Baltimore Sun: Franchot Seeking to Expand Comptroller Bailiwick Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, May 28, 2007:

It is customary at the start of Board of Public Works meetings for members to make personal comments, so Comptroller Peter Franchot took advantage last week by introducing his daughter. In case those in the packed State House reception room couldn't locate her, Franchot noted that Abbe, 25, was modestly "hiding behind the television cameras."

Gov. Martin O'Malley, sitting at Franchot's side, grinned broadly and said, "A quality she got from her mother."

...

[Comptroller Franchot] has issued statements about divesting state pension money from Darfur. He has railed against the possible implementation of slot machine gambling to mitigate a looming budget crisis. He supported a doomed House of Delegates health care plan. He led the successful charge against a Kent Island development that environmentalists argued would harm the Chesapeake Bay. And he has cast himself as a chief advocate for expanding Maryland's biotechnology industry.

Hardly matters of usual concern to Maryland's chief tax collector.

I wonder what would happen if Comptroller Franchot started focusing primarily on the constitutional duties of his office, rather than worrying about the biotech industry or environmental policies on Kent Island.

What are the constitutional duties of the Comptroller of Maryland? Article VI, Section 2 of the Constitution of Maryland:

The Comptroller shall have the general superintendence of the fiscal affairs of the State; he shall digest and prepare plans for the improvement and management of the revenue, and for the support of the public credit; prepare and report estimates of the revenue and expenditures of the State; superintend and enforce the prompt collection of all taxes and revenue; adjust and settle, on terms prescribed by law, with delinquent collectors and receivers of taxes and State revenue; preserve all public accounts; and decide on the forms of keeping and stating accounts. He, or such of his deputies as may be authorized to do so by the Legislature, shall grant, under regulations prescribed by Law, all warrants for money to be paid out of the Treasury, in pursuance of appropriations by law, and countersign all checks drawn by the Treasurer upon any bank or banks in which the moneys of the State, may, from time to time, be deposited. He shall prescribe the formalities of the transfer of stock, or other evidence of the State debt, and countersign the same, without which such evidence shall not be valid; he shall make to the General Assembly full reports of all his proceedings, and of the state of the Treasury Department within ten days after the commencement of each session; and perform such other duties as shall be prescribed by law.

Someone please show me where "biotech" or "business development" or "consumer protection" or "petroleum regulation" appear on that list. Sitting on the Maryland Board of Public Works, which authorizes most major State expenditures within the budget, is indeed one of the Comptroller's duties. One might hope, however, for a wiser sense of proportionality and at least a fig leaf of commitment to the core functions of the job. Franchot is ours for the next 44 months.

I am not a big fan of Senate President Mike Miller per se, and might in another context be sympathetic to some of Franchot's policy positions, but I agree with Miller's withering criticisms of Franchot for refusing to focus on his day job. I would add, the day job for which Franchot receives and cashes (ahem) a paycheck from the Treasury of Maryland presumably bearing his signature twice as both maker and as endorsee when he cashes it. It should be noted that the General Assembly has the power to remove the Comptroller upon a finding of incompetency or willful neglect of duty under Article VI, Section 6 of Maryland's Constitution. For some reason, I have the feeling that Mike Miller is going to get very familiar with that section in the coming months and years.