WASHINGTON — Maryland got great news this week: Marriott is staying in the Bethesda area, where it has been for 60 years.
Marriott had been threatening to move out of the state and build its new $600 million headquarters elsewhere.
“We did not want to see them leave the state, and they were seriously considering it,” said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. Both Virginia and D.C. had been working hard to win over Marriott.
But a side deal that sweetened the pot to get the Fortune 500-company to stay in Maryland has some concerned. An incentives package offered to Marriott includes $22 million in subsidies from Montgomery County and another $22 million from the state of Maryland.
Hogan said the incentives package is necessary.
“If we don’t figure a way to do it, we’re going to lose a lot of companies,” he said. “In the past eight years, I believe Maryland lost 20 of its 24 Fortune 500 companies. I don’t want to see that happen. We have four left.”
Hogan said he understands the concern over offering subsidies, taxpayer dollars, to private companies and corporations.
“I wish we could lower taxes to make Maryland more attractive so we didn’t have to offer these kinds of incentives,” he said. But other states are offering deals to either entice companies to stay in their state or to get them to come to their state, he said.
He said Maryland has no choice but to offer deals in order to compete.
Maryland State Comptroller Peter Franchot said this is not the first time an incentives package has been offered to keep a company in Maryland. Both Northrop Grumman and McCormick were offered subsidies to stay.
“McCormick was absolutely on the way out, and they were stopped at the door,” Franchot said.
Governor Hogan agreed that McCormick was basically on its way to Pennsylvania. But, he said to imagine a 100-year-old company that is synonymous with Maryland and Baltimore: “They’re going to make Old Bay in Pennsylvania?” Hogan said McCormick has remained in Maryland and is expanding.
Franchot said the side deals might look a little controversial, but he hopes “everybody calms down and pays the appropriate subsidy so we can keep these companies.”
Both the Montgomery County Council and the state legislature have to approve the incentives package.
Years ago, the idea of spending tax payer dollars on a football stadium was also very unpopular, Franchot said. At the time, he was a member of the state legislature. He said he had people picketing outside of his home with signs that read, “Schools not Stadiums.” The stadium was the Ravens stadium.
Franchot said he voted for the stadium and many of the protesters have since come and asked him for tickets to the Ravens games. The Ravens Stadium has been a big economic success for Maryland, he said.
