Governor's Economic Update: December 10, 2009
Hi, I’m Governor Martin O’Malley with this week’s economic update. As we work together to move forward from recession to recovery to prosperity again, we continue to be focused on creating jobs, expanding opportunity, and strengthening and growing the ranks of our middle class.
Fundamental to all of these connected goals are the strength of our small and family owned businesses. They are the economic engine of our State.
Earlier this week, we co-hosted a Small Business Summit with the Greater Baltimore Committee, where we rolled out three initiatives to help small businesses secure the capital they need to create and protect Maryland jobs.
The first is $3,000 tax credit for every unemployed worker a Maryland business hires. This initiative, capped at $20 million, has the potential to put more than 6,000 Marylanders back to work and will relieve pressure on our State’s unemployment trust fund.
Second, is an expansion of loan guarantee initiatives which provide banks that extra added protection when making credit available to small businesses. I hear from business owners every day who want to expand, who are willing to hire new workers, but who don’t have access to the credit that they used to.
And third is emergency legislation we’ll propose to modernize the Unemployment Trust Fund.
These initiatives all come back to jobs, our quality of life, and the strength of our middle class.
In the coming weeks, we will continue to work to strength small and family owned businesses in the state of Maryland. Our Small Business Task Force has given us a strong set of recommendations, many of which we have already begun to implement. We look forward to continuing to work with our partners in the business community and our citizen partners throughout our State to get our citizens back to work; to continue to make the connections which create jobs and advance the cause of progress
