The effort to focus the post O'Malley era in Maryland on developing
private sector businesses and jobs got a big boost Friday from the
unprecedented joint agenda of House Speaker Michael E. Busch
and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller. It's encouraging that the
two top leaders in the General Assembly are both focused on the issue at
the same time that most of the candidates for governor next year are
talking about the same thing and private sector advocacy groups like the
Greater Baltimore Committee are pursuing similar efforts. But what is
more intriguing is the nature of the ideas Messrs. Busch and Miller are
putting forward.
Too often, the debate about whether Maryland is
business friendly goes no farther than a glance at the Tax Foundation's
reports on the state and local tax structure, as if the only choices are
a Maryland heavily oriented toward government or one that radically
slashes taxes and regulation. The truth is that there are other models
for success, and the one that best suits Maryland's strengths is a
strategy that leverages our great advantages in intellectual capital to
produce jobs in high-tech fields like biotechnology and cyber security.
The Miller/Busch proposal recognizes that through tax credits to attract
superstars from the private sector to academia, build the cyber
security industry and encourage business formation in the areas directly
surrounding institutions like Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland.
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