Maryland Daily Record Maryland's trusted source for business and legal news
The Republican candidate for governor is laying the blame for Beretta USA Corp.’s decision to move 160 manufacturing jobs at the feet of Gov. Martin J. O’Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown.
“I am saddened to learn that the hard working women and men I met at Beretta’s factory in Accokeek in May will now lose their jobs as a direct result of the O’Malley-Brown administration’s high taxes and punitive regulations,” Hogan said in a statement Tuesday night.
The United States headquarters for 500 year old Italian gun manufacturer has been located in Prince George’s County since 1977. The company announced Tuesday that it would cease manufacturing in Maryland and relocate those jobs to a new plant it is building in Gallatin, Tennessee.
The company cited stricter gun laws passed by the General Assembly in 2013 as the primary reason and company officials said they did not want to reward the state for it’s “anti-gun attitude.”
Hogan, who is running against Brown in the 2014 gubernatorial election, decried the loss of jobs as another example of what he says is the O’Malley-Brown administration’s attitude toward businesses in the state.
“The dedicated workers at Beretta’s Accokeek factory proudly manufactured the primary sidearm carried by our nation’s servicemen and women around the world,” Hogan said. “The loss of these several hundred jobs will tear through the local community, as millions of dollars in economic activity and tax revenue evaporate and numerous small businesses that supported this factory and its employees also suffer.”
Hogan said the administration is responsible for 26 percent decline in manufacturing jobs in the state.
The National Association of Manufacturing, using data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, ranks Maryland 50th in the percentage of all jobs in the state that are manufacturing.
Related:
Beretta is making a big move, seems to me Hogan could pay them a visit, let them know he can change those laws, he can make Maryland a workable state for them again. It is not to late to save this company for the Maryland employees that will loose their jobs. O’Malley’s gun laws got pushed threw with an illegal vote. This is no joke, Delegate Smeigel had this video (http://youtu.be/Xge789Mo-c0) taken and posted. The original vote did not pass the bill.