Md. advocacy groups assemble coalition to guide next governor – Maryland Matters

With a brand new governor set to be sworn in in 3 1/2 months, a coalition of nonprofit Maryland service suppliers and coverage consultants is organizing a coverage, personnel and spending agenda to help the brand new chief govt.

The 2023 Undertaking, as organizers are calling it, goals to leverage the experience of dozens of Maryland nonprofits and group organizations to develop an formidable platform of coverage initiatives, state company suggestions and funds choices to cross alongside to the brand new governor’s transition workforce. The individuals behind The 2023 Undertaking say the purpose is to offer incoming administration officers with info, sources and coverage consultants as they start to confront the state’s myriad challenges.

Coalition leaders imagine the brand new governor will help strengthen Maryland’s financial system, revitalize the training system and strategically make investments federal {dollars} to replace the state’s growing old infrastructure.

“We’ve a chance in 2023 to accomplice with a brand new governor and construct an administration based on insurance policies and rules that serve all Marylanders, irrespective of the place we reside or what we appear like,” mentioned Alice Wilkerson, who’s the chair of the brand new group. “The 2023 Undertaking can function the constructing blocks that arrange the following administration for fulfillment by offering the instruments, info and content material consultants that may assist them strengthen state authorities.”

Wilkerson is a seasoned coverage hand in Annapolis who has labored as a legislative staffer, lobbyist, and most not too long ago as govt director of Robust Future Maryland, a progressive coverage advocacy group began two years in the past by former U.S. Secretary of Training John King Jr., who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination this yr.

Wilkerson mentioned Robust Future Maryland, which plans to reboot within the subsequent a number of weeks, is offering some staffing and facilitation for the 2023 Undertaking, and {that a} wants evaluation Robust Future Maryland not too long ago carried out is getting used to information a few of the 2023 challenge’s early work.

Advocates, service suppliers and consultants from all through the state have developed suggestions over the previous a number of months on a spread of points, and the sources the challenge plans to make obtainable to the brand new administration will embody:

• Transition coverage guides that can make suggestions for reworking state businesses and applications

• A complete community-informed 2023 agenda

• Steerage for hiring certified people to fill key positions throughout a number of ranges in state businesses

• A longtime and collaborative community of supporters targeted on essential points, together with constructing thriving, wholesome and inclusive communities; addressing local weather change; advancing felony justice reform; creating good jobs; increasing employee protections; offering a wonderful academic system; and bettering public transportation.

On its web site, the 2023 Undertaking affords a survey for Marylanders to fill out to listing their prime coverage priorities. As a nonprofit group, the challenge has knowledgeable all the campaigns for governor of its plans for the weeks forward, Wilkerson mentioned, and hopes to work carefully with the brand new governor’s workforce.

2023 Undertaking individuals can be calling for the following governor to higher equip businesses with the staffing, sources and crucial instruments to satisfy their missions.

“During the last 20 years, the state authorities workforce has eroded,” mentioned Heather Iliff, president and CEO of the group Maryland Nonprofits. “For the reason that onset of the COVID pandemic, job vacancies have spiked, and recruitment and retention have cratered. State businesses on the entrance strains of service supply are now not in a position to accomplish their fundamental features inside affordable time frames. The following administration ought to act with urgency to revive and beef up the state authorities’s capability to perform on the degree of effectiveness that Marylanders deserve.”

The challenge is led by a steering committee that features representatives from the CASH Marketing campaign of Maryland, Maryland Middle on Financial Coverage, Maryland Latinos Unidos, Maryland Nonprofits, Maryland PIRG, State Innovation Alternate, and We The Individuals — Baltimore County.

“Our democracy works finest when everybody participates and everybody’s voice is heard,” mentioned Maryland PIRG Director Emily Scarr, a member of the steering committee. “The transition to a brand new governor and administration supplies a novel alternative for the governor-elect to make sure the general public has a say in what points are prioritized.”