Old Line Elephant Maryland Conservative Blog

Obviously It Hurts Small Business

Surprising no one who thinks, O'Malley's environmental proposals are predicted to have a negative impact on small businesses in the area. The Washington Post has more:

Fiscal reports released Monday conclude two proposals at the core of Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s (D) environmental agenda could hurt small businesses, despite previous claims to the contrary by the O’Malley administration.

Restricting large housing developments built with septic systems, which O’Malley said would safeguard farmland and protect the Chesapeake Bay, “may have a meaningful adverse impact on many small business residential developers, homebuilders, and associated contractors,” according to a nonpartisan analysis by the state’s Department of Legislative Services.

A separate analysis concluded a proposed increase in the “flush tax” on water usage for Chesapeake Bay restoration could also have a negative effect on business.

The analysis found that “many small businesses will pay an increase of more than 250% in bay restoration fees, which may represent a meaningful adverse impact on at least some small businesses, particularly those engaged in operations that require significant water usage.”

That's right - government analyses show that these will negatively impact small businesses. We really need to make sure this information gets out there because, frankly, it shows O'Malley being a) wrong or b) lying about the impact of his proposals on business. We already are choking our businesses in this state - we really don't need to do more to hurt them in this economy.