A Balance Of Interests
Maryland Senate President Ferguson Discusses The Effort To Get Back To Business Amid The Pace Necessary To Stay Safe
Click Audiobar Below To Hear Remarks
Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson
By Raoul Dennis
Like all Maryland leaders today, Senate President Bill Ferguson is facing the tough question that places the economy’s demand for a speedy return to business at odds with the health and moral demand to slow down the return.
At the May 13 meeting of The Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable, Ferguson introduced himself to the county’s business community for the first time since becoming Maryland senate president (click here for more about Mr. Ferguson in “Education in Politics”).
But Ferguson deferred to the judgment of county leaders in finding the balance necessary to address the threat of the virus while keeping a pilot light lit among local economies. He also addressed the problems with the state’s unemployment system. “We need to focus on the urgent need for Marylanders. I wish there was a little more urgency at the state level to get money out the door for small businesses particularly women-owned and minority businesses that have not had immediate access to the capital markets or banking systems. That’s where the state really has to step in and get the money into the hands of those business owners so that we can sustain this.” Click the audio bar (at right) to hear the heart of the senate president’s message.
Raised in Montogomery County, the senate president spoke highly of Prince George’s County colleagues who are part of his inner circle.
“I bounce every idea off of Senator Melonie Griffith,” he says. “We talk on a daily basis. I would not be able to get through this process without her friendship and professionalism. Majority leader Joanne Benson is my other mother in the senate. Her passion and skill and ability to be in touch with her constituents is something that I look to on a weekly basis. Senator Peters, who is chair of the capital budget, is an incredible business leader in his own right as we have been thinking about the post-COVID world, I rely on him enormously for his incredible business acumen.”
The 10-year senate representative looks to the federal government to aid states in covering billions of lost revenue due to COVID-19. Without such support, state and local governments are likely to face shortfalls in FY21 that will impact first responders, health, and education budgets into the near future. “It would be infinitely easier if we can get support from the federal government with flexible federal funding to account for lost revenues so we can backfill some of the costs that are rising in an unexpected way. But we’re going to have to continuously balance the interests here. And it’s going to be very, very difficult.”
