Bringing the Annapolis budget challenges home to East Baltimore

Senator Cory McCray of the 45th District returns to Koco’s Pub on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour with a full recap on the past four months of Annapolis budget deficit strains and the importance of hearing the citizens on taxes and wages and business.

Senator Cory McCray discussed the significant budget deficit in Annapolis, estimated at several billion dollars, and his role on the budget and health committees. He emphasized the importance of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which invests in K-12 education and workforce development. McCray highlighted the need for a $15 minimum wage, including tip workers, and the challenges of balancing business costs with worker compensation. He also touched on the impact of federal funding cuts during COVID-19 and the importance of community investments in education, public safety, and infrastructure. McCray shared his personal journey from juvenile justice to becoming a legislator, emphasizing the importance of mentorship and exposure to opportunities.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Annapolis budget deficit, minimum wage, Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, education funding, developmental disabilities, teacher shortage, federal resources, $15 minimum wage, tip workers, public safety, literacy outcomes, community development, Baltimore City, infrastructure projects, workforce opportunities.

SPEAKERS

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Cory McCray, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Please welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 tasks in Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive somewhere around here, I have some Maryland lottery scratch offs. I put them in my bag. I’m gonna whip those out. They are the Back to the Future Maryland lottery. We’re doing the crab cake tour. We’re here at beautiful Cocos. We’re in laurelville. One of our defending champions and Senator Cory McRae has made, I see made his way back. You live over here. You know, whatever I want to do to show I’m like, Hey, I’m coming over to Cocos. You’re like, I live over there, man. So and Marc says, Yeah,

Cory McCray  00:32

best crab cakes, hands down. My wife sends me out every couple weeks. Make sure. Hey, go get me some Coco’s crab cakes.

Nestor Aparicio  00:38

Well, I got Jamie Costello coming by today. I got you again. Howard perlo, everybody today picked Cocos because when I give them that option, if they live anywhere in the area, you know, next week, we’re gonna be at red brick station up in white Marshall. Have a choice, you know, I mean, we got, it’s a great city with a lot of great things. What’s going on, man, you guys were busy down in Annapolis. I was watching everything that was going on. And the state has changed. The country has changed since the last time you and I got together. I just want a little State of the Union from you and what’s going on at 45 you

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Cory McCray  01:08

know what? So you’re absolutely right. This was a very different session than what I was used to. One of them is because we walked into a budget deficit of several billion dollars. I sit on the budget committee, so that’s why I was super active this respective legislative session, one of 13 members to sit on that budget committee, but I actually chaired the Health and Human Services. So they were a number of cuts that was proposed, introduced just in reference to folks with developmentally disabilities. And we had to make sure that we moved in a spirit that was very thoughtful. Took in consideration. But Nestor, one of the things that I’ve learned in my 10 years of doing being in the legislature is bringing all the stakeholders to the table, hear their voices and then render decisions, but do it with them. Well, I

Nestor Aparicio  01:51

want to talk to you about $15 an hour and minimum wage, because it was brought up here Cocos. And we’re in a place where employees are running around, bringing crab cakes on trays, and there’s people here middle of the afternoon at Cocos. Is crazy here, but there is two sides to every story, right, like the internet taxation and digital tax and all that that obviously came to my desk doing what I do for a living, this deficit. I mean, I was out in front of Kerwin. You were out everybody I know that’s left minded. Yeah, I can’t say right minded, because the rights not in its right mind of recent years, but the money part of this, and the balance part is, my Republican friend said we can’t afford it. We can’t afford it. It’s great idea. It’s pie in the sky. The Democrats said, Let’s go for it. Hogan backed off of it and then left it for Wes right. And then we have to figure this out. And I haven’t talked to anybody that’s had great ideas about this multi billion dollar deficit in our budget. I trust that from the top down, you see this coming, and obviously you’re the one staying up all night trying to solve the problem at this point, right, a problem that was created by government.

Cory McCray  03:00

So I’ll hit a couple points, and I’ll try to do it in an order that I heard you say that, because you said a lot. One of the things that I’ll speak to is the blueprint for Maryland’s future with Carolyn. I’ll then move over to the budget, and then we’ll close with maybe the $15 Perfect. Let’s

Nestor Aparicio  03:14

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go. I love having you buy. I want to hear what you think. Yep. So in reference to Carolyn,

Cory McCray  03:17

I believe that we can’t afford not to do it. So when we think about K through 12 education, and we think about the employers in the Baltimore region, the state of Maryland, from that standpoint, they have to have a competitive workforce, the most trained workforce, but you have to know how to read and you have to know how to write. The fundamentals of those things, is what we’re doing when we’re investing in concentration of poverty, when we’re investing with folks that made English as a second language, when we’re investing in teachers and the level and credibility of the teachers that’s coming to our respective space. So when I looked at the blueprint and the cuts that was introduced, I was hard stop against them, because I can see right now the gains that’s happening at Johnson square elementary with principal o because he now has literacy coach, or just the simple fact that he has a vice principal, I can see principal Ann COVID right up the street with gardenville Elementary and the games that’s being made. So I’m in one of my schools at least once a week, because I want to have a granular level understanding of what’s taking place. This money

Nestor Aparicio  04:16

is in people. More people, more resources. Correct?

Cory McCray  04:20

It’s in people. Yeah, it’s an operating components of the respective school system. So we didn’t have things like simple things like an art teacher or music teacher. These are things that our young folks because we know when we have that level of diverse learning, when we have that exposure where we have access your brain is working in a different type of way, that maybe you one day will work at the Hippodrome, maybe one day you will work at the Lyric, because you can see the arts components that wasn’t, wasn’t existing several years ago. From that standpoint, the literacy we may have the next STEM Educators or mathematicians right there, but because of the investments that we’re making at this moment, we’re going to see the long term. Applications or benefits of making those investments. So I’m glad that we restored that funding. We did make some level of cuts, but it was not drastic as the cuts that was introduced, some of the cuts, and I want to be very transparent and honest. So like we restored concentration of poverty, we restored some of the foundational formulas, but the one thing that we pulled back on was teacher collaborative. So where teachers have the opportunity to be able to spend more time on the planning component of the education piece, versus so out of the classroom, being able to plan and things of that nature. We have a teacher shortage. There was some case to be made. We cannot have everything. Things are about figuring out where’s the middle, and that’s where we left the legislature, from a standpoint that we were in the middle, I’m now going to move over to the budget component, and I’ll speak to some of the development disabled things that I need. So you had education, you had DDA. You also had transportation, because we ended up DDA development. Okay, sure. So we had these things that were coming. And the unfortunate thing is, I believe that it’s important. One of my values is that communities, especially vulnerable communities, such as our young scholars, such as our seniors, but more importantly, folks, if you do have a disability, we as a community have responsibility to wrap out arms when I think of DDA. And what I’m talking about is education. They have to be in certain settings, they have to be in certain environments for them to receive the education, for them to be able to thrive. I also do think that everybody has the ability to contribute. So we as a state make sure that there’s workforce opportunities for folks that may have a disability, and that’s a good thing.

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Nestor Aparicio  06:37

And then with all the stuff coming from the president with dei and, you know, inclusion, I mean, not inclusion your color, my color, inclusion of people who are less fortunate, people who have who need to be contributing to our society and can. And this nonsense of autistic people being incapable of contributing is is disgraceful. It’s a disgraceful ideology. Cory.

Cory McCray  07:03

The other thing is, is similar how you see folks congregating at Cocos right now. There are spaces that we have within our budget, because we see value in making sure that folks that have a disability that they still have a space, safe space, that they can congregate and meet other peers and do things that make them feel as though they’re valuable. These are assets to our great state of Maryland, and there’s things that we’re not willing to trade under the circumstances that we’re in at this moment. Turn your back on these people. You cannot, you cannot, and you don’t. You’re not just impacting them. You’re impacting their families. The indirect, indirect people are impacted in

Nestor Aparicio  07:37

all sorts of care ways. And anybody that’s ever been in a circumstance like that understands the amount of care we’re talking about when a person can’t fully care for themselves, whether it’s a senior, whether it’s child, whether it’s someone that’s that’s had a problem, an accident, disability, whatever it would be. And when

Cory McCray  07:53

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we when we lean into the budget, some of the actions happen because there was injections of federal resources, and they were in from the federal government during COVID. So they were ARPA dollars. They were Esser dollars. When you see a lot of the cuts that were being made, they were the federal pastors, the federal dollars that are no longer there. It was a one time. It was a one time thing. And now we’ve made sure that we pull back from a state well, you can’t build that into the budget. We can’t, we can’t, we can’t magically make that happen again. If you build a bridge

Nestor Aparicio  08:21

with it, that’s fine, but

Cory McCray  08:22

you can’t. It’s a one time. Sure. So that’s how to budget. Now I’m going to move over to the $15 minimum wage with Tip workers.

Nestor Aparicio  08:30

Now this was important to Mars. I know she wrote you a letter Restaurant Association a bit on this. I’ve been in business with restaurants from beginning. Obviously, I’ve known people, dated people. I’ve never been a server. I’ve never worked, you know, in that industry. But every drink I’ve ever had in this city, in this world, has come from a bartender. Every meal I’ve ever had come out of a kitchen, just like these delicious coconut shrimp just came out here a minute ago, Cocos. And we’re a tip culture, right? I mean, we in America, we are. And then you go to Europe, you go to Australia, you go to different places in the world. It’s not Asia. It’s not like that the tip culture, and we had a long conversation about how to it’s getting out of hand with carry out and places that like, I would say, you wouldn’t think of going into a fast food place ever and tipping there. But now there’s an offer to do that across the board. So I did explosive conversation, talking about tipping into people who work in the industry, and then what happens, and what the proposal was. So I’ll leave it for you. I just wanted to put that on the table, because everybody out there is familiar with 22% 20% you want me to tip you for a muffin, a donut at his bot like you know, you may tip at the gas station, you didn’t pump the gas. So I think we got a I could do comedy on this all day, but this, it’s not a comedy to people that work in the industry and the people that own businesses that have the government coming and saying, we’re going to mandate that you change the structure of the industry.

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Cory McCray  09:54

Yep. So I just wanted to set the stage and go back to 2019 and I appreciate you. Laying the foundation. So in 2019 the minimum wage was $10.10 in the state of Maryland. And there were a number of folks that told me that the sky will fall if it ever made it up to $15 but what we did was in a thoughtful way, we did matriculate, and it hit $15 January, 1 of last year. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  10:17

this was something much like when I was a kid smoking in the bars was never going to come here. And it did the $15 that had been in other places. I mean, I had been in other places in the country where it was controversy. Was left wing, it was all that, but it got instituted, and you saw the differences. Where was the model for that? There is a model, yep.

Cory McCray  10:40

So what we did was in 2019 it was 1010. We then elevated up to 2020. We moved to $11 we moved to 1175, and we matriculated slowly because we heard what businesses were also saying, and we took in consideration if you had less than 15 employees, so you had moved on an even slower scale. So that’s what you look at, in reference to getting to a middle was everybody happy? No, I had folks on the left that was not happy. They said, Hey, you’re conceding too much. You’re, you’re, you’re not getting there quick enough for us. And then the business is saying we should not, we shouldn’t go there. We should, we should leave the wage where it is and just kind of let it play out from itself. But we ended up moving in the right direction, is what I’m trying to say. Unfortunately, Nestor, when we before we got to 1010, there was a 725, minimum wage, right there, I want to say about 2014 and it was there, forever stagnated. But with some of the things, when we negotiate, we leave some people behind. So I’m not sure, because you’re very educated on this, more than, more than I’m recognizing when we did,

Nestor Aparicio  11:40

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when we did try, when we did, I don’t do no reading, yeah, when we did minimum wage,

Cory McCray  11:45

back in 2014 the people that we left behind with Tip workers. So tip workers used to get 50% 50% of the minimum wage. So you’ll see that tip workers will still have to get the flow of 363, that 363, came because, as the minimum wage is moving in 2014 those were subset of folks that were getting left behind. So I always, I’ve always said, we have to go back and grab those individuals. It may not be 100% at what the respective minimum wage is, but at the end of the day, I do think that, as everybody else is moving up and us not taking them in consideration their net, they still, even though we’re at $15 away from that seven, uh, 25 they’re still at that 363, being their floor. So that’s where that comes from. But the floor really

Nestor Aparicio  12:28

is 15, because if they only make $5 an hour and get $5 in tip, they still have to be they still have to best compensated 15. That’s so there is a floor already built in that if you work a shift and nobody comes and it snows, you don’t get tipped. Your boss has to pay $15 an hour. You’re

Cory McCray  12:44

100% correct, 100% correct. So everybody’s not a good employer like a Cocos. Let me be clear. So you have some folks that may have a bad day, they may have a bad week, depending on it, and they’re not going to go to the Maryland Department of Labor and say, hey, my boss didn’t give me what I was supposed to get, and what happens is, how do they prove those types of things? So we’re putting more onus on the respective workers to be able to say, Hey, do this. That’s a lot. Nestor is, from my opinion, and workers that collectively came together and said, Hey, we want to move in this form of fashion is, is it the way it was introduced? Is that what would have moved? It didn’t move at all. But is that the product that would have came out? No, we’ve always done things to where we’re figuring out how to bring everybody at the table, and I think that Melvin would say the same thing. No, I love working with the Senator, even if we agree to disagree. I know that my door is always open, that folks can always say their position and trying to incorporate their feelings, their thoughts, their lived experience, into give

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Nestor Aparicio  13:45

me that push back. Play the other side of this for me. Play the side of Marcy. Or any business owner who says, Hey, this is gonna make my crab cakes $5 this is gonna make my business more because expenses are the expenses, you know. And some people say, Well, you know, you ever run a restaurant didn’t know what that’s about to talk to the restaurant association that puts that other lobby against what you’re trying to do. You try to put yourself in their shoes. And they are making a credible point for business owners, and I’m a business owner, but there’s also the credible point of the staff and saying I need to be compensated. I’m a tipped worker, right? So

Cory McCray  14:20

my job is to make sure that I had a business owner and the worker in that conversation. So what happens is that the Restaurant Association was very much louder, had greater access, which, while they got that car about back in 2014 mines, is figuring out what is the thoughtful way to look and take in consideration of what we did and move everybody at that same time, while still thinking about Marcella. I call you. Call it Marcel Marcella, but also thinking about businesses like Cocos, but also folks that may not be doing what they’re supposed to be doing. To what does that look like? And it may look like something in the future, but one thing that we can guarantee is that I’ll always have the open door policy, and they will always have a seat at my table. Senator

Nestor Aparicio  15:00

Carmen craze here from the 45th we are at Coco’s pop. At some point I’m gonna get my Maryland lottery tickets and give I’m gonna be like Oprah, you get one. You get one. You may be $10,000 ports all over with the good senator comes out about once a year. We sit here talk about all sorts of things, the state of Annapolis and the state of the federal government, and how that trickles down. And I’m always gonna be worried about the bridge, because we’re a year out on the bridge. We got a million things we’re gonna talk about today, but that bridge was in the water on fire a year ago this week, everybody cared. I’m over Costas crying about it. I can’t see the bridge anymore. We’ve redirected all the traffic. We’ve seen how much more traffic there’s been on on all the highways around here. When you take that red piece where the bridge was on your Google Map, see that it’s gone. Kimmy progress, what you’re hearing, what you know, because that is not a 45th District. That’s not, that’s a that’s a Maryland bridge. It’s not a Republican bridge, not a Trump bridge, not a Biden bridge. That’s a that’s an American Bridge and a big thoroughfare and the port issues that we’re already having with what this guy down in DC is doing. What’s the state of the state? And let’s start with the bridge. And more backward for I know you don’t put yourself in West’s seat every day, but you know he’s got a lot of problems down there. I mean, he really does right? You’re in on all of them. So

Cory McCray  16:19

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just start with a bridge. I think that that was Maryland at its best. We saw a challenge that we were having, and I think that leadership at that moment met that challenge and did it eloquently. But more importantly, did it as a team, Democrats and Republicans, all eight of our congressional folks, both of our United States Senator, our governor, our mayor, our county executive, just seeing our colleagues collectively come together and under one umbrella to move that forward was a great site. We were very unified, and I’m glad that it’s moving in the better direction. There isn’t it is it is so like the funding is still there from a federal standpoint, like the federal government has just always

Nestor Aparicio  16:58

worried about Trump messing things up in a blue state, I think, with an African American mayor, an African American governor, because he’s a racist, and I’ve known he comes once my FCC license, he can have it, but he’s a racist. So one

Cory McCray  17:10

of the things that I’m saying is, is that we look at education is under attack right now. I just got up a call at 11 o’clock where our public safety dollars around gvrs is now Gun Violence Reduction Strategy. I want

Nestor Aparicio  17:26

you to sound like that.

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Cory McCray  17:28

I’m glad you don’t the but, but public safety, education, Medicaid, we’re talking about block grants now for Medicaid dollars, and now states from that standpoint. So, like a lot of things are under attack. This is the one few thing when we talk about the Key Bridge that has not been under attack, and I hope, and I pray that he will see it that way, that because it would slow us down, and we’ve got some fast momentum, and reference to making sure we rebuild the thing that I think about from a state of the state or state. I look at it also from a state of the city too. I feel very good, and I feel very inspired about the moment that we are in the city when I think about public safety and the mayor given the State of the City address, Nestor, I think about like that visual, the background that he had when he talked about the list, and the list that some people were on, but Baltimore City wasn’t on, in reference to violent, violent cities to live in, the one we’re always on, we’re the one we’re always on is Somehow

Nestor Aparicio  18:20

that we’ve all of our lifetime hitting silver hair. You me both.

Cory McCray  18:23

You’re right. So like that felt very good. I’m very goal oriented. I measure I measure things. One of the things that I was proud to hear was in reference to literacy outcomes and in reference to math outcomes, we are now setting goals. The mayor is working with our school CEO to say, here’s what our outcome should be during this time frame. You remember with the public safety stuff, he said that he was going to get this percentage gain down every year in the first couple years he missed but you know what? It eventually got on track. So that’s what I’m saying. If you do not set goals, if you do not measure success, and what does success look like? So that you can clearly articulate it to the rank and file to folks to pay taxes and things of that nature. How do we know from that roadmap what the destination is? So I felt very good about us just setting goals specifically around education.

Nestor Aparicio  19:11

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I also just think about education leads to less crime. Education leads less crime, and that’s what let’s say that out loud. Let’s say that out loud. So I’m on that really. That is

Cory McCray  19:21

the truth with Dorothy Lennox, and she’s the executive director of go cat, that’s a state agency, and they pay attention to all of the governor’s office on crime prevention things, but she made a point of doing exactly what you did. Stop us and say, while public safety police officers, gvrs, gun violence reduction strategy contribute. We have to remember that these other identifiers that indirectly impact crime, and you just did that. I appreciate you.

Nestor Aparicio  19:50

Well, all we ever got was the murder number, you know, and for me, the shootings, the carjackings, violent crime, threats of violent crime, the perception. In that going downtown is put your life in jeopardy. And the perception of that outside the Beltway, it’s it’s everywhere, man. I mean, I baseball fan connected a lot of Caucasian folks in the suburbs do all of this, and I hear it all when, as it comes up with baseball, as it comes up with going to dinner downtown, and then something bad happens. Some bad happens every week here, you know, some bad happens in every city every but if it gets illuminated, you know, in the Freddie Gray situation 10 years ago and everything that’s happened since then, it really the good news doesn’t travel as fast. It just doesn’t. And so

Cory McCray  20:39

I’m gonna make sure I share some good news so that folks can travel very fast. When we think about the 400 block of Biddle Street, Nestor and the work that’s going on, we did what we call teacher housing. So we know we have a teacher shortage. We’ve seen how college dorms and these communal spaces look like on the 400 block of Biddle street. You have rental but you also have home ownership, where teachers we are being thoughtful about who we recruit in our respective neighborhoods and incentivizing teachers to move on that respective block right across the street is even more housing. But you know what I’m excited about, the new library that’s coming to Johnson square St Francis Academy is a national they get national accolades from football, basketball, things of that nature. You know, we’re doing, we’re partnering, and we’re actually delivering to where David Cordish is helping. I’m trying my best to get it, get the name out, but building a state of the art football field to make sure that St Francis was practicing at Patterson or different things of that nature. They need their own respective football field, regulation football field, to be able to continue to recruit that talent, but lift up one of the oldest African American institutions in the country, not in the state of Maryland, educational institutions. Well,

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Nestor Aparicio  21:46

I had been a ransom on a couple weeks ago. Proud graduate there. So, yeah, take care of him. If

Cory McCray  21:50

you come up Harper road a little bit right there by 25th Street, you’ll see that we’re about to build the first, the first public school stadium right there at Harford and 25th lake by the park, right by the park, by there on the way. That’s going to be super cool, because what happens is, we’re naming it after the first African American state senator in East Baltimore, Robert L Dalton. Many people do not know his name, but one of the things is, is that when they walk into that stadium, they’re going to it’s going to live every day and every time that somebody goes in there. If you look at Perkins Somerset and old tail and the activity that’s going on, you’ll see housing is busting at the seams. We have a new grocer coming to Central and Orleans. We have the Nathaniel J McFadden learning play park, where we’re investing six, $7 million into that piece of it. And Dana and Danny Henson are doing a phenomenal job, just doing a level

Nestor Aparicio  22:38

of development Central and and Orleans. Dunbar, right by Dunbar, library

Cory McCray  22:42

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right there. At the other intersection, adjacent to the Burger King, there’s a

Nestor Aparicio  22:47

football field over there too. Right by Dunbar, right? It’s a football field over there. Okay, I’m just trying to get that. Get the bearings of where you’re dumb.

Cory McCray  22:53

I’m super excited about that. Let’s go up Walter Boulevard right there. Walter northern Parkway, they have this gentleman by the name of Mr. Thorpe. Mr. Thorpe has been teaching young scholars how to swim in his backyard for several years. Before Mr. Thorpe had been doing it several decades. It was his father that was training young folks how to do it. He was looking for a swim facility right there at Walter and northern Parkway. 4m Swim Club is coming there. And we not only secured the lot form, which was city owned, is several acres, but we also were able to secure him 750,000 in the past state budget, and 450,000 in this state budget. That’s an asset for the community. Everything that I’m talking to you about are assets to the community and contributing. I would be remiss if I didn’t lift up things like the National great blacks and wax museum and how we have been taking ownership as a state, because they’ve been derelict in our duties. And when we make that investment, we invest in a BMA, which we should? We invest in a Walters. But at the end of the day, this is the national great blacks and wax museum in the state, for the last several years have been stepping down

Nestor Aparicio  23:52

by the courthouse in North Avenue, what I would call Sears, the OC Broadway. And so

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Cory McCray  24:01

you’re spot on. So like, I’m super even on Hoffa Road, Hoffa road, we got on Harford road here. We got a bookstore, we got a coffee shop, we got a woman owned co working space. Bramble just did student housing for Morgan, just right up the street. Like we’re in a moment, and we’re in a special moment, I think that the mayor delivered it in the state of the city, but at the end of the day, like I can feel it. And I was and I was talking to Ferguson, I was like, we did what we were supposed to do, but we’re starting to bear fruit for what we did 678, years ago. We’re starting to see it matriculate right

Nestor Aparicio  24:32

now. Senator Cory McRae is here. We’re at Coco’s pub. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery and our friends at the Back to the Future scratch. Awesome. Okay, Oriole baseball. We’re doing a crab melt here today that I have you ever eat at Burke’s down? It’s now royal farms, but Burke’s restaurant was at the corner. I’ve been there once. I had been a light right light Lombard. It was there forever’s comedy upstairs. And they had was where all the sports writers hung out back when I was a young man. And they had a. Crab melt there. And I sometimes I take the crab cakes home here from Cocos, as everybody does, and I quarter them, because they’re just too damn big. They’re as big as my head. I can’t eat all that crab cake, so I quarter it. And I’ve been getting the bees English muffins, and I get extra sharp cheddar cheese. And the way she does the coleslaw here, and the way she does her crab cakes. Her crab cakes are delicious, but it tastes a lot like the Berks recipe. And they would do this English muffin with crab meat and extra sharp cheddar cheese and grill that melt it like a pizza you’re recreating it. And today’s our day. So it’s crab Crab milk, so special today. So we’re gonna be eating that today, and Senator Cory McRae here. So the 45th give everybody the footprint of where you are and a little bit about your background. People don’t know who you are in your your electrician world as well, because you’re a man of vocation. You’ll say these politicians, heritage, politicians, lifers, I don’t know. You didn’t think about doing politics. You went to school to, like, do something, to do such a hand building. You are a working man, and you had a business, and you almost and you give it all up to where one of these pins and put on a funny suit and try to help people. But you had a you have a gig, you have something to fall back on, politics Very

Cory McCray  26:15

much so. So I should have started with this, but the 45th District, the boundaries are, northern Parkway is the northern southern is Station North Hopkins. West is Pulaski highway. And East has expanded a little bit, so it’s right bumps up against Good Sam. So when I went just for folks that may not know me, I’m born and raised in the city. I graduated from Fairmont, Harford. It’s right there, Harford, and 25th for those that’s the generation before me. They called it little Clifton. I’m an electrician by trade. Where’d you go to high school? Therma called it the two, yep, okay, right next

Nestor Aparicio  26:50

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to Lake Clifton. So Lake Clifton area, gotcha.

Cory McCray  26:53

So I live in the overly community. I live there my wife, Demetria, also a Baltimorean daughter of Baltimore. We’re raised now four children, Kennedy Reagan, CJ and Bryson and Nestor. Hit it a home run. Man, I think that the apprenticeship shifted my trajectory. Nestor was actually my mom that reached out to the Maryland Department of Labor say, Send me every apprenticeship program in the state of Maryland. She just wanted to do something with her son. She knew he was going the wrong direction, and then, luckily, you were going the wrong direction. Going the wrong direction.

Nestor Aparicio  27:23

What was that? What does that mean to a young African American kid here 20 years ago? What’s the wrong direction for you?

Cory McCray  27:27

So, so the wrong direction. In a short standpoint, you asked me what high school I went to before I went to Fairmont, Harford, I went to Northern before I went to Northern, I went to Emerson. And then in middle school, it was the same trajectory. So Edmonson and then Emerson, for four months, a year and a half at North, but northern was where you were supposed to go. Kind of, sort of, what happens is, I will move with my mother and my grandmother. So whenever I got on my mother’s nerve, she would put me out and move with my grandmother. My grandmother get upset. Then I moved back with my mother.

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Nestor Aparicio  27:52

And what did you do to upset them? It could be a

Cory McCray  27:55

multitude of things. Nestor, I’ll say early on, it was just more being removed from school. And I tell folks, this is another reason why this, this blueprint is very important. Because in elementary school, I was very gifted. I always made the honor roll. It shifted in middle school, so I went to Rockland, West bald. I saw a lot of that in Dundalk, and then I went, I got Middle School

Nestor Aparicio  28:14

was a mess. Middle School was an opportunity to get into nothing but trouble. Middle School in

Cory McCray  28:18

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my life. And what happens is, is that I just think that I was sharp and I wasn’t being put to where I was consistently being challenged, challenged in a way where I didn’t have busyness to get into other things I could have focused on my education. So I went to Chico pen, I went to Winston. I told you the high schools that I went to in and out of the juvenile justice system because of drugs, guns, things of that nature. So when I say that, my mom,

Nestor Aparicio  28:41

you had access to gangs. I didn’t see that. I got no nobody came ever recruiting me to any to any of that, other than, yeah, you want to smoke weed, drink beer, get into trouble race cars, you know? I mean, like that was trouble in my neighborhood, but it wasn’t gun trouble. There was drug drug trouble in Dundalk, race trouble still that always existed. Now it’s Hispanic people moving to Dundalk, but I’m unfamiliar with that. You know the wire side of this. I’m familiar with walking the streets of the city and seeing people that clearly were had access to a lot more trouble than I had access to so

Cory McCray  29:21

I do think that it’s important, and you’re having a very important conversation, because zip codes unfortunately dictate outcomes. So sometimes zip codes say how long you’re going to live, what is the health outcomes if you don’t have supermarkets, if you have concentration of liquor stores, if you have folks that congregate that’s not doing what they’re supposed to do, and you’re walking past that simply to get your education in K through 12. Those are different dynamics, and that shifts trajectory depending on the zip code that you live in. So you’re absolutely right when we think about educational outcomes. My the young folks in my house, they go to math Museum, they go to Kumon. But those things are like the outskirts of the city. You don’t have those tutorial opportunities right here. And. The City, which is important with why the Esser dollars, Dr S was doing something different. Dr San Lisas was doing something different, in reference to make sure that we had the literacy coaches after school, so you can learn those types of things in the schoolhouse, even if they weren’t in your respective neighborhood. So you’re absolutely right because of the zip code that I was adult literacy. You mean, no, usually some third graders ain’t moving at third grade. Sure, we maybe their parents don’t read either, and maybe their parents don’t read either. So we have to have those level of wraparound services that is now happening in our schools because of the blueprint Esser dollars coming to it. But I’m gonna go back to the zip code, and I do not make excuses. So the zip code that I grew it grew up in, unfortunately, I was moving at a wrong direction at a very, very quick rate. And when I say a wrong direction, I mean that I was incarcerated twice as an adult and I was still a juvenile, so like that, right? There is as fast as you go, my mom, my mom. I did a 10 month sentence in a place Victor Cullen, out there in Western Maryland. I came home, was only home for 30 days. Nestor and I was back incarcerated as an adult, 17 years of age and turning 18 over Baltimore City.

Nestor Aparicio  31:06

What was your overlook when you came back at that time? We’re talking about 30 years ago. What would so those 30 days that made the difference that put you back in the Poke? You think that you can you

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Cory McCray  31:16

think you can do it better. You think that you see something different. You think that you think that you can get there quicker, and that’s not

Nestor Aparicio  31:21

the case. But you weren’t getting real help. They threw you back to your parents. You couldn’t handle you to begin with. You go

Cory McCray  31:26

back to the same environment, and if that environment lacks opportunity, then you can’t in the same zip code. In the same zip code, the access or exposure is just not there. You’re going to do the same thing. It’s a habit. It’s a discipline. So if you don’t shift or change the habit or the discipline, you’re going to get the same, same people, same environment, right? So, so what happens is, when I got into that apprenticeship, Nestor, I’m now removed away from them four blocks that I was so used to, all that I knew was the neighborhood that I grown up in, the neighborhoods that I’ve grown up in, and now I’m around folks that are not just electricians. They own homes, they own other businesses. They may own a liquor store from that standpoint, but they’re doing other productive things that I can then see. And you know what I say, Nestor, they’re no smarter than I am. So I bought my first house at 20 I’ve been hustling all my life. I’m watching the hustle right there in front of me, because other people had owned multiple homes. I said, I can do that. I bought my first one. I saved up my money because we made good wages. And then I bought my second one that next year when I turned 21 and I kept repeating the cycle, and only thing that I did shifted was I was exposed to it. I was exposed to other people outside of my immediate vicinity that was doing something learning. I was learning. And what I then started to do was I worked there, and I also would work on the houses or Work at Home Depot. And I’m working 1416, hours, so I don’t even have time to congregate on the same blocks that I would do all day, because now I’m doing something constructive. And that’s when you were a kid that wanted to learn, right? I think most of us want opportunity. Unfortunately, we don’t have opportunity in front of us. So once I got my bite at it, I took it and I ran with it, and I thought that the apprenticeship was hustling me. So back in 2003 2004 they paid you 12 hours an hour, and then they said, We’re going to show you what you’re going to make in five years. So you’re going to make 15 at your second year, 18 at your third year, 21 at your fourth year, 25 at your fifth year, you’re going to top out making 35,000 hour no one in my family was making $70,000 a year. So I thought that this. I was like, what is the gimmick? Everything? When you come up in Baltimore, our young folks are so sharp, because they always got to be protected. They got to be on the lookout for somebody that’s trying to hustle. I thought they were going to put me out in the third year. I didn’t realize that there were employers that value having a trained workforce. So while other folks are paying to go to school.

Nestor Aparicio  33:40

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You thought they were BS in you about about the scale. I thought that they would be. I didn’t understand, gonna pay me that much because they’re gonna get rid of me before they would pay me that much. They would, they would get rid of me before they pay but you didn’t understand the business premise of, like, you want great crab case you keep the same staff

Cory McCray  33:54

in the turnover is not the same exactly. I didn’t. I didn’t know the place is packed at one o’clock on Wednesday. But like, those are the types of things, and what happens is, as I got to get mentors, I then had abundance of mentors. And, like, it just keeps going. And even at this moment, I’m consistently learning and I’m always having people pour into me. So I get opportunity at such a high level, right now, at such a high frequency, that is unreal. And I know that I have a responsibility. I got across the finish line. How can I get more people across that finish line with me? That’s what I think about every day that

Nestor Aparicio  34:25

I wake up. Well, I’m getting a little tutorial here. Senator Cory McCray from the 45th year, giving me the boundaries of all of this. Let’s talk federal government, because we we have to do this. You mentioned schools and opportunity and zip code. I’m from Colgate, East Point, Dundalk, Baltimore County, 21224, even though it’s not Highland town, it’s Dundalk hunt. And my son lives over the neighborhood. Now he’s obviously Hispanic native to me. I was the only Hispanic kid in that neighborhood, me and the Flores family from Columbia. My I was from Venezuela, but I was a gringo in a gringo family. An oddball, yeah, but there was only one Hispanic family in that neighborhood. And now that neighborhood 85% Hispanic. And when I’ve gone to speak to the elementary teacher in my old elementary school, which has been raised and we lifted, thank you, Johnny. Oh, I give him that. And Kevin cabinets, before that, the late, great Kevin cavid, talk to the principal over there, and I’ve talked to the police over there that managed the school. They had a day was 100 year anniversary of my elementary school. Went over and a teacher told me that the school is 78% Hispanic, and I’m Hispanic and I’m like, but I’m fake Hispanic, not real Hispanic. And I said, Well, how many of these kids parents speak English? Said 00, and I thought to myself, Well, where do they how do they take the homework home? You know, we’re in a whole different level where Hispanic people are being put in concentration camps in El Salvador. We know the long history of African Americans in this country over the last 340 years. I wonder where are we headed with this? And it’s very, very discon, above and beyond all of Baltimore’s issues and all the other things we have. We’re in a moment with this federal government and breaking laws to create fascism. That should be the lead story in every conversation we’re having.

Cory McCray  36:25

Nestor, I cannot tell you how proud I am to say to Chris Van Hollen, as my United States Senator, agree with you wholeheartedly. Nestor, immigration is such a huge issue, but this had moved past the immigration issue and moved more towards the constitutional issue, human rights, human rights issue. And when he went there, when he went there, I think about him not having an end game there was he didn’t know what he was going to do. He knew what he was going to try to do, but he didn’t know what the outcome was going to be. But you know what he did? He did what people want him to do. He kept pushing. He kept pushing, and then he’s sitting across the table, and what we’re saying is is like he made that happen. He started to believe he knew that he was doing the right thing, and he kept going the same direction because he was doing the right thing. And I just I looked at that, and I’m sitting in the car. I just stopped the car. I pulled over my park as I was listening to his press conference. I was just like, if there’s an emulation of what we want an elected official, I just mean regular people stand up just for somebody to stand up for somebody, stand for something. And they see Trump in reference. He’s just punching. He’s moving. He’s doing all this stuff. And no, a majority of folks are just not moving. They’re like absorbing punch. It’s like no punch back. Do something. That’s what we want you to do. That’s why folks are apathetic about good trouble.

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Nestor Aparicio  37:43

As I walk past John Lewis’s statue yesterday in Atlanta, you know, I walk through the Georgia Tech campus and there’s, you know, good trouble, and I I’m at a loss for what the end game is for our country. If we’re going to deport everyone that looks like me and subjugate everyone that looks like I can’t, I don’t. That’s not a country we should all want to live

Cory McCray  38:05

in. And I think the majority of folks do not want to live in that space. And I think that the more that we fight, I think that that removes the apt any get other people off the sidelines. What you then saw was other elected officials, other congressmen, other United States senator said, I’m going to travel there too. And like, that’s super important. I

Nestor Aparicio  38:21

will not be silenced, as you know, and I like bringing the issues up, even when you and Marcy have different thoughts about 15 that that’s the whole idea is we talk about things and find that middle so we get the government we deserve, not the government that’s thrust upon us. 100% agree, 100% agree. What’s next in Annapolis, this Kerwin and money and blueprint, and it’s gonna come back up in eight months, right? I mean, we’re gonna go back down on apples in January. We’re gonna need to find

Cory McCray  38:48

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money Nestor. I don’t even think it will be eight months. I think that there’s a very realistic outlook that we’ll probably find ourselves in a special session in this in September. Nobody in your seat wants to hear that. Nobody wants to hear that, depending on the outcome of the federal budget.

Nestor Aparicio  39:02

Well, that is the, I mean, we’ve talked about all of this in money. I brought the bridge up, which was a federal project given to the state. You brought up COVID, money that has since been spent. What’s the expected? I That’s a crazy question. If Wes were sitting here saying, what do you expect? I know what I expect. I watched him govern for four years and and lead a lead an insurrection, and it should be in jail. He’s a felon. I don’t know what to expect. I expect the bare minimum is what I expect. I

Cory McCray  39:33

don’t know what from the federal government, but I do know what I expect for myself, like I do have goals and expectations, and my job is to make sure that in these trying moments, in these challenging moments, that I step up and lead, and that’s what I’m trying my best to do. I may not know it all. I may make mistakes. We’re human. We’re going to make mistakes. But at the end of the day, the people that have entrusted me the gift to be able to serve expect me to lead in this moment.

Nestor Aparicio  39:56

Well, you can’t only pick the battles you can win. You have to. Pick the battles that are right. Yep, you have to pick the right you know. You fight for the cause. You don’t fight for the outcome necessarily, you know. And, and I think in this particular point, I’m using every bit of my energy after witnessing this from 2016 to 20 and the damage that was done. And I’m not an apologist for Biden or having weekend to Bernie’s run. I mean, Democrats made some huge mistakes just just the fact that they’re not leading, they’re not sitting in the White House right now. It’s very it got very confident. It’s made your job and my life, and all of our lives here a lot harder.

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40:32

I believe. Yep,

Nestor Aparicio  40:34

agree. All right, what else Orioles, you want to Orioles ravens, you got anything for me? No, nothing. You got

Cory McCray  40:39

no what? You know what? I’m just thankful at this moment, like I said, I think that Baltimore is in a really good space. Nestor, I do think that we show leadership in reference to the General Assembly and coming out and making sure that we still kept our respective priorities. Well, it was contentious, no doubt about that. It definitely was contentious. But I do think that at the end you saw us collectively come together, the House, the Senate, the executive, executive branch, making sure that we can represent for Marylanders. And that’s important to me, because at the end of the day, I didn’t go down there to waste my time. My time is very important. I’m very protective of my time. I don’t share it with everyone, from that standpoint. But like we went down there, we made a difference, and that’s what counts.

Nestor Aparicio  41:19

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Corey McCray is our senator, new 45th over here in the northeast side. You can find him out on the interwebs. He he answers his email. I am living proof of that. And good luck we see the family at springtime. I mean, kids are getting big, right?

Cory McCray  41:33

They How old are they? 17, 1511, and nine. Almost done.

Nestor Aparicio  41:38

So maybe we you never done. My son was here a little while ago. You never

Cory McCray  41:43

done that, is sure. But I’m excited, man. I got a old My oldest is thinking about what university, you know, may 1 is tomorrow, and that’s the same Morgan and Coppin, right? So, so it’s in a rotation to move. And then, you know what? My 10th grader, she’s playing AAU ball with Team throw. And that’s exciting, just to be able to spend that one on one time away. Time away a lot of time, and the young boys, they 11 and nine, man, they’re having fun and like, that’s real living. That’s the stuff that bring joy to my heart. So you’re

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Nestor Aparicio  42:11

over here with Morgan, and I know you were over copping a couple hours ago because you told me you were over there. You’re looking at me. Is there? Is there an east side, west side thing here?

Cory McCray  42:20

It’s always an east side, west

Nestor Aparicio  42:22

side thing, because, look, I’m from Dundalk. We don’t go to Patapsco. We don’t even acknowledge Patapsco. I understand this.

Cory McCray  42:30

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My wife grew up in Oliver, and she’s a lumber cop, and she’s a proud cop and alum, and we make sure

Nestor Aparicio  42:37

you married off, is what you say. I very much. So did.

Cory McCray  42:39

Thank you for saving. I

Nestor Aparicio  42:40

got to speak up for Coffman because I was a cop in last Thursday. We’re copping. We’re partners with Coffman, but,

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Cory McCray  42:46

and I think under the leadership of Dr Jenkins, like it’s going in the right direction. Is

Nestor Aparicio  42:50

he lobbying you for your 17 year old over there? I know he was, he

Cory McCray  42:53

was, he makes the pitch

Nestor Aparicio  42:55

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Morgan, because I know they are, you know, I know, I know David too. But I mean, they’re, this is that’s fun, competitive in that environment, right? You create HPC schools four miles apart. That

Cory McCray  43:06

is a beautiful thing. That is beautiful thing. One of the things I’m excited about, too, that’s good for Baltimore is that Morgan is coming down to the old lake Clifton. So they actually acquired that property Nestor. And what happens is that’s going to indirectly. And what he said was he wanted to do where he holds graduations, and be able to have as many family members versus having given two tickets or three tickets or things of that nature. So but that’s going to indirectly increase the foot traffic for neighborhoods such as chum Dolley Park, South Clifton Park, four by four and Bell Edison, because it’s all adjacent to that respective campus that’s about to get a ton more energy because of Morgan being an anchor institution coming down.

Nestor Aparicio  43:45

I like East Baltimore, that’s why I’m sitting here. So we are just a stone so we’re short bike ride away on the bike path right around the corner from Morgan State. We’re over here at Coco’s pub, one of my favorite places. There’s always energy. Is always good vibe. My son had never really been in here. And he came in. It was quiet. We set everything up, and then we walked over to Safeway, because he had to do a little shop. And we came back, and the place came to life. He’s like, my god, we like this place is Oh, Jamie Costello is here. Oh, I got the Senator and I got the governor. I got everybody going on here. He’s the governor Rosedale. The governor Rosedale on channel two. Jamie Costello is going to come. Costello us about all things. My thanks to Senator Cory McRae for always being a good guest with I mean, this is exactly what I’m trying to use Baltimore positive to do. People come in. You read the Motivation Manifesto here. You always got a book by your side. I’m always trying my best to figure out next time you come on, you got to give me electrician, not even 101, just 100 I need to know between ohms and the current, yeah, and amps and ohms, ohms law.

44:52

All right, you got it.

Nestor Aparicio  44:53

I appreciate you, brother. I transferred into horticulture back in high school with Dundalk so I could just learn plants we. We’re here at Cocos. We’re gonna have some crab cakes. We have the delicious cocoa nut shrimp as well in the raspberry jalapeno sauce. We’re gonna come back. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I am Nestor. We are wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.