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Monday, June 07, 2010

EHRLICH ANNOUNCES PLAN TO AID AILING SMALL BUSINESSES


Initiative aims to change government’s mindset, improve unemployment insurance, and lower Maryland’s tax burden

POTOMAC, MD
-- As part of his vision to make Maryland the job creation capital of the United States, Bob Ehrlich today unveiled the “Entrepreneur Agenda,” a plan to help small businesses by lowering their tax burden, improving unemployment insurance, and eliminating a culture of discouragement in state government that holds back Maryland’s entrepreneurs. Ehrlich made the announcement at Potomac Pizza, a small business in Montgomery County.

“Job creation is not an election year talking point. It is a governing philosophy, one that has been nonexistent in Annapolis for four years,” said Ehrlich. “With Maryland unemployment doubling since 2006 and nearly 3,000 small businesses shutting their doors last year, a fundamental shift in leadership is needed in state government to revitalize Maryland’s economy. As governor, I will start treating small business owners as a source of new jobs – not a source of new tax revenue.”

Bob Ehrlich’s “Entrepreneur Agenda” aims to address the failures in government most often cited by hundreds of entrepreneurs in small business roundtables he has hosted. His proposal includes but is not limited to:

· Changing the mindset: Appointing senior leaders in government who share Bob Ehrlich’s commitment to encouraging economic growth and proposing a “Small Business Bill of Rights” that ensures Maryland’s regulatory agencies are fair, timely and predictable in their disposition of small business matters;

· Improving unemployment insurance: Cutting the review period for unemployment insurance appeals and ordering an audit to identify vulnerabilities to fraud and abuse, and;

· Lowering the tax burden: Repealing the 20% sales tax increase enacted by Governor Martin O’Malley in 2007 and establishing a bipartisan task force to recommend ways to make Maryland’s corporate income tax more competitive with neighboring states.

Ehrlich’s plan is the product of more than three dozen roundtable discussions and visits with more than 100 entrepreneurs in Maryland over the past eight weeks. Small businesses represent 98% of all employers in Maryland, employ 1.2 million Marylanders, and boast a combined payroll of nearly $50 billion. In formulating this small business initiative, Ehrlich talked with employees and managers in businesses ranging from ice cream shops to classic car detailers; from farmers and watermen to plastics formulators and embroidery designers. Meetings were held in Cumberland, Columbia, Cockeysville and Leonardtown; in Whitehall, Hampstead, Bowie and Rockville, and other Maryland cities.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep, I'm sure MD will become a paradise for small business owners, just hold your breath. The state of MD is all about squeezing business owners of every dime they can get out of them. I'll never have a business in MD again, I don't care what any of these politicians claim they're going to do to 'make things so much better'. yeah right.

Tim Chaney said...

People need jobs and make money if any business is to survive.

One of Obama's big blunders, shove threw a giant deficit with healthcare, and no jobs for people to pay taxes to pay for.

Jobs should have been first.

Anonymous said...

Potomac Maryland , one of the richest areas in montgomery county. Average home in Potomac Heights = $950, 000 , they need help , wouldn't want to damage their greed.

Unknown said...

11:53

So you are saying you DON'T want the current MD business climate to change? Could this be why your former business failed.

MD was once called the "Free State".. No more....

Anonymous said...

only business that is viable in maryland would be a lobbyist in annapolis!

free state? what a joke!