Comptroller Brooke Lierman returns to join Nestor at MACo in Ocean City to confront his usual Schoolhouse Rock questions about where all the money goes in state finances and economic development, including the Maryland Tax Free Week and the role of the Comptroller. Also some explanations of public funds and stadium management, as well as new revenue generated by the cannabis industry.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
crab cakes, maryland, comptroller, state, transportation trust fund, springsteen, revenue, money, question, good, assets, people, controller, road, play, lottery, week, tax, schoolhouse rock, dollars
SPEAKERS
Brooke Lierman, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, Towson, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive we are wrapping things up. If anybody hears the garage door opening and shutting, and I think it’s broke. We’re down here at the Mako at the convention center. It reminds me of my summer broadcast of 1994 when I did this show from a garage in Timonium, right behind Timonium road the ROFO all they’re brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery, the Gold Rush, seven stumblers. We’re gonna be down at fade. Lease and the controller, you know, she’s busy in Annapolis these days. She used to join me for crab cakes and vegetarian crab all sorts of crab cakes. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery, liberty, pure solutions. And our friends at Jiffy Lube. Football. We got baseball. We’ve had a lot of politics, lots things going on. And you’re the most interesting guest of the week, because, like everybody else, I sort of get green roomed. A little bit about bank card and the bridge and this and that. To talk people with you. I’m sort of like, I, you know, the money of the state. The only thing I have for you. I began dumpsters last night when I ran into you get an ice cream cone at nine o’clock on the coastal is tax free week. All my Republican people, some are actually voting for the wrong guy in November, want tax free every day in
Brooke Lierman 01:08
America, in Maryland, like roads, they don’t like parks, they don’t like school. I tried to explain
Nestor Aparicio 01:12
this to them, but, you know, they think they’re libertarian on the edge of coming up with something. How does Delaware do it? Though, can that’s my trick question for you today. Is that, how do some states do it, and where do they get that revenue? And I know in Florida, when they’re killing me on that sun pass and hotel taxes, they have a different everybody has
01:31
to make money in some way. So they’re always going to charge you for something. They just do it in a different way. And that’s the bottom line. So you know, you might not have high sale you might not have a sales tax. Well, maybe you have an incredibly high property tax, right? You You’ve all states have to govern. They have to make the money in certain ways. And that’s the bottom line. That’s just how it goes.
Nestor Aparicio 01:51
Promote tax free week for me then, because it it certainly felt good for my wife to run out say, you know, cut my 6% off here. But the tax free
01:58
week’s Great. It cost the state about six and a half million dollars. But that’s money that stays in the pockets of the people who are shopping and their bank accounts, which is great. So one week is six and a half million dollars when but it’s not tax free on everything. It’s just tax free on clothing under and shoes under $100 and the first $40 of a backpack. So, you know, it’s a it’s great for back to school. It’s great for parents. If you need a wardrobe refresh, it’s you are, you should be waiting till that second week of August to do that shopping and save that 6% but you know, it’s and it’s and that’s why we do it. We do it because, you know, the General Assembly passed it a little before 2010 it’s been in place since 2010 and it’s just a great opportunity for people to save a little money as they are trying to get their kids ready to go back to school or do whatever they’re doing. But, you know, it’s not for everything. It’s not for it’s for specific things to make sure that people have that boon to go back. And I will say it’s also a really important thing for our small businesses and our small retailers, because they see that bump when folks come in people. They tell me, you know they knew my wife scam and wait. No. People wait. Wait. People wait to shop in that week and the
Nestor Aparicio 03:07
other day. And I do, I’d show my backpack. She’s like, you need a new backpack. She says this to me, they’re on sale over the room in the mall and and then right in the front to the left, and I’m sure go this week, she literally gave me this. And then I’m down here in Ocean City, so let’s play Schoolhouse Rock with you. Can only have you for a couple minutes. We’re gonna get we’re gonna get crab cakes and oysters, all these political all the minds of first off in the parking lot. If I said, is a comptroller or controller, we’d have an argument on that. And then we would say controller, Comptroller is that we’re gonna call
03:38
you Comptroller, Comptroller. There’s an MP don’t leave them behind, Comptroller,
Nestor Aparicio 03:43
so I already got that part wrong, and then I’d say, so what does Brooklyn do? What is a comptroller now that we know how to pronounce it, so what is the Schoolhouse Rock on? What you do now that you do it? Yeah,
03:54
well, our agency is like the elected CFO of the state. We see every dollar in and every dollar out. So that means we collect the revenues and then we help disperse them. So we do my wife does this in our relationship. Everybody’s got to have a comptroller’s always
Nestor Aparicio 04:11
the bad person, the bad guy, even when it’s a girl, no,
04:15
it’s the it’s the responsible one, and it’s the one who makes sure that you have the ability to fund your priorities and make those investments, and is looking for the best values. That’s what we’re doing. And what happens when it’s Springsteen tickets? Well, I got, I bought Springsteen tickets. I’ll be there on
Nestor Aparicio 04:30
she’s going to Lake Street die. I’m going to Springsteen.
04:34
Springsteen. There’s
Nestor Aparicio 04:35
tax revenue for it, for the state and all these places, right? Better here than Virginia,
04:40
yeah, that’s right. So it’s so, yeah. So my job is really, we have 1200 employees, 12 offices around the state, including our headquarters, and we’re really focused on, you know, the economic well being of our communities, our families. Our vision is to create a state that’s more equitable, more resilient and more prosperous, so that every. Marylander can reach their full potential. That’s our vision. What do you have
Nestor Aparicio 05:03
control over as comptroller now that you’re in the seat to make better value for for Maryland, it’s a
05:10
good question. So you know, I’m on the Board of Public Works, which is the governor, the Treasurer and the Comptroller, and we are in charge of approving or denying all procurements, contracts that are $200,000 or more. So we, my team, and I, are very, very focused on when we look at procurements that agencies are bringing to us to approve on those contracts, like how, you know, we’re looking at the value, meaning we’re looking at, you know, what we’re buying, what we’re purchasing, the long term of it is, it’s, are these businesses in Maryland? Are they not? Are they meeting their Minority Business Enterprise goals, right? Their MBE goals, which we have a set of state goal of 29% and you do that because you get better value over the long term by building up small businesses in the state of Maryland. So we’re really focused on all of those different ideas and making sure that age, the agencies of the state are working towards meeting all those goals. And that’s, I mean, that’s just, that’s a huge piece of what I do as comptroller is bringing an independent lens to our contracting. And those are state dollars, and it’s how we spend them really matters. Well, I
Nestor Aparicio 06:15
always talk to John Martin at the Maryland lottery, who funds some things for your department as I understand it, about being on the up and up, you know what I mean? Just, and this is weather, and listen, I’m curio sponsored. On the cannabis side, I’m lottery sponsored. I’ve been beer sponsored and liquor for 30 years, and all of these things that pay taxes and have rules and regulations to protect these people that we have here, right? And I just think for, I guess, on that side of it, just being on the up and up, it’s feeling like, Oh, that guy’s got a friend in the government, and he’s getting the billion dollar bid. And, I mean, I feel that way about the sports franchises getting all this money. I’m not hitting you with that today, because that’s long form. I mean, well, you do the homework on that one, get together over crab cake. But I see the $1.2 billion and I deal with sports fans, right? And they love the Ravens. They love the orals. But there’s a lot of Ravens fans really pissed off that they took $600 million and built like a club level to charge 30 bucks more, and they threw media me out, up onto the roof, that they’re taking public money. These are billionaires taking public money. I would see where that does get kicked up. And if I were taking phone calls, I would be getting phone calls on that, but that is an obvious thing for me and saying, Well, who else is getting over and wealthy and get money when we’re trying to really equally distribute our money better as a society, not just Maryland? Well, I’d also
07:33
say, you know, I think those those contracts are very different here in Maryland than they are in other states, because those are public buildings, right that Camden Yards and M and T Bank Stadium in other states, like in DC and other areas, those the owners own those stadiums. They are privately held assets here. Those are state owned assets. So the Maryland stadium authority is like a, you know, governmental agency. We have oversight. We look into everything they’re doing. We see their this. They have to open up their books for us, right? But at the end of the day, you know, if the Ravens walked away, we own M and T Bank Stadium. That’s our stadium, they don’t get to take it with them. And so we wanted to be kept in a in a place where it’s generating revenue, where we could use it for other things, to generate revenue as a state, even if the Ravens aren’t there and so which they are, thank goodness. Like we’re had pleased to
Nestor Aparicio 08:25
be locked out as a media member from state run facility, but,
08:30
but so it’s just really important that, you know, we maintain our assets in a good position, because if you let them fall apart, you see, you know it’s it ends up costing taxpayers more.
Nestor Aparicio 08:40
There’s no question that after 30 years, we’re keeping I don’t begrudge any of that, but I do think there’s a public face to being on the up and up of taking public money. And I guess that’s what I’m saying about cannabis and about things that used to be illegal sports wagering on your phone, right? Like two years ago, this wasn’t a thing, and John comes on people, we talk about the revenue, but all of that was black market, right? I mean, every part of that, I had Emily Keller talking about fentanyl in the black market, where that’s still there. I think
09:09
that’s the good part about cannabis is now we’re seeing the revenue come in. It’s a regulated industry, a very well regulated industry, heavily taxed. Well, I mean, is it really? I don’t think it’s heavily tag. You
Nestor Aparicio 09:21
think 9% is heavily, heavily regulated, for sure, heavily regulated.
09:24
But, you know, 9% and that’s just non medicinal, it should be regulated because it is a, you know, obviously at the federal level, it’s still schedule one, and, you know, it’s and in other ways, it’s a medicine, right, like it’s used for medicinal purposes. And we certainly regulate the medical industry and pharmaceuticals. This is money coming in that 10 years ago was, wasn’t I mean, we are, yes, we are collecting millions and millions of dollars in revenue and in taxes from the cannabis industry. And so we are trying to be very transparent about that. We put out a brief every quarter on our website about what my. Has come in, where it’s come in from, where it’s going to because we know that people are interested in that, and we want to make sure that they have the understanding and the knowledge and can see it and we’re transparent.
Nestor Aparicio 10:08
Do we have enough money controller? No, you know, I
10:12
think we’re I think folks probably know our transportation trust fund is really hurting. We do not bring in the revenue we need to sustain the transportation investments that we need to be making just to maintain what we have, let alone build any new assets. And so our transportation trust fund is, it’s, you mean, roads, roads, transit, all of that, anything that bridges, like, you know, high it’s all, all part of our transportation trust fund. And right now we can’t even fund maintenance of the metro, the DC metro system. You know, we have a share that we have to put in with DC and Virginia. We can’t pay our share out of the transportation trust fund because it’s so so oversubscribed. It comes from the general fund. So we are already underwater in our transportation trust fund, and that’s without any new projects. So there is not enough right now to do what we need to do to keep a state our state of good repair for all our transportation assets. So the General Assembly and the governor, I know we’re taking a hard look at that, they set up a commission to think through like how to pay for this in the long term. But you know, it’s not responsible to kick the can down the road like we’ve got to step up and figure out what we’re going to do now to take care of our assets now so we can build a cleaner future.
Nestor Aparicio 11:20
Yeah, well, the Key Bridge is something nobody could have planned for.
11:23
Oh, yeah. Well, the feds will help us to I mean, you know, you sure I am. I am staying confident in our federal delegation. We have a great card, and Chris Van Hollen were here late to try to convince me, great team, they’re gonna get it done. The feds are gonna help us there, which is great and so, you know, but there’s a whole lot of other transportation assets. So we need to maintain, you
Nestor Aparicio 11:43
know, last year Wes Moore invited me for crab cake at the crab feast. Problem is, they were out of the crab cakes because I ate them all, because I got there early. So we’re gonna get there early today, and I do the crowd here is small. The crab cakes are really good at the crab feast. I’m telling everybody, and I’m a crab cake guy. I’ve told my wife, there’s a good crab cake here. So in that, in that spirit, I’m gonna let you go and just say this is another case of Mo Money, Mo Problems. So you know, I mean, for sure, Comptroller a Brooklyn who was a candidate at one time, and you still live in the city, I
12:16
do. Yeah, we live in the city. We live just around the harbor. So, yeah, we love it. We love living downtown. It’s great. And kids in public schools, we couldn’t be happier.
Nestor Aparicio 12:25
Most important question is, when you were standing there alone on your cell phone answering the citizens questions at 915 last night, as I was going to bed at 915 in Ocean City, I was not you were at dumpsters. We were thinking about an ice cream I looked at my wife. She looked at me. She’s like, you can get out of the 45th Street tapas thing. I’m going to bed. I think it was snoring about six minutes after I saw you. We didn’t even order ice cream. What did you get? Mint
12:47
Chocolate Chip. Every time that you go. Oh, yeah, I only do mint chocolate chip. There’s why waste? Why waste an ice cream cone on anything else?
Nestor Aparicio 12:55
What song does Springsteen have to play for you at Camden Yards?
12:58
Oh, that’s
Nestor Aparicio 12:59
a good question. Now, and get esoteric here. Don’t give me that born and run nonsense. I
13:03
can’t say Thunder Road. I can’t say no, don’t
Nestor Aparicio 13:05
play. Give me the five. He’s, you know, he’s gonna play. Give me something that he might play or might not play. Yeah, what’s your favorite Springsteen song? It’s
13:14
a good question.
Nestor Aparicio 13:15
I don’t know. It changes every day. Yeah? Like, it
13:17
depends on my mood a little bit, you know. Like, give me five right now? No, I cannot name you five string songs sitting right here right now that I want him to play. I have not thought about it. Actually, I just got that. I just realized that the tickets were coming up because, remember, he was sick last year, right? And so this got postponed. I didn’t even have it on my calendar, and all of a sudden, Ticketmaster was like, you have tickets that?
Nestor Aparicio 13:37
I was like, Oh, my God, it’s 13. It’s a 13. It says
13:41
Friday 13th. Yeah, so funny. I might be
Nestor Aparicio 13:44
going to sticks. That’s cool. She’s going to Lake Street, dove. I don’t have a car. I need to ride. Give me a ride. Brooklyn. Here our controller. When we return, you can what the Springsteen concert will be in the books. You’ll have your selfies There. Tell you the best songs he played, and you’ll say that he opened with night. It was outrageously awesome. We are signing off for makeup. We had a beautiful couple days here, some beers, some cheers, some crab cakes. We’re back for more. Baltimore positive. Stay with us here at AM, 1570 you.
