January 28, 2009

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow, I will have the privilege of delivering my third State of the State address to the Citizens of Maryland and the Maryland General Assembly, but before I do that, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your hard work over this last year, and share with you some of the challenges and opportunities we face together in the year ahead.

While we have made substantial progress to improve public education and public safety, these are not easy times for our nation and our state. Together we have already reduced spending by billions of dollars, you all are doing more with less and you have all sacrificed to help our state government save dollars during this national economic downturn.

I know there has been speculation and talk about further reductions and possible layoffs over the next year, and I know this has many of you worried about your families’ well being and your future. It is my sincere hope – as we work to protect our workforce in these hard times – that layoffs will not be necessary in the upcoming year.

I remain hopeful and optimistic that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act currently being considered by President Obama and Congress will provide much needed economic relief to our State and states throughout our country – economic relief that could provide Maryland with an additional $4 billion over the next two years to help us protect our #1 ranked public schools, invest in school construction, our bridges, roads, tunnels and mass transit, help stimulate our economy and create thousands of new jobs in Maryland.

We have been working around the clock with the Obama Administration and our federal partners to make sure Maryland is prepared to allocate these additional dollars and put shovels in the ground on day one if the funds become available, and I urge you all to contact your member of Congress to show your support for President Obama’s Recovery and Reinvestment Act. www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt

I know many of you are worried about the upcoming year. I have heard from many of you personally over the last few months and we will continue to work with your union representatives to keep you updated and informed. I will also be sending you periodic updates as we work with the Maryland General Assembly to balance next year’s budget and protect the progress we have made to make our state government more efficient and build a strong safety net for our families in need through services that many of you provide.

As President Obama took the oath of office just a week ago, he reminded us that we must "brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come." I believe together, we can and we will endure this current economic storm, and it is my hope that we will be stronger as a people and as a State as a result.

Thank you,

Martin O’Malley, Governor