Incentive

While Gov. Parris N. Glendening and legislative leaders agree that Maryland state employees should be offered financial incentives for early retirement, they are having difficulty settling on a plan to do it.As the governor moves to shrink the state's work force of 70,000 with promised layoffs of 800 or more workers annually for the next few years, the chance to get some employees to leave voluntarily has gained broad appeal in Annapolis.The House of Delegates is expected to approve a bill that would extend health benefits to employees who have lost their jobs as a result of budget cuts.

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.

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.

Maryland taxpayers will provide Giant Food Inc. $2 million in grants, tax credits and other incentives to build its distribution center in the state, officials acknowledged yesterday. The deal to retain Giant was announced last week, although officials declined then to reveal the details of the incentive plans. The largest portion of the incentive package is a $1.25 million grant from the state's Sunny Day Fund, officials said. In addition, the state is offering a $250,000 training grant and $250,000 in job tax credits, a spokeswoman from the state Department of Business and Economic Development said.

Baltimore housing officials as well as developers were caught off-guard this week when they discovered that a popular incentive that significantly lowered property taxes for buyers of new homes in the city had expired in June. City officials apparently were unaware that the Newly Constructed Dwelling Tax Credit, established in 1995 by the General Assembly, had a sunset provision that required City Council action to extend it another two years. The program sought to make the city's property tax rate - at $5.82 per $100 of assessed value, by far the highest in the state - competitive with those in the surrounding counties for buyers of new homes.

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.

Howard County last night added a new weapon in its fight to create high-paying jobs, approving a tax-credit package that would benefit new and growing businesses.As the County Council unanimously approved the tax credits last night, members said the credits might help reverse the erosion in the county's commercial property base."I think it's a very modest help to businesses that want to come to the county, or are here and want to expand," said Councilman Charles C. Feaga, a west county Republican.

Anne Arundel County school officials are considering expansion of an ambitious -- and expensive -- incentive program aimed at getting teachers and principals to work at schools that have failed to meet state performance targets and offering added bonuses if those schools improve. The program, which school officials say might cost up to $3 million this year at a total of 14 failing schools, has drawn interest from staffers at schools that successfully meet the state's performance targets, as well as from teachers' assistants, who are not currently eligible for the bonuses.

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.

Crime isn't supposed to pay, but reporting to your parole officer just might. Some parolees and probationers would receive up to $25 a month for staying on the straight and narrow under a pilot program being hammered out by the Abell Foundation and the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Supporters say the plan, which one expert called a rarity in corrections, would provide ex-offenders with an extra incentive to go along with the threat of incarceration. The idea is "to give some motivation to people to comply with conditions of probation so they don't get violated and go back to prison and cost society a whole lot of money," said Robert C. Embry Jr., president of the foundation.