Corporation

Maryland became the first state in the nation Friday to create a new class of company that falls between a for-profit and a non-profit, giving companies flexibility to generate public benefits along with profits. Eleven people lined up early Friday in the charter division of the state Department of Assessments and Taxation to register businesses as "benefit corporations," said Robert E. Young, the department's acting deputy director. The state's benefit corporation legislation was signed into law in April and took effect Friday.

Sandy Apgar, an erstwhile pretender to being a public servant during the Clinton era, enthusiastically recommends that Maryland fall into the public-private partnership trap along with benighted states like Virginia ("The future of infrastructure," May 9). I'd like to know how inviting the pork farmers to engage in policy-making and priority-setting to increase the price of pork is going to benefit Mr. Apgar's "taxpayers. " I'm one of those taxpayers; the fat-cat corporations Mr. Apgar would woo with my money, not so much, according to the COST figures columnist Dan Rodricks cites in his column about CEO whining ("Complaining CEOs need to take a hike," May 9)

Sandy Apgar, an erstwhile pretender to being a public servant during the Clinton era, enthusiastically recommends that Maryland fall into the public-private partnership trap along with benighted states like Virginia ("The future of infrastructure," May 9). I'd like to know how inviting the pork farmers to engage in policy-making and priority-setting to increase the price of pork is going to benefit Mr. Apgar's "taxpayers. " I'm one of those taxpayers; the fat-cat corporations Mr. Apgar would woo with my money, not so much, according to the COST figures columnist Dan Rodricks cites in his column about CEO whining ("Complaining CEOs need to take a hike," May 9)

In his remarks to the Greater Baltimore Committee's annual meeting Wednesday night, T. Rowe Price Chairman Brian C. Rogers noted a contradiction in how the world sees Maryland as a place to do business. On the one hand, it is universally recognized for its top-ranked school systems and universities, skilled workforce, research activity, potential for innovation, and great quality of life. On the other, it frequently winds up toward the bottom of rankings of business competitiveness — most recently, by CEO Magazine — largely because of our tax system and regulatory environment.

Your paper has given us, side-by-side, three glaring examples of the sheer gall and/or utter shamelessness of the proponents of CA's scrapping of Symphony Woods Park in favor of turning over control of Symphony Woods (and at least 1.6 million of our lien payer dollars) to a new corporation, one which will be unbound by sunshine, transparency and accountability protections to which CA must hold. On page 16 (May 2) you give us CA Director Tom Coale telling us first that the recent election results show public support for CA's current direction.

Responding to allegations of financial irregularities and rampant infighting, the city will shut down the Park Heights Community Corp. a week from today.Robert W. Hearn, commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Development, notified corporation officials in a letter yesterday that he had determined the northwest Baltimore corporation should be closed indefinitely, beginning next Friday. He listed these reasons:"Resignation of board members, termination of the executive director, legal action being taken against the board by the past president and former executive director . . . The inability of the board to manage and provide direction to the executive director, the continued disruption and lack of control evident at public meetings, the lack of support on issues important to the neighborhoods . . ."

Living in Towson was fine when her children were young, but after they grew up and her husband died, Paula Glowacki found that things became too quiet. "I was lonely. Everyone worked," she said. "It wasn't like when we had kids. I was older ... and so unhappy." After plenty of reflection, Glowacki decided to try going home to Highlandtown. In February, she moved into a completely renovated rowhouse near Patterson Park. Now friends and family surround her. A sister lives next door, another sister lives two doors down, and still another sister lives across the street.

It was a huge undertaking, especially under the circumstances. The U.S. Olympic beach volleyball trials were awarded to Baltimore barely three months before the event, and still the Maryland Sports Corporation put up a stadium and put on a show.Maybe attendance could have been a little better, but the five-day beach festival/pre-Olympic tournament at HarborView apparently will break even, which would make it a big success for the nonprofit Maryland Sports Corporation."All in all, I think we're going to be right where we thought we'd be," said MSC president Barbara Bozzuto.

PHILADELPHIA - To manage its far-flung financial interests, avoid local taxes, and shroud high-stakes deals from investor scrutiny, Enron Corp. organized a sprawling network of 2,000 corporate subsidiaries in 62 countries and 23 U.S. states. Hundreds of Enron units were set up in offshore tax havens such as the Cayman Islands; others, under the laws of Brazil, England, and other places where Enron did business, according to the bankrupt energy trading company's annual report. But the largest number of Enron subsidiaries - 685, not counting duplicate names - were set up in Delaware, where the creation and care of corporate entities is big business.

A Netherlands-based corporation yesterday announced sponsorship of a two-boat team to compete in the next Volvo Ocean Race, which will begin in November 2005. ABN AMRO said it will invest the equivalent of about $24 million. "The Volvo Ocean Race, which visits almost all of the continents in which ABN AMRO has a presence, emerged as an ideal candidate" for marketing the company's various banking subsidiaries, said Tom de Swaan, member of the managing board. The two ABN AMRO boats join Telefonica, sponsored by a Spanish telecommunications company, as the only entries to date.

Your paper has given us, side-by-side, three glaring examples of the sheer gall and/or utter shamelessness of the proponents of CA's scrapping of Symphony Woods Park in favor of turning over control of Symphony Woods (and at least 1.6 million of our lien payer dollars) to a new corporation, one which will be unbound by sunshine, transparency and accountability protections to which CA must hold. On page 16 (May 2) you give us CA Director Tom Coale telling us first that the recent election results show public support for CA's current direction.

Mark D. Sokolik, a corporate lawyer remembered as a fitness and music enthusiast, died last week after complications from a fall. He was 30. A former Hunt Valley resident who attended Loyola Blakefield in Towson, Mr. Sokolik went on to graduate from the University of Baltimore and become a top student at Georgetown University's Law Center. Since 2010, he had worked as a corporate attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New York, one of the nation's top law firms. "Mark was a real gentle person," said Frank Sokolik, his father, whom Mark talked with constantly on the phone.

Nicholas Lee Gounaris Sr., a retired corporate attorney and a past Harford Community College board chairman, died of renal disease April 12 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Lutherville resident was 70. Born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton on Sefton Avenue, he was the son of Lee Gounaris, a North Broadway restaurateur. His mother, Helen, was a homemaker. He was a 1961 graduate of City College, where he was the soccer team's goalie. He earned a bachelor's degree from the College of Agriculture at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. writes about "How the welfare state has grown" (April 7). But if the programs of the New Deal and the Great Society have been less than successful, it should be noted that the lack of funding from "big government" has been instrumental in causing these programs to crumble. The working poor are poor due to unemployment or low-wage jobs. Try making ends meet with subsistence level pay and no benefits. One major medical bill and you're on the way to homelessness.

Officials at the University of Maryland have pledged to spend an additional $5 million on student mental health services at the state's flagship College Park campus over the next 10 years, the largest investment in counseling services there in decades. The decision was made this week following years of stagnant investments in psychiatric services at the university's counseling and health centers, despite large spikes in student demand. It comes on the heels of a murder-suicide involving a mentally ill student just off campus in February, which shined a spotlight on the imbalance between counseling services and demand.

A moment of silence, please, for the death of the combined reporting bill in the General Assembly. The corporate tax reform measure passed away suddenly last week, the result of a 7-6 vote by the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, which has developed a nasty habit of killing the bill annually. In lieu of flowers, supporters ask that angry letters be sent to lawmakers. It came as no surprise, of course, but that doesn't make the death of combined reporting any less frustrating.

Though a final deadline hasn't been set, the Baltimore Corp. for Housing Partnerships, once considered the pre-eminent nonprofit housing force in the city, is preparing to turn over its properties to other parties and close its doors for good.David F. Tufaro, chairman of the board of the housing corporation, said yesterday that plans have been made to "transfer our assets to appropriate parties.""We don't have an absolute close-down date, but we have a plan in place to work toward that as quickly as we can," he said.

University of Maryland at Baltimore administrators are considering a move to withdraw the school from the state university system and create a not-for-profit corporation, much as UM's hospital did 13 years ago.Such a move would free the university from state regulations that determine how the school hires employees, signs contracts, constructs buildings and carries out other business functions, which UMAB President David J. Ramsay said could save the school...

I am not among the many who are shocked that Ben Carson, the brilliant and widely admired neurosurgeon based at Johns Hopkins Hospital, would emerge as a hero of the political right and Sean Hannity's new best friend. That Carson would stoop to making (and later sort of apologizing for) homophobic remarks on Hannity's national television show - associating gays with pedophiles and people who have sex with animals - didn't surprise me, either. I know: Here's a man who separated conjoined twins, improved and saved the lives of countless children, established a scholars program that has benefited hundreds of young people, wrote inspirational books and gave countless motivational speeches.

The budget fights in Washington, D.C., and Annapolis are looking predictably ugly this year and are shaping up along familiar lines: Do we raise taxes? Do we sink deeper in debt? Which programs do we cut — and how deep? How can we fund public priorities like transportation and higher education? Fueling these debates are automatic, across-the-board federal spending cuts that intentionally make no distinction between public priorities and wasteful spending, cutting both with equal abandon.