Jun. 20—Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman toured various businesses in Frederick on Tuesday, then answered questions from the Frederick County Council.
Frederick is Lierman's ninth stop on her "Branching Out" tour, in which she is visiting comptroller branch offices across the state.
Lierman is the state's first female comptroller, and first woman to be elected to an independent state government office in the state.
The comptroller ended her Frederick tour speaking to the County Council about her responsibilities, as well as some of her goals for her four-year term.
One of the biggest goals, she said, was to modernize the Comptroller's Office's technology.
"Louis Goldstein used to brag that he had taken the Office of the Comptroller from pencil and paper to the mainframe. Well, now it is time, on my watch, to take us from the mainframe to the cloud," she said.
When it was the council's turn to ask questions, District 2 Councilman Steve McKay asked Lierman for the state to do anything it could to get the county more funding to build schools.
"We are looking at a just a perfect storm of a combination of growth driving demand, and aging facilities driving demand, to the point where we have to build a number of schools in a timeframe that we've probably not done before," he said.
Lierman said she appreciates that concern and she prioritizes public facilities.
District 1 Councilman Jerry Donald asked Lierman how solvent the pension system in Maryland is. Lierman responded that it is solid.
"Our pension system is on track to hit 80% funded over the next few years ... which is what our goal is," she said.
McKay also asked Lierman to elaborate on future marijuana taxes after marijuana becomes legal on July 1. He said he heard local communities wouldn't get much of that money.
Lierman told McKay that marijuana will have a flat 9% sales tax. As the comptroller's office receives that revenue from the dispensaries, it will allocate it as mandated.
"A piece of it will also go back to the counties and then a smaller piece will go to the municipality if the dispensary is located in that municipality," she said.
However, everyone will have to wait for that taxing to take effect to see roughly how much money counties and municipalities would receive, she said.
Lierman started her tour of Frederick speaking to members of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce, according to a news release about her visit. She also met with Frederick Mayor Michael O'Connor and the chamber's president and CEO, Rick Weldon.