Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s big upset victory over then Lt. Governor Anthony Brown.
“We’ve accomplished much of what we said we would do, and we’re just getting started,” Hogan told WMAL’s Mornings on the Mall Wednesday.
Hogan said the day after he was sworn in, he submitted the first structurally balanced budget in a decade.
Hogan credits his administration with helping to turn the state’s economy around. He said Maryland went from last to first in the region when it comes to job creation, adding 40,000 jobs. He added the state is spending less money and bringing in more with a goal of getting out of a $1 billion shortfall he inherited from the last administration. He’s concerned that Democrats will move away from that goal by increasing spending.
Hogan’s most recent accomplishment was re-opening the State Police Barracks in Annapolis and adding 100 new troopers.
“In 2008, the previous administration closed down the Annapolis police barracks, which was ludicrous in my opinion to have a state capitol without a state police barracks,” Hogan said.
To pay for the re-opened barracks, Hogan will veto a line item in the Capital Budget, eliminating $2 million that would have gone towards renovations to the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.
Despite his accomplishments, Hogan’s first nine months in office have also seen a number of unforeseen challenges including the Baltimore riots, which happened three months after he took office. After declaring a state of emergency, Hogan temporarily moved his administration’s offices to Baltimore, where they stayed for a week.
“It was a shining moment for the administration,” he said adding the violence stopped after his arrival. He said he’s now teaching other states how to handle that type of crisis.
Two months after the state’s largest city was set on fire and looted, Hogan found out he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He recently finished up six rounds of chemotherapy, and in two weeks he’ll have a series of scans that will tell him if there is any cancer left.
“I’m hoping that in a couple weeks I’m gonna be cancer free. I’m certainly on the road to recover. I feel stronger every day,” Hogan said.
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