Rushern Baker might’ve left office in Prince George’s County, but the Economic Development Incentive Fund he created remains a key weapon in the arsenal for county officials.
Baker set aside $50 million for the loan fund in 2012, shortly after he took over as county executive, envisioning it as a way to attract and retain companies in Prince George’s and pull the county out of its economic downturn. The program was broadly hailed as a success, but there was no telling whether Angela Alsobrooks would want to keep it around when she took the county’s top job in December.
But she quickly tapped Baker administration veteran David Iannucci to head the county’s Economic Development Corporation, which manages the fund, and the program has kept doling out loans to local companies ever since. While Alsobrooks initially toyed with the idea of creating a new economic development fund with a similar purpose, she’s chosen instead to keep the old one in place due to its continued success.
“It’s worked exceptionally well,” Alsobrooks said in a recent interview with the WBJ. “We’ve leveraged it to create more than $1 billion of investment in the county.”
That figure is about $1.18 billion to be exact, according to figures provided by Iannucci.