CAMBRIDGE, Md. – Gov. Martin O’Malley warmly thanked business executives at the Maryland Chamber of Commerce annual conference for their support of the slot machine referendum that was passed Tuesday.
“It wouldn’t have happened without you,” O’Malley said Thursday.
But legislative leaders warned that the business community — as well as other groups — was not likely to be happy with the upcoming session of the General Assembly.
As they have in the past, Republican leaders also urged the businesses to stand up to Democrats who want to pass new regulations and taxes and not to be taken in by O’Malley’s pledge of “partnership” with them.
“Clearly the vast majority of the session is going to be taken up with budget priorities,” House Minority Leader Tony O’Donnell said Friday. “There’s not going to be a whole lot of room for new policy initiatives.”
O’Donnell said O’Malley’s use of the term “partnership” during his after-dinner speech to the conference Thursday night was “painfully ironic.” He said the pro-business Tax Foundation had downgraded its rating of Maryland’s business climate from 24th in the country to 45th after the passage of major tax increases last year.
“There’s not a lot of political will to make the kind of hard cuts” in spending that need to be made, O’Donnell said.
Senate Republican Leader Allan Kittleman said there would continue to be a push for higher business taxes through a method known as combined corporate reporting of profits from divisions operating outside the state.
“You better be very careful,” Kittleman said. “Please don’t blink too early. They’re going to try to bluff you. Stand your ground. They need you more than you need them.”
Chamber Chairman Betty Buck said, “I disagree with that perspective. In the state of Maryland, we’ve got to work with everybody.”
“We can yell and scream and shout and holler,” but it won’t don’t much good, Buck said.
Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D, predicted that stricter regulations are likely to be enacted to control global warming and pollution, and business organizations are not likely to see the new transportation spending they have been advocating for years.
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