Governor announces 10-year deal with shipping giant
Maryland's shipping industry, one of the State's most important economic engines, received a ringing endorsement recently from a long-time customer. On July 23, Governor O'Malley joined Port of Baltimore officials and representatives from Evergreen Marine Corporation to announce a new 10-year agreement with the Taiwan-based international shipping giant.
Long-term contracts like this strengthen the Port of Baltimore and help preserve hundreds of good-paying, family supporting jobs. The Port of Baltimore employs about 16,500 workers. The contract will guarantee Evergreen's continued shipment of containerized cargo through the Port of Baltimore for five years with an additional five-year renewal option.
Evergreen, which began serving the Port of Baltimore in 1975, is the Port's second longest-serving container customer and the Port's only shipping line that provides direct service from Asia, one of the fastest growing markets in the world. Out of 361 U.S. ports, Baltimore is ranked number one for handling imported forest products, roll on/roll off cargo, trucks, exported autos, and imported gypsum, sugar and iron ore.
Congratulations to the Port and Evergreen for continuing a win-win relationship that will last well into the next decade.
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Charles County names new economic development director
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I'd like to give a warm, Maryland welcome to Charles County's new economic development director George L. Robertson who assumed his new position today. Mr. Robertson has nearly 40 years of economic development experience and is a past President of the Schenectady Economic Development Corporation in New York. He is credited with helping the town rebound from the loss of more than 20,000 jobs.
 More recently, Robertson served in Alexandria, Louisiana as the first Chief Executive Officer of Cenla Advantage Partnership in an 11-parish economic development organization, where he developed numerous programs to address workforce issues in the rural areas of Central Louisiana.
Please join me in welcoming George Robertson to Maryland. I look forward to working with our economic development partners in Charles County in the coming months. |
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Governor appoints four new members to MD Arts Council
On July 17, Governor Martin O'Malley announced the appointment of four new members to the Maryland State Arts Council. Please join me in welcoming the new members, who will serve three-year terms: Barbara Bershon of St. Mary's County, Nilimma Devi of Montgomery County, Nancy Haragan of Baltimore City and Susanna Nemes of Montgomery County. The new councilors will become part of a 17-member governing panel that helps to guide the Arts Council and advocate for the arts in Maryland.
The Arts Council also recently elected a new slate of officers. Serving as the new Arts Council chair will be Baltimore entertainment attorney E. Scott Johnson, who previously served as the Council's vice-chair; Patricia (Patsy) Lewis Mote, a Prince George's County resident and visual artist, to serve as vice-chair; and Frostburg University Vice President and Allegany County resident William (Bill) Mandicott as secretary-treasurer.
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| State investment supports Hagerstown School for the Arts |
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Building on his commitment to revitalize communities throughout the State, Governor Martin O'Malley last week announced the approval of a $250,000 grant to help fund the development of the Barbara Ingram School for the Arts in historic, downtown Hagerstown. The grant, which is being made available through DBED, will be used by the Hagerstown Neighborhood Development Partnership to renovate the former Henry's Theater building so that it can house a 4-year arts school.
A future anchor for Hagerstown's growing Arts & Entertainment District scheduled for completion in spring 2009, the school will provide a comprehensive college preparatory academic curriculum in the arts to 300 students in grades nine through 12.
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Maryland job growth outpaces region and nation
Even though the national economic picture remains a bit unsettling, there is still some good news out there for Marylanders. From June 2007 to June 2008, with the exception of DC, Maryland outpaced all of its neighbors and the national average when it came to overall job growth. Excluding public sector employment, Maryland still handily beat the national  average and bested all regional competitors except DC. When looking at the national picture, despite a slowing economy, Maryland is one of only 11 states that grew jobs by more than 1 percent last year. In fact, only eight states grew by a larger margin from June 2007 to June 2008.
Click here to view Maryland's economic indicators.
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Baltimore among KPMG's great places for business
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The national business spotlight was on Baltimore last week as KPMG's 2008 Competitive Alternatives Guide to International Business Location ranked the Greater Baltimore region among their "Great Places to do Business." The international consulting firm report confirmed that Baltimore has "one of the nation's - and world's - most business-friendly tax climates."
KPMG's study found that Baltimore ranks first among Northeastern US cities with populations above 1.5 million for offering business costs below the US average. And in a top 20 international comparison, Baltimore ranks second in R&D expenditures with a 6.22 percentage of GDP. Finally, Baltimore ranks eighth among the 35 largest international cities for overall tax competitiveness and has a 7.9 percent advantage over the US average with a score of 92.1. This number ranks Baltimore only behind San Juan, Puerto Rico in the US for this index.
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Governor announces $1 million for Western MD training center
Educating Maryland's workforce is key to maintaining a healthy Maryland economy and a top priority for the O'Malley-Brown Administration. Last week, Governor O'Malley announced a $1 million grant that will help establish the Career and Technology Training Center in Garrett County. The grant will leverage $500,000 in county funds to offset the cost of developing the center in a county-owned facility.
Funded through DBED's MEDAAF program, the training center will provide career training skills to community college students, new high school graduates and interested adults in specialty trades such as welding, machining, metal fabrication, HVAC, masonry, carpentry and robotics. Located in the Central Garrett Industrial Park in Accident, the center is scheduled to be completed by December 2010.
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Breaking ground at Walter Reed
On July 3, Lt. Gov. Brown participated in a groundbreaking ceremony at the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, for the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. As a result of the 2005 BRAC decisions, Walter Reed Army Medical Center will close and the hospital's operations will be merged with NNMC to form the new entity on the NNMC campus in Bethesda.
DBED hosts information session for new BRAC Zone legislation
On July 23, DBED held an information session for local jurisdictions to learn more about the BRAC Zone program. More than 40 people attended the meeting, hosted by our sister agency, Department of Housing and Community Development. The session included an overview of the BRAC Zone application which is now available on the ChooseMaryland website. Beginning October 15, 2008, jurisdictions may apply to DBED to designate an area of their county or city a BRAC Zone. Within 60 days of the submission date, DBED, in consultation with MDOT, DHCD, MDP and MDE, may designate the zone. Up to six zones may be designated in a calendar year and a county may not receive more than two designations for the duration of the program.
The purpose of the BRAC Zone program is to target growth related to BRAC in priority funding areas and to provide financial assistance for public infrastructure improvements to help jurisdictions better handle this growth. The benefits include payment of 100 percent of the state real property tax increment on qualified properties in the BRAC Zone; payment of 50 percent of the local real property tax increment on qualified properties; and priority consideration for assistance from a number of state programs.
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