It’s been a year since Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman has joined us and Nestor has been piling up the “unclaimed funds” as she brings the receipts on Maryland money, tax information and distributing all of this “lost and found” money to people like me and you. And the Maryland Tax Connect launches this week and as a taxpayer, this is a modernization that her first campaign promised in Annapolis.

The conversation focused on how Maryland residents can reclaim unclaimed property, what the comptroller’s office does, and how modernization and federal cuts are affecting the state.

Unclaimed Funds

• Brooke said Maryland residents can search for unclaimed property by name, submit claims online, upload documentation, and in some cases receive proactive checks if identity and address can be verified.
• Nestor began his own claim and was told that after documents are received and verified, payment is typically issued within about four weeks.

Office Role

• Brooke described the comptroller as Maryland’s elected CFO, tax collector and refunder, holder of unclaimed property, and an independent statewide voice on major boards and commissions.
• She said the office now produces more economic analysis so policymakers have a fact-based view of Maryland’s economy.

State Risks

• Brooke highlighted upgrades including MarylandComptroller.gov, MyCom Connect, the unclaimed property system, and Maryland Tax Connect.
• She said Maryland has lost nearly 30,000 federal jobs since January 2025 and is also facing reduced grants, contracts, and affordability pressures. What long-term impact will federal divestment have on Maryland’s economy and healthcare sector?

• Upload the completed unclaimed property claim form and required ID documentation through the online portal today so the Comptroller’s Office can begin processing the claim. (@Nestor Aparicio)
• After receiving the final check(s) for the processed unclaimed property claim, send the Comptroller an update email detailing how much was received and confirming the claim was resolved. (@Nestor Aparicio)
• Schedule a future in-person meeting with the Comptroller (for example, a crab cake lunch) sometime in October or November to celebrate receiving the recovered unclaimed funds. (@Nestor Aparicio)

Unclaimed Property

• Nestor described being alerted on social media that he and family members had unclaimed funds.
• Brooke explained the search and claims process, including online lookup, document upload, fraud checks, postcards, and limited proactive payment when identity can be confirmed.
• They discussed expected claim verification and payment timing.

Comptroller Responsibilities

• Brooke outlined the comptroller’s role as Maryland’s elected CFO and general accountant.
• She said the office manages unclaimed property, payroll, tax collection and refunds, and serves on major state boards.
• She clarified that the office helps estimate available revenue but does not set the state budget.

Maryland Economy

• The discussion covered Maryland’s dependence on the federal government through jobs, contracts, grants, and direct spending.
• Brooke said recent federal cuts are reducing employment and funding and may have broader effects on research, healthcare, and state growth.
• They also discussed the gap between Maryland’s high median income and persistent affordability and paycheck-to-paycheck pressures.

Modernization Efforts

• Brooke reviewed system modernization work, including a new public website, improved unclaimed property tools, MyCom Connect, and Maryland Tax Connect.
• She said the goal is to make interactions with the comptroller’s office faster, more transparent, and more secure for residents and businesses.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call this thing Baltimore Positive. That’s a 28 down there for our 28th anniversary. I know my next guest is going to like my 28th anniversary idea of music because it’s going to involve Bruce Springsteen at some point. We’re doing our 28 most impactful bands around here. It’s 25 crab cakes and 26 oysters, then 27 great places to eat. This year we’re going to lean into music. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland Lottery, where we’re doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour in conjunction with our partners at GBMC and Farnin and Dermer as we get football season going. Baseball season’s kind of hanging in a little bit, but we’re always into Maryland season here, and with John Martin being the outgoing executive director of all things Maryland Lottery. When I was at Mako, I got the Maryland Lottery Maryland mug. Usually, Brooke Learman, our state controller, not to be confused with our comptroller, joins me, and usually it’s like over an ice cream or whatever. But I only did one day this year at Mako. She said, “Hey, I’ll come on anytime. We can do a little longer. Last year, I think we did like 12 minutes. So first things first. Welcome back, and you are tip of the tongue because you’re in my wallet somewhere. I’m looking around for my wallet right now. How long?

Brooke Lierman 1:12
I’m doing really well. It’s the end of summer. Looking forward to Labor Day weekend. Kids are back in school, and we are busy, busy in the office of the comptroller of Maryland. It’s going well. Everything’s great. September

Nestor Aparicio 1:26
one’s a big target, so we’re going to get to that in a minute. But let’s start with my social media. About two months ago, someone comes onto like deep into one of my threads and says, “Hey, dude, you have unclaimed funds. You should go get them. And I’m like, “Well, I know. I love

Brooke Lierman 1:41
that you have someone looking out for you. This is a fan. This is a

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Nestor Aparicio 1:45
fan doing this, literally, right? And they did it several times, maybe in like June. So by the time July rolled around, I knew I was going to run into you, and I’m like, I’m going to see Brooke Learman, and I know her, and she’s big shot. She runs like I’m going to ask her about it, and then I I went looking through stuff. You know how you find stuff. I hate paper. I mean, you’re the controller. You’re good at that. I found that your predecessor sent me one of these things here. Nice.

Brooke Lierman 2:11
We do that too. We send out postcards too. Oh, I want to

Nestor Aparicio 2:14
see the one with you on it. But this had to do with my mom passing away, and it has her name on the back. And went to her so like I went through today in preparation for you, Controller Learman.

Brooke Lierman 2:25
Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 2:26
I went on to your website, which was sent to me by your staff, which you said to me when you were checking into the hotel when I ran into you a couple weeks ago. I went in and I all have to do is put your name in if you know your name.

Brooke Lierman 2:39
Yes,

Nestor Aparicio 2:39
I don’t know how it could be any easier. I don’t know

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Brooke Lierman 2:41
how we could make it any easier either. Yeah. All right.

Nestor Aparicio 2:44
So yeah, I know how you could make it easier. Not give me paperwork to print out. So I’m. I’ll tell you what happened. I called my wife in. I said, “Hey, your name’s on here too from our downtown place. We it says more than $250, which feels like a Rush concert to me. You know, feels like I need this money. This isn’t dollars and cents, but this person online said to me, “You have a substantial, like you have a lot of things. I put my son’s name in, my name, my mom, my step, like everybody in my family. You’re tolling around with their money in Annapolis, right? I mean,

Speaker 1 3:14
people

Nestor Aparicio 3:15
need to come and get this money.

Brooke Lierman 3:16
Yes, that’s why we send out postcards. Is what we created this brand new website so people could really easily look themselves up, and you know, most people can just do it online, and they can upload, you know, ID or whatever we need. Sometimes we, sometimes I will tell you, Nestor, we are just starting to proactively send people their money if we can positively ID you and know that you’re at the address we know you’re at. We can just send you a check too. We had to change state law to allow us to do that, but we work to positively ID people to make sure that they’re where they’re supposed to. You know that they’re where we think they are before we send out a check, of course. But yeah, we are trying to make it really easy to get your money because it’s yours, and we think you should be able to get it.

Nestor Aparicio 4:04
Yeah, I remember when you’re just like rolling around East Baltimore having crab cakes with me, little kids in Springster and all that. Now you get to have all the money, and then you get to distribute all the money. It’s kind of a cool job you have, right? I try, you know.

Brooke Lierman 4:16
Yeah, no, I love. I it is such an honor. It’s a huge responsibility. Such an honor. I love doing this work, and the unclaimed property piece is a really fun piece. You know, since 2023, we’ve sent out. Since I became comptroller, we’ve sent out, you know, over 275 million dollars back to people. I feel like this is a lottery

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Nestor Aparicio 4:38
thing for me. Like I went in and I know it’s my money and I know I got whenever I left the city and I sold my my condo that. So anyway, I went in. I went on to the little form. I want to give everybody like a full. Yeah, this fella hit me. I went in today. I went on to the site. I put my name in a bunch of stuff. A lot of other aparicio’s popped up. You know, my mother’s. Name or had a different name. Some other family. I’m shocked at how like, but it says under 5050, to 100, 100 to 100, 100 more than 250. So my wife came in. We filled it in. Put my social. I know it. And then you sent me an email, and it’s you said you’ll be getting an email soon. It may take a day, but usually faster. And I got it. I got it at noon today. It said you recently initiated the above reference claim, your claim form, along with the instructions attached. Now it gave me. I had to print something, and it had a little checkbox of three things. I needed to send you my ID so you knew who I was. To your point, I need to send my social, and then I had to sign the form, which I did, and my wife, and now I need to upload this back. I need to go into this little click here, upload, and upload it back, and then some. I still don’t know how much money. It’s like a lottery ticket, Brooke. I mean, I don’t know how much. This is kind of, geez, I know it’s over 250. I wonder how much I’m going to get. Yes,

Brooke Lierman 5:59
I know. And before we updated the website, you didn’t have any idea. Like it didn’t tell you, even you know. So it’s great. At least now you know. When will I know for real? When will I really know? Yeah, you know it’s real. So then after you upload that, then yeah, we verify it, and then we send out the then we send you a check. Do you

Nestor Aparicio 6:16
send me an email telling me that you’re sending me a check, or do you send me a check?

Brooke Lierman 6:19
I think it depends on how much the money is, but we, but I do think that we send you an email saying yes, it’s been received, you’ve been verified, your money will arrive in you know approximately whatever four weeks or whatever. So yeah, so we have a team who goes through and verifies. Obviously, you can understand that there’s fraud attempts, right? And so we want to make sure that somebody trying to

Nestor Aparicio 6:45
steal my money. They know there’s money. They’re getting

Brooke Lierman 6:48
their real money, and that it is truly theirs. So yes, we have a lot of built-in fraud protections. But sometimes you don’t even need to print out a form. You can just like be pre-verified because we have more information on you, so it sort of depends person to person. But yeah, we’re really excited. It used to be that you had to print out a form and mail it to us, which is crazy. So we don’t do that. But yeah, I’m glad you’ll have to let me know when all is said and done, and you get your funds how much it ends up being.

Nestor Aparicio 7:18
So here’s what we’re gonna do because you and I haven’t had a crab cake. I’m gonna put in and be a good doobie and get all my money from you because you’re holding my money. If anybody else holding my money, I like you, but I got to get my money back, and it’s not even you’re not even having any fun with it like other people do. So, 2007 City of Baltimore Department Finance City-that’s my thing. So I have like six or seven of these. Some of them were smaller. I’ve had two mothers die on me in the last 10 years, and I know I have some unclaimed funds there. I’ve looked that up. My son had two things. He’s like, that was like 20 years ago. My kid’s 42 now. Don’t tell anybody. And then my wife had a thing, and she’s got two things in New Hampshire from her. You know, before we were married, that she said I got to go get those. So I’m gonna get it all together, and I’m gonna get all the checks that you send me, and I’m gonna get a crab cake, and I’m gonna thank you for making me do this. Because by the way, Brooke Lehrman’s here. She is our controller in the state of Maryland. Yes, I’m holding up my Maryland thing. Tell everybody what the controller does. Like, let’s because you’re running for office again. Let’s go school ass rock, soup the nuts here.

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Brooke Lierman 8:15
Yeah, great question. So the comptroller of Maryland in is like the elected CFO of the state. I like to say we are the general accountant for the state of Maryland. We hold all the unclaimed property. We do payroll. So there’s sort of that we’re the economists for the state. There’s sort of that bucket of CFO activities. The second bucket is I’m an independent voice for Marylanders on major boards and commissions in Maryland. So, because I’m elected as a statewide elected official, I’m you know I’m beholden only to the voters, right? And so I am their voice on the Board of Public Works, the State Retirement and Pension Board, Commission on Climate Change, Ms. Bidfa, Malp. I like to joke if you give me like three or four letters, I’ll turn them into an acronym for a board I’m on set of boards. And then the third role is, of course, everybody’s favorite job. I am your tax collector. Although I like to remind people that means I’m also your tax refunder. So those are really the three big buckets of work that the office of the comptroller does, and sometimes people say, “Oh, well, you set the budget. I don’t set the budget. So what the office of the comptroller does is, we are we run the bureau. We oversee the bureau revenue estimates. I’m on the board of revenue estimates, so we help tell the governor and the general assembly how much they have to spend. Right, the revenues that we have coming in, and then the governor’s budget secretary and the governor and the general assembly-they set the budget for Maryland. So I don’t get to decide how it’s spent, but I tell tell folks how much we have to spend. I

Nestor Aparicio 9:54
spent a long period of time in social media and here talking about the guy running the country and how. How crazy it is, and what state we’re in, and how punitive and small-minded just all of this is. But the federal employment that we’ve had here, that we’ve talked about last year at Mako, that I didn’t talk a lot about this year. I mean, we had the key bridge. We’ve had a lot of issues to talk about. But you being the tax collector, it’s like, where does this money come from? And I have some-I don’t say rich, but let’s say better off than I, and a little older than I-who are retreating to Florida and South Carolina and these places where they feel like they’re going to get a tax advantage. Not to mention just the fact that the federal employment situation here was gutted under this corrupt administration. I hope they all rot in a jail at some point. But in the meantime, what does this mean? Like this federal retreat from Maryland, what does this mean to the real budget item and and where we are as a state to be able to compete, not just with states around us, but just in the totality of the 50?

Brooke Lierman 10:57
Yeah, no, it’s an important question and important to remember too that we, you know, every industry, every state has different industries that it really relies on that they have a comparative advantage in, and our biggest industry has been the federal government, right? And and we’ve had you know nearly 30,000 jobs cut in Maryland since January of 2025. 30,000-that’s a lot of jobs. Prior to this administration, we saw about $150 billion in investment per year in Maryland, 46 billion in contracts, 229,000 federal employees in Maryland, the third most in the nation behind DC and Virginia. You know, 69 billion in direct spending on nonprofits, grants, direct payments through Social Security, veterans’ benefits, and more. So, really, a huge amount of funding that was coming into Maryland in all different channels, in all different ways. So, a huge economic impact. I mean, federal contracts-that’s 10% of our state’s GDP prior to the Trump administration, and so you know we are seeing now, of course, jobs lost, grants cut or reduced, contracts cut or reduced, and it’ll be interesting. You know, it’s been interesting to follow, and really sad and challenging to follow this. I mean, you know, we’ll see. There were some stories over the weekend about all these scientists who are leaving for Canada, and it just made me think of NIH. You know, we’re losing out on science grants and the challenges that we’re going to be having because of that. Not just in Maryland, right? These services is maybe Marylanders losing their jobs, but they are answering the phones and performing clinical research and doing the work for people across the country. So we see the economic impact, the harms to the federal government are everywhere. I mean, like cuts at FDA, for instance, and more. So it’s a it’s an extremely challenging time from the federal government divestment standpoint.

Nestor Aparicio 13:01
Well, and especially because we’re a healthcare place too, of a healthcare state, and I don’t know that that’s good. That we have more people that need healthcare that are going to be in hospitals, like my wife with leukemia and this and that, and people getting sick and an aging population, and just on and on and on. But we are a healthcare. We’re a place where stuff’s invented. To you mentioned NIH and Hopkins and on Maryland, everything we do here in regard to saving lives into the future that is science based, that these people running the government, the federal government, don’t seem to understand. But more than that, how it affects our state and how it’s going to affect our state-not just this year for you, win or lose an election next year, West, same thing. The next 510, 15 years, and what what it’s going to mean to our children here, your children.

Brooke Lierman 13:45
Well, it’s a good point, and I should, you know, the we have most of the health. We have many of the health agencies, right? The NIH’s, the you know some of the HHS industry’s. Whereas Virginia has more of the defense, although we have NSA and Goddard, of course, but the healthcare industry is even bigger than the federal government, right? Because the healthcare industry, when you say it is, you know, it’s hospitals, it’s clinics, it’s you know, so it’s you know, folks for it’s you know, senior living, some of them considered healthcare. So it’s even bigger than the federal government, and sort of separate and apart. Although gets funding through Medicare, of course. So yes, it is a. But the healthcare industry is the biggest industry in many states these days, and certainly it is the fastest growing. You know, besides taking AI out, right? Healthcare is the ones sort of creating jobs in the last quarter of 2025. I think it was responsible for almost all job growth in Maryland and in and many other states as well. Certainly in New York City. So it’s healthcare is is big, but you’re right. It’s a it can sometimes be a little bit of a double edged sword. I’m hoping

Nestor Aparicio 14:58
for wellness care. Is what I’m doing. Controller Brooke Lierman is here running again for office. Can’t believe it’s been four years already. You know, let’s talk about the the the the fact that we’re we like to think we’re a wealthy state, right? Like I think against all measurements, I think we’re an educated state. If you look against all this, not to mention crab cakes, water. You know, we have the Eastern Shore, we have the mountains, we have you know American and miniature, all those cool things we put on postcards. But the fact that we have poverty too, and that’s not unusual. But I’ve been traveling traveling the world a little bit to try to figure out where that median is to walk through streets and see them to be clean and safe and all of that, and people making fun of Baltimore when I was over on the Eastern Shore a few weeks ago. Just the fact that we’re wealthy, but we’re struggling, and there’s a real paradox in there that I’m sure you see as you collect and distribute money.

Brooke Lierman 15:53
Certainly, I mean, yes, we have a you know our median income, our annual median income is you know over $105,000, but we also know that 40% of Marylanders live paycheck to paycheck. Essentially, they’re called the United Way turned it our Alice population, asset limited, income income constrained, and they’re unemployed. Right, that’s

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Nestor Aparicio 16:17
40 in our state. 40% of our people are a paycheck or two away from having real problems, right? Yeah, without savings, correct.

Brooke Lierman 16:25
And like a third, I think 30% to a third of all births in Maryland are Medicaid or on Medicaid, and so that’s you know those are big numbers for a state that has a relatively high median income. But of course, you then have to think it’s not just about income; it’s about affordability, because Maryland is also, you know, struggles with affordability. Other states do as well, and you know, so we see that you know the fact that less than fewer than 50% of Marylanders can afford a median high median priced home right now, right? We’ve seen energy prices go up. Healthcare costs have increased. Some of this is due to the federal government and their actions, and some of it is due to things that have accumulated over the years, like housing costs in Maryland and and challenges. So there’s you know a number of reasons we started. One of the things I’m really proud of that we’ve done in the office of the comptroller is prior to my administration, they didn’t issue analytical reports on economics on what they’re seeing, and so we changed that. And I’ve led us to actually release economic reporting data and analysis. And I’m not a policymaker, right? I don’t put in big bills around economics, but I think it’s important that our policymakers, our governor, our county execs, our local governments, our you know delegates and senators have the data that they need. They deserve to have that data on our economy and on different segments of our economy, so that they can see the opportunities and the challenges presented in a different way. And we try to be, you know, very fact-based, very analytical, to be a single source of truth on what’s actually happening.

Nestor Aparicio 18:09
Well, I know you’re running for office, and I know you’ve installed things. I guess this is kind of where, hey, what have you done that would make me vote for you again? What have you installed? You you you acquired something that felt a little antiquated. The the fellow who ran it before you, who I’ve had his picture here. When I talked to him, it felt a little bit dated. You promised some updates. As we sit here, we’re about to launch because we’re on the 31st taping this. By the time anybody sees this, it’ll be there. Yeah. I’ve talked about your online presence and me getting some dough back. If you just came in on the radio, go find the first part of the podcast about unclaimed funds, of which everyone in my family had unclaimed funds. Everyone in my family, literally a step brother and worked in 30 years has an unclaimed fund. So nonetheless, please check that out. But there’s the tax connect part of this, and let’s talk about this because you’re trying to be popular, but you are going to come for my money and collect my taxes. If reelected, you will collect my tax. I

Brooke Lierman 19:05
like to remind people, yes. So no, we all have to, you know, chip in what we owe, but only what we owe, and everybody should be paying what they owe. Or the system doesn’t work, right? And we’ve got to make sure that folks aren’t able to hide income and not pay. You know they own 10 Airbnbs in Ocean City, and they’re trying to hide it under lots of different names. Like we’ve brought in new methods to go find that money and to be really innovative. But look, I think one of the things that I’m very focused on is making government work better, and our agency interacts with more Marylanders than any other agency, and so I have focused very deliberatively on modernizing our systems. Our tax system, many of our other systems were created when I was in high school. Our tax system is from 1993, and Louis Goldstein, right, used to go around the state and say he took. Our tax system from pencil and paper to the mainframe. Well, now we are moving from the mainframe to the cloud, and that ensures that our systems are capable of meeting this moment that our state government needs, that our local governments need, and that Marylanders deserve. Ensuring that the technology, when they sign on that they can get help, that they can get answers, and that their accounts are there and up to date. So, we’ve launched a brand new website. We have MarylandComptroller.gov. We’ve launched a brand new unclaimed property system, so people can find and claim their unclaimed property more easily. And we have a CRM, a customer. I’m blanking on the name. CRM. It’s called MyCom Connect, and it meets people where they are. So if they have a case and they have an issue and they want to upload documents to share with us to prove something, they can do that. They don’t have to just sit on a phone. And of course, the the biggest thing has been our brand new tax system. So it is called Maryland Tax Connect. It is now as of when this is being you know put out put out on the on broadcast. It will be live. It is for are you in

Nestor Aparicio 21:13
beta yet? Have you tested? Oh, we are in

Brooke Lierman 21:15
beta. We are. It’s great. We’re in. It’s for businesses and individuals. So, like, if you’re an individual, you can create an account, link your individual account, see previous a few previous years of tax returns. You can then also link your business account if you have a business. So you have one complete picture and one login of everything and all your interactions with our agency. For tax preparers, you’ll be able to authorize your tax preparer to to work within your account, so we’re really trying to update our system so that things can move ahead more quickly and more smoothly for folks.

Nestor Aparicio 21:50
What if I’m one of them folks that hates government and I don’t trust you? I’m not putting it. Do you have to do this or no? No, this is no. You

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Brooke Lierman 21:56
don’t have to. You don’t have to. You if you you you have to file a tax return if you’re within if you make enough money to be required to, but you don’t have to log in ever. You can. It just makes

Nestor Aparicio 22:06
it easier. Whatever

Brooke Lierman 22:07
system you want to file your tax return. Yes. Yep. I swear.

Nestor Aparicio 22:11
When Franchot was sending me this stuff, I’m like, I’m not driving down to Annapolis to get my 185 bucks or whatever. Like, I just didn’t want to take the David. It felt like jury. It felt like a jury duty card to me, but having gone in and put the numbers in, and now like I might get an email back telling me just how much I’ve won. I’m having fun with this a little bit, but for anybody out there, the state might be holding your money, and Controller Lieberman doesn’t really want it. She wants to give it back to you, so go out and check that out. And certainly the tax thing, and that launches september 1. Do you need your employer ID number, state number, Vin? What do you need?

Brooke Lierman 22:49
Yeah, you’ll need your you know your social security number and some other data about your taxes. Certainly, you know you need to be verified. We are very secure in what we’re doing and want to make sure that everybody, nobody, only you can log in to see your tax information, and we take cybersecurity very seriously. We are sort of continually audited for cybersecurity by the IRS, and so take it all very seriously as well.

Nestor Aparicio 23:16
Well, we take our act around yours seriously as well, including equal time and where we are. I mean, you’re running again. I, I, I don’t even remember. And I know I’ve, I’ve chatted with you about this, about the lane from the work you studied, the work you did, the East Baltimore work to become a political candidate, and then to become a statewide candidate and run and win at a nice clip that some would say four years from now you could be a governor if or run for governor if you wished. Where are you in regard to doing this job the last four years? And I will say this to you: you will get my vote again because you’ve been accountable. Your people are accountable. You’ve had good people. You haven’t paid me yet, and you’re going to get my vote again because I like candidates to actually come on and follow and and follow up and keep their word and that’s not for you or anyone else that’s for any candidate I’ve ever voted for. I’ll just say that out loud because people like, hey, yeah, political candidates on and political people on. Yeah, I like to know what’s going on in the state and I like when people are straight shooters. So make your best move to get somebody else in my family to vote for you once you give them money, but this has been an ambitious job for you with children and where you are and where you live. I’ve seen you out. I mean, you’re as accessible as any political candidate I’ve met.

Brooke Lierman 24:33
Well, thank you. I, you know, I yeah, you’re right. I have two school age kids. I have a great and supportive husband, but I take this work very seriously. I feel that I’ve been really proud to bring in a very strong and stellar team, leadership team, to help us in the agency as well. Because you can’t do anything big alone. So we have a great team, a great chief deputy comptroller, a great chief information officer, great. Cybersecurity, comms team, public engagement team, our policy team, right? We’re firing on all cylinders, and we are really aiming to just make sure the office of the comptroller can meet the moment that we’re in, where people need us. And you know, we’re striving for constant improvement. Nothing, no system, no big agency, no big company is ever perfect, but I am aiming to for constant improvement. Right, always learning from mistakes, striving to do better, meeting people where they are, and so our we are very focused on you know just working in partnership, whether that’s with you know communications team folks, with folks like you, with businesses, with entrepreneurs, with nonprofits, with local government officials, working in partnership to create a state that is more equitable, that is more resilient, and that is more prosperous, and that is really our guiding vision to ensure that every Marylander can reach their full potential.

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Nestor Aparicio 25:57
Well, I think the biggest thing is just saying what you’re going to do and then actually going out and doing it. So for me, I’ve come about 90% of the way. I filled out all the forms. I’ve my wife has even signed it, and now I have to get this back to you. Until I do that, I can’t blame you for not sending me the check. So I’ve done just about everything. But there’s going to be several checks. Brooke Learman is here. She’s our state controller. She’s running again. She’ll be on the ballot, and you could take a look at her work. Find her out on on the web, and by all means, make sure you’re checking out the new. I want to get this right: Maryland Tax Connect, not to be confused with look it up unclaimed properties that I did here and unclaimed funds that we did here a little earlier as well. Did you see Springsteen on the tour? Did you not? Did you make it to DC?

Brooke Lierman 26:39
I did not go. We did not go this time. We went to Camden Yards, which this was the big

Nestor Aparicio 26:44
political one, right? Yeah, very, very. Yeah, we didn’t get

Brooke Lierman 26:48
tickets, but I loved the Camden Yards show. It was a beautiful night. It was perfect weather, and it was an amazing show. Yeah, yeah.

Nestor Aparicio 26:55
We needed perfect weather and an amazing show in October for some baseball around here, Brooklyn. Yes, I’ll let you get back to running the state’s office, and you know if I let you go a little earlier, maybe I get my money a couple minutes early. You know, but I’m going to fill all this out, and I I’m going to get with your team maybe October, November. How long is it going to take me to get my check? Hold on, how long is going to take me to get my check once I do this today? How long’s after we

Brooke Lierman 27:18
after we receive it? You should get it back in within four weeks.

Nestor Aparicio 27:23
Wow! All right. Well, I’m gonna sit on the checks and put them in a little envelope, and I’m gonna have so much pride when I come and have a crab cake with you. I don’t know, Koco’s, casas. We’ll do it. You’ve you’ve you’ve run all over the state. I can have you on anywhere. You’re not just a city person anymore, or just local. So all right. So I’m gonna have you out, and I’m gonna I’m gonna hold up the chance to be showing me the money. You know, I’m gonna like make it rain with state money that is really mine that you’ve been holding and Franchot was holding before that. Yeah. So thank you, and I appreciate you, and good luck on your election campaign. And I’ll see you for crab cake. I’ll

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Brooke Lierman 27:55
see you soon. Hand me my money,

Nestor Aparicio 27:56
Brooke Learman. I’m. I need my money. She’s the controller of the state of Maryland, and if you have unclaimed funds like I did, or you have a secret admirer on social media that says, “Hey, dude, state’s got your money, go get it. State’s got your money, go get it. My wife found out today. So did my son, my daughter-in-law. Everybody’s finding out. I am Nestor. We are WNST, AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. I’m going to break the state’s coffers, but just getting all of our money back. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us.