O’Malley Launches 'Maryland Made Easy' Small Business Initiative

Small business in Maryland is getting a big boost from a state plan called "Maryland Made Easy" designed to create a more business-friendly environment, according to Gov. Martin O'Malley.

O'Malley launched the economic development initiative and introduced the 17 members of the newly formed Maryland Small Business Commission last Friday in Baltimore.

“As we transition our state into the new economy, we have to listen to the men and women on the front line of job creation,” the governor said at a session with some 80 business owners, entrepreneurs and developers.

O’Malley said he was looking to the group gathered at DAP Products Inc., for advice and strategies “on how to improve infrastructure, to support our innovation economy, enhance the skills and talents of our people and improve our business environment.”

"Maryland Made Easy” is the state's new three-part initiative that will make it easier for businesses to do business, he said. The O’Malley administration already has taken several steps to streamline processes, simplify regulations and improve communications for small businesses, the governor added.

“I believe we’re more favorable [than other states] as it relates to manufacturing,” Michael Galiazzo, executive director of the Regional Manufacturing Institute acknowledged. But he urged the governor to look at the possibility of further tax cuts across the board for businesses. O’Malley said he favored “targeted tax cuts.”

Galiazzo also warned that the manufacturing supply chain was vulnerable because too many components, as well as finished goods, come from overseas.

Two commission members discussed legal roadblocks to profit-making and conducting business in the state.

Karen Barbour, president of The Barbour Group LLC, an independent insurance agency, asked for the governor’s assistance in changing the state’s individual surety law. The Carroll County resident said the legislation fails to extend individual private insurance from primary developers to subcontractors on their projects.

“Small business has little defense against people who attack us through the legal system,” said Jay A. Steinmetz, CEO and founder of Barcoding Inc., a 75-employee Baltimore-based technology company.

“We’ve settled cases even where we were not at fault,” he said, because “even if you win you spend 20, 50 or $60,000.” Litigation can steal 5 to 20 percent of the profit from a small business, according to Steinmetz.

The administration has increased the small claims court limit from $5,000 to $20,000 to help in that area, O’Malley said.

Additionally, the governor outlined changes to the State Highway Administration’s access permit review designed to improve the process for applying for and obtaining permits for development projects and a planned centralized online system for all business licenses and permits.

Despite some continuing problems, Steinmetz said he was optimistic about the future for small businesses in the state. “The idea is to create visibility” for small business issues, he said. “The purpose of the commission is to identify, quantify and boil them down to actionable programs we can go to the legislature with.”

The commission, whose creation was one of the recommendations from the governor’s 2-year-old Small Business Task Force, consists of members appointed by the governor, the state senate president and speaker of the House of Delegates.

The panel went right to work, holding its first meeting following the governor’s appearance.