Issue Position: Jobs and Small Business Growth

Issue Position

In these tough economic times, job growth should be one of our number one priorities. By getting people back to work and helping small business get back on their feet is the only we will be able to turn the economy around and put money back into people's pockets and State coffers.

I am proud of the many pieces of legislation I helped pass in the last few years that helped to get Marylanders back to work, such as the Job Creation and Recovery Tax Credit, providing a tax credit up to $5,000 to employers who hire unemployed Maryland resident receiving or have exhausted their unemployment benefits and legislation to reform Maryland's unemployment trust fund improving the system and allowing us access to $126.8 million in federal stimulus funds.

We have made serious commitments to helping to grow the Tech and Bio-Tech sectors, and have made unprecedented commitments to higher education to provide for a trained workforce, including the construction of the Bio-Tech Sciences Center at Montgomery College in Germantown and the Science Center at Montgomery College in Rockville, and helping to fund STEM programs at our public schools and universities.

In leading the charge on the Job Applicant Fairness Act, I worked to help Marylanders with bad credit be able to obtain and retain employment, and worked to create opportunities for small businesses under an expansion of the Small Business Reserve Program. I continue to work to provide more opportunities for minority-owned, women-owned, or veteran and service-disabled veteran-owned, or otherwise disadvantaged small businesses.

Much more needs to be done, and I look forward to working with business and labor to make sure that we continue this growth.

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