March 29, 2024

Beyond the Navy

U.S. Navy photo

Posted by GTMR, Inc.
Pax Leader

Here in St. Mary’s County, we derive 85 percent of our economic activity from one source – the United States Navy. Naval Air Station Patuxent River and its contracting satellites provide almost all of the high-paying jobs and serve, by far, as the largest engine that drives the county’s service and retail sectors.

Business 101 – have more than one customer! You need to spread out the risk.

You don’t want to become totally beholden to one source of income.

In light of the dysfunction in Congress and the uncertainty of future defense funding, now is the time for our community to examine other options.

It’s time for us to use the unique resources we have here to develop economic opportunities outside of the Navy ecosystem.

St. Mary’s County does not lack education. We have nationally top ranked high schools in our county. We have three places where you can earn a college degree. In fact, there are leading engineering schools that have established a foothold in our Southern Maryland Higher Education Center, offering technical degrees that feed our needs for an educated workforce.

We have an industrial base that is in the need of technical people, and these jobs pay higher than average salaries, which results in higher tax revenue. Why not seek to build more opportunities for higher paying jobs to hire and attract our young adults joining the workforce?

Del. John Bohanan speaks at the Patuxent Partnership's Education Forum Tuesday, Nov. 29.

Last month and again yesterday, Del. John Bohanan talked to a crowd of professionals at SMHEC about the Southern Maryland Higher Education Council working to establish a non-degree granting research university that would help to capture more Navy dollars and keep them here in the county.

We agree with Mr. Bohanan that we should develop a research and development center here in Southern Maryland, but it shouldn’t just be for Navy work.

The center could expand service to cover research for all of government and the commercial market place.

Today, many locally-based contractors are not just doing business with Pax River and NAVAIR. Here at GTMR, we are doing business in Virginia, Georgia and Washington state while keeping our headquarters in St. Mary’s County.

Because of this we have been able to draw many professional workers that live and spend their hard earned dollars in the county.

We are solely dependent on the Navy here at Pax River.

Moving away from sole dependency on the Navy starts in small ways. Recent efforts by the county have shed light on one of the county’s best kept secrets – its fantastic agriculture assets. The organic farming market is a resource that everyone who lives in St. Mary’s County enjoys. Why not do more to market this outside of the county? There is only one organic farm listed when you do a Google search in our county!

If we make a concentrated effort to combine small changes, it will add up to a big change. In the end it is up to us to take care of our local economy, people, and the future of St. Mary’s County.

gtmrinc.com

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