Comptroller S Office

Margaret Pardoe is ready to go.On Oct. 1 the 20-year veteran of the comptroller's office will leave the state payroll two years earlier than she had planned to devote more time to tending her garden, visiting her son in Georgia and playing with her nine grandchildren -- "not necessarily in that order."Pardoe is taking advantage of an early retirement program that is expected to entice about 2,600 state workers to sign up by the deadline Saturday.The General Assembly authorized the early retirement incentives this year as part of the Glendening administration's plan to shave about 1,800 positions from the state work force.

In 1987, Maryland launched its "one and only" tax amnesty holiday for those who hadn't paid their state taxes. Shockingly, in 2001 it happened again, and yesterday Gov. Martin O'Malley and others were in Dundalk touting Maryland's third such effort in 22 years. What do all three events have in common? Here's a clue: It's all in the timing. At the time of each, Maryland was in the throes of an economic downturn, and elected officials desperately needed the cash to help balance a state budget awash in red ink. This year's effort may prove to be the most desperate yet. Unlike in 2001, the General Assembly approved the amnesty last spring without giving the state comptroller's office any money to manage, advertise or market it. And that's one reason why even the legislature's own analysts are assuming it will raise about $10 million compared with nearly four times that amount eight years ago. Tax amnesty is not necessarily a bad policy, at least not in moderation.

The state comptroller's office has released its semiannual listing of unclaimed property with the names of 13,000 individuals and businesses.The list appears today .Names on the list are reported by financial institutions and corporations, which are required to report unclaimed funds to the comptroller's office by Oct. 31.Insurance companies with unclaimed benefits must report them by April 30 each year.The unclaimed funds, amounting to millions of dollars, include bank accounts with no deposit or withdrawal activity in the past five years; unclaimed wages; contents of safe deposit boxes; unclaimed security deposits; and stocks and bonds.

State officials are considering a $366 million budget fix that could spare difficult spending cuts by transferring money in an unused reserve fund kept by the Maryland comptroller's office. The fund is maintained for accounting purposes and could go a long way to reducing a $1.9 billion shortfall that Gov. Martin O'Malley and state lawmakers must close to balance the next annual budget. O'Malley, a Democrat, is considering various ways to pare the budget he will submit to the General Assembly that convenes next week.

A New York man was arrested yesterday on Interstate 95 near Route 175 in Howard County and charged in the smuggling of illegal cigarettes. Alnuaimat Ahmad, 34, of the Bronx, N.Y., was arrested by enforcement agents for the state comptroller's office. He was accused of hauling 12,480 packs of cigarettes without Maryland tax stamps. The cigarettes, which authorities said were found in a Dodge Caravan, are valued at $40,210 and represent a tax loss of $8,236 to Maryland. Michael D. Golden, spokesman for the comptroller's office, said the arrest came as a result of surveillance by enforcement officials.

A two-month investigation led to the arrest over the weekend of a New York man and to the seizure of $42,411 worth of untaxed cigarettes, according to the Maryland comptroller's office. Ahmed Oman Mohammed, 32, was arrested by enforcement agents for the comptroller's office after his van - which authorities said contained 12,900 packs of untaxed cigarettes - was stopped early Saturday on Route 301 and Old Marlboro Pike in Prince George's County. Mohammed was charged with transportation of untaxed cigarettes, a felony that carries a sentence of up to two years in prison and a fine of $50 per carton.

Using computerized sleuthing, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer has identified scores of liquor retailers in Baltimore City and three counties that owe the state a combined $27 million in sales taxes, interest and penalties, with more collections expected as the program goes statewide in the months ahead. In what national observers say might be a first-of-its-kind approach, the comptroller is using computers to compare wholesale deliveries to liquor stores and bars with the taxes paid by the businesses.

With only two days to go until Thursday's primary election in Baltimore City, reality is beginning to sink in. Barring unforeseen upsets, City Council incumbents are likely to be re-elected in the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Districts. In contrast, tight contests have developed over Democratic nominations in the First, Second and Third districts.Understandably, the mayoral race has captured most of the attention. It has been an odd spectacle. Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's decision to wage a low-profile campaign has made it difficult for the two other major Democrats, Clarence H. "Du" Burns and William Swisher, to raise issues or create enthusiasm.

He rarely received more than a single line from the daily newspapers during all the publicity surrounding Baltimore's September primary election: "Republican candidate Marshall W. Jones Jr. is unopposed."The news stories then usually talked at length about the Democratic race for the citywide office of comptroller, a three-way fight won by City Councilwoman Jacqueline F.McLean, D-2nd.But Marshall Jones, a 59-year-old mortician and dedicated Republican, will not be unopposed in the Nov. 5 general election.

Leave it to the Maryland General Assembly to make a relatively simple situation hopelessly complex. Take the matter of taxes. Come Friday morning, the state's 5 percent sales tax will be applied to numerous items in a way that will confuse plenty of consumers and businesses. No wonder the state comptroller's office feels overwhelmed.On May 1, Marylanders will see the tax on cigarettes rise 20 cents per pack, and the tax on gasoline rise a nickel per gallon. That's the easy part to remember.

Bi-monthly Board of Public Works meetings have been sparring grounds for Gov. Martin O'Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot, but yesterday the sharp-tongued tax collector issued rare kind words for his political rival from Baltimore. "I ... want to salute the governor," Franchot said. The reason for Franchot's decorousness: O'Malley was voting to approve an $87 million software upgrade that the comptroller's office says will yield hundreds of millions of dollars in uncollected taxes.

Authorities raided a corner bar in Southeast Baltimore yesterday and seized three video gaming machines that police said were used for illegal gambling, part of an effort by the Maryland Comptroller's Office to crack down on such devices in taverns and liquor establishments across the state. Baltimore police vice detectives carrying a pry bar and a sledge hammer walked into the Colonial Inn at Eastern Avenue and Washington Street, ordered a handful of patrons to leave and seized the machines and $1,753.

Fortunately for Baltimore's anti-smoking efforts, the concept of legal pre-emption just got pre-empted by the state comptroller. At issue was whether the city - or any other local government, for that matter - can restrict the sale of little cigars or "blunts" to packs of five or more. The goal of Mayor Sheila Dixon's proposal is to help keep them out of the hands of youngsters who tend to buy them individually. Last week, a lawyer in Comptroller Peter Franchot's office wrote a letter warning that the concept didn't pass legal muster.

State prosecutors have subpoenaed records from the Maryland comptroller's office, suggesting that the long-standing investigation into City Hall might involve state taxes. Two people involved in the investigation - Mayor Sheila Dixon's former campaign chairman and the owner of a company that hired her sister - have pleaded guilty to tax charges since the probe began in 2006. Comptroller Peter Franchot's office received the subpoena several weeks ago and has complied with the request, but a spokesman for the office would not provide any details about what the subpoena sought.

Perhaps they should have been tipped off by the fact that the comptroller's office isn't open on the weekends, or that you can't get a tax refund if you don't pay your taxes. Either way, 40 people wanted on criminal warrants trekked to Annapolis on Saturday to claim a phony tax refund and left in handcuffs. In what could be considered the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes of police stings, the Anne Arundel County Sheriff's Office sent letters to 500 people this month, announcing that a computer glitch meant there was a $572.

Cracking down on state tax evaders ought to be a top priority, particularly when Maryland is facing a $1.7 billion budget deficit. After all, every dollar collected from an unpaid tax bill is a dollar less in new taxes or budget cuts. So Comptroller Peter Franchot's recent announcement that his office could clear as much as $200 million within the next four years - if he can expand his staff, pay them a bit more, and upgrade technology - deserves serious consideration. So why is the O'Malley administration acting so cool to the idea?

City Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean says that as the third highest-ranking official in city government, she has played a role that is vital to the welfare of the women and blacks who helped put her into office.And she is right.She also claims that she is being hounded from office by a media campaign of misinformation, rumor and gossip.And, in that, she is wrong.Mrs. McLean yesterday took a leave of absence with pay from her $53,000-a-year post, saying that the controversies surrounding her have made it all but impossible for her to do her job.She described the move as a "temporary absence" but from where I sit, it appears possible that Mrs. McLean may never serve as city comptroller again.

The lawyer for Baltimore Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean yesterday brushed aside the mayor's suggestion that she consider resigning in the wake of misconduct allegations mounting against her.Instead, William H. Murphy Jr. lashed out at what he called irresponsible and racially divisive news media coverage of the remarks Mrs. McLean made this week when she said she was stepping aside until the investigation of her activities is finished.Appearing without his client at a news conference in his Mount Vernon law office, Mr. Murphy denied that Mrs. McLean ever said or implied that the investigation of her activities is racially motivated.

A Washington County man was arrested yesterday for trying to sell cigarettes over the Internet, a practice that has been illegal in the state since 2005, the Maryland comptroller's office announced. Agents with the comptroller's office found an online ad for the cigarettes and set up a meeting with the suspected seller, James Kevin Morgan. It's the first time someone has been arrested in Maryland by comptroller's agents for trying to sell cigarettes over the Internet, the comptroller's office said.

Treasury to intercept taxes from vendors State and federal contractors have a new reason not to fall behind on their taxes: Their next payment for government work could be garnished. The state has started working with the U.S. Treasury Department to collect back taxes from companies that do business with the government, Comptroller Peter Franchot said yesterday. Under the reciprocal program, the state intercepts federal vendor payments and takes the amount owed in taxes before the rest of the payment is passed on to the company; the federal government does the same with state contract payments to collect federal taxes owed.