Solution- Community Ownership
Public Ownership for Public Good
Ownership is power, and large portions of power should be shared. Entities that affect everyone's lives should be owned by everyone. These are the principles that have influenced my advocacy for public ownership of the Baltimore Orioles. It doesn't make sense that one private owner can extort limitless concessions from a city or the state, when cities and counties and the state can own those entities instead. Much of our focus for this discussion so far has been on the Orioles, but that is only one example of the current Maryland way, elected leaders fall all over themselves to establish public private partnerships that give billionaires and corporations public subsidies and massive tax breaks, while working people and communities take the risk and pay the price.
When I am governor that will end. If we want shared power and responsibility, real transparency, and accountability, communities should control their own resources, and utilities and other public goods should be publicly owned. There are several ways other communities have successfully done this. Our campaign is here to learn from them, and my administration will facilitate a transition to collective community power in Maryland.