NAWBO BRC - National Association of Women Business Owners Baltimore Regional Chapter

Legislation that could end all state business tax credits has passed the House of Delegates. HB 620-Tax Credit Evaluation Act passed the House last Saturday on a vote of 100-38, and was assigned to the Senate Budget & Taxation Committee for a hearing. The bill would subject 29 tax credits to automatic termination every five years unless reenacted by the General Assembly, including such important job incentives as enterprise zones, R&D and biotech tax credits.

The bill would eliminate the benefit of many important economic development incentives as marketing tools for Maryland at a time that we need them to help create jobs. The bill will be scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Budget & Taxation Committee any day. Witnesses are needed to help save these business tax credits. If you would like to volunteer to testify you can contact Ron Wineholt at rwineholt@mdchamber.org.

Other legislation of interest that has raised some questions and discussion
is SB120/HB456-Procurement-Minority Business Participation which has now passed the House and Senate in similar versions. Maryland's current MBE program was slated to sunset on June 30, 2011 so legislation was necessary. The bill as amended extends the sunset and makes several changes to the program that are designed to make the program more responsive to the need to eliminate discrimination in contracting for women and minority owned businesses. The bills are crafted largely in response to a report issued in February that was commissioned by the General Assembly. The report is entitled "The State of Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise: Evidence from Maryland." A link to the report can be found on the Maryland Department of Transportation's website under its MBE program link. While the strict percentages of the current program were eliminated, the flexibility that is now built into the program is designed to make the program more responsive and realistic and also includes significant requirements for data collection related to waivers and other issues that have been found to undermine the existing program objectives. Furthermore the legislation includes a new requirement for a study that will completed by 2015 before this reformed program is slated to sunset in 2016. The sponsors of this legislation are legislators that are very supportive of enhancing minority and women owned business contracting.