‘When I said this was gonna be a partnership, I meant it’: Moore-Miller hit one year

As Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Lt Gov. Aruna Miller start their second legislative session on the second floor of the State House, the pair is not looking back in celebration to bills passed last session, but looking forward to a larger work changing a culture.

“The biggest win that she has had is she’s helped to change the culture of Annapolis,” said Gov. Moore, referring to Lt. Gov. Miller in a Jan. 17 phone interview, one day before the one-year mark of the pair’s inauguration.

Similarly, Miller, when asked about the governor’s biggest accomplishment in the first year, pointed to a lesson that she learned from the governor before she recapped any of the administration’s 10 bills passed into law with bipartisan support last session.

RECAP: Maryland moves forward with Gov. Wes Moore during first 100 days as bills get signed

“He’s one of these individuals (who) is the last to speak in the room,” said Miller, in an Jan. 17 interview in her second-floor office at the State House. “If there’s somebody that’s a little shy or bashful about speaking up, he notices that and he’ll ask them, ‘What do you think about this? ’”

“I find that to be a great accomplishment of his that I’ve learned from,” she said. What that reaching out translates into for the state as the duo starts their second year is yet to be seen.

Transportation road ahead for Maryland, Gov. and Lt. Gov.

One area where the pair’s partnership could make a difference is on Maryland’s roadways and in the state’s transportation system.

“In Maryland, on any given day, there are over 1,000 construction workers working on over 300 different construction zones,” said Miller, a transportation engineer by trade. She chaired the Work Zone Safety Workgroup that provided multiple legislative and policy recommendations in an aim to make the state’s streets safer after a crash on the Baltimore Beltway last March.

Some of the recommendations could prove useful for both Moore and Miller as individuals who log many miles on Maryland roads. Both visited each of the state’s 23 counties in the first year.  (Miller in the administration’s first 100 days. “He’s caught up with me,” said Miller, referring to Moore’s travels.)

A tougher task than the travel may be meeting the state’s transportation goals given shrinking revenue in that area. A six-year state transportation plan released last year showed a $2 billion shortfall for planned projects and gas tax revenue that pays for various initiatives in decline.

More: Funds shifted by MD for roads that received federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law cash

In that area, Moore pointed to Miller’s background as a transportation engineer as “invaluable.”

“She’s someone who understands the details and the nuances of these projects,” Moore said. In Washington County, a decades long project to widen I-81 is underway and in Baltimore, a decades long project to construct an East-West transit line is in the works too.

The chair of the Washington County delegation to the Maryland General Assembly indicated a connection between the transportation system in Western Maryland and the state’s largest city.

“Don’t just think this (I-81 improvement) is a Washington County issue because this is all tied in to the Harbor Tunnel,” said Del. William Wivell, R-Washington/Frederick, in an interview after the delegation’s first meeting of the year on Jan. 11.

Moore says Lt. Gov. Miller 'knows the right questions to ask'

Given the lieutenant governor’s background, Moore indicated she thinks inquisitively.

“She knows the right questions to ask,” the governor said.

Miller says the two talk every single day, if not in person or by phone than by text. Moore says he loves “watching her grow inside the role,” alluding to Miller’s transition from being a state legislator to now an executive, and adding she’s going to be a leader in the legislative session.

“When I said this was gonna be a partnership,” the governor said of the lieutenant governor, “I meant it.”

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Moore-Miller administration hits the one year mark. What's next?