Chambers rack up big wins this year

‘‘Regardless of company size or industry sector, Maryland businesses rely on computer services to compete,” said Ricardo Martinez, chairman of the Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. ‘‘Imposing a 6 percent sales tax on computer services like Web design, network maintenance and custom programming is bad fiscal policy.”

But other legislation adopted in the 2008 General Assembly session also found favor with business groups.

The Maryland Chamber of Commerce was pleased with the repeal of corporate reporting changes, imposed last year, that it considered burdensome to businesses.

Its other lobbying victories included failed legislation that would have authorized counties to impose discriminatory tax rates on business property and failed bills that would have mandated a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and set a goal of a 90 percent reduction from 2006 levels by 2050. The chamber said the responsibility was a national one, calling the state effort overly ambitious and unachievable.

H. Walter Townshend III, president of the Baltimore-Washington Corridor Chamber of Commerce, said he was pleased with the tech tax repeal, but expressed concern, as did Maryland chamber officials, that lawmakers replaced the tax, expected to reap $200 million annually, with a three-year ‘‘millionaire’s tax” of 6.25 percent on incomes of $1 million and more, plus $100 million in cuts in transportation and other programs.

However, he said, ‘‘I am hearing from some people in that category who are saying, ‘I would rather pay on my own income rather than have a tax on an entire company.’”

The chamber also included among its victories the defeat of bills requiring more environmental studies of the Intercounty Connector.

‘‘Requirements were defeated that would have impacted the cost of construction and termination fees for contracts already in place, costing up to $100 million,” Townshend said.

Donald C. Fry, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, called the tech tax ‘‘hastily adopted.”

‘‘And we had reluctantly felt that the tax on high-income earners was a better alternative than an entire industry being jeopardized,” Fry said. ‘‘We were not happy with the raid on the [transportation] trust fund. That is a dedicated purpose account. The policy of raiding it reaching into it as a cookie jar is not appropriate, partly because we have transportation needs.”

The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce shares those concerns, said Georgette W. Godwin, the group’s president, in a statement.

‘‘While we are happy to see the computer services tax repealed, we remain concerned about the impact the high income tax and the threat of removing $50 million in transportation funding will have on economic development in Maryland,” Godwin said.

Fry’s Baltimore organization was pleased with legislation keeping tuition at state colleges ‘‘at a reasonable” current level, and the beginnings of a dialogue on greenhouse gas legislation.

‘‘It was appropriate for the state to be concerned but some of the many manufacturing businesses would face losing jobs,” Fry said. ‘‘At least the legislature was willing to listen to business concerns.”

The Prince George’s County Chamber of Commerce was pleased that lawmakers hammered out an agreement to keep open Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly, said James A. Dula, its president.

The Conference and Visitors Bureau of Montgomery County praised the passage of a bill allowing municipalities in Montgomery and Somerset counties to leverage up to a 2 percent hotel lodging tax, and a bill requiring the Maryland Tourism Development Board, beginning in fiscal 2011, to provide annual grants and assistance for tourism and conferences. It requires the governor to budget at least $7 million for the board that year.