Said Jeff Adams, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, which employs about 9,300 in Maryland: "There have been no major surprises or disappointments."
Paul Murphy, president of Eagle Eye Publishers Inc. and an expert on government procurement, says more recent contracting numbers show a continued picture of flat or declining spending in Maryland. But that's not necessarily the whole picture, he added, because spending by top-secret government operations - such as the National Security Agency in Anne Arundel County - aren't measured.
Either way, contracts should be flowing to Maryland in greater numbers soon, said Richard P. Clinch, director of economic research with the University of Baltimore's Jacob France Institute. That's a result of the shift of military jobs to Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade as part of the national base realignment and closure process.
Defense activities make up nearly half of the federal contracting in Maryland. The Department of Health and Human Services is another major funder, spending $3.6 billion on contractors doing work here in the 2006 fiscal year, which ran from October 2005 through September 2006.
On the whole, contracting accounts for nearly 30 percent of the money spent by the government in Maryland. Grants, the next biggest category, added up to $15.7 billion in fiscal 2006. Retirement and disability payments totaled $15.6 billion; salaries and wages were $11.2 billion; and other direct payments, such as Medicare, were $11.1 billion.
Economists have warned for years that deficits will force the federal government to rein in spending, hurting Maryland. Thompson said he does expect that the country is "approaching the top in the most recent defense-spending surge," but he thinks contractors won't be hurting for work.
"The type of skills that companies like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman sustain in Maryland are applicable both to defense and to commercial ... markets," he said.
jamie.smith.hopkins@baltsun.com
