ELECTION 2026: Former Saint Mary’s Commissioner Tom Jarboe Finds He Misses Power and Makes Bid for Commissioner President Post; Will He Accept A Challenge to the Good Old Boy Deals with Navy Alliance?

ELECTION 2026: Former Saint Mary’s Commissioner Tom Jarboe Finds He Misses Power and Makes Bid for Commissioner President Post; Will He Accept A Challenge to the Good Old Boy Deals with Navy Alliance?

BY KEN ROSSIGNOL

THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY

ST. MARY’S CITY, MD – A resident of the cloistered waterfront community of Rosecroft at St. Mary’s City has jumped into the race for St. Mary’s Commissioner President in next year’s election, filing as a Republican. The candidacy of Tom Jarboe, who served as a commissioner representing the Ridge and Valley Lee areas of St. Mary’s County from 2014 to 2018, is the first announcement in what may turn out to be a contest to decide if a big-spending, high-taxing liberal who should probably be a Democrat, has learned anything from spending eight years out of office.

Or if former Delegate Deb Rey gains the votes of the electorate that is reeling from higher property taxes and the effects of the Marxist Moore Administration.

Moore and the General Assembly have roared through a $5 billion surplus left by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. They are now raising fees and taxes like a hooker lifting her skirt on a street corner as they try to cover a $3 billion deficit.

Another contender in the GOP primary is former St. Mary’s Commissioner President Tommy McKay, who asserts that his experience in cutting five departments in a downsizing of county government in his term from 2002 to 2006, fully funding education while providing tax relief positions him to be the best person to lead the commissioner board in 2026. 

Should Rey enter the race, the electorate can expect to see a lively Republican primary as Rey lays out the various ways Jarboe supported more taxes and higher fees and voted for zoning and planning decisions that caused more sprawl and development while not achieving any relief for the traffic gridlock in the middle of the district he represented at the intersection of Great Mills Road and Point Lookout Road (Rt. 5) in Great Mills.

The Democrat who ran for St. Mary’s Commissioner President in 2022 was supported by a party apparatus more concerned with D. E. I. and radical socialist agendas of gender transitioning and sexualization indoctrination of Pre-K children than ensuring candidates met the simple residence requirements of candidacy. That candidate was not qualified and was deemed ineligible by the State Election Board.  That person might pop up again to lead her party off a cliff once more to lose each seat on the commissioner board to Republicans.

In the first budget cycle that Tom Jarboe was a part of, he quickly established that he had not much in common with four-term Republican Commissioner Larry Jarboe, who was term-limited after he finished his 2010 election. However, the 2015 budget cycle reflected the prior board more than anything Tom Jarboe contributed in his actions as a commissioner in five months.

The Standard and Poor rating of St. Mary’s County was listed at AA. “Very strong budgetary flexibility, with an available fund balance in fiscal 2015 of 26% of operating expenditures; • Very strong liquidity, with total government available cash at 28.1% of total governmental fund expenditures and 6.7x governmental debt service, and access to external liquidity we consider strong…”

The large looming public debt, which has soared from about $35 million to nearly $285 million between when Tom Jarboe took office in 2014 and the present, will be a significant point in the 2026 GOP primary. In his first budget cycle, Tom Jarboe supported a substantial boost in the public debt that will be paid by future generations so today’s residents can enjoy more public services from new facilities that are paid for, not by taxes but by borrowing – a philosophy advocated by current Commissioner Mike Hewitt.

Standard and Poor’s financial summary of St. Mary’s County in 2015 analyzed the financial status before Commissioner Tom Jarboe’s participation in the board’s actions was realized in his first budget cycle. 
”In our view, St Mary’s County’s debt and contingent liability profile is very strong. Total governmental fund debt service is 4.2% of total governmental fund expenditures, and net direct debt is 44.2% of total governmental fund revenue. Overall net debt is low at 0.9% of market value, and approximately 74.2% of the direct debt is scheduled to be repaid within 10 years, which are, in our view, positive credit factors. We understand the county plans to issue about $35.0 million of additional new money GO (General Obligation) debt within the next 12-18 months to finance various capital needs. Despite the possible issuance and increase in debt service costs, we do not expect this to negatively affect the county’s debt and liability factor score, considering the county’s rapid amortization schedule.”

The AI overview of the 2018 budget of St. Mary’s County is as follows:
In 2018, St. Mary’s County’s actual revenues were about $442,000 higher than the original budget. This was mainly due to a $761,786 increase in other local taxes. However, property taxes had a negative variance of $177,527, and income taxes had a negative variance of $718,696.

Explanation

The budget for 2018 was based on no change to the county’s tax rates. The county’s income tax rate remained at 3%, and the property tax rate remained at $0.857.

The 2019 General Fund budget for St. Mary’s County was $230,155,443, which was a 4% increase from 2018.

When a financial analysis or a politician says that there was no tax increase for real estate taxes, they omit that the county failed to maintain the Constant Yield and lower the tax rate to make up for rising property value assessments, which are, in effect, a tax hike. 

In other words, a politician’s clever choice of words when discussing tax rates continues the tradition of lies and deceit from elected officials who believe the public is either too dumb to know better or has no time to learn the truth.

In other words, a politician’s clever choice of words when discussing tax rates continues the tradition of lies and deceit from elected officials who believe the public is either too dumb to know better or has no time to learn the truth. Also, cutting and pasting press releases issued by government agencies serves the government and not the public.

Commissioner Tom Jarboe played a large role in soaring the county debt to $190 million in fiscal year 2019. By hiking the county’s bond authority for the term he was in office, Jarboe’s actions benefited his business partners, who were developing an air office park next to the St. Mary’s County Airport. Over $17 million in airport improvements were approved in the capitol budget, which Commissioner Tom Jarboe supported, for fiscal years 2019, 2020, and 2021.

In the St. Mary’s County Budget, approved on May 16, 2017, the St. Mary’s Commissioners adopted the Constant Yield. According to the county’s adopted budget in 2016 for Fiscal Year 2018, they reduced the property tax rate by $566,050, a reduction of .0045. Assessments from the State grew by 2.1 % compared to final assessments for FY2017, reflecting modest growth. The county’s income tax remained at 3%, according to the budget document.

As a defense contractor, Commissioner Tom Jarboe supported the annual gift of St. Mary’s County taxpayers to the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance, which began in the nineties with annual amounts of around $25,000.

The funds raised by the Navy Alliance were portrayed to the public as assisting the retention of the Navy’s many activities at Pax River NAS, with the threat that somehow, if the taxpayers didn’t support this gift to the well-heeled contractors, the Congress would somehow, ignore that U. S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D. Md 5^th) was the majority leader of the House of Representatives and close the base as part of the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure Commission which underwent a name change to Military Value Committee).

PERILS OF PAULINE

 In other words, starting with electing Hoyer over Larry Hogan in 1992 and every election since for Hoyer (he’s still in office in 2025 at the age of 85) has been pitted as the Perils of Pauline. Indeed, without St. Mary’s County taxpayers forking over an annual gift each year, the base would close up and blow away with the next storm.

The 2016 annual report of the Navy Alliance states that defense contractors who are members pay annual contributions ranging from $1,000 to $7500, rather small fees for such well-paid defense contractors whose salaries range in the hundreds of thousands and live in homes that range far above those of the average taxpayer in St. Mary’s County.

St. Mary’s County taxpayers also fund the salary of the director of economic development for the County, who advocates that the county diversify the economy, a fool’s errand as that tune has been played for years. One EDC director boasted of obtaining a bagel retail outlet for the county when everyone knew that no one ever obtained a new tenant for Lexington Park developer Larry Millison.

Tax dollars from St. Mary’s County residents serve only to provide soirees and parties for elbow-bending fat cats of the defense contracting industry

 The base profited many times over by the election of Hoyer, who has stolen away units, missions, and any good projects from other states to bolster his district and his campaign fundraising, which he has used to fortify the election of leftist Democrats to Congress. The activities of the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance serve the financial self-interest of the contractors and their donations to Hoyer. Tax dollars from St. Mary’s County residents serve only to provide soirees and parties for elbow-bending fat cats of the defense contracting industry.

Quoted from an article he wrote in 2016 for the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance in his first year on the job as director of the St. Mary’s Economic Development Department, Cris Kaselemis wrote: “I took over as the director last summer in the midst of several large projects with a goal of completing those project and beginning new efforts to expand and diversify the economy of St. Mary’s County. While the economy here in St. Mary’s can be considered strong, it should also be viewed as fragile. It is estimated that 80% of our economy is tied to the Naval Air Station Patuxent River.”

Kaselemis then delved into a litany of projects designed to boost the growth of small businesses.  Either it is the policy of the St. Mary’s County government to support the Navy Alliance, or the train will run over Pauline as she is tied to railroad tracks.

Instead of continuing the charade of how the base is going to close unless the taxpayers assist in a relatively minor way with an annual contribution to the Navy Alliance, all the while giving zoning approvals, perhaps Tom Jarboe could show some real leadership for a change instead of playing “politics with the Rubes.”

For more than ten years, Arthur “Buck” Briscoe was a one-man Economic Development Department, funded by the county with a salary for his elderly girlfriend, Dorothy Dunn, to be his secretary in an office on the second floor of the First National Bank of St. Mary’s located on the town square of Leonardtown.

Briscoe, who ran a welding operation that built Liberty ships in New York at a fast clip during WWII, knew his way around DC and presented stuffed hams to the White House and TV stations, along with turkeys and oysters and kept busloads of fishermen streaming to St. Mary’s from faraway places like Pittsburg. He was on a first-name basis with governors and network television anchors. Briscoe organized tourist homes, motels, and cottages to cater to tourists and sent thousands of letters to newspapers and travel magazines, harkening the delights of the land of pleasant living in St. Mary’s County. Dressed in a cornball straw hat with “Mr. St. Mary’s” emblazoned on his hat, he kept visitors streaming to visit the Mother County of Maryland and all of the crabhouses, fishing charter boats, and farmer’s market.

The Economic Development Director of today wouldn’t be able to shuck a dozen oysters or shuck a dozen ears of corn in a New York minute. Asking him to do so would possibly offend him. The Economic Development Dept. budget in 2019 was just about two million dollars.

The 2024 budget for St. Mary’s County was recommended by the Commissioners to be $314,749, 780 dollars.

Under the fees category are those for taxicab and bingo licenses and marriage licenses. The projected budget anticipated 600 dollars of income for the county for marriage licenses and 20 dollars for taxi and bingo licenses. Both should be abolished, and in fact, those who get a marriage license should be given a tax credit of one thousand dollars as they are going to need all the help they can get in life and be given an incentive to have children raised by two parents instead of the current welfare state of single parent families encouraged by the Great Society.

 

IF TOM JARBOE WANTS TO ACHIEVE A BETTER COUNTY, HE WOULD DO THIS:
Turn over the Economic Development Department
to the Navy Alliance… and let them fund it.

The St. Mary’s County Commissioners allowed an intersection already failing to be inundated with more traffic by the construction of a major office complex built by J. F. Taylor Inc.
In 2022, St. Mary’s further exacerbated the situation by giving a tax credit incentive to the firm for adding an addition of 54,000 square feet of high-bay fabrication space, 10,000 feet of mezzanine space and about 28,000 square feet of office space. The county estimated that the new addition to the J. F. Taylor complex would bring nearly one hundred more employees to the site between 2022 and 2025. Therefore, the county approved a property tax credit for ten years of 50% reduction. J.F. Taylor has grown to nearly 500 employees from its beginning in 1983 as a one-person engineering firm. The St. Mary’s Commissioners originally enacted the incentive used for this on March 28, 2017.
By this action, St. Mary’s County reduced the benefit of having J. F. Taylor expand at a location where the legislators representing St. Mary’s County and prior boards have been asleep at the switch or simply absolutely incompetent in having the Maryland State Highway Commission fix the gridlock going back to when state legislators Roy Dyson and John Bohanan were in office, and Democrats and Republicans controlled boards of commissioners.
Instead of having J. F. Taylor pay an impact fee to help fix the failing intersection at Great Mills, the county gave them a tax credit for ten years. It’s as if St. Mary’s County believed J. F. Taylor would move across the river to Warsaw, Va. if they didn’t get a tax cut.
In summary, if Tom Jarboe wants to provide real leadership and capitalize upon his deep-seated connections with defense contractors, he should encourage the Navy Alliance to fund the St. Mary’s County Economic Development Department. The Economic Development could benefit both the contractors, at their own expense, and assist in diversifying the county’s economy.
Will Tom Jarboe step up to the plate and spread the wealth of his airpark-oriented friends to help small businesses with their oyster, farming, and restaurant operations?
If the Navy Alliance took over the Economic Development Department and its staff, it would relieve St. Mary’s County of approximately $2.6 million in labor and costs and allow the staff to be directed by people proficient in business instead of the collection of politicians who populate the commissioner board from year to year.

THE FOLLOWING IS A PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE CAMPAIGN OF TOM JARBOE AND LIKELY IS ALL YOU CAN FIND ON A FEW CUT-AND-PASTE BILLBOARD WEBSITES IN THE AREA:

Former District 1 Commissioner Tom Jarboe has declared his candidacy for St. Mary’s Commissioner President, publicly announcing his intent to file today in a post on his campaign’s Facebook page. Jarboe aims to succeed current Commissioner President Randy Guy, who is term-limited in 2026.
Jarboe, a Republican who found repeated success in founding and leading companies ranging from defense consulting to international trade, has deep roots in the County. Jarboe was born July 15th, 1969, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Leonardtown. He graduated from St. Mary’s Ryken and earned an M.S. in International Commerce in 2002 after serving with the U.S. Coast Guard as a Navigator and Shipboard Intelligence Officer. After receiving his Masters from the University of Maryland, Jarboe returned to St. Mary’s County founding Technology Security Associates, which he grew to $12m in annual revenues.
Jarboe was well known locally prior to his election to District 1, founding Leadership Southern Maryland in 2009. He is known as a frequent volunteer at multiple non-profit agencies in the county. He served as Rescue Lieutenant 6 for Valley Lee Volunteer Fire Department and as a volunteer EMT for Company 49 in Ridge. In 2012, he was appointed Chairman of the St. Mary’s Chamber of Commerce, which he still serves on as a Board member.
On his Facebook page announcing his candidacy, Jarboe wrote, “Tom is a native of St. Mary’s County. His family has resided in St. Mary’s County for nearly 400 years. He and his wife Shannon raised their three sons (Nick, Christian, and Luke) in St Mary’s City. His parents sent him to school at Little Flower School in Great Mills for 8 years, then St. Mary’s Ryken, graduating in 1987. He went on to receive a Masters of Science in International Business from the University of Maryland. Tom is a veteran of the United States Coast Guard and has successfully led and founded multiple defense contracting companies located locally in St. Mary’s County. He worked to advocate for the citizens of District 1, serving as their Commissioner. Tom Jarboe now seeks to advocate for all of St. Mary’s. He is seeking the position of Commissioner President in 2026. Given his diverse background, being someone born of the County, a Coast Guard veteran, an avid volunteer, local business owner, and former Commissioner Tom is well rounded and experienced to lead our county as Commissioner President.”
As a Commissioner, Jarboe worked to improve the business environment in St. Mary’s, taking the Commissioners on trips to meet with top industry officials across the country. He led the effort to strengthen the voice of Maryland’s rural counties as one of the most prominent voices in favor of St. Mary’s County joining the Rural Maryland Coalition.
Jarboe is the first candidate to announce his bid for the highly anticipated upcoming race. His candidacy is expected to stress the importance of supporting local business, working to maximize the results of taxpayer investments and look for more opportunities for public and private partnerships in the County.