David S. Spence/The Gazette Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who punctuated his tour of Montgomery County on Monday with a speech to 550 business leaders at the county's conference center in North Bethesda, exhorts the audience not to let state lawmakers derail the Intercounty Connector. He and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele also reiterated their commitment to minority businesses.

Although the tour was long planned, it gave Ehrlich (R) the opportunity to change the subject from the uproar over his lecture demanding "respect" from the General Assembly last month, from his comments two weeks ago that the state's Minority Business Enterprise program should end, and from last week's firing of a longtime aide who admitted spreading rumors about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D) on the Internet.

Ehrlich and his transportation secretary, Robert L. Flanagan, made a pitch at a business luncheon at the county's conference center in North Bethesda for business leaders to lobby state lawmakers personally on the Gaithersburg-to-Laurel highway.

"I can look you in the face and tell you in almost a year, we will be under construction," Ehrlich said, provided additional borrowing is approved.

Legislative analysts again have questioned the wisdom of borrowing against future federal road aid for the project, noting that doing so will limit the state's future flexibility.

But Flanagan characterized the governor's plan as no different from homeowners taking out a mortgage rather than waiting until they have accumulated enough cash to pay for a house. Each year of delay will cost about $100 million in construction inflation and about $250 million in lost economic development benefits, Flanagan said, far more than the interest on the federal bonds.

"We cannot have Montgomery County people undercutting [the ICC] -- people who proclaim to be supporting it," Flanagan said, referring to Del. Peter V.R. Franchot (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park.

Franchot, chairman of the House Transportation and Environment Subcommittee, inserted a debt restriction in last year's budget that limits how much the state can borrow based on future federal aid.

Franchot said Tuesday that there is nothing inconsistent about supporting the ICC while being concerned about borrowing.

The ICC should be paid for the "old-fashioned way," Franchot said. "Something that produces real money and doesn't put it on some Visa card for future governors and legislators to pay."

On Monday, the governor again touted the highway not simply as a way to ease traffic congestion, but as a way to repair damage already done to local streams by improving stormwater management along the route using "2005 technology."

Environmental groups have rejected Ehrlich's claims and charge that the highway will cut a giant swath through some of the county's precious streambeds while spurring sprawl. They have released their own study arguing that changes in land use combined with new transit options would better reduce overall congestion at a lower cost.

The highway also received a boost Monday when Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) wrote a letter endorsing the highway; the Prince George's County Council has opposed the ICC over concerns that it will shift jobs and development to Montgomery.

Backing MBE

Meanwhile, Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele (R) went on the offensive Monday to dispel any doubts of their support for minority businesses, making repeated references to minority business needs and the Office of Minority Affairs, whose staffers were seated prominently at the front of the room during the luncheon.

"We're talking about empowering minority entrepreneurs in this state in ways they've never been empowered," Ehrlich said.

Singling out Minority Affairs Secretary Sharon R. Pinder in the conference center audience, Steele affirmed the administration's support for the Minority Business Enterprise program.

The administration is not "backing away from empowering the minority business community," he said. "We want that program to be smart, we want it to be relevant."

Controversy over the program has haunted the administration since Feb. 2, when Ehrlich publicly discussed with Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (D) the prospect of ending race-based procurement set-asides. Ehrlich and Steele later denied that the governor's comments indicated a lack of commitment to the MBE program, which Steele steered a commission to reform last year. Ehrlich later clarified his remarks, saying that the program should end once there is a level playing field.

"The days where you got a contract because you knew somebody are over," Steele said.