MACo Associate Director Barbara Zektick testified in support of House Bill 1295, “One Maryland Economic Development Tax Credits – Simplification and Alteration”, before the House Ways and Means Committee on March 9, 2018. This bill streamlines and simplifies the One Maryland Tax Credit, providing easier access for businesses and promoting economic development in the counties. This legislation consolidates start-up and project into one tax credit and promotes growth of new businesses by allowing them to take the credit in their first year. It also reduces the limit on the number of employees that a business can hire and still be eligible for the credit.

From MACo Testimony:

MACo generally supports legislation that promotes greater access to economic development incentives. For this reason, MACo particularly supports the component of the bill which opens up eligibility of the credit to new businesses in the state that hire 10 to 25 qualifying employees. An economic development incentive in an urban area might appropriately require creation of at least 25 new qualifying jobs. In rural parts of the state, however, this bar can be too high to practically encourage economic growth. State programs that offer varying metrics and qualification criteria generally support more of Maryland’s counties – and promote significant job growth throughout our entire state.

Counties also appreciate components of the bill that strengthen reporting requirements on businesses – providing increased access to data and analysis of the effectiveness of the program.

MACo supports HB 1295 because it makes economic incentives available to more counties by broadening the criteria for qualification, while still targeting distribution of limited resources based upon objective criteria.”

For more on this and other legislation, follow MACo’s advocacy efforts during the 2018 legislative session here.