Maryland needs to come up with a strategic statewide plan by Dec. 1 to deal with the influx of new jobs and residents from the Base Realignment and Closure process, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown told department heads at the BRAC subcabinet?s first meeting Wednesday.
The plan recommendations will include both budget priorities and legislative priorities, Brown said.
With Gov. Martin O?Malley at his side, Brown also announced the hiring of Asuntha Chiang-Smith as the subcabinet?s executive director. Chiang-Smith has worked on military issues for both former Gov. Parris Glendening and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.
Chiang-Smith will coordinate the response of nine state departments and local governments to the relocation of as many as 15,000 defense jobs to Fort Meade, Aberdeen Proving Ground and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. Thousands more contractors and dependents are expected to follow.
“We have challenges to build roads, challenges to identify business opportunities,” Brown said.
At the same time, the O?Malley administration will deal with a projected $1.4 billion deficit through budget cuts and tax increases, even before any BRAC-related projects are added. The highly paid professional jobs also are expected to generate more state and local revenues.
O?Malley said he?d rather have these challenges than those of governors who wake up in the morning to news about job losses.
Maryland?s gains in the defense relocation are losses to states such as Virginia and New Jersey.
“There are other states that are watching us and licking their chops, hoping that we fail,” O?Malley said.
The BRAC subcabinet is composed of the departments of Education; Budget and Management; Business and Economic Development; Environment; Higher Education; Planning; Housing and Community Development; Labor, Licensing and Regulation; and Transportation.
