Comptroller details tax‑system conversion, staffing gains and asks for tech funding to find unreported revenue

Comptroller Brook Lierman and the Department of Legislative Services presented competing pieces of the Office of the Comptroller of Maryland’s fiscal 2025 operating budget before the Public Safety, Transportation and Environment Subcommittee.

Lierman credited FY24 investments with helping the office fill positions and modernize customer service, saying the agency permanently moved its Baltimore taxpayer service center to 7 Saint Paul Street and has reduced its vacancy rate substantially. She said the office concurrently launched an internal tax processing system, Revenue Premier, and an external portal, Maryland Tax Connect, and that more than 673,000 business entities were migrated as part of the release.

DLS analyst Samantha Tapia told the panel the office’s fiscal 2025 request totals about $212.7 million, a net decrease of roughly $6 million (2.7%) versus fiscal 2024 largely because 2024 included one‑time IT investments. Personnel accounts for about 62% of the budget. Tapia and Lierman both noted a request in this budget cycle for roughly 79.2 new regular positions across programs, including positions in compliance and a new unclaimed property team.

Lierman said the conversion to the new tax systems caused a temporary processing delay for refunds — about 10 days — but that staff had worked through the backlog and processing times returned to the agency’s normal 3–5 business days. She also told senators the department has limited front‑line staff to answer the phone and e‑mail spikes despite converting long‑term contractors to permanent PINs.

On revenue generation, Lierman described a small pilot using publicly available data to flag unreported income (for example, short‑term rentals, NFTs or influencer income). She said the less‑than‑six‑figure pilot identified more than $3 million in unreported income and that the office is seeking roughly $5 million in additional technology funding to scale lead generation for auditors paired with roughly 28 new compliance PINs granted in the governor’s budget.

DLS recommended two technical fixes the subcommittee may consider: a proposed reduction tied to possible double‑counting of employee health‑care costs and a request that the comptroller provide performance data on both fiscal and calendar‑year bases to avoid trend distortions. Lierman said the comptroller’s office is working with the Department of Budget and Management to clarify the health‑care budgeting question.

The subcommittee pressed the comptroller on staffing outcomes, the exact amounts requested for technology and whether the office could provide a multi‑year return‑on‑investment model showing how compliance investments would translate to future revenue. Lierman and DLS agreed to supply follow‑ups, including the detailed technology dollar request and a timeline for completing multi‑year revenue projections.