kids, with their online tools and savvy, know this. They see and hear it every day. The most powerful leader in the world (their “leader”) is trashing the most sacred values that have defined America since its founding.

And to what effect on our coming-of-age children? At a minimum, confusion about what behavior or character counts. More frequently, they embrace the loss of moral guardrails and behave (as in Golding’s Lord of the Flies) any way they want.

This is not a theory. I first saw it recently at a boarding school for needy children I once led. It has over 2,000 students and prides itself on building character. Just four months into Trump’s leadership model, more students are flouting rules and debasing their school’s Sacred Values.

When challenged, responses include:

“Why should I be kind to a weak classmate?”
“Why do I need to tell the truth?”
“Why should I share credit with a teammate?”

The school’s Sacred Values—like Integrity and Mutual Trust—are being routinely tested.

Note: These behaviors seem to be more manifest in boys, who are more likely to challenge norms and authority (and who already have excessive learning difficulties these days). And, BTW, where were these teens during Trump’s first term? In late elementary and early middle school, where early character formation is founded.

What fate, then, for our children and their character? What is the future for the sacred values of our critical institutions?

Awareness of a real and present danger is always the first step to combating a serious threat. “This too will pass” is not a sufficient response to 8–12 years of socially induced character decay.

Such a grave challenge will fall first to our parents… and then to our teachers and coaches, who influence behavior the most. And then to our community, church, and political leaders—who, when organized, can effectively resist the moral decay.

But also to each of us who care about America’s character and the moral fiber of our children—those of us who still value kindness, honesty, and the greater common good, and do not want our young folks to become the “Greedy Me Generation.”

Johnny O’Brien is a former president of the Milton Hershey School and its first alumnus to lead the institution. Orphaned at a young age, he was raised at the school and graduated in 1961 before earning a degree from Princeton University and pursuing graduate studies at Johns Hopkins. O’Brien later founded Renaissance Leadership, a firm that coached executives at major corporations. In 2003, he returned to Hershey as its president. He is also the author of Semisweet: An Orphan’s Journey Through the School the Hersheys Built, and currently lives in Easton.

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The Political is Personal: Reflections on DEI by Margaret Andersen

February 1, 2025 by Opinion Leave a Comment

As the women’s movement was unfolding in the late 1960s, all across the country women gathered in small, informal groups called consciousness raising (CR) groups—conversations that helped us identify the societal origins of problems we were facing in our individual lives. Domestic violence, rape, job discrimination, illegal abortion, the lack of birth control—you name it: These were experienced as personal problems, but their origins were in society and required political, not just personal solutions. For so many of us in my generation, “the personal is political” was a rallying call–a call for change not just in our personal lives, but in society and our social institutions.

This was a time (and it wasn’t that long ago) when there were no women in what we studied in school. Colleges were places where women could only wear dresses. Blue jeans, which became the symbol of a generation, were forbidden on campus—until women revolted. Blue jeans were a symbol of the working class and wearing them, as suggested by SNCC (the activist group, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), was a symbol of solidarity with the working class. Women demanded their rights—on campus, at home, at work: everywhere!

We embarked on a course of compensatory education, trying to learn through any means necessary all that had been left out of what we were taught. There were few studies about women; even medical science routinely excluded women from research samples. When I was in graduate school (where I had no women professors), what we learned about women came from newsprint pamphlets, our CR groups, and whatever we could put our hands on that taught us about women’s history, lives, artistic contributions, and everyday experiences. This was the birth of Women’s Studies—or what is now often called gender studies.

My compensatory education had to offset all I had not learned about women, about people of color, about LGBTQ experiences—in other words, my education excluded more than half the world’s population. Ironically, the term “compensatory education” at the time usually referred to what was perceived as inadequate education for people of color in racially segregated schools, but we all need an education that teaches us about the full range of human experience.

As time proceeded, our efforts to “integrate” education by including the work, experiences, and contributions of women, people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQ people became institutionalized in women’s studies programs, ethnic and racial studies programs, LGBTQ studies, and—yes–diversity initiatives: the now demonized DEI!

Now the assault on so-called DEI feels like a punch in the gut to me. I have devoted fifty plus years of my education and the education I have passed on to others in the interest of an inclusive, not exclusive, curriculum. Scholarship in these diverse areas of study has flourished and people have learned that having more inclusive educational and workplace settings actually improves performance for ALL groups. What is it that is so threatening about DEI that powerful interests are now trying to wipe it out of every institution?

I’ll hazard a guess that most opponents of so-called DEI cannot tell you what it is. Of course, many of us have sat through boring workshops intended to raise our awareness of “DEI.” A lot of us have raised our understanding of what changes—both personal and political—are necessary to achieve a more fair and equitable society—in all its dimensions. To me, DEI is just about that—respecting and understanding the enormous diversity of people living and working all around us; desiring more equitable (just plain fair) opportunities for people to achieve their dreams; and being inclusive, not exclusive, in how we think and who we think about—and value.

I take the current assault on DEI as a personal affront—an affront on all I have worked for over fifty plus years as a professor, author, and college administrator. The time is frightening and, like many of my friends, colleagues, and family members, most days I just want to crawl in a hole. I feel powerless to change the retrograde actions that are happening all around us, every day. But the changes I have witnessed in my own lifetime are vast and should not be taken for granted. We must speak out even when it feels like there are big risks in doing so.

Even putting these thoughts in print feels scary given the retribution that is now all too common. But I ask you to remember: I am your neighbor, might have been your teacher, am not a criminal. I am an American and love my country, as I hear you do too. But before you post some nasty comment to this letter, I ask you also to think about whether you want your child, your friend, your neighbor to grow up in a country where we learn little, if anything, about people’s experiences other than our own and where powerful interests ask you to ignore the hard work of so many who fought to bring you a more inclusive, just, and open society.

I also ask you to deeply care about anyone, maybe in your family or friendship network, who loves a lesbian or gay daughter or sibling, even when the coming out process asked them to change everything they thought they knew. Love those who cherish and embrace a trans member of the family even when their old beliefs were upended by this reality. Love those who have fully welcomed an interracial couple and their children into an otherwise all white family. Care about anyone from an immigrant background who came to this nation to seek a better life for themselves and their children. Know their experiences; don’t believe the myths.

To all of you, my heart is with you even as I rage!

Dr Margaret L. Andersen is the Elizabeth and Edward Rosenberg Professor Emerita, Founder and Executive Director of the President’s Diversity Initiative, University of Delaware, who lives in Oxford.

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New report reveals value of resource conservation for Shore businesses by John Horner

January 30, 2025 by Opinion Leave a Comment

I consider it a privilege to live and work in a place so many Marylanders associate with vacations, retirement, recreation, and quiet retreats. But as good as our parks, rivers, beaches, and charming towns are for those very activities—the Eastern Shore is equally a place of everyday living and hard honest work, schools and small businesses, boat builders and watermen. At Easton Utilities, we are invested in it all – whether we’re powering the air conditioning in a vacation home so that a young family can escape a summer heat wave, keeping the lights on in a farmer’s winter workshop, helping a local restaurant cook with natural gas, or providing high speed internet to a long-awaited new healthcare facility.

It’s easy to see how a utility company economically benefits the residents and visitors of the Shore. But all of our services would be irrelevant if not for the benefits provided by our water, woodlands, clean air, wildlife, fertile soil, beaches, and abundant seafood. These natural resources offer more than an admirable landscape and deep cultural identity, they drive our economy. Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC), in collaboration with the Delmarva Restoration and Conservation Network (DRCN), recently released a report titled, “Economic Impact of Natural Resources Conservation on the Delmarva Peninsula.” This comprehensive study highlights the undeniable benefits of the Eastern Shore’s natural resources.

Since I first began at Easton Utilities, we have made sustainability a priority. Our Easton Sustainability Campus is constantly developing new innovative ways to pursue our sustainability mission of conserving natural resources in a way that is economically viable. Located at our Enhanced Nutrient Removal (ENR) Wastewater Treatment Facility, this campus also houses our cost-effective 2 MW solar array which was significantly grant-funded by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). In fact, our ENR Wastewater Treatment Facility’s exceptional performance regarding nitrogen and phosphorous discharge concentrations has resulted in additional grant funding year over year from MDE. These funds are reinvested in the wastewater facility for ongoing operations and maintenance undertakings in order to continue optimal performance.

In addition, from our annual tree planting initiative to our pollinator habitat, we remain committed to enhancing the quality of life in our beloved coastal communities by making environmental stewardship a priority and seeking out cost-effective projects which can help us to address the needs of both our place and our people.

Now more than ever, ESLC’s economic report reveals just how critical conservation efforts are if we want to preserve our beautiful peninsula home and unique way of life. Land conservation anchors environmental stewardship; it’s a cornerstone for preserving the Eastern Shore’s cultural heritage and its economy. By safeguarding Delmarva’s natural resources, we ensure that future generations can experience the beauty, traditions, and productive, meaningful work that define this unique region.

In my role as the President and CEO of Easton Utilities, I am ever mindful of what drives the Eastern Shore quality of life for both our employees and our customers. This new report shares in numbers what we all feel daily: the natural resources of the Shore keep us afloat. I am confident that Easton Utilities, through our partnership with the Town of Easton and Mayor Megan Cook, will continue to do everything in our power to conserve our precious region while providing for our community, and now with an even greater understanding of the essential value of our natural resources.

John Horner is the president and CEO of Easton Utilities

The report can be read here.

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History of US Territorial Acquisitions By Tom Timberman

January 27, 2025 by Spy Desk Leave a Comment

President Trump’s second Administration has begun. And one of his most memorable goals mentioned during the 2024 Campaign, is to expand the geographic size of the United States. The locations Mr. Trump identified as potential additions are: the Panama Canal Zone, Greenland and Canada (as 51^st state). The last strikes me as highly unlikely, but the other two may be more serious contenders.

Whether his Administration’s pursuit of these two represent negotiating tactics to gain some other concession or represent actual targets for acquisition, is unknown. However, if the latter, then some background to earlier territorial additions and how they were obtained, would be of interest.

Since the founding of the United States on July 4, 1776, twenty nine very large to very small acquisitions have been made. The first was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 (827,987 sq. miles) and the last, the Northern Mariana Islands in 1947 (467 sq. miles). The USG used six methods over 144 years to grow the square miles subject to US sovereignty: (1) Purchase, (2) Cession, (3) Annexation, (4) Incorporation, (5) Treaty and my favorite, (6) by the authority of the Guano Act of 1856, which permits US citizens to claim uninhabited islands on behalf of the United States, if they contain Guano.

The Treaty of Paris (9/03/1783) granted the 13 colonies their independence and established the external borders of the new United States of America. However, sovereignty over the territory of the 13 states (892,137 Sq. Miles) wasn’t settled until 1802, when they were ceded to the US Federal Government and the individual states.

In 2025, the size of the United States is 3,531,905 Sq. Mi. How the USG gathered an additional 2,,596,937 square miles after 1783/1802 is an interesting 144 years of our history.

Growing Bigger and Bigger: The table below describes when, how and what territory, the USG acquired those accounts for the country’s current size.

It is important to understand the different circumstances under which territory was transferred to the United States. For instance, under the category “Purchase”,between 1803 and 1944 America gained 1,636,695 Sq. Mi. at a cos5t of $57,200,,000. And in 1854, 72,000 Sq. Mi. were bought from Mexico for $10,000,000, but another 529,189 Sq. Mi. were Ceded to the US after Mexico lost the Mexican-American War.

The Spanish-American War lasted only 8 months, but netted the US through Annexation 389,166 Sq. Mi (Texas plus) and by Treaty also from Spain at the same time, another 3508 Sq. Mi. (Puerto Rico)

However, without doubt, the $15,000,000 President Jefferson paid France 1803, for the Louisiana Purchase, Napoleon had earlier seized from Spain, was a bargain. It added 827 million Sq. Mi., almost doubling the country’s size. However, Jefferson’s major reason for pursuing the deal, was national security – the US gained control over the Mississippi River.

And Hawaii’s 6,450 Sq. Mi. of beauty and beaches was annexed in 1898, following a successful coup against the Queen, by a group of wealthy American landowners. And in 1906, the USG annexed 31, 069 Sq. Mi. of Indian Territory.

Turning to President Trump’s possible interest in acquiring Greenland (836,300 Sq. Mi., 80% of which is covered by an ice cap) , the low prices of the past, no longer exist. Moreover, it’s the largest island in the world, inhabited by some 60,000 people and is a largely self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a US NATO Ally. And then there is the Panama Canal Zone (553 Sq. Mi), the US leased it from Panama under the terms of the 1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (upfront payment of $10 million and an annual rent of $250,000). Eleven years later the Canal, constructed by the US, opened for public use. President Carter terminated the lease in 1979 and gradually returned the zone to Panama.

And if somehow Canada becomes the 51^st State of the USA, it would more than double the size of our country again, by adding another 3,850,000 Sq. Mi.

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Presidential pasts and an impending future by Steve Parks

January 17, 2025 by Steve Parks Leave a Comment

Former president and now president-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated again – this time to a non-consecutive second term. (The first since Grover Cleveland, elected in 1885 and 1893.) Although I was disappointed, to say the least, about his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November, it is clear that Trump was elected fair and square by millions of Americans I disagree with regarding his fitness for office.

Despite my severe doubts based on his first-term presidency – two impeachments resulting in party-line acquittals and four felony charges: two blocked by judicial stall tactics, another by a prosecutor’s personal indiscretion, plus one conviction with no penalties allowed – I had no choice but to respect the results and give the winner the benefit of aforementioned doubts. I say “no choice” because without evidence of anything but a straight-up electoral Trump victory meant to me – as it should to any American who believes in democracy – that he is our once and now-again president. Others I respect on the losing side upheld that rightful interpretation of constitutional law. Harris conceded the next morning. And she fulfilled her constitutional duty as vice president and president of the Senate to confirm the electoral count on Jan. 6. Remember that date, anyone? Hakeem Jeffries, minority leader of the House of Representatives, gaveled his announcement of the final count to the applause of mostly the winning side. Nothing wrong with that. But compare this entirely peaceful transfer of power to that of the MAGA mob, egged on by Trump, on the same date four years ago.

Still, Trump is about to be our next president. And he was among a rich and rare assemblage of colleagues on another historic day just last week. Trump and three other former presidents, plus President Joe Biden, sat together as a far more exclusive club than the “Saturday Night Live” five-timer host club. But it was the centenarian of the hour, 39th President Jimmy Carter, whose funeral stood as a still-living memorial to the great man in the flag-draped casket – a fallible human of unassailable character, decency, integrity and the belief I have now and always did that Jimmy Carter never lied to us. All the eulogies were authentically moving and real. No embellishment necessary. One of my favorites was the bipartisan tribute read by Gerald Ford’s son Steven because these former presidential election rivals and best friends for the rest of their lives, agreed to write each other’s eulogies. Carter outlasted Ford by 18 years.

I can apply none of those accolades to the man about to take his second oath of office I doubt he will keep for a minute. I say that because I’m certain he will never take the step that could redeem himself and his idolaters: Tell the truth about the 2020 election. Are we to just pretend that he’s not the one who tried to “steal” an election? – campaigning before and after the votes were counted that it was “rigged.” It’s an impossible feat considering all the states, counties, and municipalities, not to mention the thousands of precincts you’d have to line up to pull off a stolen national election. And never mind there is zero evidence of such a widespread possibility in 2020. If Donald could bring himself to announce, or at least imply, at his inauguration in front of the president who once defeated him that, yes, Biden won that election, just as he – Trump – won this one, he could obliterate the fact-free obsession that has divided America for more than five years. Confession is good for the soul and would be for the country he now leads. Again. But Trump will never do that.

Too bad for all of us on either side of his contagious lie. You won in 2024, Mr. Trump. Mr. President. And no one seriously challenges that. Why would you contribute to keeping the country divided against itself as you did when you lacked the simple courtesy of attending Biden’s inauguration? Sore loser, for sure. Why would you now be a sore winner as well? Just to get even? Surely, you can’t expect to run again. Make the best of this term for yourself, your legacy, and for all the rest of us.

Jimmy could be watching you, Donald. But you don’t seem to care. You think Carter was a loser. But so were you in 2020. Be a man and admit it. Put an end to all the personal strife you brought upon yourself as a result. And all of us fellow Americans, too. Then get on with being the best president you can be for a more united USA.

Make America Grateful Again – grateful to be who we are when we’re all working together.

Steve Parks is a retired journalist now living in Easton.

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Maryland’s fiscal apocalypse by Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr.

January 12, 2025 by Opinion Leave a Comment

Maryland’s State Budget is teetering on the brink of an unprecedented financial collapse. The refusal to address formula-driven mandatory and entitlement spending threatens to thrust the state into a cycle of automatic “runaway” deficits, culminating in a financial “Extinction Level Event” in the near future. Despite the gravity of this crisis, political leaders have shied away from the structural reforms necessary to restore fiscal stability. Without bold action, Maryland’s taxpayers face a perilous future.

At the heart of Maryland’s fiscal woes is the rigid structure of formula-driven mandatory spending. These formulas mandate funding levels for key programs, such as education and Medicaid, irrespective of the state’s revenue performance.

The failure to redefine and adjust the mandatory and entitlement spending based on economic realities is not a trivial oversight; it is a catastrophic misjudgment that will surely lead to a financial collapse from which there is no recovery. The state’s budget will collapse under its own weight—not due to inadequate taxation, not by trimming the discretionary budget, but because of otherwise well-meaning mandatory spending formulas whose costs become prohibitively unsustainable as they approach reality. Senate President Bill Ferguson underscored this reality, acknowledging that entitlement programs constitute the bulk of the growing deficit. Yet, political leaders have made little progress in reforming these spending mandates.

The illusion of fiscal health under the Hogan administration was largely sustained by federal COVID relief funds, which artificially created budget surpluses. These one-time funds masked the structural deficit and deferred difficult financial decisions. However, with the federal COVID money now evaporated, the true extent of Maryland’s budgetary challenges has come into sharp focus. Moreover, the upcoming Trump administration is likely to scale back discretionary federal spending, which has traditionally bolstered Maryland’s economy due to its reliance on federal contracts and agencies. This reduction in federal support will further exacerbate the state’s financial challenges, leaving Maryland ill-prepared to weather the storm.

Another significant drain on the state’s resources is Governor Moore’s commitment to “climate investments.” While addressing climate change is a noble goal, it is fundamentally a national and global issue, not a state-specific one. Maryland’s taxpayers should not be saddled with debt for initiatives that will have a de minimus impact on global climate trends. Prioritizing these expenditures over addressing the budget crisis is fiscally irresponsible and diverts attention from urgent structural reforms.

The recent Gonzales Poll reveals that a majority of Marylanders oppose tax increases to address the budget deficit. More than three-quarters of respondents oppose increases in income, property, and sales taxes. Even among those who strongly approve of Governor Moore’s performance, a significant majority oppose new taxes. This opposition underscores the political peril of pursuing tax hikes without first addressing the state’s spending problem.

While commendable as a good first “baby step”, Governor Moore’s recent proposal to save $50 million through government efficiencies is a drop in the ocean compared to the nearly $3 billion deficit – a deficit that is projected to double by 2030. While symbolic gestures like streamlining laptop procurement and reducing underutilized state vehicles are commendable, they fall far short of the comprehensive restructuring needed and do nothing to adjust mandatory spending.

The Moore Administration’s reliance on outside consultants, such as Boston Consulting Group, further diminishes the credibility of these efforts. Not only will the consulting firm receive 20% of any identified savings, but this agreement could cost taxpayers up to $15 million over two years. This expenditure – which has been billed as a measure to save money- epitomizes the mismanagement of resources that has plagued the state.

In a December 11, 2024, opinion article in Center Maryland, I called upon Governor Moore to “reorganize Maryland’s bloated bureaucracy” for the first time in over 50 years before considering tax increases. This reorganization should include revisiting mandatory spending formulas, recalibrating spending mandates to align with the state’s fiscal realities, addressing unfunded pension liabilities that loom like a ticking time bomb, and eliminating redundant programs through a thorough review of state operations. Recent proposals that have been quietly suggested by legislative leaders such as Senate President Bill Ferguson – such as raising the capital gains tax – fail to address the structural deficit and punish success, should be outright rejected.

Maryland is at a crossroads. The state’s leaders must confront the hard truths about its fiscal trajectory and embrace meaningful reforms. Without immediate decisive action, the combination of formula-driven spending, evaporating federal support, and misplaced priorities will lead Maryland toward a financial catastrophe. The time for half-measures is over; the state’s fiscal survival depends on bold, transformative leadership.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a lifelong Eastern Shoreman, attorney, and former Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals Chairman. He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast, which discusses politics, business, and cultural issues.

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Analysis: Moore’s delicate balance as the session gets under way

January 9, 2025 by Maryland Matters Leave a Comment

Gov. Wes Moore (D) made the scene across Annapolis Wednesday, as tradition dictates for governors on the opening day of the General Assembly session.

He started the day at a forum sponsored by The Daily Record, presided over a meeting of the Board of Public Works, visited both chambers of the legislature for their inaugural floor sessions, met with reporters individually and in a press gaggle, and dropped by several receptions sponsored by lobbying firms and interest groups.

At each event, Moore displayed his usual irrepressible optimism about the future of Maryland, and hailed his “partners” in the legislature and advocacy community. But he also struck a sober note, highlighting the state’s challenging fiscal picture and the uncertainty over the impact the incoming Trump administration could have on the state’s fortunes.

What was notably missing from Moore’s multiple presentations, on day one of the 90-day legislative session, was a specific or defining agenda for the next three months, or a list of priorities.

Some of that will take form next week, when the governor releases his annual budget proposal. With the state facing projected deficits of almost $3 billion, Moore said Wednesday that he’s planning for $2 billion in cuts and that he’s asked state agencies to go line-by-line through their budgets and “find these inefficiencies.”

“You’re going to see them come from a collection of buckets,” he told reporters at a news conference.

Two sources familiar with the administration’s thinking said one of the largest single cuts would be a trim of about $110 million from the University System of Maryland.

Sources familiar with the budget proposal also said it will likely include what was described as a “Maryland Stadium Authority model for major IT projects.” Details were not available and it is unclear if that model would be a standalone agency or rolled into another existing department such as the Department of Information Technology.

Even if Moore achieves his targeted cuts, that would leave about $1 billion of structural deficit for fiscal 2026 unaccounted for. But he repeated his mantra Wednesday that “the bar remains very high” for tax increases.

Echoes of Hogan

As for the rest of his agenda, Moore said it will fully develop later rather than sooner, given the transfer of power about to take place in Washington, D.C.

“Over the next 90 days, we need to figure out what’s going to happen with the new federal administration,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “And that’s a huge factor.”

Moore is now halfway through his four-year term — a fact that seemed to almost surprise him when a reporter mentioned it. He came into office with a lofty agenda, vowing, among other things, to eradicate childhood poverty, reorder the state economy, build the Red Line in Baltimore and confront climate change.

Progress on those fronts has been incremental, and now Moore and other policymakers will be preoccupied by “the two storms,” as he describes them — the deficit and the incoming Trump administration. But Moore is undaunted and said Maryland’s potential will not be diminished.

“I inherited a tough economy, right?” he said in the interview with Maryland Matters. “I inherited an economy that was in a fiscal crisis, I inherited an economy that was in a multibillion-dollar structural deficit. So it’s not like that has changed — I inherited that. That was my day one reality. I think about what we’ve been able to navigate in those first years despite these choppy waters.”

Throughout the day, Moore took some not-so-subtle jabs at his predecessor, former Gov. Larry Hogan (R), without naming him.

“I inherited a structural deficit that was the largest we’ve seen in two decades,” he said during The Daily Record event. “That was completely papered over by [federal] COVID money. We didn’t actually address the structural issues.”

It’s a time-honored tactic for governors to blame their predecessors for the state’s fiscal condition and economic climate they inherited: Hogan routinely criticized his immediate predecessor, former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), practically until the day he left office.

What’s noteworthy about Moore is that in many ways, he is promoting an agenda that isn’t dissimilar from Hogan’s, whether it’s holding the line on taxes, pushing to grow the state’s economy to generate more revenues, boosting the state’s business climate, resisting spending mandates, scaling back certain regulations, and reforming procurement practices and other government programs. And he’s been more vocal about these priorities as the state’s financial condition worsens.

“We’ve got to make it easier for businesses to come to our state and thrive and grow and grow,” he said during his news conference.

Moore, like Hogan, does not always communicate his positions to lawmakers in advance.

Two years ago, he surprised Democrats in the House and Senate with a call to end the automatic increases on the gas tax tied to inflation, but that policy remains intact. In December, he caught lawmakers off guard again when he called for the General Assembly to pass a bill to allow beer and wine sales in grocery stores and other retail outlets and have the measure on his desk by the end of session.

The bill is not one of the governor’s priorities. On Wednesday, however, he chastised lawmakers who so far appear to be digging in against his call.

“It’s not even my bill,” Moore said during The Daily Record event. “I just think the General Assembly should listen to the people on this and I think they should do the work.

“And when they do the work, I think they will come to whatever they believe to be the right solution that addresses all the concerns, all the questions. But I just think all the people in the state of Maryland have been speaking fairly clearly on this and the General Assembly has not heard it,” Moore said.

It wasn’t like Hogan once comparing the 90-day session to spring break for irresponsible lawmakers, but the comment did not soften the stance of some legislators.

“I think the House and Senate are listening to the people and small-business owners,” said Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City). “The issue that the people are most worried about is closing the $3 billion deficit, appropriately.”

House Economic Matters Chair C.T. Wilson (D-Charles), whose committee has jurisdiction over liquor issues, said he “takes great umbrage” at Moore’s comments.

“We have done the work in the past,” he said. “While it might be new to him and his administration, it is not new to the General Assembly. It is not new to me as chairman. It is not new to me as a member of the Economic Matters Committee.

“I take umbrage to the fact that somehow, some way if we don’t come to his solution, we haven’t done our work — because we do our work,” Wilson added.

Wilson described himself as a supporter of Moore’s but said the governor’s approach on the issue of expanded alcohol sales “seems shortsighted.”

“It’s like you’re picking a fight with people that can fight and have just as many rocks as you do,” Wilson said. “We are an equal branch of government … and I pray that the governor realizes that we do our job and take our job seriously.”

One clear difference between Moore and Hogan: Hogan killed the Red Line, in 2015, and Moore has been working to revive it. During his news conference Wednesday he did not say what kind of mode of transit he’s seeking or how he thought potential federal funding would be impacted by the new Trump administration. But Moore was steadfast in his insistence that an east-west transit connector is vital to the economic health of the Baltimore region.

“You cannot have economic mobility if you don’t have physical mobility,” he said.

‘We’re thinking about what is possible’

Some Democratic lawmakers, after eight years of Hogan, said they’re surprised that Moore hasn’t offered them more guidance or a concrete agenda for them to consider early in the session.

“I think that would be helpful,” said Del. Pam Queen (D-Montgomery), who co-chairs the legislative Study Group on Economic Stability. “You would think, because we’re all of the same party, we’d have more of that, especially in difficult times.”

Queen, who has been in the legislature since 2016, said the third year of a term is often when a governor and his administration become more sure-footed and assertive with the legislature, “so this is the year when you’d expect that kind of thing to happen.”

Ferguson said it makes sense to see what the early policy moves are out of the Trump administration and the all-Republican Congress before fully advancing a legislative agenda in Annapolis.

Del. Regina T. Boyce (D-Baltimore City), vice chair of the House Environment and Transportation Committee, said that even as they wait for a more comprehensive agenda from the Moore administration, lawmakers are intent on moving their own priorities.

“We’re thinking about what is possible with the budget,” she said. “As Speaker [Adrienne] Jones says, we won’t balance the budget on the backs of education, on the backs of health, on the backs of transportation, and ultimately, on the backs of poor people. We’ve got to ensure that we’re funding our priorities and keeping the promises we made.”

Moore told Maryland Matters that the progress his administration has made in the past two years gives him hope for what’s possible under the challenging conditions the state is facing now.

“We’ve really been able to break the back of violence and homicide in Baltimore and across the state and have real momentum to be able to go further now and get more done,” he said.

“That we’ve been able to go from being 43rd in the country in the state on unemployment to having one of the lowest unemployment rates in our country, because of the investments we’ve made, and also the investments in trade programs and apprentice programs. That we were able to lead in a time of absolute crisis in one of the largest and sustained maritime tragedies in our nation’s history and know that the bridge is being to be rebuilt on our watch with federal funding,” he said.

Asked, as he looks ahead to the changing of the guard in Washington, what the Democratic “resistance” ought to look like, Moore replied, “I haven’t put much thought into it. I say, ‘I’m not the leader of the resistance, I’m the governor of Maryland.’”

by Josh Kurtz and Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters
January 8, 2025

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected].

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Electric Workboats on the Chesapeake? By Rob Etgen

December 20, 2024 by Rob Etgen Leave a Comment

I love electric cars. I’ve owned two and have fallen hard, not just for environmental reasons, but more so because they are fast, silent, and virtually maintenance free. And don’t forget that you do not put gas in them!

Why not boats? And why not workboats on the Chesapeake? I have taken the last half of 2024 chasing an idea to convert a traditional Chesapeake Bay workboat into a prototype electric-propelled, sustainable silent harvester of the Chesapeake. My motivations were twofold: 1. help steer the way toward a cleaner and quieter and more sustainable Chesapeake Bay; and 2. acquire my next boat.

Around the world electrification of marine travel is picking up speed with major ferry systems and large scale industrial use boats running on electric. There are also many high end electric recreational boats emerging. And I even found a smattering of electric workboats – mostly in pilot stages in Northern Europe and even some in the Maine lobster fishery. And lastly, electric outboard motors are fast becoming commercially available.

On the Chesapeake, there are a few models of high end electric recreational boats around and I heard there were a few at the Powerboat Show this fall. Regarding workboats, there is mostly just curiosity. I talked with several of the workboat builders in the middle and upper Bay and all had considered electric propulsion. Most came to the same conclusion – Chesapeake Bay workboats are big and beamy and intended to be stable for carrying a lot of weight – and thus require lots and lots of power – which means excessive battery weight and cost. Even more importantly, many of the builders told me the watermen community are not generally early adopters of new technology – especially with their personal safety and livelihoods on the line.

There are some promising examples of prototype electric boats on the Bay for other uses. Brian Palmer has an electric boat team at Washington College which set a world electric boat record this summer for distance on a single charge (167 miles up and down the Chester). Brian has been an eager and incredibly helpful partner in my electric boat quest and remains interested in electrifying all forms of boats on the Bay. Paul Willey and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation were also helpful. They are building from the ground up two aluminum dead-rise style boats with electric/diesel hybrid propulsion for their environmental education programs.

Regarding converting a traditional Chesapeake Bay workboat into an electric one, I’m afraid we are not there yet. The traditional boats are big and bulky, the batteries are heavy and expensive, and the overall systems are still too new to trust for many. A friend following my journey told me “if you were trying to electrify a car you would not start with your uncle’s ‘83 Buick.” Enough said – for now.

I think we will eventually have electric workboats on the Bay, and probably sooner than we think. The batteries and related systems are advancing rapidly. The call for more climate friendly engines is growing. And in the end I think the lure of silent propulsion will win the day. I can’t wait!

Rob Etgen retired in 2021 after a 40-year career in conservation – the last 31 years as President of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. In retirement Rob is enjoying family and working on global and local sustainability issues with Council Fire consulting out of Annapolis.

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Reflections on cabinet choices by J.T. Smith

November 19, 2024 by Opinion Leave a Comment

Last week President-elect Trump proved his wish to be a “disrupter” by announcing several capricious and extraordinary choices for some of the most important posts in his cabinet. They included Robert F Kennedy Jr. to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS); Peter Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense; and Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General.

A half a century ago, I served as Executive Assistant to a prominent Republican public servant, Elliot Richardson, who served sequentially in these three cabinet posts. Trump’s choices caused me to recall and reflect on the experience and qualities that Richardson brought to these posts, and the stark contrast they suggest.

Richardson was paragon of the “Greatest Generation” and very much part of the “elite” that it is now popular to disparage. Descendant of a long line of prominent Boston doctors, he attended Harvard and Harvard Law School, where he was elected President of the Law Review. He interrupted law school to join the Army. He went ashore on D Day at Normandy as a medical officer and walked through a minefield to rescue a wounded companion. After law school, he clerked for a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In the 1950s he was a Senate staff member and then Assistant Secretary in the new Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW, now HHS). He then became United States Attorney for Massachusetts. After brief service as a partner in Boston’s preeminent law firm, he was elected Lt Governor and subsequently Attorney General of Massachusetts. Before becoming Secretary of HEW in 1970, Richardson served for a year as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State.

To the job of Secretary of HEW, Richardson brought prior experience as the Department’s Assistant Secretary; expertise in public management from his roles in state government as well as the U.S. State Department; wide knowledge of the interaction of HEW’s programs with state social service, education and health agencies; and a family-based respect for HEW’s medical and public health professionals. He embraced a management style that emphasized respect for, and use of career civil servants. And he delighted in wrestling with the legislative and policy challenges surrounding welfare and health care reforms and vexed issues of civil rights.

The only thing that Richardson and RFK Jr have in common is family roots in Massachusetts. Kennedy has no experience with public management, no respect for civil servants or for public health programs. His vigorous embrace of a series anti-scientific conspiracy myths and other wrong-headed personal attributes should disqualify him from cabinet service even if he had relevant public management experience.

As Secretary of Defense, Richardson brought an understanding of foreign and defense policy from service as the number two officer of the State Department; seasoning as a manager of huge public agencies; heroic military service in WWII; and large respect for the Department’s military and civilian staff. Trump’s nominee, Peter Hegseth, a Fox News weekend commentator, is manifestly unqualified to be Secretary of Defense. He has no experience with which to manage a colossal public agency; has already started to wage culture war against military leadership and has engaged in lamentable public behavior. His military service is not in any way a sufficient qualification for the job.

Richardson brought sparkling credentials to the job of Attorney General—law review president, Supreme Court Clerk, United States Attorney and State Attorney General.

And he courageously defied President Nixon rather than execute an order he knew to be unlawful at the time of the “Saturday Night Massacre.” By horrendous contrast, Matt Gaetz, a morally compromised former legislator, has no relevant legal or public administration experience. He promises to be an agent of “retribution” for the new President.

Richardson was an exceptional representative of an exceptional generation. One cannot expect individuals of his quality to proliferate in later generations. But surely, there are more qualified citizens to fill these roles. The United States Senate should muster the will and courage to vote down these ludicrous selections for leadership of three of the nation’s vital departments. If it doesn’t, the Constitutional order will be in jeopardy and Republican Senators will live in infamy.

J.T. Smith served in the CIA, the Department of Health Education and Welfare, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the Department of Commerce and the Department of State before becoming a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling. He retired to Easton in 2005.

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Balancing Growth and Green: Chestertown’s Greenbelt Plan Faces a Solar Challenge by Steve Kline

November 2, 2024 by Opinion Leave a Comment

My love for the Eastern Shore started in Chestertown. I used to visit each fall for the Chestertown Wildlife Art Festival and it was one of my favorite weekends of the year. Big groups of migrating Canada geese would hang in the air, as would that first real bite of autumn chill. The magic of Chestertown, like so much of the Eastern Shore, is in its close interplay of vista and village. Just a stone’s throw from my favorite bookstore one can enjoy the rural countryside in full, by paddling Radcliffe Creek, cycling a scenic byway, or photographing combines bringing in the harvest.

At the same time, I was making those trips to Chestertown, around 2007, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy was working with the Town of Chestertown, Kent County, and a professional planning firm, to create the Chestertown Greenbelt Master Plan. The master plan was meant to encompass the future of the Clarke-Hopewell farm, described by Chestertown Mayor David Foster as “our only real opportunity for expansion of Chestertown.” The nearly 500 acre farm, located northeast of Chestertown’s historic downtown, is one of the last remaining sizeable undeveloped tracts within the Chestertown Planning Boundary.

This was before the Great Recession and there were plenty of questions about how development would shape the future of Chestertown and the entire Eastern Shore. So enter the master plan, developed with strong input from the community, to ensure that future development of the Clarke-Hopewell farm would serve as an “organic extension of the historic fabric of the town,” an effort to replicate in Chestertown’s future what had worked so well in its past.

One of the questions that was asked during the inevitable community workshop nearly twenty years ago was: “What defines the character of Chestertown, and should be reflected in this new part of town?” Responses include: “historic…small town feeling…neighborhood feel…walkable…life on a human scale.” Those words do a nice job describing what works about Chestertown. The master plan hews closely to these ideas, providing a flexible and iterative development program designed to “accommodate much of the growth of the town and the county over the next 50-100 years.” The plan includes hamlets and villages, each of which incorporates mixed-use buildings, civic uses, and neighborhood greens.

In 2015, the Chestertown Greenbelt Master Plan was incorporated formally into the Chestertown comprehensive plan. It was memorialized in a beautiful leather-bound volume that sits on a shelf here at the Eastern Shore Conservation Center. Increasingly, it looks like that is where the master plan will stay.

Instead of human-scale hamlets, what now seems poised to occupy the Clarke-Hopewell farm is a 45-megawatt utility-scale solar array. The array will send power straight to the grid, keeping lights on and computers buzzing in homes and businesses and data centers as far away as Illinois. And all of this has been planned despite the clear and formal opposition of Chestertown and Kent County.

This change came about because the solar developer, a subsidiary of a massive Canadian-based asset management company, petitioned for, and was granted a Certificate of Public Convenience and Need (or a CPCN) from the State of Maryland. What does this mean? Well, in this case, the CPCN serves as a kind of permission slip, signed by state government, allowing the solar company to work around time-tested and well-understood local land use decision making processes. This is referred to as preemption, since local zoning rules, planning commissions, and comprehensive plans are ‘preempted’ by the CPCN, which serves as a kind of blanket approval for land use and site plans that might otherwise be inconsistent with local wishes.

State preemption of local land use rules is being done in the spirit of addressing the challenge of climate change head on, for which the state has adopted aggressive renewable energy generation goals. But in the rush to site solar power, the pendulum has swung too far. The playing field is too unlevel. Parcels close to our towns and designated growth areas deserve careful attention, responsible land use, and close examination. In Chestertown’s case, the state’s CPCN is plowing through the town’s best laid plans and taking off the table a parcel that was meant to accommodate well-planned growth for the next fifty years or more. Instead of public parks, community orchards, and apartments that young people can afford and easily bike from, instead of tree-café-playground-garden-cottage-barbershop we’ll have panel-panel-panel—more than 140,000 modules.

Solar panels do not need fertile soil. They do not need to have their hair cut and they do not need to bike to class in the morning. There are many other places solar can go. Where else is Chestertown supposed to go? There are not many other spaces the rest of Chestertown can grow into. At least not without contributing to the Eastern Shore’s “auto-oriented suburban sprawl which threatens to erode its rural character.”

In the race to site solar power as quickly as possible, the Eastern Shore looks increasingly attractive. But we must have some balance, some way to say “Here, but not there.” Many of our open acres are best at producing food, and they should remain in agriculture. Other acres, located nearest our towns, are best suited for new neighborhoods. Some spots are well-suited for solar generation. But when we write a new set of rules that only applies to solar, the balance is thrown off in favor of a single land use.

Rather than allowing Chestertown to “grow harmoniously… slowly and methodically as to maximize the efficiency of its land use,” as the Greenbelt Plan so eloquently states, we will allow our land to be “rapidly digested.” The Eastern Shore will lose.

Steve Kline is the president of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy

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