An Examiner review of General Assembly biographies found that eight of 47 members of the state Senate said theyowned their own business. In the state House, 14 of 141 members noted that they owned a business.
Thirty-six other members of the House noted significant experience in the business world, while in the Senate eight members listed occupations primarily related to the private sector.
Republicans noted more business experience than Democrats. In the house, 67 percent of Republicans listed owning a business or significant work experience in the private sector in their biographies. In the Senate, 43 percent of Republicans did.
Meanwhile, 22 percent of House Democrats and 30 percent of Senate Democrats noted significant business experience in their biographies.
The rest listed occupations as lawyers and educators or state, local and federal government or nonprofit employees.
That means that about 35 percent of both chambers has life experience that might lead those members to understand how government regulation affects their lives.
Lawyers do ? but only because so many earn their living by writing and interpreting foggy government laws.
Why is this important?
Because legislators who don?t understand business pass laws that make our lives more expensive and make it more difficult for local businesses to thrive.
Last week we noted a number of the most egregious examples of anti-business legislation. Capping electricity rates 6.5 percent below 1993 levels for six years in 1999 nears the top of the list. It?s a big part of the reason our electricity bills are scheduled to increase 72 percent in July and no competition to Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. has emerged.
Other examples abound.
While it?s true that Maryland boasts the fourth-highest per-person income in the country and a 3.4 percent unemployment rate (the national average is 4.7 percent) ? that is largely due to the more than $60 billion the federalgovernment pumps into the economy each year in the form of wages, grants and other expenditures.
That money must not be a free pass to ignore basic economics.
Maybe business school professors from one of our state?s fine universities teaching a short course on business principles once a year could help. But the better solution would be to change the makeup of the legislature.
We think it?s time that the business sector recruit and finance more of its own to run for office. Don?t you?
