Tech-related orders and economic reorganizations hit Maryland. Here’s what they mean. 

Rather than hiking taxes, Gov. Wes Moore has chosen to close glaring budget gaps by relying on economic growth. This priority has already affected recent lawmaking in Annapolis and restructuring in Baltimore while bringing new leaders into Maryland’s government. 

The state’s chief executive kicked off 2025 by introducing a slew of executive orders, many of which focus on technology and economic development. There’s a new council specializing in air mobility, an office to streamline social services and a group focused on digital infrastructure, as well as a major reorganization at the state’s Department of Commerce and various other initiatives. 

“These orders are a part of the governor’s initiative to make targeted investment into high potential industries to grow Maryland’s economy,” Moore’s senior press secretary 

Carter Elliott wrote to Technical.ly, “and strengthen the administration’s ability to help community organizers deliver social services to underserved communities in Maryland.”

Many of the actions also correspond with the administration’s planned FY2026 budget, which he said “balances the state budget through strategic investments in growing the middle class.”

As part of these changes, Moore established the Digital Infrastructure Group, a new entity tasked with managing digital frameworks and bringing together agencies like Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Information Technology (DoIT).

Eric Bathras, the group’s new leader and DoIT’s CTO of infrastructure, said he’s creating a “single view” of the state’s broadband assets and compiling all of the data for the government so work between agencies can be better coordinated.  

“We’re taking a playbook from the private industry,” Bathras told Technical.ly. “We’re going to coalesce all of our data assets into a public sector view.”

Streamlining Maryland’s broadband work  

The goal is for Maryland agencies to then be aware of other agencies’ digital infrastructure-related work at the beginning of the process instead of afterward. 

Bathras rejoined DoIT in the spring of 2024 after working at the agency between 2017 and 2020 as the director of network operations. Between his stints with the Crownsville-based department, he ran the global broadband practice at the infrastructure consultancy AECOM. 

When he returned to the state last year, he started writing a broadband infrastructure plan for Maryland that included this freshly announced group. He aimed, by drafting the plan, to attract more federal dollars for digital infrastructure and organize priorities, he said.

The state isn’t providing additional financing for this new entity, per Bathras. 

Throughout his previous work planning digital infrastructure, he’s seen one primary issue with governance — managing the planning process and looping in decisions from across offices. There are also a lot of players with different priorities who need to be involved, like the key transportation and housing departments, plus residents. 

“If we can take into account those needs, then the investments that come from the state can be optimized, and the prioritization can be coordinated,” Bathras said. 

He said that the Office of Statewide Broadband, which operates under the Department of Housing and Community Development, will remain active since it tackles just one layer of broadband infrastructure: providing services to underserved Marylanders and their businesses. The Digital Infrastructure Group focuses on that aspect alongside everything else in digital infrastructure, including transportation and managing towers. 

Bathras also hopes this system will generate more revenue for the state. Maryland makes money through resource share agreements with private companies, like mobile carriers using Maryland’s conduit for a fee. That’ll expand, he said. 

Reorganization at Commerce 

Digital infrastructure efficiency isn’t the only way the state hopes to generate more cash.  

An entity under the Commerce Department once known as the Business Industries sector was split into the Division of Innovation and Growth and the Division of Business Attraction and Special Projects. 

This move happened long after Moore’s early 2024 executive order on boosting economic competitiveness, but is in line with it, per Ricardo Benn, the new deputy secretary for the innovation division. 

“Our focus has really been on unifying the strategy,” said Benn, who started his role at the end of November. 

This entity encompasses agencies like the Office of International Investment and Trade, the Office of Military and Federal Affairs, and the Office of Strategic Industries. Benn brings to this work international economic development experience, with previous posts at consulting firms including Capgemini and Booz Allen Hamilton. 

His day-to-day work largely involves consulting with Maryland-headquartered businesses and government, including in key industries — cybersecurity, quantum, aerospace, energy, manufacturing and the life sciences among them — with robust federal backing. 

Moore recently announced a plan for Maryland to become the “Capital of Quantum,” thanks to an initiative with the Unversity of Maryland, College Park that the governor said would generate $1 billion in investment. One of the project’s partners, the high-profile spinout IonQ, quickly followed up by saying it would consider moving out of the state if $10 million in state funding doesn’t pass in the General Assembly, the Washington Business Journal reported. 

Benn asserted this focus on key industries doesn’t disqualify others from attention. 

“We’re not leaving any other sector behind,” he said. “We are equally focusing on all the sectors that make Maryland a great place to live. But you have to be strategic and think about where you need to head in the future, and make sure that you’re cultivating and making the right types of investments in those sectors that are going to have outsized growth.”

The other entity created out of the split, the Division of Business Attraction and Special Projects, is led by deputy secretary Stephen Rice. This entity houses the new Governor’s Office of Business Advancement, as well as offices focused on business recruitment and financial incentives programs, Rice said. 

Rice is focused on recruiting businesses and getting companies to stay and expand in the state. Most of the state’s GDP comes from businesses that decide to expand in its borders, he said. 

He’s also tasked with managing “special projects” that’ll drive economic growth in Maryland. 

“Their role, essentially, is to provide a white glove concierge service for special projects — large projects that could have a large economic impact on the state of Maryland,” said Rice, who also started his role in November. He was raised in Howard County and now lives in Prince George’s County. 

That service means “clearing impediments” to completing the project. Rice declined to give an example, citing that these projects are in progress.

This division into two entities will allow for more focused and strategic work, he said. That’s especially relevant considering the recent appointment of Harry Coker Jr., pending legislative approval, as the state’s new commerce secretary.  

“We’re better able to drive change, drive success,” Rice said. “Strategically splitting it up … to essentially drive the changes and the success that we want.”