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Key Business Issues -- Background & Talking Points:
1. Transportation - A Comprehensive Plan for REAL Traffic Relief
Traffic Congestion is the number-one concern to area residents and businesses alike, and MCCC members have been leading the fight for real solutions. In 2002, the Montgomery County Planning Board's "Transportation Policy Report Task Force" released a study based on two years of detailed traffic modeling and analysis, which identified a number of key projects -- nearly all of them are already part of our approved master plans -- that together would reduce traffic congestion in our County by 26%. However, years of delay and inaction have prevented many key projects from moving forward. In response, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan drafted a comprehensive plan called "Go Montgomery!" to accelerate these key projects and provide new funding sources for them. At the same time, Maryland voters elected a new Governor, and Montgomery County voters elected a new County Council, commited to making traffic relief a real priority, moving key projects forward, and increasing pubilc investment in transportation. To learn more about this comprehensive plan for transportation, visit:
Key Projects:
The ICC -- The most significant project -- road or transit -- that recent studies have show would do the most to relieve traffic gridlock is the long-debated InterCounty Connector (ICC). For more information on why the Inter-County Connector (ICC) is now the State’s and the County’s number-one transportation priority, click here to download a white paper.
The Inner Purple Line -- To learn more about MCCC's top-priority transit project, the Inner Purple Line, visit: http://www.bi-countytransitway.com/ . This important project would provide a much needed connection between the two ends of the Metro Red Line in Montgomery County, from Bethesda to Silver Spring, and would extend eastward to link County businesses and residents to the communitiies of Long Branch, College Park and ultimately, New Carrollton in Prince George's County. This project, like the ICC, has been repeatedly delayed and is currently under review by state and federal agencies and needs continued grassroots pressure on key officials to keep this project on track and moving forward.
2. Maintaining our Competitive Business Climate - New Business Taxes
MCCC members, working with other business groups around the State, helped to defeat several new business taxes last year, including the two provisions listed in the attached summary that were particularly harmful to Montgomery County businesses (especially those with significant sales and revenue generated in states outside Maryland). Because we expect a rewewed push in the next legislative session for these anti-business provisions, please ask your appropriate financial officer(s) to review these two provisions "The Throwback Rule" and "Combined Reporting" and, if possible, let us know specifically what kind of increase in corporate income taxes they would result in for you (we will not use your company name unless you give us permission, but we would like some specific examples of the rate of increase to share with key legislators). |
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