Most of us have concerns about Maryland’s tax policy insofar as it affects jobs and businesses, but there are other sneaky ways the state impacts our local communities. You may recall the controversy regarding new stormwater regulations and whether existing developments would be grandfathered in or not – it threatened to put a lot of projects on hold as they returned to the drawing board for reworking.
We in our local area have an opportunity for input on new plans as the Maryland Department of Planning is touring the state on its “PlanMaryland” tour, with Salisbury the first stop Thursday. Think of it as their excuse to promote so-called “smart growth;” one of the goals is to, “do a better job of steering development toward areas that already have roads, schools and other public infrastructure.” Sure, that sounds admirable but we know that the real goal eventually is to drive all of us into European-style housing where we’re all crammed together. Never mind the Eastern Shore is nothing like downtown Baltimore (aside from the crime rate in Salisbury.)
They’ve played this game before around here, and generally it’s an excuse for environmentalist wackos to get together and commiserate with a group from the state who’s firmly in their pocket. But we can stand up to them and tell the state in no uncertain terms that they need to adopt more business-friendly policies all around.
Sounds like a job for the local AFP activists – I have other plans so I can’t make this event – thus I put out the bat-signal and encourage right-thinking individuals to attend.
great post as usual!