MD officials pushing to attract Moore’s ‘lighthouse’ industries

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State officials have in recent days continued their push to showcase Maryland as an attractive home for businesses in the life sciences, information technology, and aerospace and defense fields, which Gov. Wes Moore has dubbed the “lighthouse” industries for driving growth in the state’s stagnant economy and decreasing reliance on the federal government.

Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller and Secretary of Commerce Harry Coker traveled to San Francisco this week for the annual RSA Cybersecurity Conference, a series of IT security events that attract roughly 45,000 people each year to cities around the world.

“With one of the most robust pipelines for tech talent in the country and unmatched assets like our universities, military installations, and federal research hubs, we are building the future of cybersecurity right here,” Miller said in a statement. “At RSA, I made it clear: Maryland is where innovation meets mission — and we intend to lead the nation.”

In pitching Maryland, Moore and his team have consistently pointed to the state’s military installations and assets at Fort Meade and the National Security Administration, among others, its research universities like the University of Maryland network and Johns Hopkins University, and its proximity to Washington, D.C.

“One of the things that I’ve appreciated since I’ve been in this position is how much Maryland does have to offer,” Coker said in an interview Friday. “We don’t have to create a story. We just have to collect the data and make sure others are aware of it.”

The governor’s critics and some in the state’s business community, though, have said Maryland has an unfriendly business and regulatory environment, including a tax code that’s more burdensome than in neighboring states.

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Republican lawmakers and business advocacy groups such as the Maryland Chamber of Commerce raised these concerns during the recent legislative session when railing against Democrats’ plan to adopt a new 3% sales tax on IT and data services as part of an expansive revenue plan to help balance the budget amid projections of a massive shortfall.

Coker said Friday that he and others in the Moore administration are hopeful that companies and investors will recognize that taxes are just one of the several factors in a business decision, and he emphasized the importance of considering the state’s assets, including its location, workforce, academic institutions and overall quality of life for employees.

Lawmakers and the state’s business community are awaiting word from the Office of the Comptroller about exactly how the tax will be implemented and collected. It’s expected to take effect in the new fiscal year, beginning July 1.

The administration’s recent trip out west came on the heels of Moore’s first trade mission as governor, in which he traveled in mid-April to Japan and South Korea with hopes of attracting foreign investments and partnerships in Maryland’s life sciences, information technology, and aerospace and defense fields.

Miller’s and Coker’s trip also coincided with an event Monday in which the state entered an agreement with a U.S. Defense Department agency to test quantum computing prototypes and systems for potential national security and commercial uses.

Moore has said that he wants Maryland to be “the capital of the quantum world,” becoming a global hub and the center of activity for the field of computer science that relies on quantum mechanics to solve problems and perform calculations that even the most powerful classical computers cannot.

In January, he and leaders from the University of Maryland and from the College Park-based quantum computing company IonQ announced an initiative to generate more than $1 billion in the state’s quantum industry by 2030, drawing on state funding, matching federal grants, private-sector investments and philanthropic contributions.

The agreement that Moore and others announced Monday could bring in up to $100 million in federal funding over the next four years to match the state’s investments in quantum computing.