RECENTLY, the state and Montgomery County teamed up to offer Marriott International Inc. a record $50 million public subsidy package to keep it from moving to Virginia.
But it seems that package wasn't generous enough. Now Marriott reportedly is pressing a counteroffer seeking a reduction in the $1.3 million in annual property taxes it pays on its current Bethesda headquarters. Before, the discussion had centered around tax breaks for a new headquarters in Rockville or an addition to the current complex.
Richard C. "Mike" Lewin, state business and economic development secretary, before a legislative committee, asserted that the Marriott deal was not an example of corporate welfare, but instead, an important investment to keep Marriott. This move, according to Mr. Lewin, showed that Maryland is "pro business."
Well, it's not just corporate welfare -- it's corporate blackmail: Give us the money or we're leaving.
It is interesting to note that a week after Maryland's $50 million offer was made public, Marriott announced a fourth-quarter profit of $114 million.
The $50 million subsidy offered to an extremely profitable corporation has been met by a-not-so-curious silence. Public subsidies to retain companies regardless of their profitability have become an accepted political fact of life.
It is a shameful game that Marriott and some other large corporations play, knowing they can get away with it because no politician wants to be blamed for losing a company to another state.
The business community's mantra has been Maryland is not a "pro-business" state. But what does "pro-business" mean? Sometimes it means taking government money to train a company's employees. Sometimes it means tax abatements and grants and low-interest loans; and sometimes it means no unions and low wages. In Marriott's case, it means that even $50 million in tax breaks isn't enough.
A healthy private sector is good. Blackmailing -- by playing one state against another -- is bad.
In the past, some governors have called for their fellow governors to short-circuit such corporate greed. This would be an excellent issue for Gov. Parris N. Glendening to bring to the National Governors Association.
Also, some of the state's respected business leaders should apply pressure to their peers to stop playing the game. Unfortunately, nothing is likely to happen until the public gets fully engaged on the issue.
There has been a lot of public congratulations about ending "welfare as we know it" -- even if it has meant that many people are now working for poverty wages.
The "kind" face of welfare reform says that this is not government being punitive, but rather it is government empowering people by forcing them to experience the benefits of making it on their own.
If the country's welfare recipients must play by free-enterprise rules, then certainly those same rules must be applied to Marriott.
The government needs to remind Mr. Marriott that the only thing that is supposed to be free in the free-enterprise system is the enterprise.
Arnie Graf is a representative for the Industrial Areas Foundation, a national organization that trains community leaders and works to empower low- and moderate-income people.
Pub Date: 3/03/99