Baltimore loses share of federal spending
In the aftermath of the Cold War and the last recession, the federal government has increased spending in Washington's Maryland suburbs while reducing spending in the Baltimore area, researchers at the University of Baltimore said yesterday.</br></br>The Washington area's focus on service industries has given it an advantage over the Baltimore area's manufacturing-intensive economy in the competition for increasingly scarce Department of Defense contracts, because the Pentagon's shopping priorities have shifted from weapons systems to services, researcher Richard P. Clinch said.</br></br>In addition, the presence of the federal government appears to have buoyed the Washington area economy in relation to its rival to the north. Washington's Maryland suburbs have experienced a much sharper increase in nonmilitary procurement than the Baltimore area has.</br></br>Clinch directed a study, sponsored by eight corporations, of the ability of Maryland's economy to adjust to structural changes and shifts in federal spending.</br></br>Overall U.S. government purchases of goods and services in the Baltimore area declined by 15.6 percent from 1990, their peak year, to 1993, the study found. But such purchases rose by 25.8 percent in the Maryland suburbs of Washington over the same period, according to the study, which did not take inflation into account.