Economy

This just in: Maryland civil legal service programs not only benefit the poor but also save the state millions per year. Legal assistance to low-income Marylanders is a significant economic boost to the state and benefits more than just those receiving aid, according to a report just released by the Maryland Judiciary's Access to Justice Commission. Legal services mean a lot more than just helping people without means get access to the courts. For example, these services help low-income residents receive the government benefits to which they are entitled; prevent homelessness by avoiding eviction; and help protect against domestic violence.

Maryland's newest member of the House of Representatives, Democrat John Delaney, was sworn into office Thursday amid a flurry of symbolism and celebration but also apprehension over issues left unresolved by the last Congress. The Potomac banker, who ousted 10-term Republican Roscoe G. Bartlett in Western Maryland's 6th District in November, dashed from the House floor to receptions to his new office, navigating a Capitol Hill bursting with visitors who came to witness the opening day of the 113th Congress.

Friday, forecasters expect the Labor Department to report the economy added 155,000 jobs in December - substantially less than is needed to pull unemployment down to acceptable levels. The tax and spending package passed by the Senate and House provides little prospect of improvement, as the U.S. economy continues to suffer from insufficient demand and will continue growing at a subpar 2 percent a year. Factors contributing to weak demand and slow jobs creation are the huge trade deficits with China and other Asian exporters, as well as on oil. However, on the supply side, increased business regulations, rising health care costs and mandates imposed by Obamacare - and now higher taxes on small businesses - discourage investments that raise productivity and competitiveness and create jobs.

Facing a year of financial trouble that started with a national controversy over dropping monetary support for Planned Parenthood, Komen Maryland told its donors on Friday that the organization is $1 million short of reaching its current fundraising goal. Brittany Fowler, spokeswoman for the Maryland affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, said cancer patients and survivors in the state could lose services, such as prepared meals, breast exams and aqua therapy, if the organization misses its local $3.1 million target by the end of the current fundraising year, which closes March 31, 2013.

It's difficult to catalogue all the negative impacts of Obamacare in one place. Nevertheless, my readers deserve to know a few of the uglier details as the new year rings in one of the most expensive, convoluted policy experiments in American history. •Lost in the hysteria surrounding Obamacare's 20 new tax increases is the law's surcharge of 0.9 percent on wages and salaries and 3.8 percent on investment income. This is another levy directed at small business owners. You know - the ones who are supposed to ramp up hiring to spark our economic recovery.

The spending cuts associated with the impending fiscal cliff - known more technically as sequestration - hold potentially ominous consequences for the U.S. economy, and for Maryland in particular, if the White House and Congress cannot strike a deal soon to avert them. The "sequestration" clause of the Budget Control Act of 2011 triggers an approximately 8 percent across-the-board cut in federal discretionary spending. Although all states in the U.S. are likely to be harmed, perhaps no state will be more adversely affected than Maryland, with its high concentration of bioscience and federal employees.

In a holiday season that celebrates giving, Maryland's nonprofit arts organizations have been playing their part. Not only do they inspire and enrich our lives in innumerable ways large and small, they're also an important source of economic vitality and innovation for the communities they serve. Earlier this month the Maryland State Arts Council, which tracks revenue and attendance figures at the state's 244 arts groups and programs, reported that in 2011 arts organizations generated a total of $518 million in direct spending by presenters and audiences and created more than 11,000 jobs.

The new green at Maryland's state parks is cash, and lots of it. This has been a banner year for the 66 parks, which logged nearly 11 million visitors by early December, 1.1 million more than at the same point last year. Long the destination of day trippers and tent dwellers, state parks have become a go-to spot for thousands of staycationers, who not only pay entry and campsite fees but also leave a trail of money through the communities just beyond their borders. "Parks are destinations that create opportunity for people to enjoy the outdoors and each other," said Matt Baker, owner of Terrapin Adventures, a zip line and outdoor center in Howard County, just minutes from Patapsco Valley State Park.

Young people and their parents are rightly nervous these days about the economy. Many wonder whether their investment in a college education will pay off. Such worries are overblown. College graduates continue to do far better, even in this difficult economy, than those who never go to college. The new global economy, in fact, requires far more people to have much higher levels of education than ever before. Given the current economic angst, students and their parents tend to focus too narrowly on which college major will result in the best first-job chances for employment and decent wages.

No question, it's been a tough economy for many nonprofits to raise money. But Marriottsville-based DonorSearch, launched the same year the economy plunged into the latest recession, has developed a database to help nonprofits identify which of their contributors are more likely to give more if asked and what type of gift they are likely to make, said CEO Bill Tedesco. Tedesco said he started his career in public administration, moved into computers, then on to fundraising in Baltimore before getting into donor prospect research services.