At Maryland’s first Small Business Summit Dec. 7, Governor Martin O’Malley outlined an economic agenda focused on access to credit, job creation and the unemployment trust fund, initiatives that the Administration plans to champion in the upcoming General Assembly session. The Governor, who co-hosted today’s Summit with Greater Baltimore Committee President and CEO Donald C. Fry, called on Maryland’s business community to join in fighting for these proposals.
“Small and family-owned businesses are the heart and soul of our State and the key to how we’re going to turn the corner from recession to recovery to prosperity,” said Governor O’Malley. “Representing nearly 98 percent of the State’s employers, strengthening our small business community will help us grow and strengthen our middle class, fuel innovation, and create jobs in Maryland.”
“Most economic growth in our state will be generated from within, so this commitment to small business by Governor O’Malley is very welcomed,” said GBC President and CEO Donald C. Fry. “Small business is big business in Maryland and we must continue to support our small businesses and develop innovative solutions to help them grow.”
Governor O’Malley outlined three key initiatives as part of a broader economic agenda to help strengthen small business in Maryland and create jobs:
1. Streamline the loan approval process for small businesses and expand access to credit by creating the Maryland Small Business Credit Recovery Program, offering a loan guaranty on small business deals through the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development’s current loan guaranty program – the Maryland Industrial Development Financing Authority Program (MIDFA).
Approved banks will be able to apply for up to a $50,000 MIDFA guaranty and a Rapid Response Program will be developed that will offer a 48-hour approval turnaround on loans needed up to a $250,000 guaranty. The initiative could leverage up to $64 million in new private sector lending for small businesses.
2. Create jobs by establishing a Job Creation and Recovery Tax Credit, which would award businesses a $3,000 tax credit for every unemployed worker it hires. The initiative, which is proposed for one year with a $20 million cap, would boost job creation and take the pressure off the State’s Unemployment Trust Fund.
3. Introduce emergency legislation to address the rate increase for small businesses to the Unemployment Trust Fund.
Today’s Summit, which attracted more than 120 small business owners, brought together industry experts in banking, healthcare, technology and energy and featured panel discussions on the issues most impacting small businesses today, including access to credit and healthcare, the use of social media and Web sites in marketing and the costs associated with going green.
The Summit comes on the heels of President Obama’s Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth held last week at the White House and is the latest effort by the O’Malley-Brown Administration to support and strengthen small business in Maryland. Last week, Governor O’Malley and Lt. Governor Anthony Brown launched MBE University, an initiative to support Maryland’s minority- and wo