“Last month, as chair of the Board of Revenue Estimates, I convened an Economic Forum where we heard testimony from key businesses leaders in every geographic region of the State and in each sector of the economy and we heard personal accounts from the front lines that confirmed what all of the data is telling us about the health of Maryland’s economy.
Based upon what we’ve been told by the private sector, it should come as no surprise that we will be writing down state revenues by more than 120 million dollars. And it’s not at all surprising that we are writing down our projected sales and use tax revenues by 216 million dollars.
I go back to the assessments that were offered by those who participated in our Economic Advisory Forum.
There are three essential components to an economy that is powered primarily by consumer spending — jobs, housing and consumer confidence and all three “legs of the stool” need to be moving in the right direction for a sustained recovery. And there’s no way to gloss over the fact that – despite a little bit of positive news in recent weeks – we still have a steep hill to climb.
For example, Maryland’s unemployment rate has dropped two-tenths of a percentage point to 7.2%, and the national rate has dropped four-tenths of a percen
