The Prince of Denmark?
Letting your bias show there sir.
Lets try to be objective Jay.
I know that is difficult being an employee of THE SUN.

As a denizen of the Independent Republic of Arbutus, I resemble that Denmark remark indeed! If the rich to whom Bob might "cater" create plentiful job opportunities, now that wouldn't be so bad in our present economy, would it?

How is "Prince of Denmark" bias? It is a reference to Hamlet; you know "To be or not to be, that is the question."

He just referring to the fact that Ehrlich hasn't made up his mind yet about running for governor. Seems like a perfectly fair blog post to me.

gary: thank you. JH

Dear Jay,

Your politics is showing!!

Your liberal views are alive and well I see.

As a reporter I believe you should be reporting the news instead of giving us your "yellow dog democratic" point of view.

Since you have what appears to be made an attempt at comedy - don't give up your day job...

I guess you are too young to remember when reporters reported the news. It sounds like you want to make the news instead of reporting on it.

Why don't you report on how this state's government continues to extort money from its citizens.

Can you say - Taxation Without representation".

Tough crowd today Jay. I do appreciate your pointing out that Ehrlich's new vision for Maryland seems to be the Virginia model that huh didn't actually pass in Virgina. We need more than rhetoric this time around. We need solutions and Ehrlich doesn't have any.

Concerned Citizen and Jay (the commenter, not Hancock)once again prove the theory that conservatives can't do comedy.

I never thought I would defend Jay Hancock, but as this is a blog it is his opinion and he is aloud to show it. Blogs are places where opinions are meant to shine. the problem is when he does report the news in the business section he does show his biases from time to time..

FROM THE BBJ:

Ehrlich on Tuesday said a race against Mikulski was “in the mix” during a Pikesville Chamber of Commerce meeting attended by a few dozen people.

This guy has no idea what he wants to do....

As a small business owner myself for the last 5+ years there are two things that could come out of Annapolis that would certainly help to create jobs and the first one wouldn't even cost anything:

1. Reduce, eliminate, and/or streamline small business regulation. Did you know that you can be thrown in jail for up to 30 days for cutting someone's hair without a cosmetology license? Did you know you can be thrown in jail for up to 6 months for hanging drywall without an MHIC license? Did you know there's a guy in Ocean City who makes over 300k per summer PROFIT off of 6 ice cream trucks because the regulatory barrier to entry FOR OWNING AN ICE CREAM TRUCK is so high it reduces his competition and he can charge prices and pay drivers accordingly? Did you know MD has over 60 separate pamphlets all devoted to various excise taxes on various businesses, each with its own rules and nuances?

2. Reduce the PAYROLL TAX, if you want to be revenue neutral, offset it with an increase on the traditional profits tax. There is a huge difference between a payroll tax and a traditional profits tax. One taxes GROSS payroll and thus increases can actually put a company in the red. The other is what the owner keeps. The payroll tax directly increases the cost of labor and therefore reduces the amount of labor businesses consume thereby increasing unemployment. State unemployment insurance and state worker's comp insurance mandates are the two state payroll taxes. The rest of it is at the federal level.

Now why wouldn't those in power favor reducing and eliminating business regulation??? Because barriers to entry and barriers to growth are good for those who have already entered and already grown. We all pay for it in the form of higher prices, a tighter labor market, and less choice.

Ironically, Denmark's response to the current economic situation was to make a farily significant reduction in upper and upper-middle tax rates to encourage growth.

Bobby is not declaring because he does not want to give up his cushy radio day job where he gets to rant while offering no solutions. He had 4 years to resolve issues he now talks about and he did not. He is a poser whose political career has been marked by utter mediocrity.

Maybe Bob, Jr. should get advice from the wealthy donors that put him through Gilman, Princeton, & Wake Forest. He has always done their bidding.

Now that the Bush Supreme Court has declared corporations to be persons shouldn't they be taxed as individual taxpayers? If so, all corporate taxes should be repealed. You can bet that as soon as the repeal is enacted Corporate America will create millions of jobs - overseas, of course.

Interesting dialog. It starts with name calling and follows with Ehrlich’s rapid response team. But let’s not ignore the facts. Ehlrich left the state ranked #22 in the nation in business climate. After the unnecessary special session – which increased spending and taxes and did nothing to cut government waste, Maryland dropped to #45 [see the independent Tax Foundation report: 2006 =http://www.taxfoundation.org/press/show/1369.html; 2010 = http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/bp59_es.pdf]. Twenty percent sales tax increases do that. So does 18+% increases in corporate income tax and surtaxes to drive the wealthy out of the state. Hell, I know one CPA whose clients changed residency after the millionaire’s penalty at the cost of $2 million to the state. That’s one CPA!Nice work.And our utility costs? Oh, that’s right – they went up. Not despite O’Malley but arguably because of O’Malley. Remember the Florida Power & Light deal? When Constellation realized they were too weighted in the commodities business and needed to balance the company… and FPL wanted to get a bit into the commodities business. Perfect match and O’Malley interfered; constellation tanked. Now the company is being carved and dumped off here & there. From the party that defends attorneys that are against child protection (Vallario), why would anyone vote for a democrat? Oh, I know – because they don’t think. At least some democrats do work (see Brochin who actually represents his district).Interesting stuff going in on South Carolina. They are repealing corporate income taxes. Fuji just put the nail in the coffin for Kodak by expanding their US operations in SC. BMW has major operations there as well. Tack on tourism and the realistic view of unions (unions are destructive – there’s enough employment law to protect employee interests) and you have a vibrant community (go ahead start knocking the LuvGuv and his Argentine connection – but that has nothing to do with SC being up and coming while Maryland relies solely on government and non-profit operations).But somehow organized crime – aka unions, have already pledged support to Mr. Tax and Spend himself. Amazing.

Yes, it does come down to the legislature. A year or two from now, Maryland is going to need every last cent from every possible means of taxing its citizens and businesses. The reason: the implementation and litigation costs resulting from the zealous crop of sex offender bills about to pass through the legislature. The retroactive clauses alone will affect 5,000 or more ex-offenders and their families, and you betcha almost all of the are going to sue. And most will win, given the clear unconstitutionality of ex-post-facto laws.