The House version of the tax credit disclosure bill, HB 983, has been approved by the Ways & Means Committee and will be on the House floor today. The House will likely pass the bill by Monday.

This is the bill that requires extensive disclosure of tax breaks, health insurance, and wage levels for businesses. As amended, the requires:

• The State Department of Assessments and Taxation to compile and publish annually a report of every property tax exemption or credit worth more than $100,000 to a business that exists to stimulate economic development, and to list in the report the name and address of the property owner and the amount of taxes not collected as a result of the exemption or credit.
• The Department of Business and Economic Development to compile and publish a report of every tax exemption, credit, grant loan or loan guarantee, matching funds or enterprise or empowerment zone benefit (subsidies) that the Department administers worth more than $100,000 to a business that exists to stimulate economic development, and to list in the report the name of the subsidy recipient and the amount of the subsidy. Additionally, DBED must report for each of the subsidies that they administer the name and address of the recipient, the number of positions at each project site broken down by 5 wage levels, health insurance information for each project site, a comparison of employment in the state before and after the subsidy, and a signed certification from the recipient attesting to its accuracy.

The Maryland Chamber of Commerce strongly opposes this bill because it is unwieldy, expensive, and would produce little meaningful data. The bill requires the disclosure of data that is proprietary and confidential under current state and federal law — data such as inventory and sales records, net income, and wage and benefit levels.

Retailers should note that the inventory tax exemption is still part of this bill, and every merchant with over $4 million (in most counties or $2 million in Baltimore City) in inventory would be subject to disclosure of their inventory amounts.

If your State Senator sits on the Budget and Taxation Committee, urge them to oppose this bill. To date there has been no action on the Senate crossfile, SB 614.