Business Leaders

Baltimore's new mayor needs to show local business leaders that she appreciates their investment in the city and will work hard to address their concerns, said Donald C. Fry, executive director of the Greater Baltimore Committee, a regional business leadership organization. "She has to reach out to the business community to let them know she understands the important role business has for the future of the city," Fry said. "She has to show people who have made significant capital investments in the city that she understands them."

Maryland, according to a new survey of business titans, is the 40 th most business-friendly state, down from 37 last year. Or, put another way, we are the 11 th least friendly. Those are the findings by Chief Executive magazine's annual survey . Business leaders were asked to rate states based on their taxes, regulations, living environment and quality of workers. According to the magazine, Maryland's "income-tax increases on 'middle class' nick and frustrate business owners.

While the city reviews proposals to invigorate the Inner Harbor, the Greater Baltimore Committee unveiled a vision of its own, highlighted by a pedestrian bridge that would link the north and south shores, allowing visitors for the first time to walk a complete circle around the downtown waterfront. Leaders of the business group also proposed light and water shows for the harbor, and three different ideas for turning Rash Field on the south shore into a world-class park. The bridge would be built high enough above the water that most sailboats and water taxis could travel underneath.

Businesses in China and India, the emerging markets that Gov. Martin O'Malley has been trawling for trade relationships, are beginning to bite. This month, the governor announced the opening of a Chinese bank in Baltimore and conducted a forum for Indian business leaders, priming them to open U.S. subsidiaries in the state. The events could be a turning point for investment in Maryland from these countries. "Europe is struggling and global companies want to go to stable environments," said Nancy McLernon, president and CEO of the Organization for International Investment, a Washington-based nonprofit business association for U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies.

After a decade of mounting alienation between the state and its business community, Gov.-elect Parris N. Glendening will ask senior business executives to take the lead in reshaping the state's drive to develop and attract jobs.He and top legislative leaders also plan to cut selected business taxes and start trimming the nation's highest real estate closing costs in this legislative session.They also promise to begin work this year toward broader tax and regulatory reform, although enactment of those would not occur until next year and later into their four-year term.

While business leaders hailed a federal court opinion striking down the so-called Wal-Mart law yesterday, they said Maryland's commercial reputation already has been damaged by the legislation. "The harm that gets done by proposing, passing and overruling a veto [of the bill] is much longer lasting than a sweet victory in court," said Aris Melissaratos, the secretary of the state's Department of Business and Economic Development. During recent sessions, the Maryland General Assembly has passed legislation that gives tax breaks and other incentives to startup companies and investors.

It would seem obvious to any noodlehead that business prosperity is not merely a function of government spending and sponsorship of economic development efforts.Yet in Maryland and Baltimore, at least, you'd think that business will shrivel up because of the pressed conditions at the state and local levels. That's just about all you hear.Locally, enough energy to fuel an economic boom has been wasted lamenting the perfectly predictable results of a no-surprise recession. The money isn't there today, and it won't be there tomorrow, either.

From the worlds of banking and publishing to crab cooking and trucking, Maryland business leaders are trying to figure out what President Clinton's new budget package means to them and their companies.The plan, signed into law yesterday, was designed to slow the growth of the federal debt by $496 billion over the next five years. The bill's narrow passage was considered a crucial test of the new administration.But many of the 19 chief executives surveyed by The Sun criticized the plan, saying its higher taxes could stifle the economic recovery and slow their companies' planned expansions.

More than 150 Baltimore-area business leaders have agreed to participate in a review of the city fire, housing, health, public works and recreation departments to help government officials run their agencies more efficiently. Mayor Martin O'Malley, drawing on a strategy used in Philadelphia, requested the review after his election in large part because of concern about a potential $153 million deficit the city faces. The Greater Baltimore Committee and the President's Roundtable made the appeal for volunteer business leaders to participate in the study.

The director of Loyola College's new Center for Family, Work and Education in Columbia said a recent survey of Howard County business leaders shows a surprisingly liberal shift that he expects could eventually influence local public policy.Joseph Procaccini studied 130 responses to the 12-question survey, which asked opinions on such issues as gun control (87 percent favored it), abortion (65 percent believe it is not morally wrong), and the availability of condoms in the public schools (78 percent support it)

Services are set for Tuesday, Feb. 28, for Randall P. Worthington Sr., a prominent Harford County businessman and a member of the Harford County Liquor Control Board, who was killed in an accidental shooting Wednesday morning. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the First Presbyterian Church at 224 N. Main St. in Bel Air. Interment, which will be private, will be at Darlington Cemetery. There won't be any visitation. Around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Harford County Sheriff's Office received a call for an unattended death.

Students from Catonsville and Lansdowne high schools and Western School of Technology and Environmental Science were among the 161 from19 Baltimore County public schools whose scores at a regional competition qualified them for the statewide Future Business Leaders of America conference in Hunt Valley in April. During the Feb 1 regional competition at Dundalk High School, 263 students participated in online events, such as accounting, business law, cyber security and global business; and 89 participated in performance events, including business ethics, public speaking, emerging business issues and client service.

Did your article about MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake's guests in the city's skybox really warrant placement above the fold on the front page ("Mayor invites family, donors, allies to M&T box," Feb. 9)? So what if the mayor invited business leaders, family and friends? This has always been done at every level of government. When former Gov. Marvin Mandel was criticized once for rewarding his friends, he responded: "Who am I supposed to reward, my enemies?" The mayor is doing a superior job under extremely difficult circumstances.

A government watchdog group said Thursday that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has politicized invitations to her office's Ravens skybox, and urged her to include more working-class residents. "The mayor has made the choice to turn this into a political skybox and not the people's skybox," said Susan Wichmann, the director of Common Cause Maryland. "We call on the mayor, going forward, to use the skybox to highlight good work being done by people in the city. There's no reason why she couldn't invite the firefighters and the police officers and the good students and the teachers.

As their bus rumbled through housing projects and dilapidated schools and toward Harbor East — one of the crown jewels of Baltimore's revitalized waterfront — Zion Baptist Church Pastor Marshall Prentice asked his parishioners how they felt after hearing about the millions of tax breaks given to developers there. "I'm a teacher, and I'm really upset," said Linda Jones, 62, recalling the three-inch cockroaches that scurried through her school and the library that was shut down due to budget cuts.

If Maryland is to raise significant new revenue to meet its backlog of transportation needs - most likely through a higher gas tax - 2012 is the year it must be done, a leading lawmaker told a gathering of Baltimore business leaders Monday. Speaking at the Greater Baltimore Committee's annual transportation summit, state Senate Majority Leader Rob Garagiola warned that any political will to raise money for highways, transit and other transportation needs will dwindle as legislators approach the 2014 state elections.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Years of guerrilla warfare, the terrorism of the drug trade and a string of political assassinations have made Colombia one of the world's most violent countries. Through it all, business thrived.Now, as investigations into allegations that drug money helped finance the president's election campaign in 1994 are threatening to topple the government, the crisis is unsettling the economy.Many in the private sector say the criminal investigations facing President Ernesto Samper and his closest aides in connection with the 1994 campaign are to blame for much of the turmoil.

With flavors like Raspberry Truffle, Cotton Candy and Burgundy Cherry, Storm Bros. Ice Cream Factory has never had a problem luring walk-in customers to its perch near City Dock in downtown Annapolis. The 35-year-old shop's location in one of Maryland's most heavily visited tourist areas has mostly been a blessing, says owner Svienn C. Storm — a line of eager patrons often snakes along the sidewalk outside the shop on a sunny afternoon. But lately, he said, the downtown spot has had a significant downside.

As the economy continues to struggle and America tries to reclaim its place in the global economic and financial markets, small business once again is left holding the proverbial bag. As attorney and author Steve Strauss asked in his Aug. 8 column in USA Today, how do we pump the entrepreneurial well even deeper in the face of so much legislative, political, and global red tape? With unemployment constantly hovering around 9 percent and fear grasping every American from Main Street to Wall Street, how does the small business owner stand a chance of survival, let alone the ability to grow and prosper?