A state legislative panel yesterday approved four grants designed to help companies either bring jobs to Maryland or keep them here, but the head of the state Department of Economic and Employment Development warned that there may be very little money remaining in the state's "Sunny Day Fund" when Gov. William Donald Schaefer leaves office in January.
DEED Secretary Mark L. Wasserman said the Sunny Day Fund, created in 1988 to let the state act on economic development proposals that fall outside the state's other business aid programs, will be depleted when his successor takes over.
The four proposals approved yesterday were for grants and loans to taling $2.4 million; two more applications for a total of $1.5 million are expected by Christmas, Mr. Wasserman told the Legislative Policy Committee, a body made up of committee chairmen and the presiding officers of the state Senate and House of Delegates.
DEED spokeswoman Mary Lou Baker said the fund has $4.4 million available; the six requests will use $3.9 million by the time fiscal 1995 is half over. The fund had been used 13 times since its creation to make $12.7 million in loans and grants before yesterday's action. The General Assembly appropriated $4 million for the fund in fiscal 1995, Ms. Baker said.
Yesterday's biggest request was for a $1.25 million loan to Trans-Tech Inc. of Frederick, a ceramics manufacturer. The loan is part of a $3.5 million state aid package to help the company meet a contract from Motorola Inc. for the production of ceramic filters used in cellular telephones.
The contract is expected to let the company add 100 jobs. Officials said a Massachusetts firm recently bought Trans-Tech and had considered moving the company to a vacant building its corporate parent owns in Massachusetts before the state aid package came through.
The policy committee also approved Schaefer administration plans to give $150,000 to TNT Logistics Inc. to offset expenses of moving the headquarters of the transportation and inventory consulting firm to Linthicum from Florida. The company is expected to add up to 75 Maryland jobs over time.
The panel also approved a grant of up to $500,000 to SuperValu Inc., a Minnesota food distribution company, to train workers at its Perryman distribution facility. The grant will pay for training up to 1,000 workers as the company consolidates existing facilities in Pennsylvania and Williamsport, in Western Maryland, at the Harford County location.
Another $500,000 will capitalize a state loan fund for manufacturing improvements at companies trying to shift from defense contracting to civilian production. That money matches a $1.5 million federal grant to create what eventually will become a $6 million fund.
In December, Mr. Wasserman said, DEED will request $1 million to help Rohr Inc. consolidate 150 jobs from a California plant at Rohr's Hagerstown factory. The company's stance marks a reversal from earlier threats to close the Maryland plant and eliminate 150 jobs already here.
"If ever there was testament to the value of the Sunny Day Fund, this is the one," said Mr. Wasserman.
The other December request will be for $500,000 to help London Fog Corp. retain 190 jobs at a Baltimore plant that the raincoat maker had at one point announced plans to close.
An aide to Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said it is not unusual for the Sunny Day Fund to be depleted before the end of the fiscal year. It can be replenished before the beginning of fiscal 1996 in July if Gov.-elect Parris N. Glendening proposes a budget amendment upon taking office.
Eric Andrus, a Glendening spokesman, said that the Glendening transition team has not yet considered the issue but that the governor-elect considers economic development "one of the three or four key issues that got him elected."