As we enter 2008, St. Mary's County's economy is strong and growing. The County's population and workforce now exceed 100,000 and 50,000, respectively. We have the lowest median age in Maryland. We host the largest employer in the region, NAS Patuxent River, and are working very closely on strategic matters like encroachment, education, and community development.

 Our unemployment rate is consistently lower than the state and nation. Three-fourths of our labor force works within the County, the highest rate of in-county employment in the Washington-Baltimore metro region.

 Chopticon, Great Mills, and Leonardtown High Schools each rank in the top 4% in overall performance out of 27,000 high schools nationwide. We rank second in the state of Maryland in highest average weekly wage per worker in the government sector where 30% of our workforce is employed. We are the third highest county in the state in average weekly wage per worker. The highly-skilled Professional & Technical Services industry sector, where many of the technology firms listed here are classified, accounts for almost 30% of all private sector employment. Eight of the County’s top 10 major private employers are in this important industry sector.

 More than 200 technology firms are listed in the upcoming 2008 Technology Handbook of St. Mary's County. This is twice the number of firms listed a decade ago. Almost two-thirds of our technology firms are classified as small businesses; 29% are veteran-owned, 28% are minority-owned (includes woman-owned and other disadvantaged status). More than a third of the companies listed in the Technology Handbook were founded in St. Mary’s County.

 At the same time some parts of the County are in need of more attention. For example, many independently-owned businesses at the southern end and in parts of Lexington Park are facing new challenges from changing traffic and shopping patterns. While this past holiday season was brisk, local business are reporting a slowdown in consumer spending.

 As the 10-year tobacco settlement begins to expire in 2010, many of the County's farmers who took the buyout will not be prepared to continue farming following the buyout.

 The level of poverty, although lower in percentage of population, is greater in absolute numbers and more concentrated than ever. While our population is increasingly educated, we lag the state and nation in the percentage of adults with college degrees. We are lacking particular programs of academic instruction where the workforce demand is great (e.g., Engineering undergraduates).

 Our tax base is heavily residential which limits our ability to offer needed County services and infrastructure. High average home prices comparable with those throughout the metropolitan region and a shortage of workforce housing dampen the ability to recruit and retain a highly skilled workforce. Most recently a sharp slowdown in the real estate market has affected both office and residential sectors. National trends such as the mortgage credit crunch, increasing rates of residential foreclosures on sub-prime loans, and related consequences are beginning to affect the County. The effect of the Governor’s budget in dealing with the state’s structural deficit has yet to play out. Finally, it’s a Presidential Election Year and with the word “Recession” being mentioned more frequently the economy will most likely play a bigger role than in the past three elections.

 So we have our share of national economic challenges ahead in 2008. Again, locally we are doing much better than the nation and state averages and are fortunate to have the right ingredients to see us through an economic slowdown, as we’ve done in the past. We all must continue to do the things that make our economy successful, and not be afraid to be innovative in trying new things.