State Comptroller

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens, who has been hinting at a congressional bid for months and recently bought a new home that makes her a resident of Maryland's 3rd Congressional District, now says she is also considering a run for state comptroller. Owens, 62, has long stated her interest in the state office - but only if the incumbent, fellow Democrat William Donald Schaefer, decided against running for a third term. A two-term county executive who cannot seek re-election, Owens has concentrated for months on pursuing a congressional seat that will be vacated by Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, a Baltimore County Democrat who is running for U.S. Senate.

Harford County Del. Mary-Dulany James said Tuesday she received a pledge from the state comptroller he will not to penalize businesses who have become victims of alleged financial fraud by a the Bel Air payroll company Accu-Pay. Accu-Pay is being investigated for collecting payroll taxes but allegedly not directing those taxes to the state and federal governments, according to prior news reports by The Aegis and The Baltimore Sun . After hearing from a large number of her constituents concerned that back taxes unpaid by the payroll company would be pursued for collection by the State of Maryland, James said in a news release she has been working with numerous state officials, including Comptroller Peter Franchot, to potential victims are protected from further financial burden.

Hazel H. Goldstein, a Calvert County lawyer and the wife of state Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein, died yesterday morning of cardiac arrest at Calvert Memorial Hospital in Prince Frederick. She was 79.As the longest-running political wife in Maryland's history and perhaps the most famous, Mrs. Goldstein was known throughout the state as her husband's "wife Hazel," the subject of numerous stories in which Mr. Goldstein would evoke her name to address a particular issue.Mr. Goldstein yesterday remembered his wife of 48 years as his sweetheart, his law partner and his business partner.

Robert Shipley Auerbach, one of the founding members of the Maryland Green Party and the party's three-time nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives, died Dec. 12 from injuries suffered in a hit-and-run accident that evening in Greenbelt. He was 92. Born in New York City in 1919, Mr. Auerbach became involved in politics, particularly election reform, in the 1930s. He was active in such groups as the Congress of Racial Equality and the War Resisters League. Mr. Auerbach moved to Greenbelt, where he ran for City Council, more than 50 years ago. A founder of the Green Party's Maryland affiliate, he was nominated for the state's 5th District seat, for the third time, this year.

After days of introducing himself to voters at the Maryland State Fair, the Republican Party's candidate for state comptroller buttonholed a potential backer and reminded him to be sure to vote for Larry M. Epstein on Nov. 6."Oh, yeah, I always vote for Louis Epstein," the voter replied, apparently confusing Larry Epstein with the similar sounding name of his much better-known opponent, eight-term Democratic Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein.It is hard enough for a challenger to unseat an incumbent, but Mr. Epstein, a 42-year-old political novice, is up against the closest thing in Maryland to a political colossus.

MARYLAND has never had an activist state comptroller before. It does now.On Monday, William Donald Schaefer, the former two-term governor and four-term Baltimore mayor, was sworn in as state comptroller before a giant crowd in the House of Delegates chambers. Today, he begins what should be a fascinating cohabitation in the Annapolis power structure with his successor as chief executive, Gov. Parris N. Glendening.Yes, the weekly Board of Public Works meetings should be lively with two governors on the three-member panel.

In a decisive show of support, most of Maryland's elected Democratic leaders endorsed state Comptroller William Donald Schaefer's bid for re-election yesterday. Schaefer, 80, is seeking a second term, but Secretary of State John T. Willis is challenging him for the Democratic nomination in the September primary. About a dozen elected officials - including both of the state's U.S. senators, the leaders of the General Assembly and several Democratic county executives - spoke at a breakfast rally in Baltimore yesterday and declared they are supporting Schaefer.

WHAT CAN you write about Louis L. Goldstein that hasn't been recorded numerous times during his 60-year career in public service?He was truly a legend in his own time, the best-known and best-liked Maryland politician of the last four decades.Call him "Mr. Maryland." Or as one speaker put it at a fund-raiser last year, our "state fossil." Up until his death last night at age 85, Mr. Goldstein could -- and did -- run lesser-aged politicians ragged on the campaign trail and in the hallways of state government.

State Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, who has increasingly been hobbled by bad knees, underwent joint replacement surgery yesterday at Kernan Hospital.The former governor had surgery on his right knee to address what had become a debilitating problem with osteoarthritis. His surgeon, Dr. Claude Moorman, a University of Maryland orthopedist and head physician for the Baltimore Ravens, said the left knee also needs to be replaced and may be operated on in the next year.Schaefer, 77, will spend three days in a post-surgical unit at the hospital to convalesce and then spend the next week in therapy in a rehabilitation area there named in his honor in 1996.

Del. Peter Franchot, a Montgomery County Democrat and outspoken critic of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., is scheduled to announce his candidacy tomorrow for state comptroller in 2006. Franchot, 57, plans to challenge incumbent William Donald Schaefer, 84, in the Democratic primary. The longtime former Baltimore mayor and governor is a reliable vote-getter who has alienated many members of his party's left wing through support of the Republican governor and recent comments critical of non-English speakers and the state's minority business program.

If any bureaucratic hurdles remain to implementing same-sex marriage, Gov. Martin O'Malley wants them identified and resolved quickly. The governor sent a directive to his cabinet Thursday requesting all state agencies "work expeditiously" to give equal marriage rights to same-sex couples in Maryland.  "Many areas of Maryland law address marital status - including insurance, taxes, governmental benefits, and property - and many State...

The Baltmore County Register of Wills has tightened up procedures in response to a state audit that found that during a three-year period it did not report all estates valued at greater than $1 million to the office of the state comptroller, as required by law. The law is intended to help the comptroller to identify estates that should file a state tax return. In a report released Monday, the state Office of Legislative Audits found that in five cases the county register counted the estate's probate assets only, failing to add these to non-probate assets to arrive at a gross value to report to the Comptroller.

A reader posed this question about the late William Donald Schaefer: How could a man who worked all his adult life in state and local government die rich? At the time of his death in April at age 89, the former Baltimore mayor, Maryland governor and comptroller had an estate worth nearly $2.5 million. Frankly, given Schaefer's long career and modest lifestyle, accumulating millions would be easy. Schaefer had a good salary, generous pensions and worked up until age 85 — a couple of decades longer than most people.

Like most Marylanders, I'm deeply saddened by the death of Gov. William Donald Schaefer. He and I were both "freshmen'" in Annapolis in 1987, when he became governor after 15 years as one of America's most acclaimed mayors and I was a first-time state delegate. What I saw from the first day through his final tenure as state comptroller 20 years later was a man totally devoted to public service who understood that he had the power and responsibility to change government for the benefit of ordinary people.

Philip G. Martin, who spent nearly four decades in the computer industry and had been data processing chief for the state comptroller's office, died March 19 of complications from muscular dystrophy at his Pasadena home. He was 77. Mr. Martin, the son of farmers, was born and raised in Quinter, Kan. He attended a one-room school in the rural west Kansas farming community and earned a bachelor's degree in music education in 1954 from Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kan. Mr. Martin taught music education in Texas for a year before enlisting in 1956 in the Army, where he received computer training.

An 18-year-old Baltimore County man is seeking the Republican nomination for comptroller. Brendan Madigan said he filed last week after considering a run for more than a year. Madigan said he could not "stand on the sidelines" while Maryland is run "into the ground." The Sparks resident said his campaign will focus on ending the "tax-and-spend mentality of those in Annapolis." Madigan served as the Baltimore County coordinator for Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty and recently founded the blog GOP Resurgence.

Upset by a recent report that showed that Maryland was missing out on millions of dollars in uncollected tax revenue as a result of illegal video gambling, a Montgomery County lawmaker and candidate for state comptroller announced yesterday that he will introduce legislation to improve regulation of the industry. "What we are faced with here is honest businesses have to pay their taxes but those with illegal machines are allowed to slide by," said Del. Peter Franchot, a Democrat from Takoma Park who has announced that he will run against Comptroller William Donald Schaefer.

As the regional economy chugs forward, the state of Maryland finished the past budget year with a $1.2 billion surplus, according to figures released by Comptroller William Donald Schaefer yesterday. The final accounting for the 2005 fiscal year, which ended June 30, provides the governor and state lawmakers with the best news they've had since taking office in January 2003. At the time, a financial downturn prompted a state hiring freeze and some program cuts. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s office reaffirmed yesterday that he hoped to return some money to Marylanders through a tax reduction.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. on Monday ruled out running for state comptroller next year, but gave no indication what he would do after his term expires 18 months from now. Smith, a Democrat, cannot seek re-election, and had been widely expected to oppose the incumbent comptroller, Peter Franchot, in the Democratic primary. He acknowledged to The Baltimore Sun in May that he was looking closely at statewide offices for a possible run. He has been traveling the state and building a campaign chest; finance reports show he raised more than $1 million during the four-year election cycle that began in January 2007.

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.