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Sign-On: Open Letter to Governor Hogan, Executive and Legislative Leaders Regarding State Budget Surplus

Action alert, state budget surplus: put people first and partner with nonprofits!

In late September, State Comptroller Peter Franchot announced that upon closing the state’s books on Fiscal Year 2021, the State’s General Fund had a surplus of $2.5 billion. (See Neil Bergsman’s blog on the topic.) The following week, Governor Hogan announced five priorities for spending this surplus: tax relief for working families, tax relief for retirees, building the state’s reserve fund, increasing state employee benefits and relief for underserved Marylanders.

Maryland Nonprofits has prepared a letter on how the state’s surplus should be allocated to the diverse communities we serve and in partnership with the nonprofit sector. Please join us in calling for our state to dedicate $1 billion to:

Put People First

  • Extend and provide benefits to the Marylanders most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic effects
  • Close the wage gap for direct care workers
  • Invest in workforce development

Partner with the Nonprofit Sector

  • Provide an additional round of COVID-19 financial relief for the nonprofit sector
  • Eliminate unnecessary application and reporting red tape and assure timely payments

Please join me in signing this letter in support of putting people first and partnering with the nonprofit sector.

View Letter and Sign-On

Heather Iliff is President & CEO of Maryland Nonprofits, responsible for advancing the organization’s vision to create a highly effective, ethical and accountable nonprofit sector that drives change through collective action and advocacy. Ms. Iliff previously served as Vice President of Maryland Nonprofits and Director of the Maryland Nonprofits Consulting Group. She is an experienced facilitator, trainer and manager with international, national and local nonprofit organizations. Ms. Iliff served a 4-year term as an elected member of the Prince George’s County, Maryland Board of Education, and was appointed to County Executive Rushern Baker’s Commission on Educational Excellence for Prince George’s County. Previously, Ms. Iliff was Deputy Director of Alliance for Nonprofit Management and Assistant Director of the Institute for Educational Policy at Open Society Institute – Budapest. Ms. Iliff has been featured as a speaker at national conferences including Organizational Development Network Annual Conference, The Philanthropy and Non-Profit Performance Conference, Alliance for Nonprofit Management Annual Conference, and the Association of Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action. Ms. Iliff holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies from The American University and a Masters in Political Science from the Central European University (University of the State of New York). She is a licensed consultant with the Standards for Excellence Institute.