captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> business news from the capital region. this is "washgton business report" withth abc7 national correspondent rebecca cooper. >> thank you fojoining us for a look at business and finance issues here e in the washington region. today, peter morici and josh boak.. and closer to he, why is bad idea to mix twitter and jack daniel's when you wor for the taxpayers. we will also talk to one young entrepreneur who is growing his business. first, we start with the chieff executive of montgomery coty.

ike legtt habeen known as a rereal leader, not a bureaucrat. the washington post called him politicacally nimble and non- confrontational. montmery counthas a higher tax rate than more regugulatis compared to doing business in places le northern virginia. coununty services are taking big hits with a shrinking budget. how will ike leggett n navigate tougwaters ahead? ike legge thank yoyou for ining us. you haveve a l of tough issues facing new. you are going to tackle them ad-on by meetingith taxpayers. you have scheduled five bududget forums where you have invited county residents to attend. >> when i started five ars ago, i realized citizens do not ve amuch oan opportunity

to convey their concerns before thbudget is crafted. 98% of the budget is probably past consistent with what i recommmmend. if you want to have input,t, you should make it before i make a recommendation. we got a lot of criticism on various things that we are doing. weo this in a way that i think is very respectful throughout the county. we conduct five of them. from the real grass roots to go and global you also have an itiatitive cing up invovolvingg india. >> you were able to create some business opportunities for 2012. >> we were able tsign three als for businesses in montgomery county to reestablish a move forward with some of the

emerging businesses in our county. it is a growing market. the b for us in mogomery coununty is biotechnology which is a strong attraction. it is a natural sell. the fda lococation in monontgomery county as well as nih. mamany foreign companies like to haveor their entrees. >> they get cticized in tough budget times. what were you able to accomplish by going to india? >> when you come back with about $47 million in deals with the potential for more, i think we paid for that trip. we took a trip to sth korea a couple of yearsgo and were able to land some deals for mccumber county. >> you says in montgomery county

already has a biotech reputation. you have teamed up with o other to fora partnership. what is that all about t and how can businesses bpartt of it? > three component. with a government, the private sector and universities -- the government, the private sector, and universities. johns hopkins college park, right intthe montgomery county. >> doeses it offer pital? does it offer information resource >> it offers capapital entree and partnership with firms that want to d do business in the cnty and the opportunity to do research and development witith somof the institutions that t are involved. we d do it under one units..

that is the objective. i think we e have a pretty good chance of success. >> there has been a lot written lately comparing montgomery county to fairfax county. in t washingtonn pt, montntgomery county has lost its status as a fairfax's twin, saying virginia is adding jobs at a faster ratate and montgomery county is not keeping pacace. >> i think thatt was a little overstated. fairfax as done a t terrific job. it is likike having a magic johnsoand chael jordan on your basketball team. they are doioing fine. >> but if you have the potential to win a championship, and i s say this as a a newontgomery county residents. i anot proud mtgomerery

county resident. -- i am now a proud montgomery county resent. >> if you look at our taxes they are very comparative comparative do what you find in n northern virginia. >> jim dinegar acknowledged that taxes are a problem for businesses. >> the dierence is relatively small when you look at them in totality. in terms of this game, this is america. if you look at it over a longer period of time, i thinknk you will find a a compaparison betweween these two to restrictions. >> you are saying that you will

veto a bill that has been inoduceded to the council that says it big box retailelers wilill have to negotiate with h community organizers in orr to establish emselves. >> yes. hopefully they will change the legislation and make it much more compatible to what h happens in other jurisdictions. this ishe first te in the nation to do this. it has been an agreement in principl about the aspect of legislatation hanging over our head. if it comes anywhere near their current form, i will veto it. >>a new development plan for white flint. a lot of concern that wiljust add traffic andd congestion. how can busesses prosper in that area? >> and above-ground transit

system. we just announced an agrment to develop the white flint oak area as well. we will have a transit-oriented development. >> your porch for a teenage curfew died this past week. businesseses say they are concerned -- your push for a teen curfew died this past week. >> i think the curfew is problem. it was a disappointment that the coty council did not have the leadership to vote it up or down. that was very didisappointing. many businesses and many people want some type of lelegislation to deal with this. >> ike leggett ththank y you for joining us.

>> thank you. >> we need to take a break. next, an entrepreneur who is turning to other people jump into a growing business.

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] there's technology that makes the air cleaner but too many plants don't use it. we can't wait. epa must update power plant standards to ptotect our kids. [ baby coughing ] >> welcome back. if you are wondering one person's trasash can become another's trereasure, the small business spotlight should answer that questio collin wheeler gduated from college and got a job but h he didd not keep a long. he q quickly camame up with an idea that turned inta radly growing business -- 123junk.

thank you for j joining us. we discovered you through the "washington business journal." whwhat got into you? > love that saying. i threw out thehe shirt and tie and became a junk man. i wasn the moving business, gogoing into people's homes and determining what had to move. people w would always say "what about th items we do not want to take?" >> you weralso in marketing. >> i was in sales. i was the guy going in ting to sell people on the move. >> i like the dcription in the "washihingtobusiness journal." use througit all away and got a truck. -- you through it all away and got a truck.

>> we just sawhe demand. people wanted theheir ones valuable items to go somewhere and live on through somomeone el. what my competitors fail to recognize is a a good way to ensure those went on to live somewhere else versus going to a landfill >> you made $89,000 or first year as a small business, but now you are up to seven employee you say ththat people actuall want tmake sure that these things that they are throwing away arere giveno someone else. i would think thahat would cae people to say i am going to sell it on ebayr craigslist. >> it is harder than youou might ththink to get rid of stuff especially bulky ite. we go into the house and do the removing for our clients said

they do not have to lift a fier hurt themselves or hurt their homes. >> is it hard in these tough times? people are not repcing items as mucuch as they did p pre- recession. >> not nececessarily. people are downsing. people are always going to go into retirement and thahat nature. i think we are going to have some business for some time. >> thank you for joining us. up next, what not to do inhe workplace when it c comes to twitter and takiking shots of ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation every solution

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>> welcomeack. if answers are what you are looking for, ththis week is not for you. next year's taxes are up in the air. no one is driving the bus at the consumer finance protection agency, but we know one thing. parently not a good idea to makes jack daniel's and twitteter when you are on the job working for taxpayayers. peter mororici, economics professor at theniversity of maryland, d josh boak for "politico." we have to talk about ja dael's. are going to start with the biggest news making headlines righ now. the problemsms with ththe euro. peter, what are the bigiggest problems this week? > essentially the eueuropeans had to come an agreement how to limit their budget

deficits. it does t give europe what theyey need to have common currency which is a governmement that c can do the things that washington does. if the individual countries cannot run a deficit, you have to have been national governments during times of recession at can. there was no sign -- this takes that away. they have a place without fiscal popolicy. >> some banks in the u.s., , too bito fail. the concerns ththat no tter how trouble they a, european gogovernmentnts are too big to fail. $100 billion in u.s. funds committe you wrote this week ere is a grgrowing movement to remake on the promise. >> the economic contagion we were afraid about is spreading to the united states and is a political contagion.

thedministration in 2009 committed billions of dollars to the imf. for the imf. and the eueuropean deal is going to go through th imf at some capacity. >> the white house is saying to you, look, we are not asking for new money. we have already committed ts money. you cannot back out of it now. >> the imf is going to take back your rose as collatel just as theed did with the swaps. if the eurozone collapses, ter they worth? they are like confederate money all l the sudden. we will not have access to ththose. we are making the europeans loan the way we would a grocery store or a gas stationnd not a

sovereign government. there is really no united europe. >> are we going to get a deal worked out by christmas? >> no one can agree on how to pay for it. it is like you are at a restaurant with a group of friends and no one knows how to pay for the bill when the check comes. democrats s have been pushing the millionaire surcharge. ultimately, some kind of agreement is going to have to come because the stakes arere too high. let me disagree with my collgue. if you maintain a tax but by cutting spending somewhere else, you do not give the economy a lift and if you inincrease taxes on millionaires, you gainn a little bit bececause it millionaires will save a little bit less or more money will t end. this is about giving barack obama a campaign issue.

this is more political than econonomic. >> w who is making the political mistake? >> i think they are making the sameme mistatake of economic reasoning. probably the republicans because if the payroll tax lapses, it will not be the reason that the economy tanks. ifhe economy goes down, it is because of europe. they will get stuck with it by barack obama. >> a big failure for the administration consumer protection agency failed to get and administrator. they are not going to be able to get a recess appoiointment. what does that mean forr taxpayers and business leadersrs? >> the cfpb right now is a watchdog with dentures. if a single credit card form contains what they considered an

abusive practice, they can find em $1 million a day going back to the passage of dodd-frank. that is more than $400 million in fines. the fact that the fines can be so large makes them abusive and on reasonae punishment. there is not a criminal situation but that is one good reason for the republicans t take a stand that they did it. for two y years, democrats controlled things in town. they passed the health care bill without t reconciliation. >> fair enough. i have to talk abobout reasonable punishment. is it unfair that thiseek the congressional sffers wereired for things they rodwrote on their personal twitter account?t? they were bragging about how muchhe jack daniel'l's they were

consuming while working the capitol. and ey were criticizing thehe congressmen tt they worked for. should private twitter accounts the groundnds for firing? >> of course it is grounds for firing. it i blatant insubordination. >> they got anthonweiner. ii think this is pretty fair. they did the one thing youou are not supposed to do -- make the congressman look bad. >> "i hope you do not mind i i am watching youtube clips of nirvana atat my government job." i just can wait what job he gets next. thank you both for joining us and have a happy hiday season. coming up, our number of the week good news if you are looking for a job. will explain after the break.

>> our number of the week, 5.7 at the metropolitan washington area's s and unemployment rate for october. during october the district averaged 10.4%. marilyn's was at 6.8%.. washington business journal says the highest unemployment rate was s in san bernadino california wh 13.3%. thlowest minneapolis. that is all for us this week. thank you fofor joining us you can connect with h us on facebook and twitter.

and d of course you can also watch the streaming version of our show at wjla.cocom. we thank you f for joiningng us this week, and we hope to see you right back here again this week for "washington business reportrt."

[ aby coughing ] [ coughing continues ] [ female announcer ] more pollution from power plants means more childhood asthma attacks. [ labored breathing ] there's technology that makes the r cleaner but too many plants don't use it. we can't wait. epa must update power plant standards to protect our kids. [ baby coughing ]