STATE SENATE President Thomas V. Mike Miller sent a chill through the state's business community with some irresponsible meddling in a strictly local matter.
He changed the rules at the last minute for Safeway, which sought to build a store in the southern Anne Arundel County town of Deale. He upset years of local planning on the matter.
The result has Safeway and other business interests crying foul. Safeway's decision to give up its bid for the Deale store sent a disturbing and unnecessary anti-business message.
Supermarket chains aren't always model citizens, but this time Safeway played by the rules. It did everything Anne Arundel County planners demanded after years of discussion and modification.
Most disturbing is that the chain adopted the county Planning and Code Enforcement Department's suggestion for building a storm-water management system only to watch Mr. Miller introduce legislation that made the system illegal.
The Maryland Retailers Association called Mr. Miller's move unprecedented, saying, "Never before had the state legislature directly involved itself in an ongoing local zoning dispute."
And if the supermarket thought it had a strong ally in Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens, it was mistaken. Although Ms. Owens had essentially supported the Deale store all along, she changed course after Mr. Miller threatened to hurt other projects that she considers important -- and who knows what else.
Since becoming county executive, Ms. Owens has promoted Anne Arundel as business-friendly, selling its location in the Baltimore-Washington corridor and some prominent residents like BWI Airport and the National Security Agency.
The county doesn't look friendly to businesses right now. Its revised message might be: We'll fight for you, but we're not sure how hard.
The state's image suffers, too, when everyone knows that one powerful legislator can change the rules for doing business so suddenly and so late in the game.
