Posted on 05/24/25
| News Source: FOX45
Annapolis, MD - May 24, 2025 - A Baltimore area financial services professional warns that the governor’s job growth announcements following the state’s credit rating downgrade may be more political than focused on addressing the state’s looming $1.9 billion budget deficit, which is expected to balloon after the midterm elections.
Tyrone Keys, a real estate and financial management advisory group owner, told Spotlight on Maryland on Saturday that he fears Gov. Wes Moore's championing of new job creation and company relocation will do little to grow the state’s lagging economy.
It’s historic that our credit rating has been lessened by Moody’s, and I suppose he is also trying to prevent the other credit rating agencies from following suit,” Keys said.
Referencing newly published state data and Moody’s Ratings downgrading Maryland’s creditworthiness from a coveted AAA bond rating to Aa1, Keys said that he believes the governor needs to act more aggressively.
The Maryland Department of Legislative Services (MDLS) annual 90-Day Report praised Gov. Moore's actions during the most recent legislative session; however, updated projections continue to show an expected multi-billion-dollar fiscal cliff.
“Between fiscal 2026 and 2030, ongoing spending is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.8%, outpacing ongoing revenues, which are estimated to grow at an average annual rate of 3.3%,” the MDLS report said.
The nonpartisan MDLS report said in April that Maryland’s structural gap will grow “substantially beginning in fiscal 2028” because the state’s Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education spending costs will exceed the allocated income for the program. To ensure the Blueprint is funded, the MDLS report said that $1.9 billion in general funds will be needed to close the overall structural gap.
While the state budget signed by Gov. Moore is expected to leave the state with a $5 million surplus by the end of this fiscal year, if reelected, the governor would confront another estimated $1.9 billion shortfall that must be addressed in the first budget of his potential next term.
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After Moody’s downgraded Maryland’s credit rating on May 14, Gov. Moore joined McDonald’s restaurant franchise owners in an announcement a day later from the Governor’s Reception Room in the State House, revealing a partnership to bring 4,000 jobs to the state.
Spotlight on Maryland asked Gov. Moore’s office on Friday whether the McDonald’s jobs would be new, summer, or temporary positions at locations across the state.
The governor’s office was also pressed on whether the partnership with McDonald’s Archways to Opportunityprogram is meant solely to connect current company employees to subsidized educational opportunities in Maryland, rather than to expand the state’s workforce.
McDonald’s plans to hire nearly 4,000 employees across 300 company and franchise-owned restaurants in Maryland,” the governor’s office said. “These are long-term positions that add to the more than 24,000 jobs and $500 million in tax revenue already supported through McDonald’s restaurants and supply chain activities across the state.”
Keys, a former McDonald’s employee in high school, says the governor’s announcement is not an event to celebrate.
“I’m happy to see people working, of course,” Keys said. “But, when we are talking about minimum wage jobs at McDonald’s, we have to understand that $15 an hour equals $31,000 a year. The federal poverty line starts at $32,000 a year.”
“It’s not like we’re creating a robust tax base,” Keys added.
The McDonald’s Archways to Opportunity program did not respond to Spotlight on Maryland’s multiple requests since Wednesday for an interview.
Days after Gov. Moore and McDonald's franchise owners announced the pledged job boost, his office released details about commercial real estate and investment company Bernstein Management Corporation’s relocation of its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Bethesda, Md.