Kevin Spradlin
CUMBERLAND — Delegate LeRoy Myers wished everyone a “Merry Christmas” at the annual prelegislative breakfast with the District 1 delegation to Annapolis.
It might be difficult, however, to get into the holiday spirit after the discussion he and his fellow lawmakers led Wednesday at the annual event at the Holiday Inn sponsored by the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce Legislative Committee.
The audience was comprised of more than 60 dues-paying business professionals. The message conveyed by Myers — along with Sen. George Edwards, Delegates Kevin Kelly and Wendell Beitzel, and Ron Wineholt, vice president for governmental affairs for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce — was anything but business-friendly.
In 2006, Myers said, a report rated Maryland 11th in the country “as far as places to do business.” The Free State is now rated 45th, behind neighboring states Delaware (eighth), Virginia (15th), Pennsylvania (27th) and West Virginia (37th).
The information was taken from the 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index in a September by the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit research and public education organization.
“We’re becoming the state not to do business in,” Myers said. “We have to do something about that.”
Myers said that because 2010 is an election year, how Gov. Martin O’Malley approaches a resolution will be unique.
“I believe the governor is going to rely on us for our help to cut the budget,” Myers said, “and at the same time, blame it on the legislature instead of taking responsibility himself.”
Myers said of the seven previous legislative sessions, “I think (2010 is) going to be the most interesting one.”
Lawmakers are “doing a great job of driving business out of the state of Maryland,” Myers said, with an unprecedented increase in the unemployment insurance rate and passing legislation that expanded unemployment benefits to part-time workers in the 2009 General Assembly.
His Clear Spring construction firm has managed the cost increases with layoffs — which places additional burden on an already stressed Maryland Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.
“I had to lay people off. It just killed me,” Myers said. “But that’s the only way we’re surviving.”
Wineholt said he believes the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, which had a balance of more than $800 million in November 2008 and about $220 million in November 2009, will be bankrupt by March. The rate hike will help the state replenish the fund with about $300 million in new money, Wineholt said, but “of course, it couldn’t come at a worse time.”
Sam Griffith of The National Jet Co. in LaVale said it seems that the expansion of unemployment benefits goes against the concept of making people want to work. Sheri Sensabaugh, of the temporary employment business ACT Personnel Service Inc., said her company has jobs available.
When she contacts potential workers, “they will not go to work for me,” choosing instead to collect unemployment benefits, Sensabaugh said.
Stacey Bingaman of First Peoples Federal Credit Union suggested that lawmakers run government as business owners run their companies. Perhaps inflated pension plans, take-home vehicles and health benefits for retirees should be reconsidered, he said.
Edwards said that some of the 188 legislators in Annapolis “don’t understand the consequences” of bills they support because they’ve never run a business.
In addition to the unemployment insurance issues, new storm-water management regulations, which go into effect May 1, “will stop construction,” Myers predicted.
Wineholt said the Maryland Chamber of Commerce opposes the regulations, which tax businesses based on the amount of square feet of impervious surface. Private property owners are charged at a reduced rate, he said.
Myers said the Maryland Republican House Caucus has $3.5 billion in potential cuts to propose to O’Malley. Eliminating 2,000 state jobs would save $120 million. Foregoing a 2 percent cost of living adjustment for one year would save $76 million.
Edwards said the state faces a projected deficit of $1.5 billion in the Denext fiscal year, which begins July 1.
“That’s not too bad,” Edwards said. “The next year could be even worse.”
Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.
