To address Maryland’s stagnant economic growth, Gov. Wes Moore has proposed an overhaul of the state’s economic development programs, in a bill he has named the DECADE Act. The Democrat pitched members of the Senate Budget and Taxation and House Ways and Means committees Tuesday on that effort.
Moore said his administration used data to identify which tax credits and other programs were working and which were not. His legislation repeals some programs and expands or alters others.
The 139-page legislation directs the state Department of Commerce to publish a list of priority industry sectors and activities and alters several existing economic development programs, including some that provide loans and grants to small businesses, to target support to businesses in those industries.
“I want Maryland to be the capital of quantum. I want Maryland to be the capital of AI,” Moore told the House Ways and Means Committee. “I want Maryland to be the capital of cyber security. I want us to make sure that we are leading in aerospace and defense.”
He said data has indicated that Maryland has a “unique competitive advantage” in those industries.
The bill also increases the state’s film production tax credit from $12 million to $20 million a year, and alters it to allow a single production to get a larger amount of credit.
Among the programs the bill repeals is the “One Maryland Economic Development Tax Credit,” which targets tax credits to businesses in Allegany, Garrett, Somerset, or Wicomico counties, as well as in state-designated “Priority Funding Areas,” which include all of Baltimore City, eastern Howard County, and parts of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, acknowledged that the One Maryland tax credit was mostly helping Baltimore City, and not having the positive impact on rural areas that lawmakers originally intended. However, he asked Moore if he would be willing to adjust his bill to make sure his proposed changes don’t become a boon to just “five or six or seven counties” that “already have so much.”
Moore said yes, he would be happy to work with Buckel and other Republicans to tweak the bill.
“When we think about some of the programs that we're either looking to repeal or to sunset in this — and the One Maryland is just one indication that we talked about — we just knew that in order for this to be effective and successful, that we had to be really disciplined and quantitative about which were driving the kind of [return on investment] that we were requiring,” Moore said.
