One of the top questions in this year’s mayoral race is how to lower the city’s residential property tax rate, the highest in Maryland at $2.268 per $100 of assessed value.

All of the candidates have a plan.

And those plans are repeatedly bashed on the campaign trail by the candidates in a round robin game that resembles something out of the grade-school playground.

It’s enough to make the average voter want to cringe in confusion. Most say they want the tax rate lowered so they can afford to remain in Baltimore, but it’s hard to figure out which plan is best without wiping out basic services.

Enter the Maryland Public Policy Institute.

On Sept. 7, the nonprofit group is holding a free public forum on lowering the property tax rate from 1:30 to 3: 30 p.m. at the tony Center Club at 100 Light St.

All candidates will be there to explain their plan and debate the issue. Except for one: Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

And her upcoming absence has created quite a stir.

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Two big personalities on Maryland’s business landscape — William Donald Schaefer and Edwin F. Hale Sr. — dominated the news this week, and that’s reflected in the top 5 staff-written stories by The Daily Record’s business reporting team.

1. William Donald Schaefer: 1921 – 2011 – by Melody Simmons and C. Fraser Smith
William Donald Schaefer, the mercurial, demanding leader who reshaped Baltimore in four terms as mayor before serving two terms each as governor and comptroller of Maryland, died Monday at the age of 89.

2. First Mariner Chairman Hale to step down – by Rachel Bernstein
1st Mariner Bank founder Edwin F. Hale Sr., will step down as chairman and CEO as part of a New York investment company’s plan to take a stake in the struggling Baltimore banking company.

3. After 61 years, iconic Werner’s restaurant closes its doors – by Rachel Bernstein
The future tenant of the old Werner’s spot will need to appeal to downtown Baltimore’s business district without becoming another upscale restaurant out of reach for the luncheonette’s former regulars.

4. First Mariner founder Edwin Hale ready to look for new challenges – by Rachel Bernstein
First Mariner Bancorp CEO Edwin F. Hale Sr. isn’t happy that he will be leaving the company he founded, but he said Wednesday he plans to keep his hand in development and Baltimore’s business community.

5. Local group acquiring Pikesville retirement community – by Rachel Bernstein
A local group of physicians, clergy and investors is buying a continuing care retirement community to bring what it says will be a more personal and local touch than that of its out-of-state owners.

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Much has been written about William Donald Schaefer since his death Monday. Here are some stories and blog posts on Baltimore’s former mayor and Maryland’s former governor and comptroller that, if you haven’t already seen, would be worth your time.

Esquire Magazine has posted Richard Ben Cramer’s classic profile of then Mayor Schaefer, published in October 1984. The magazine’s editors say there were inspired to post the story online — “in its entirety for the first time” — after getting requests in the Twitterverse from various big-name political writers. Cramer’s story is filled with vivid set pieces and insightful analysis of what drove the man. Among them: “You don’t need a charming, wavy-haired talker for a mayor. You need the toughest, canniest, most obsessive sonofabitch in town. You need someone who’s going to make it his life.”

Josh Kurtz, a longtime chronicler of Maryland politics, offers his own unique perspective at Center Maryland on Schaefer’s legacy. Kurtz, who for years covered the State House for The Gazette newspapers in the D.C. suburbs, pays tribute to Schaefer’s career in public service. He also writes of the shifting spheres of influence in Annapolis, and how those shifts have occurred over time at Baltimore’s expense, and how Schaefer and his loyalists handled the changing balance of power.

The Baltimore Business Journal has reaction from local business leaders on Schaefer’s influence in shaping the city. H&S Bakery’s John Paterakis shares a revealing anecdote on the early machinations behind what would become Harbor East.

Anyone who’s been asked by a demanding boss to “do it now!” can appreciate the recollections of Robert L. Di Stefano, a retired Baltimore police major who writes in a letter to the Sun of his days as a commanding officer under Schaefer. Sun sports columnist Peter Schmuck, meanwhile, assesses Schaefer’s impact on Baltimore as a sports town, and Jay Hancock writes of Schaefer’s ongoing dialogue with Maryland businesses, unique as it was.

Former Sun reporter and editor David Ettlin offers his own remembrance of Schaefer at his blog, The Real Muck. It includes a very funny run-in with the then mayor over an apparent City Hall leak of a story.

Doug Birch, who covered Schaefer in City Hall and Annapolis, bids him a fond farewell in the Baltimore Brew. “My tormentor, my nemesis, my exasperating tutor” the post is titled.

The New York Times obituary on Schaefer concludes with this passage:

When he lost his re-election bid [for comptroller] in 2006, Mr. Schaefer was asked how he would like to be remembered. “There are two words,” he said. “ ‘He cared.’ People mock me and make fun of it. But it’s the truth.”

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Unlike the last time reporters saw her in public, former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon arrived with no entourage for an interview at The Daily Record on Wednesday morning.

The city’s first elected female mayor instead requested directions to the paper’s offices on East Saratoga Street and drove herself. Once inside, settled at a large conference table, she was open to answering most questions about her past, present and future.

“I am keeping a blog,” said Dixon, of a mostly weekly post about life today. That admission opened up an hour-long dialogue that ranged from City Hall to the courtroom to Our Daily Bread.

Dixon took some shots at her successors and a political nemesis –- Frank M. Conaway Sr., the city clerk of courts who announced in early October that he is running for her old job. In the past, the two have feuded openly –- Dixon refusing to allow Conaway to swear her in as mayor and Conaway challenging her legitimacy as a result of that snub.

“The mayor’s race is going to be crowded, and it’s sad because some of the candidates who are getting in should not get into the race,” she said, offering a broad perspective.

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It seems that every election cycle a high-profile former business executive announces plans to run for public office. Government needs to be run like a business, they say, with greater accountability and more sophisticated performance-based measurement.

Sometimes that message resonates. It’s worked wonders for Michael Bloomberg in New York City. I covered former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner a little bit in the early aughts, and the former venture capitalist from Northern Virginia proved fairly effective at winning over red portions of the Old Dominion with his message of bipartisanship and making state government more modern and efficient. The Democrat was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008.

This week, however, three business executives with big names got beat like a drum at the polls — and spent a lot of their own money for the pleasure.

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Let the mud (or oil?) slinging begin. If you haven’t heard it by now, click here to listen to a Gov. Martin O’Malley campaign ad bashing his Republican competitor, former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, for being pro oil.

Seizing upon the emotion surrounding the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the ad repeatedly uses clips of Ehrlich saying “drill baby, drill” and intersperses those with factoids about the spill.

The commercial also asks why Ehrlich, an attorney with firm Womble Carlyle, supports oil companies. The quote inserted is Ehrlich’s voice saying, “Life’s good. We made money — a lot of money.”

According to WBAL, the quote in the ad is taken from an interview Ehrlich did earlier this year in which he talks only about his work since leaving office in January 2007. To see Ehrlich’s video response to the ad, in which he calls the commercial irresponsible and ludicrous, click here.

It would seem that O’Malley might be nervous about keeping his job this fall. He’s striking out with a negative campaign ad — and not just any ad. A pretty out-there one (when I first heard it on the radio, I started laughing).

What do you think?

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This gubernatorial campaign season’s going to be a doozie — and it looks like one of the battle grounds will be Maryland’s ability to attract film and television productions.

On Wednesday, Republican candidate and former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced he would invest $7 million in a key state tax credit to help bring back to Maryland the major movie and TV projects that have provided hundreds of jobs. He’s talking about the state’s Film Incentive Fund that in the last four years has been whittled down to about $1 million. In 2005, the fund was allotted $6 million.

The fund allows the state to woo producers by offering them tax credits and other incentives to film here. With less money, it’s harder to attract productions. I recently wrote about the fund’s impact when Maryland failed to snag Hollywood’s first lacrosse movie.

Like a good politician, Ehrlich used the press conference as a chance to cast blame on his competitor, Gov. Martin O’Malley. Apparently it’s all his fault that the state’s unemployment rate has doubled since 2006 (Ehrlich’s last year as governor). I thought the national recession had a lot to do with it but then again, what do I know? I’m just a business reporter.

Sarcasm aside, here’s what Ehrlich had to say at the press event, held at Hunt Valley’s Renegade production studios:

“Cutting this tax credit is no different than cutting jobs,” he said. “We all benefit from the jobs production companies bring to Maryland, and the money they spend on salaries, hotel rooms, restaurant meals, transportation, security, even dry cleaning and entertainment. It’s an expenditure that produces a huge return on a small investment, and we ought to return Maryland to the forefront of TV and film production. When I’m governor, we will.”

When it comes to the arts — even if it benefits businesses — campaign promises are especially hard to keep. If elected, do you think Ehrlich can do this?

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For almost a year now, I’ve had a reusable bag for groceries tucked in behind the front seat of my car. I care about the environment, I recycle in mass volumes, and I don’t litter. So how many times have I used that bag in my car before this week?

Zero.

I just kept forgetting. (I do save most of the plastic grocery bags I get in stores and reuse them for something else though, so don’t get too appalled.)

But then a funny thing happened this week. On Monday I wrote a story about an upcoming hearing on legislation in Baltimore that proposes putting a 25-cent charge on plastic and paper bags at checkout.

Monday night, I went to CVS and got a medium-sized bag of pretzels and a box for mailing a few items. The woman at checkout asked me if I wanted a bag (I am usually not asked this) and without thinking, I was about to say yes and then I stopped. The pretzels could fit in my purse and it wasn’t an inconvenience to carry the box to my car outside.

I told her no thanks and went on my merry way. On Tuesday, I wrote a follow up story about the city council president’s opposition to the legislation. That evening, I stopped by the grocery and for the first time in almost a year, I finally remembered to bring my reusable bag with me. Read the rest of this entry »

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Wednesday’s push by Gov. Martin O’Malley and legislators to use eminent domain to keep the Preakness Stakes in Maryland isn’t the first time seizure has been tried to keep a Maryland tradition here. And it’s not even the first time eminent domain has been floated as a tool to save Preakness.

In 2005, there was much speculation that Magna Entertainment Corp. (the now-bankrupt owner of Laurel and Pimlico tracks and Preakness) would move the race out of state if the General Assembly did not pass legislation authorizing slots at Maryland’s racetracks

A few days after that race, the Government Law Center of Albany Law School published a report detailing how Maryland could use eminent domain to keep the Preakness franchise here. Citing Baltimore’s failed attempt to keep the Colts franchise and a similar attempt by Oakland, Calif., with the Raiders, the report noted eminent domain has been largely unsuccessful as a tool to hold franchises hostage.

However, if Maryland is willing to pay Magna the appropriate price for Preakness, “it might be possible for the legislature to authorize and action allowing the state or the city of Baltimore to obtain the rights to the Preakness pursuant to its eminent domain powers,” the report states.

But the bankruptcy court setting may act as a wild card, Alan Foreman, general counsel to the Maryland Thoroughbred Horseman’s Association, pointed out. Read the rest of this entry »

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So much for my “procrastinators rewarded” comments from Tuesday’s blog post.

After the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill Monday that would delay the digital television transition by nearly four months, House Republicans said, “not so fast” — or “slow,” as the situation here plays out.

The transition is scheduled for Feb. 17; Senate and House bills proposed moving back the date to June 12. The 258-168 House vote Wednesday failed to clear the two-thirds majority needed to pass, with 155 Republicans voting against.

The Associated Press says the defeat is a setback for President Barack Obama’s administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill who fear too many Americans are not ready for the switchover.

According to the Nielsen Co., more than 6.5 million U.S. households rely on analog television sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals. Those that don’t get a converter box for the switch will not be able to receive a signal after Feb. 17.

Approximately 19 million government-issued coupons have been redeemed — a redemption rate of about 50 percent, according to reports this week.

After the House vote, the AP quoted Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, as saying the proposed delay was “a solution looking for problem that exists mostly in the mind of the Obama administration.”

Do you think he’s right?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer

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