William H. Campbell made the two hour trek down to Baynet Radio and TheBAYNET.com to introduce his candidacy and his position on a number of issues in a recent interview. The Republican candidate for Maryland Comptroller stated that “I am running because I don’t want my children and grandchildren to have to move away from Maryland because there are no jobs.”
Campbell has served for two decades as a Chief Financial Officer in large, complex organizations, and has been responsible for annual budgets of up to $65 billion. “This is approximately two times larger than the Maryland State budget,” said Campbell.
He served as the Assistant Secretary for Management and CFO for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, CFO for the U.S. Coast Guard, and CFO for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. He was a Director in the Federal CFO Advisory Services practice at KPMG LLP in Washington, DC.
“The National financial crisis has exposed the fragile condition of Maryland’s economy. Two decades of job losses and budgetary tricks by the General Assembly and Democratic Governors have clearly demonstrated that Maryland is living beyond its means,” said Campbell. “While our households and businesses are struggling to remain solvent, our political leaders continue to spend lavishly and raise taxes to alarming heights.”
Campbell went on to say that the Comptroller is the State’s Chief Financial Officer who is responsible for the collection of revenue to pay for government operations, and plays a crucial role in every dollar that the State spends.” As a member of numerous Boards, the Comptroller can ensure that Maryland’s citizens receive good value for every dollar expended. A successful Comptroller must be an experienced, accomplished financial executive who has improved financial performance and stewardship in financially distressed organizations.”
The self-employed business and financial consultant said that recent independent studies show that Maryland has been severely underfunding its employee pension plans for years, and they are in dire shape. “In Fact, Maryland has only 64 percent of the funding needed to cover its obligations, while private sector firms are required to fund defined benefit pension plans to 92 percent by Federal law.”
Campbell stated that although there are $34 billion invested in the State retirement accounts they are underfunded by at least $18 billion. “When combined with other post employment benefits the figure balloons to $33 billion.As the Vice Chair of the Maryland State Employee Retirement and Pension Board, the incumbent Comptroller has not rectified the situation.”
The candidate stated that when he faced a similar crisis at Amtrak, he found ways to economize in other areas and fully funded its pension plan. “In addition, I replaced the management of the employee 401 K plan to provide better investment choices and reduce fees to the employees.”
If successful in his effort to become Maryland’s next Comptroller, Campbell plans to promote tax policies that strengthen the private sector to create sustainable job growth that will allow Marylanders to provide for their futures. “I will work to streamline the State’s individual and business tax system to promote fairness and transparency and to use the Comptroller’s role as Maryland’s Chief Financial Officer to influence the Governor and General Assembly to provide critical tax relief to individuals and businesses. This tax relief can only be done if funded by significant programmatic
