Good morning. Thanks for coming out today.
It's an important time in Maryland right now.
We have a terrible recession; we have to figure out a way to get out of it.
Maryland's manufacturing, I think, is a great solution for us to get out of it.
The average employee in a factory makes $77,000/year. This is a stunning amount of money,
particularly when you don't necessarily need a High School degree to get that kind of compensation.
That doesn't include benefits like health insurance which is very common among manufacturers.
I think our state has to change it's tune and really focus on manufacturing as a key
component on how we get out of this recession, on how we create new jobs.
RMI is striving to make Maryland number one in manufacturing.
We want to be the number one state to put a headquarters.
We want to be the number one state to do research and development.
We want to be the number one state to put a factory.
Everybody is familiar with the Boeing Plant in South Carolina.
This is disappointing because Maryland was not in the running.
We should have been a contender.
They opened up a new plant and we were not in the top tier of states to get the new plant.
We should have gotten it.
In my case, we could have sold them wire baskets or sheet metal fabrications.
There are many companies in this room which could have sold to that Boeing plant
but because they're not in our state, it makes it more of a challenge for them to buy from us.
We lost all those jobs. We lost all of that property tax.
We lost all that state income tax. This is devastating.
I look at that as Maryland of the past.
I'm hoping that we can change and that we can make a Maryland of the future.
In Maryland of the future for example, Bechtel, right now is noodling whether or
not they're going to move from San Francisco to the mid-Atlantic region.
I don't want them to go to Virginia. I want them to come here.
I'm a Maryland bigot. I acknowledge that.
The way we're going to make this happen is by creating new policies and a new
emphasis. We need leadership from Annapolis so that we can make Maryland
a viable place a Bechtel to move. Later today, the Senate President, Mike Miller, is
going to be coming up and describing some legislation.
Mike and I went to Annapolis and we discussed with them and collaborated with them
on some ideas so we're not like Boeing of the past but instead we're like a
friendly environment
so that we can grab a Bechtel; so they don't move to Virginia.
They move here and we get those jobs here.
Today he is going to be announcing some new legislation that hopefully will
make us more attractive and start changing the paradigm
where Maryland is perceived as not friendly as a state as we should be.
We need those jobs.
We need to get out of this recession.
I think manufacturers are very adaptable.
Very nimble.
The ones that have survived have done a tremendous job through this recession.
We have to, as a state, change our tune so that we are more of an obvious place for
a factory to move to.
10/17/11