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Monday, January 18, 2016

Md. comptroller points to big spending past for state’s slow economic recovery

BETHESDA, Md. – Maryland’s economy continues to improve, but the state’s comptroller says it can get even better.

“The problem is the real Maryland economy is lagging behind the national economy,” Comptroller Peter Franchot tells WTOP. “We have a long way to go to making Maryland a state that has the prosperity that it is historically accustomed to.”

The state added 40,000 jobs in 2015 and Franchot notes that many of those new jobs came from the private sector.

But he says there is still more work to get done to make Maryland more economically vibrant – primarily cut spending.

“We went way overboard in taxing and raising tolls and raising fees on our citizens,” Franchot says. “It was well-intentioned, everybody had special programs they wanted to get funded, but as a result, a lot of discretionary money was taken out of our citizens’ pockets.”

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks again for nothing omalley! I got a big tax bill and you got free furniture.

Anonymous said...

Franchot is the (watchdog) Comptroller. Why did he not collect sales tax on the furniture O'Malley bought from the State.

Anonymous said...

More and more I think Franchot is a DINO.

Thornton Crowe said...

Franchot is exactly right. The additional taxation and fees crippled the middle class - most affected by the reduction of disposable income. Government needs to step off the private sector and let capitalism work as it was designed to do rather than continually mandate and legislate it into an oblivion. The enforced healthcare debauchery at a federal level has only thrown salt in the wound of an already faltering economy. The Obamacare legislation, besides being unsustainable and unconstitutional - was ill-timed and has done nothing to enhance the populous in any way.

Franchot would do well to roll-back that disaster and join the ranks of other states that have rejected it.