In the first major policy rollout of his campaign, Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. promised Monday to explore ways to reduce the tax burden on small businesses, attract corporations and foster entrepreneurship.
Ehrlich said he would move immediately to change the "attitude about entrepreneurship," which he said has suffered under the administration of Gov. Martin O'Malley, the Democrat who unseated him four years ago. To signal that Maryland is "open for business," Ehrlich said, he would pay commissions to top-level Department of Business and Economic Development employees who persuade corporations to move into the state.
He referred to neighboring Virginia's lower tax rates and recent deal with defense contractor Northrop Grumman as evidence that Maryland is not as competitive when it comes to business.
Many of Ehrlich's proposals involved the formation of commissions, including one to study the state's corporate income tax rate and another to consider revamping the unemployment benefits system. Other groups would foster relationships among lawmakers, regulators and employers and connect budding entrepreneurs with resources.
A spokesman for O'Malley's campaign called Ehrlich's ideas "lip service" and said they lacked specifics.
"Bob Ehrlich's so-called plan is all talk and no action — he is proposing a commission, a summit, a task force, three reviews and two explorations, but nothing to actually create jobs or help small businesses struggling because of the global recession," spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said in a statement.
Ehrlich announced his proposals at campaign stops in Gaithersburg and Reisterstown on Monday after weeks criss-crossing the state talking to business leaders. He said he developed many of his ideas from those conversations, as well as from revisiting proposals from his first administration and reviewing policies that work in other states.
In the first two months of his campaign, Ehrlich has made a theme of improving Maryland's business climate, especially for small companies. Amid that discussion, O'Malley signed an executive order last week to create a small-business commission — something his administration's small-business task force recommended in a report six months ago.
Abbruzzese said the governor has worked diligently to create and retain jobs — highlighting gains on a "Jobs Across America Tour" that continues today at a research park construction site in Frederick.
Ehrlich sharply criticized the governor, saying that "small businesses have been crying out for leadership" and asking why it took O'Malley 44 months in office to recognize the importance of private employers. "The only job you care about is your own job," Ehrlich said, deriding O'Malley's new small-business commission as "desperation."
O'Malley's campaign fired back, asking why Ehrlich did not implement his business ideas during his four years in office, which concluded in January 2007. "His assertion ignores [O'Malley's] four-year record of delivering results to create jobs, cut state spending and get Maryland through the global recession," Abbruzzese said.
One idea Ehrlich revived from his own administration is "agency expeditors." He said each region of the state would include one such expeditor from the Department of Business and Economic Development and another from the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, who would personally assist employers in communicating with the state.
Ehrlich repeated a pledge to push for a repeal of the penny-per-dollar sales tax increase that O'Malley signed into law, but he acknowledged that he'd need the cooperation of the Democratic-controlled legislature to accomplish that. Other ideas could be implemented right away if he is elected, he said, chiefly by an "intangible" attitude shift when it comes to business.
He proposed a "small business bill of rights" that he said would provide "transparency" about the state's expectations of employers.
Ehrlich also wants an array of changes to the state's unemployment benefits system. Although he was governor when the unemployment benefits rates were locked into place, Ehrlich said he would be "very happy to look at a new commission" that would consider revisions to those numbers.
In addition, Ehrlich said, he'd explore repealing benefits to part-time employees who have lost their jobs, an unemployment expansion that occurred under O'Malley, and would require all lower-court appeals of benefits to be heard within 30 days.
Ehrlich also proposed a "red tape task force," would study the state's business regulations and, in general, said he wants regulators to be "partners, not sheriffs."