Here's what was most instructive about Gov. Parris N. Glendening's first economic development coup: The executive of Baltimore County alerted Mr. Glendening to the threat that McCormick & Co. might build a spice distribution center out of state and the executive of Harford County was there at the end to accept kudos on winning the project.
That kind of regional coordination can pay dividends to Maryland. Previously, the state seemed content to let jurisdictions bid against themselves in mini-border wars that hurt Maryland's competitiveness. In this case, the state took the lead role and worked with local jurisdictions as partners.
Maryland's incentive package, roughly equal to the $20 million McCormick is spending on this warehouse, will raise eyebrows. In fact, Gov. William Donald Schaefer seemed loath to play this game. His economic advisers, for example, complained that they couldn't compete with Pennsylvania's offer of $13 million in sweeteners to win a similar project last summer from Starbucks Corp., the coffeehouse chain.
Yet for better or worse, that's the way the game is played. Kentucky served up $150 million in incentives to win a Nissan auto plant a decade ago; Alabama put out a staggering $300 million to secure Mercedes-Benz in '93. Pennsylvania for a while had a mothballed Volkswagen factory to show for the $71 million package that started this trend 17 years ago.
But such debacles haven't dissuaded states from offering lavish enticements for new jobs. Maryland could continue to complain about the rules on the business recruitment battlefield -- and watch New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas score victories.
We won't win every bidding war -- and can't afford to. This first win, though, was important symbolically. McCormick was born in Baltimore 106 years ago; it's one of a handful of Fortune 500 firms headquartered in Maryland; the new governor needed to prove his business savvy, and losing the project would threaten jobs already here. But every one of these deals is unique: Just as McCormick said it was dissuaded from choosing a virgin industrial park tract in Pennsylvania because it wasn't built out, that was a key reason Starbucks chose a Pennsylvania site over Maryland.
Mr. Glendening was being darkly hyperbolic when he said days ago that he would need five years to fix Maryland's business climate; the fact that he says this deal already certifies the state as "pro-business" is proof that his rhetoric needs reining in. Of course, actions speak louder than words and his administration's quick response to the McCormick's prospect spoke volumes.