Licensing And Regulation

THE STATE Department of Business and Economic Development wishes to assure you that, contrary to suggestions in a recent state audit, it is not allowing Maryland corporations getting corporate welfare to cheat on job-growth promises. DBED's procedures for making sure companies keep their employment commitments "were not effective" in the four years ending in 2004, the Office of Legislative Audits reported last week. Auditors found huge differences between employment claims made by the businesses and what was found by a contractor hired to check the claims.

Expected seasonal layoffs pushed Maryland's unemployment rate up to 4.0 percent in January, but economists warned yesterday that the worst is yet to come. Many expect the first signs of an economic slowdown to surface over the next three months as more companies close their doors or downsize in the face of slumping sales. That means the number of jobless will probably grow in Maryland. "We really have not yet begun to see the impact of a lot of the layoffs in Maryland that have been announced but have yet to take place," said Anirban Basu, chief economist for RESI, the economic forecasting arm of Towson University.

Jonathan McKenzie cheerfully pointed out yesterday that holding down a job in high school enabled him to "just stay busy and keep out of trouble."And it gives him spending money so he doesn't have to ask his parents for any.But at the same time, working 28 hours a week as a stock clerk left him so little time for his school work that "I just retired in some classes," he said.That's why today, at the age of 20, he's still trying to earn the credits that will put him over the top and give him his diploma from Baltimore's Southern High School.

The licensing of home inspectors in Maryland, which was to have taken place by July 1, has been put off for a year after the General Assembly cut $65,000 earmarked for staffing from the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR) budget this year. That means consumers will continue to be at risk for unscrupulous and inept inspectors who work in a metropolitan area where it is estimated that eight of every 10 homes sold by real estate agents receive a home inspection. It was particularly upsetting to Del. Dan Morhaim, the Baltimore County Democrat, who with fellow Democrat Del. Brian Moe of Prince George's and Montgomery counties, sponsored the legislation that was overwhelmingly approved in Annapolis during the 2001 session after years of dying in legislative committees.

Havre de Grace. -- More of us than usual seem to be irritated at government these days. Whether they're based in Washington, Annapolis, the county seat or the city hall, governments are widely perceived as creating more problems than they resolve.The list of complaints is familiar. There are taxes, of course. There are failures to deliver promised services, whether it's police protection, a welfare check or a subsidy payment for not growing kumquats. There are so-called civil servants who aren't either.

A travel trailer manufacturer that employs nearly 300 people in Hancock announced yesterday that it will close the plant - the third large employer reportedly shutting down in a Western Maryland county that until recently had been one of the hotter economic development areas in the state. Fleetwood Travel Trailers Enterprises Inc., one of Washington County's largest employers, said it would close the doors of the factory by April 1 and lay off 289 workers. The Hancock facility and the others indicating they would close in the past month counter some of the economic progress of the region.

Relatively few employers have applied to claim a state tax credit for hiring Marylanders off the unemployment rolls, raising questions about its effectiveness as a job-creation tool. Six months into the program, businesses have qualified to collect less than 10 percent of $20 million the state budgeted. Total hires: 350 previously unemployed people. The first-come, first-served program could support 4,000 tax credits of $5,000 each; businesses have until the end of the year to apply.

General Motors Corp. wants Maryland to halt payments of unemployment benefits to about 3,000 union workers at its Southeast Baltimore van assembly plant who were laid off last month as a result of strikes at two GM parts plants in Flint, Mich.The local development comes as GM is indicating that it may drop some low-profit cars if United Auto Workers' strikes continue into August.The No. 1 automaker had asked the state Office of Unemployment Insurance to either reconsider its June 12 decision to pay the benefits to the laid-off workers at the Broening Highway plant or it will appeal to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.

Operations are winding down at Eastern Home Products Inc. in Southwest Baltimore after the company announced that it didn't have enough money to continue in business. Eastern Home and its subsidiaries -- Eastern Manufacturing Products Inc., Home and Roam Leisure Products Inc. and Eastern Standard Corp. -- manufacture above-ground swimming pools and window blinds. Its retail stores sell pools, spas and pool tables. About 20 of the company's work force of nearly 200 are working. More than 125 workers were surprised when they were laid off abruptly in late January.