FROM THE DESK OF THE COMPTROLLER

LEGISLATION THAT PROTECTS CITIZENS

I applaud the recent passage of the Captive REIT bill by both chambers of the General Assembly. The sole purpose of this scheme is tax avoidance and Maryland is losing several million of dollars that could be used for services that benefit residents such as health care and education.

Earlier this year, I announced plans to use existing law to tackle this issue, but with this bipartisan legislation just passed, it is now crystal clear that deductions taken by captive REITs are not allowed under state law.

The money lost to this type of tax avoidance could be used to provide health care coverage to nearly 200,000 uninsured Marylanders. The Children and Working Families Healthcare Act of 2007, which has been passed by the House, has my unqualified support to reduce and eliminate the number of uninsured low and moderate-income families. There is no question that Maryland needs to move aggressively to make sure that every Marylander has access to quality and affordable health care.

Finally, another piece of legislation to ban Alcohol Without Liquid, or AWOL machines, has my strong support. These are machines that vaporize alcohol and enable people to inhale 10 times the concentration than through drinking. The bill has already passed the House and I urge the Senate to do so. I believe action on this is critical because the machines have strong appeal to younger people and are falsely being promoted as low carb and hangover-free. I believe that this is an opportunity to be proactive before this potential abuse becomes a problem.

Again, I applaud the legislature for its support of many valuable initiatives and for the atmosphere of cooperation on both sides of the aisle for the benefit of our citizens.