Here’s a few government and politics headlines for Friday:

• The Baltimore Sun reports on projects that will be paid for by the gas tax increase enacted on Thursday.
• The Baltimore Business Journal reports Penn National Gaming Inc. may be able to hold two Maryland casino licenses at the same time.
• The Washington Post reports Maryland’s legislative hearing on the Baltimore Detention Center will take place June 6.
• MarylandReporter.com reports that some state workers doubled their salary through overtime last year.
• The Annapolis Capital reports Del. Steve Schuh has been elected chairman of Anne Arundel County’s state delegation, replacing new House Minority Leader Nic Kipke.

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The Eye on Annapolis Podcast returns with a look at two of our favorite topics: casinos and elections.

Alex and I discuss the three bids for a Prince George’s County casino and why many believe any of the options would become one of the most successful in the mid-Atlantic.

We also look ahead to the 2014 gubernatorial election and the challenges presumptive candidate Doug Gansler would face against Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown in the Democratic primary plus sort out some Republican candidates.

Enjoy.

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Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, Gov. Martin O'Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot at a Board of Public Works meeting in 2008 (Maximilian Franz/The Daily Record)

Gov. Martin O’Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot have shared a number of tense moments at Board of Public Works meetings over the last couple of years.

But on Wednesday, Franchot offered something of an olive branch: a check for $271 dollars from the comptroller’s unclaimed property division.

The check — apparently a royalty from O’Malley’s cameo appearance as Baltimore’s mayor in “Ladder 49″ (a 2004 film starring Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta) — made O’Malley the 7,001st Marylander to find unclaimed property this year.

“This is the first thing you’ve ever given me,” O’Malley said, later adding he’d donate the money to charity.

By law, businesses are required to notify the comptroller of property that has gone unclaimed for more than three years, including bank accounts, security deposits, wages and insurance benefits and contents of safe deposit boxes.

Franchot’s office devised a marketing campaign this year that called the comptroller “The Most Interesting Man in Maryland” — spoofing a long-running Dos Equis beer commercial campaign — complete with a catchphrase: “I don’t always lose property, but when I do, I prefer to search at marylandtaxes.com.”

The planned exchange with O’Malley was meant to further promote the program, which the comptroller’s office says has returned $261 million to 260,000 tax payers since Franchot took office in 2007.

“I’ll concede the point if you don’t think I’m the most interesting man in Maryland,” Franchot said.

O’Malley — though he wondered how The Walt Disney Co. could loose track of him in his move from Baltimore to Annapolis considering his name is on every sign in the state — was happy to call Franchot the state’s most interesting man, a good-humored compliment that Franchot later said he hoped O’Malley would remember one day in the White House’s Oval Office, a reference to O’Malley’s presidential ambition.

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If any employees working for the Comptroller of Maryland conducted themselves as some Internal Revenue Service employees apparently did, Comptroller Peter Franchot knows exactly how he would handle it.

“If something like this happens at my agency, I would fire any employee within a country mile of it,” Franchot said Tuesday. “When I walk into the Treasury Building, I check my politics at the door.”

U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday announced there would be a criminal investigation of the IRS’ apparent targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

Good, Franchot said.

“It is incomprehensible to me that just a small number of low level bureaucrats were responsible for this,” he said. “It’s really distressing for me to read about this.”

The comptroller — Maryland’s tax collector — said the IRS ought to be the one government agency in no way entangled in politics. If citizens begin to doubt that, it would be “incredibly unfortunate.”

“I take it personally, because that’s the responsibility I have,” Franchot said. “It’s the one agency that needs to be beyond reproach … We would fire anybody and everybody.”

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Here’s a few government and politics headlines for Tuesday:

• MarylandReporter.com reports that about 6 percent of state employees earn more than $100,000 a year.
• The Daily Record report Sen. Bobby Zirkin, a key vote during the General Assembly’s debate to repeal the death penalty, will seek re-election.
• The Annapolis Capital reports Del. Don Dwyer will plead guilty to drunken boating.
• The Daily Record reports on Baltimore legislation that would require some contractors to hire city residents.

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Penn National Gaming Inc. intends to install at least 3,000 slot machines at Rosecroft Raceway if it wins the right to operate a casino in Prince George’s County, even though the company paid an initial licensing fee to the state that only covers 500 slots.

State law requires companies bidding on casino licenses to submit an initial license fee of $3 million per every 500 proposed slot machines. Penn National’s $3 million fee was dwarfed by MGM Resorts International Inc. ($21.6 million for 3,600 slots) and Greenwood Racing Inc. ($28.5 million for 4,750 slots).

A Penn National spokeswoman said Monday the company only provided a licensing fee for 500 machines because it felt unsure the full fee would be refunded if the company was not awarded the license for the Prince George’s casino.

Karen Bailey, the spokeswoman, said Penn National did the same thing when it bid to operate what is now Hollywood Casino Perryville in Cecil County. If Penn National is awarded the casino license, Bailey said the company would pay the remaining license fee.

Companies are able to revise their proposals as the state Video Lottery Facility Location Commission reviews bids, but are not guaranteed the ability to increase the number of slot machines from their original proposal.

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Here’s a few government and politics headlines for Monday:

• The Annapolis Capital reports the state may buy the Annapolis Post Office.
• The Washington Post reports that Gov. Martin O’Malley has officially endorsed his lieutenant, Anthony G. Brown, for governor.
• The Gazette reports on a rift between the Montgomery Democratic Party and some organized labor.

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Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown announced his candidacy for governor Friday afternoon, becoming the first in a potentially crowded field of Democratic candidates to officially begin campaigning for 2014.

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (File Photo)

“Today, I’m asking you to join me to build on our successes, to take on our next challenges, to make Maryland better for more Marylanders,” Brown said in a statement released by his campaign committee.

And while Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler did not rush to join Brown — Gansler has said he may announce his candidacy this fall — his campaign team didn’t waste time in responding to the start of Brown’s run.

“Marylanders expect their governors to be leaders who work for them and have a record of real accomplishments to prove it,” said Doug Thornell, Gansler’s campaign strategist. “Doug has led as attorney general and will continue to work on behalf of families across Maryland to get things done.”

Brown — who would become Maryland’s first African American governor if elected — has said his priorities as governor would be fighting disparities in health and education. He was Gov. Martin O’Malley’s point person on implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act and also championed legislation to make it easier for businesses to enter into long-term deals with the state.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (File Photo)

Detractors point out that Brown, as O’Malley’s deputy, has overseen numerous tax increases, including an income tax hike last year and a gas tax increase this year.

Brown, the highest-ranking government official in the nation to have served a tour of duty in Iraq, will have plenty of opportunities to answer that criticism over the next year and a half. His campaign kick-off continues Saturday, with visits to Frederick, Baltimore and Silver Spring.

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Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (Maximilian Franz/The Daily Record)

At a cookout in his home county of Prince George’s, Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown will officially begin his campaign for governor Friday.

Brown, who has served as dutiful deputy to Gov. Martin O’Malley since 2006, plans to start his kickoff tour in Largo this afternoon, with stops in Frederick, Baltimore and Silver Spring coming Saturday. O’Malley is expected to join Brown in Baltimore.

The lieutenant governor is slated to become the first in a potentially crowded field of Democratic hopefuls, including Howard County Executive Ken Ulman (who could instead join Brown’s ticket), Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, U.S. Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and Del. Heather R. Mizeur of Montgomery County.

In his announcement speech, Brown is expected to talk about fighting disparities in health care, education and employment while also encouraging infrastructure investment, The Washington Post reported Friday. If elected, he would become the first African American governor in Maryland’s history.

Potential Republican candidates for governor include Harford County Executive David R. Craig, Frederick County Board of County Commissioners President Blaine R. Young, Del. Ronald A. George of Anne Arundel County and Larry Hogan, chairman of Change Maryland and a former cabinet secretary for Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1 in Maryland.

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A smuggling scandal involving gang members and correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center followed Gov. Martin O’Malley to a feel-good event at the Port of Baltimore Wednesday, where the governor was asked about the scandal by a national television crew.

Telling reporters that his administration inherited a corruption-laden correctional system that “we’ve been cleaning … up ever since,” O’Malley said something had to be done about inmates’ gaining access to cell phones.

On Thursday, the governor articulated his plan in a statement released just over an hour before House of Delegates Republicans again blasted O’Malley for the smuggling operation that revolved around drugs, sex and money in Baltimore.

“We have zero tolerance for corruption,” O’Malley said in a statement. “When members of murder networks are behind bars, the public has every right to expect that they will be prevented from committing further crimes.”

The statement went on to say that new technology was being installed to block contraband cell phone usage, enhancing security, and reviewing Correctional Officers’ Bill of Rights and how those officers can be disciplined.

O’Malley also said he would back previously failed legislation that would have made smuggling a cell phone into a correctional facility a felony.

That wasn’t enough for House Republicans, who on Thursday faulted the O’Malley administration for rampant corruption at Maryland’s jails and prisons.

“House Republicans are disappointed by inaction on this issue. It took days to hear from the administration and hearings to address this scandal have been pushed off until next month,” Minority Leader Nicholaus R. Kipke, R-Anne Arundel, said in a statement. “We encourage the Legislative Policy Committee to conduct a full investigation into all state correctional facilities that will identify ways we can work together to finally take action. While prison reform may not be a hot issue for a presidential campaign, it must be a priority for the State of Maryland.”

Leading lawmakers are expected to be briefed on the scandal at a June hearing, for which a final date has not been set. A task force will then likely be formed to explore legislative remedies to some of the problems identified at the briefing.

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