Gov. Martin O?Malley has started a 90-day review of the Department of Business and Economic Development, seeking to reorganize it and make it more responsive to Maryland?s tech-based economy.
O?Malley also plans a trip to North Carolina in a couple of weeks, where he hopes to learn more how that state created the much ballyhooed Research Triangle.
“The DBED that we have inherited, in essence, is designed to be a mezzanine loan office for economic deals that are originated by the counties,” O?Malley said Friday after addressing a meeting on bioscience work force development. “It?s not exactly the forward-looking, coordinating, synergy-bringing catalyst that it needs to be considering the sort of emerging, creative economy assets [Maryland has].
“I?m not waiting for the two-year study of the four-year problem with the 40-year plan,” O?Malley said. “Other states do this better than we do,” including North Carolina, where he will attend an education conference organized by former Gov. Jim Hunt, who served four terms.
Economic Development Secretary David Edgerley said the governor wants to build “a department for a new economy. We want to find a way to get even better connected that we already are” to the technology community.
DBED?s fragmented organization and the multiple small-business financing programs the department runs have been an issue for years, and were cited in last year?s report by O?Malley outside transition team. “It?s been a Maryland challenge as long as I?ve been involved in economic development,” said Edgerley, who has directed those efforts for Montgomery and Allegany counties.
A number of the department programs are created by statute, such as the loan programs and the Arts Council, which makes grants to local organizations. DBED also includes tourism efforts. “It is a complex organization,” Edgerley said. “In the area that the governor wants to work with I believe we have great flexibility.”
