Incentive

DETROIT -- Struggling Ford Motor Co., which posted a record $12.7 billion loss in 2006, agreed to pay its new CEO, Alan R. Mulally, more than $28 million to help rescue the 103-year-old automaker, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mulally, a former Boeing Co. executive who was the keynote speaker at the New York auto show this week, publicly accepted the Ford job in September. While his annual salary is set at $2 million, his compensation package for last year included $666,667 in salary for the final quarter of the year, as well as a host of other add-ons.

DETROIT -- Alex Trotman received $18.8 million in salary, bonus and other compensation in his final year as chairman and chief executive of Ford Motor Co., the world's second-largest carmaker.Trotman, who retired Dec. 31, also received a previously undisclosed $24.1 million payment last year for his 1997 award under Ford's long-term incentive plan, which rewards executives for performance on stock appreciation, product quality and cost-cutting. He gained an additional $30.1 million from the exercise of previously granted stock options.

In one of his last duties as a city councilman, Baltimore Mayor-Elect Martin O'Malley presided over a hearing yesterday to grant $73 million in future property tax breaks to five downtown projects.City officials who support the hotel, apartment and office proposals contend that they will return $122.5 million to the city in other taxes while creating a projected 1,600 jobs.The incentive -- known as payments in lieu of taxes or PILOTS -- sparked more than four hours of debate among council colleagues, including opponents who accuse the city of mortgaging its future.

It turned out to be the story of the little "trolley" that could.When the Fannie Mae Foundation, Baltimore's Housing Authority and the Live Baltimore Marketing Center organized a series of housing fairs almost a year ago, there may have been uncertainty whether the partnership was on the right track in promoting homeownership in many of the city's unsung neighborhoods.But by dangling a $3,000 incentive in front of potential buyers and orchestrating imaginative and educational neighborhood trolley tours, the program, which will have its concluding run Saturday, has become an apparent success.

In Irene Mabry's line of work, miracles are a regular occurrence, normally falling on the end of the month when her clients find themselves at the settlement table.As far as Mabry is concerned, there's no other way to explain that her thriving real estate business is built on one impossible case at a time. It's something she never loses sight of, especially when she finds herself with customers who can't afford cars, who have given up paying their bills, who have a houseful of children, but who are desperately seeking a better way of life.

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. paid its chairman, John Smith Jr., a compensation package of $9.2 million last year, an increase of 7.8 percent from 1996, as the automaker posted record earnings.Smith, 60, received a salary of $1.75 million, unchanged from 1996, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. His annual incentive rose 53 percent to $2.45 million, while his long-term incentive pay fell 55 percent to $1.04 million.Smith was the only top GM executive whose pay rose last year, according to the filing.

Television ads can't solve military's recruiting woesRegarding Tom Bowman's article ("Military recruiters losing war at home," Nov. 3), I was amused at the military leadership's bewilderment at declining recruitment and its almost comical strategies to combat it.There's a much simpler solution: The military needs to be a responsible employer. I've been in the Navy six years, and I don't know of any sailor who doesn't have a "recruiter story." My recruiters promised me, upon enlistment, the following: free medical care for my family, college loan repayment, and, best of all, a commission after boot camp.

The Ravens are close to completing a one-year contract with tight end Eric Green, an agreement that could be done by the end of the week, according to his agent, Drew Rosenhaus.Rosenhaus and Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens' vice president of player personnel, exchanged proposals yesterday, and both said Green probably will sign an incentive-based, one-year contract that will pay the former Pro Bowl tight end a base salary between $275,000, the league minimum for veterans, and the $307,000 he made last year.

It could only happen in pro sports.A company gives a new employee a six-year, $15 million deal with $2 million in incentive clauses only to find itself declared the winner in the negotiations.That's what happened last week when the New York Jets signed top draft pick Keyshawn Johnson, the wide receiver from Southern California.One New York tabloid hailed team vice president Steve Gutman with the headline, "Call him Gutty Gutman," and said that Gutman had scored a "clear knockout of Johnson's agents, Jerome Stanley and Lee Kolligan."

GOV. PARRIS N. Glendening is asking the General Assembly to approve tax credits for firms that create new jobs in targeted growth areas -- manufacturing, research and development, transportation, communication, agriculture, mining, computer-related services, finance and real estate industries.Under the proposal, the state would grant up to $10 million a year in credits to companies that create at least 50 new full-time jobs that pay at least 150 percent of the federal minimum wage, providing the jobs went to Maryland residents.

It took just more than a week for American consumers to scoop up the $1 billion the federal government devoted to its "cash for clunkers" program as the incentive created a frenzy at the nation's car dealerships the like they haven't seen for years. The House of Representatives voted quickly last week to extend the program by transferring another $2 billion from another part of the federal stimulus program, and the Senate should follow suit. This program is exactly the kind of thing the stimulus should be made of because it accomplishes multiple goals with one investment.

Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price Group Inc. lowered Chief Executive Officer James Kennedy's total compensation last year by 28 percent, to $5.57 million, as the market's decline shrank assets the company manages. Kennedy's base pay stayed flat at $350,000, and the investment management firm said he would be paid the same salary this year. Kennedy's payment under an incentive program dropped by a third to almost $3.9 million for 2008. The company wrote in the proxy that the incentive award to its senior executives was much less than the maximum allowed by the plan.

In a nation struggling with soaring obesity rates, there is no gimmick that Americans haven't tried to lose weight. But what if someone paid you to keep the pounds off? Could it work? New research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has found that cash could be the ultimate incentive in weight loss. In a study of 57 people seeking to lose weight over four months, those who were paid to shed pounds lost more than those who were not. The study, released yesterday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is based on a well-known premise in psychology: Positive reinforcement can help people change their behavior.

Admit it, you woke up this morning and thought, "What were Curt Schilling's incentive clauses in re-signing with the Boston Red Sox?" Well, here they are: He can earn $2 million if he makes weight during six weigh-ins - and that would be incentive enough for me to drive past Taco Bell at 2 a.m. He also has innings-pitched bonuses starting at 130 and going up in 10-inning, $375,000 increments to 200. And he receives $1 million if he gets one Cy Young Award...

DETROIT -- Struggling Ford Motor Co., which posted a record $12.7 billion loss in 2006, agreed to pay its new CEO, Alan R. Mulally, more than $28 million to help rescue the 103-year-old automaker, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mulally, a former Boeing Co. executive who was the keynote speaker at the New York auto show this week, publicly accepted the Ford job in September. While his annual salary is set at $2 million, his compensation package for last year included $666,667 in salary for the final quarter of the year, as well as a host of other add-ons.

CHICAGO -- New York is a model of liberty, or perhaps anarchy, when it comes to political opinion, religion, clothing, body ornamentation, sexual proclivities and public etiquette. But even Gotham has its limits. The city government - which recently considered letting people officially designate themselves a gender different from the one indicated by their anatomy - has decided it cannot stand by as citizens exercise their choices about eating trans fat. Why not? Judging from the allegations, because it's the worst food additive since E. coli.

Navy football coach Paul Johnson, who was a candidate this week to take over at North Carolina State before the school reportedly settled on Boston College coach Tom O'Brien, is about to be rewarded by the academy. Sources close to Johnson said he is due a raise that would increase his compensation to nearly $1.8 million per year if he meets certain incentives. Johnson's six-year contract, which includes an annual, incentive-based rollover clause that will kick in Jan. 1, currently is worth about $1.3 million per year.

As President Bush was prodding Iran to swiftly accept a U.S.-backed package of incentives to give up its nuclear ambitions, America's top military leader in Iraq was blaming Tehran for an increase in insurgent attacks that target Americans and Iraqis. The report last week by Gen. George W. Casey Jr. was a sobering reminder of Iran's duplicitous dealings with the West and another reason why the nuclear standoff with Tehran must be settled. While initially upbeat about the incentive package, Iran has yet to formally respond.

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian officials signaled yesterday that they would look seriously at the package of incentives offered by world powers if Iran suspends its nuclear program. European envoy Javier Solana arrived last night in Tehran and was scheduled to deliver the proposal this morning. He struck a conciliatory note at the airport, urging "a fresh start." The Iranians' tone too was more conciliatory and careful than over the past several days, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made comments that sounded as if they were preparing to dismiss the proposal.

The Anne Arundel County Council has agreed to pay $68,500 to 64 county employees who were promised short-lived bonuses under an incentive payment program that was drawn up by county staff but later scrapped by the council. Mike Akers, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 582, affirmed at the council meeting this week that his union will drop a lawsuit against the county that sought to claim incentive pay under a program negotiated in November 2002 with the Department of Public Works to increase recycling and reduce the amount of trash at the Millersville landfill.