Montgomery County lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that would give them more control over the county’s economic development efforts.
Sponsored by four council members, the measure would require County Executive Ike Leggett to get council approval before offering any business a financial incentive greater than $500,000 and to give the council fiscal analyses and other documents explaining incentives that exceed $100,000.
In addition, the bill requires the executive to give the council an updated economic development strategic plan every two years. The plan requirements include strategies for creating jobs, bolstering target geographic areas, growing the tax base, improving work force training and education, encouraging small-business development, and attracting target industries.
The plan also must analyze the structure of the county’s Department of Economic Development and compare it with the structure of economic development entities both public and private in peer jurisdictions.
The bill comes after years of complaints by county lawmakers that the county’s economic development efforts don’t match up to those in counties such as Fairfax, which has a private Economic Development Authority.
“Do you believe that dot-com is better than dot-gov when it comes to economic development?” County Council President Roger Berliner, D-Bethesda and a sponsor of the bill, said Monday. “There are some things that business does better than government.”
But the council cannot privatize its department without a change to state law, which isn’t possible before next year. As a result, the bill introduced Tuesday does not take the county as far as Berliner would have liked, he said, “but it moves us forward.”
The county already does most of the changes the bill would require — like the strategic plan, said Department of Economic Development Director Steve Silverman. However, the requirement that the council sign off on business deals in which the county offers incentives above $500,000 violates the county’s charter, he said.
In practice, the council already approves these types of expenses because it has the final approval on the department’s budget.
The problem is often timing, said Councilman Hans Riemer, D-at large and a sponsor of the bill. For example, when Silverman wanted to offer biotech firm Meso Scale Diagnostics an incentive of $750,000 a couple months ago, he approached the council after offering the deal to the firm.
Silverman said he is already studying the effectiveness of a private economic development authority, but he is not convinced that it is a better option.
“Prince George’s County has a private economic development entity. Is that the model they’re pointing to?” he said. “It’s a ludicrous discussion. No one in the economic development field would be able to say that one model is better than another.”
