Financing For Employers

If you’ve read our post entitled “Vacants-To-Jobs,” you know that Baltimore Rising is introducing legislation that gives employers who are willing to locate in the city’s disadvantaged neighborhoods free property and no property taxes for 5 years. The simple, but nonetheless profound idea is that we’re going to make employers offers they can’t refuse to get them to do what too many businesses have avoided. We’re going to give them a compelling reason to set up shop in a neighborhood some of them don’t even want to drive through, much less park there, get out and spend the day. Heaven forbid, maybe go out to some local place for lunch.’

Continue reading

Vacants-To-Jobs

As you may already know, there’s a Baltimore city government program called “Vacants-To-Value.” It’s primary purpose is to encourage people to refurbish and move into vacant property around the city – properties, mostly residential, that the government has taken over. The objective is to turn the huge number of abandoned properties around the city into homes that are attractive and well-maintained by resident-owners, many of whom will be new to the neighborhood.

Continue reading

August Job Numbers: Sucking the air out of the President’s campaign rhetoric.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Here are the opening paragraphs from the NBCNews.co website story on the just-released jobs numbers for August. Click on the image to make it larger. You can use the link to see the full article, or look around for any number of other reports. Keep in mind that NBC and other news services revise their stories, particularly soon after they are first posted, so the current text you see may differ slightly from the screen shot I’m showing below. The Bureau of Labor Statistics website has the original release.

Continue reading

“Obamanomics.” Wishful thinking, positive spin or outright lies?

Obama and Putin with ChartsWednesday, August 15, 2012

The next time the President or anyone running for high office drops a big number, would someone please ask him or her, “How do you know?” It’s a simple, entirely reasonable question. “How do you know?”

Continue reading

Crafting More Effective Stimulus Legislation, Part 1: The Magnificent Seven

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Candidates for Congress and the Presidency, both incumbents and challengers, tend to talk in generalities. “We need more jobs!!” Really? “If only we could ask the rich to pay a little more,” or from the other side of the aisle, “A recession is no time to increase anyone’s taxes!” Unbelievable, isn’t it. Even when they elaborate in their position statements, the points they make are more likely to be superficial than identify the specific economic tools they recommend and explain precisely how those tools should be applied.

Continue reading

Maryland Voter Registration, Employment and Unemployment by County: Will no incumbent take responsibility?

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The following table is too large to insert into this article without the type being too small to read easily. Instead of making you squint to see the numbers, just click on the link below to see – and print, if you like – the PDF version of the table.

Continue reading