Governor O'Malley's 15 Strategic Policy Goals

1. Create, Save, or Place Residents into 250,000 Maryland Jobs by End of 2012

Supporting jobs and jobs growth is our top priority - it is the only way to expand opportunity and grow our middle class. To that end, the O'Malley-Brown administration has set a goal of creating, saving, or placing residents into 250,000 jobs in Maryland by the end of 2012.

Strategies

Enacted the Job Creation and Recovery Tax Credit to support the creation of more than 4,000 jobs in Maryland.
First ever funding for BRAC Zone Tax Credit ($0.3 M) and more than $500M of capital funding for BRAC related transportation, water, waste water, and school construction projects. Effectively positioning Maryland for the more than 60,000 BRAC Related job gains.
Established the Small Business Credit Recovery Program, increasing the tools and resources available for small business owners.
Enacted the Unemployment Insurance Modernization and Tax Relief Act, reducing the cost of doing business in Maryland.
Re-authorized the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit (formerly the Heritage Tax Credit) which should support the creation and retention of more than 3,600 jobs.
Launched BIO 2020, a $1.3B strategy to grow MD bioscience industry ($59M over 3yrs for Stem Cells, $18M over 3yrs years for the Biotechnology Tax Credit, and $9M in nano-biotechnology research grants). MD has the 2nd largest per-capita cluster of bioscience companies, representing 8% of the industry, and the highest percentage of PHD engineers and scientists in the U.S.
Launched InvestMaryland, an initiative to restore venture capital investments in Maryland, creating thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in economic impact in our State’s “innovation economy.”
Create thousands of ‘green’ jobs in Maryland through the implementation of the State’s Green Economy Initiative;
Support 20,000+ jobs by aggressively marketing Maryland as the ideal location for tourism, film, the arts, and major cultural and sporting events.

Read the more detailed plan to achieve this important jobs goal...

Delivering Results

In 2010, Maryland created 11,300 jobs, the state’s best year of job creation since 2007. Last year, Maryland created more jobs than 27 other states.

Creating and saving jobs with new investments

Secured $500M in capital funding for BRAC related transportation, water/waste water, and school construction projects, laying the groundwork for 45,000 to 60,000 BRAC Related job gains in Maryland.
Nearly doubled State construction spending since 2006, supporting more than 80,000 jobs and signifying the largest investment in school construction in Maryland history.
Leveraged an innovative public-private partnership to bring 5,700 jobs to the Port of Baltimore.
Made a 10-year, $1.3 Billion investment in Life Sciences with Bio2020.
Established the Maryland International Incubator (MI²), an innovative economic development partnership between DBED and the University of Maryland.
Launched the CyberMaryland initiative to make the State the national epicenter of cyber security and won the 2010 Excellence in Community & Economic Development Research Award from the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), a national organization that promotes excellence in research.
Established RecoveryStat to track and maximize Maryland’s allocation of the more than $5 billion in Federal job creation and retention assistance. 11,173 Maryland jobs were created or saved in October-December 2010 utilizing federal recovery (ARRA) funds.

Making it easy to do business in Maryland

Launched “Maryland Made Easy,” an initiative to improve State processes where business and government intersect.
Enacted the Unemployment Insurance Modernization and Tax Relief Act, reducing the cost of doing business in Maryland
Created the Maryland Small Business Commission (SBC) to provide small businesses a direct interface with State government leaders.

Creating and saving jobs with incentives

Enacted the Job Creation and Recovery Tax Credit (HIRE Maryland) to provide businesses with a $5000 per hire incentive for job creation.
Established the Small Business Credit Recovery Program, which provides up to $10 million in guarantees for loans to small businesses in Maryland. If fully leveraged, this program could result in $64 Million in new loans to Maryland small businesses.
Extended the Small Business Credit Recovery Program through 2011 to continue encouraging banks to provide necessary capital.
Re-authorized the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit (formerly Heritage Tax Credit), which will provide $30 million worth of tax credits over three years and support more than 2,100 jobs.
Extended the Biotech Tax Credit and the R & D Tax Credit.