BALTIMORE — Gov. Wes Moore, House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson signed bills Thursday focused on improving Maryland’s economy and advancing the governor’s mission to eliminate child poverty.

“One of the greatest drivers of hardship and heartbreak in our state is child poverty,” Moore said at the third bill signing ceremony of 2024. “The fact is, for so many children, their destiny is written before they even get a chance to have a say.”

Moore, Jones and Ferguson, all Democrats, enacted the Engaging Neighborhoods, Organizations, Unions, Governments, and Households, or ENOUGH, Act, which will provide grants of up to $500,000 for proposals submitted by community organizations located in areas where more than 20% of children live in poverty.

Passing the ENOUGH Act, which the governor first unveiled at LIFE Church Ministries in Brooklyn, was top-of-mind for the Moore administration this session. He called childhood poverty “sticky” and “brutal,” adding that it’s frequently revealed in necessities like the quality of air and access to clean water in communities around the state.

Ahead of the bill’s signing, Moore awarded the ceremony’s first pen to Krystal Gonzalez, who advocated for its passage. Her daughter, Aaliyah Gonzalez was killed during the mass shooting in Brooklyn last July.

The governor discussed a domino effect that childhood poverty starts as a cause for the shooting that killed two, including Gonzalez, and injured 28 others.

According to the governor, one-in-eight children across the state grow up in impoverished households. In Brooklyn, it’s one-in-two.

“You cannot understand what happened the night of July 2 without understanding all of the horrific nights that happened before,” he continued. “Child poverty is not just a consequence — it is a cause.”

Ferguson recalled one of the first times he met Moore and First Lady Dawn Flythe Moore — back when it was “just Wes and Dawn.” He invited them to a 2012 community event in Cherry Hill hosted by the Spelman Road Gentlemen’s Club, and spoke with them about what neighborhoods like Cherry Hill and Brooklyn could offer “if you just have resources, and you build a vision, and you invest in people.”

“We have neighborhoods like that across the city and across the state,” said Ferguson. “And we’re here now, [12] years later, signing a piece of legislation that is going to enable that exact story coming into position.”

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