Administrative Drift:

How Brooke Lierman Turned Maryland’s Cash Register into a Public Relations Agency

Administrative Drift:

How Brooke Lierman Turned Maryland’s Cash Register into a Public Relations Agency

When Brooke Lierman took the oath of office as Comptroller of Maryland, she inherited an agency whose primary mission was as straightforward as it was critical: collect the state’s revenue, enforce the tax code, resolve disputes efficiently, and keep the financial gears of state government turning.

Under decades of previous stewardship—most notably during the long tenure of Peter Franchot—the Comptroller’s office operated with a clear priority. It was an administrative engine powered by veteran career professionals who understood the intricate mechanics of tax compliance and dispute resolution.

Today, that engine is sputtering. A stark look at internal metrics, legislative budget reviews, and operational shifts reveals an agency suffering from a profound crisis of focus. Instead of maintaining the relentless operational discipline required of the state’s chief fiscal officer, Lierman’s administration appears to treat the office as an ambitious political launchpad—a high-profile backdrop for statewide self-promotion, while the core duties of the department founder.

Sidelining the Master Mechanics

Nowhere is this administrative drift more obvious than in how the agency manages its top operational talent.

For years, key figures like Clemis Kaikis served as the agency’s crucial grease in the gears. Kaikis wasn’t just another staffer; he was the master problem solver sent in when high-stakes disputes threatened to derail state business.

Consider the scale of the responsibility: when a massive, sensitive dispute erupted between former Comptroller Peter Franchot and the late Peter Angelos—the legendary trial attorney and billionaire owner of the Baltimore Orioles—it wasn’t a PR team or a cadre of political consultants sent to resolve it. Franchot sent Clemis Kaikis to sit down, iron out the details, and protect the state’s interests.

A professional who can navigate and settle high-stakes state business with a billionaire litigator possesses a rare, specialized operational skill set. Yet under Lierman, that deep institutional capacity has been systematically set aside, reducing seasoned problem solvers to handing out leaflets at PR events and managing community outreach.

Former Deputy Comptroller Len Foxwell, who supervised Kaikis for years and knows the inner workings of the agency better than almost anyone, put Kaikis’s role—and the tradition he represents—into sharp focus:

“Clem learned the business from William Donald Schaefer, who knew that government, politics and public service was all about the people. He understood that it wasn’t about the party insiders on West Street or the lobbyists who get together to plot over Old-Fashioneds at Harry Browne’s.

It’s about the working people of this state having the confidence that in exchange for their hard-earned money, the government would live up to its end of the bargain and deliver the best services at the lowest costs.

Clem is the embodiment of that tradition. While everyone else is sitting in taverns across town, dropping names and swapping gossip, Clem is making sure that the people are being heard and taken care of. He is the best there is.”

The core issue isn’t merely about one individual—it is about understanding what the job actually requires. Sidelining that institutional knowledge without a capable, experienced replacement in place leaves the agency rudderless. You cannot simply stop answering the phone, dodging major business accounts, and expecting the revenue to collect itself. There are precious few people in Annapolis who truly understand what it takes to resolve complex state disputes, and removing those who do betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of why the office works when it works.

The Metrics of Mismanagement

The consequences of prioritizing public relations over core operations are no longer theoretical. They are laid bare in the state’s own official performance metrics—and the numbers present the grimmest picture of the Comptroller’s office seen in decades.

When you look at the collapse in revenue collections, it demonstrates a simple truth: it isn’t enough to try and pull a rabbit out of a hat—you have to know how the rabbit got into the hat in the first place.

Enforcement and Collections Breakdown

The primary indicator of an effective tax administration is its ability to manage and collect delinquent accounts. Under the current leadership, compliance enforcement has suffered a catastrophic drop:

Delinquent Business Collections:

In Fiscal Year 2025, collections from delinquent business tax accounts cratered by 76.6%, plummeting from $254.4 million down to just $59.5 million. This represents the lowest collection level recorded in more than a decade.

Exploding Delinquencies:

Total active delinquent individual income tax cases have ballooned past 583,000.

Delinquent Business Tax Collections (Fiscal Years)

FY24: $254.4M ===================================

FY25: $59.5M ========= (-76.6%)

Frontline Service Failure

While leadership maintains a steady schedule of media opportunities and public appearances, everyday Marylanders trying to reach the agency face unprecedented friction:

Call Center Depletion:

Dedicated call-agent positions were allowed to shrink from roughly 75 down to 57, even as incoming call volumes crossed 2.4 million.

Historic Wait Times:

Average call center hold times surged past 7 minutes—the worst performance recorded in over 12 years, far surpassing the backlogs of the Franchot era.

The Office of the Taxpayer Advocate directly cited high-friction workflows and lagging response times as systemic failures. For a department tasked with serving the public, the front door is effectively locked.

An Office Used as a Stepping Stone

The root cause of this breakdown stems from an administration that views the Comptroller’s office not as a permanent responsibility requiring rigorous daily oversight, but as a convenient stepping stone toward higher political office.

While Lierman maintains a grueling schedule of public appearances and policy tours across Maryland, the day-to-day administration of her own department is left without clear operational leadership. Major technical initiatives—such as the high-risk migration to the Maryland Tax Connect system—are plagued by service cutouts and change-management friction because executive oversight is focused elsewhere.

Legislators have taken notice. The Maryland General Assembly recently stepped in through the Joint Chairmen’s Report, forcing the Comptroller’s office to hire external audit consultants to rewrite the state’s Accounting Procedures Manual and implement basic internal controls—an extraordinary rebuke for an agency whose sole job is financial oversight.

The Bottom Line

The Comptroller of Maryland is not a legislative policy committee, nor is it a campaign committee. It is the state’s central financial node.

When leadership treats the position as a political showcase, pulls master operational fixers off compliance to handle PR, and allows service metrics and enforcement revenues to fall to decade-lows, the entire state pays the price. Marylanders deserve a Comptroller who understands the mechanics of the job, respects the career professionals who keep it running, and focuses on keeping the gears turning instead of polishing a political resume.