Maryland Secretary of Commerce Kelly Schulz was fired up Wednesday as she implored state lawmakers to back off a plan to eliminate various economic incentives used to attract and retain businesses — comments that were echoed in a letter to legislators by business organizations in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties Thursday.
Schulz tossed aside her scripted talking points during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing in Annapolis to address what she said is “a big misconception about what we do at the Department of Commerce.” The usually jovial cabinet secretary had spent the prior two-plus hours listening to testimony on bills aimed at ensuring businesses and wealthy people are paying their fair share of taxes.
While she did not address bills dealing with specific tax changes, Schulz criticized proposals by Del. Anne Kaiser — chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee — and Del. Julie Palakovich Carr to end various tax credit and incentive programs. Both delegates are Democrats from Montgomery County. Schulz, a former Frederick County delegate, is a Republican who has spent the last five years serving in Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration.
Both Kaiser’s and Palakovich Carr’s bills would eliminate enterprise zones, One Maryland tax credits, opportunity zone enhancements and the biotech tax credit, and Kaiser’s would go a step further in also ending film production tax credits, the cybersecurity tax credit and the Small Business Tax Relief credit. They want to cut the programs to help pay for billions of dollars in public education reforms.