Maryland at last has an organization and a group of small business leaders dedicated to making business case for more business lending, tax fairness, and affordable health care, and more.
Lend Local
The top issue for small businesses is lending. We need affordable and reliable credit to grow our businesses. Maryland Business members around the state made our first victory possible—passage of the Lend Local Act of 2012. Lend Local (H.B. 571, S.B. 792) puts more of Maryland’s public deposits in our community banks where they will be working for Maryland’s small businesses, creating jobs and strengthening our local economies.
Tax Fairness
Tax dodges by out-of-state corporations are a big issue for small businesses. We pay more because they pay less, and some of the biggest are paying nothing at all. Maryland small business owners are dedicated to our state and are building our economy job by job. We watch with wonder as elected officials race to meet the demands of global corporations that leverage threats to leave into new subsidies from taxpayers.
Affordable Health Care
Small companies compete head-to-head with much larger companies—even big out-of-state corporations—for customers, contracts or employees. Health care costs matter and we often end up paying twice what our big competitors pay for similar coverage. The smallest companies often forgo health insurance altogether, but many would like to offer affordable coverage.