Like the title of a self-help book, the Greater Baltimore Committee has come up with "eight pillars" the state government must embrace to help businesses help themselves.

The report, issued this week, calls for a "streamlined and predictable regulatory system," a "competitive tax structure" and improved support for transportation.

"The number one priority of Maryland government policy makers, now and in the foreseeable future, has to be job creation and business development," said Donald C. Fry, president and CEO of the group, which comprises more than 500 business and community leaders, in a statement.

The group said it reached its conclusions after a series of focus groups with business executives and economic development experts, including more than 50 CEOs and business owners, and seven former secretaries of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

But Neil Bergsman, director of the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute, a research group and project of the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations, said the Greater Baltimore Committee's eight pillars include contradictions.

"They want better roads and good schools and work force training, improved infrastructure, and those things turn out to be very important for the future of our state's economy, but those things have to be paid for," Bergsman said. "When you ask business groups what regulations they find onerous we find most of them are protections of employees and protections of the environment. We're for making permitting faster and doing more of it over the Internet. But most Marylanders think workers should be protected and the environment kept clean."

Another recent analysis by M&T Bank presented at the Maryland Chamber of Commerce's Business Policy Conference in October showed Maryland ranked as the 14th most attractive state nationally for business, and among the tops on the East Coast, below only Florida and Virginia among states east of the Mississippi River.

"We certainly agree that anything we can do to make Maryland more competitive in business is an important thing to understand," said Karen Glenn Hood, spokeswoman for DBED.

In particular, the report mentions outreach to the business community and that is something the state has worked on "very aggressively," Glenn Hood said.

The Life Science Advisory Board was formed to help plan a "roadmap" for the life science industry, in addition to forming an international trade for Maryland businesses, the small business task force in 2009, Glenn Hood said.

cford@gazette.net

The Greater Baltimore Committee's "eight pillars":

-Government leaders should set a "welcoming tone."

-A highly educated work force to meet Maryland's business needs.

-Streamlined regulatory policies.

-A tax structure that is "fair and competitive."

-Public policies that "nurture business growth."

-Superior transportation infrastructure, including well-funded and -maintained highway, transit, port and airport facilities.

-State investments in business growth through tax credits, business development incentives and other initiatives to "nurture" private investment.

-Business marketing that is "aggressive, coordinated, long-term and well-funded."