Business leaders air gripes with Hoyer
Estepp: Others getting more help with infrastructure
Concerns Prince George's County is getting short shrift from the federal government surfaced again Monday as business leaders met with one of the nation's most powerful politicians and one of the county's own House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Dist. 5) of Mechanicsville.
M.H. Jim Estepp, chairman of the Prince George's County Business Roundtable, said the county has yet to see one cent in federal investment for infrastructure improvement intended to support expanding Joint Base Andrews in Camp Springs from an Air Force base to include Navy facilities. Meanwhile, nearby jurisdictions such as Montgomery County and Fairfax, Va., have received such funding, Estepp told Hoyer at the meeting in Bowie.
Estepp's son James R. Estepp also pointed out discussions about creating what are called "enhanced use leasing agreements" which allow contractors to use space on military bases for their operations and exempt them from property taxes have not included local businesses when studying the potential for these agreements at Andrews.
Such lease opportunities have been a hot topic for Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Lexington Park.
Hoyer later pointed out the Patuxent station area has an advantage over Joint Base Andrews when it comes to federal dollars because Patuxent is the only major federal enterprise in St. Mary's County, while Prince George's has many competing around Andrews.
Creating economic opportunities is the more important challenge, said A. Leigh Williams, a principal with the Avania Group in Burtonsville. Williams referenced Fort Meade's cybersecurity push, saying more should be done to bring similar opportunities to Prince George's.
"All the infrastructure money won't help if we're losing jobs," she said.
William F. Chesley, owner of WF Chesley Commercial Real Estate in Crofton, also brought up concerns with the Federal Housing Administration's reduction in financing on certain condominium projects from 50 percent to 25 percent this year. He said the administration should either offer no guaranteed financing or impose more stringent requirements for getting a loan and offer full financing, as was done before the recession.
Linda M. Wells of ReMax in Silver Spring said she wants Congress to pressure community banks to issue more mortgages.
Her complaints coincided with Hoyer's purpose in having the meeting, which was to inform businesspeople about recent legislation clarifying the definition of small-business lending to include loans made to small businesses for industrial, commercial, residential or farm buildings. The measure passed the House last week, along with other incentives for small-business job creation.