Maryland Official Pushes For State Funded $2K Stimulus Checks Using The State’s Rainy Day Fund

State comptroller Peter Franchot wants Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and other state officials to approve a $1 billion relief plan that would pull money from the state’s Rainy Day Fund.

According to The Hill, Franchot stressed that the Rainy Day Fund was “designed per its name for a crisis just like the one we’re in right now.” Franchot suggests that state officials distribute $750 million to its residents and $250 million to restaurants and small businesses.

“It’s not only raining outside,” he said, according to CBS affiliate WUSA9. “It’s also a tornado, a hailstorm, a hurricane and a tsunami all at once.”

According to the proposed plan, Maryland residents who make $50,000 or less in a year would qualify for the $2,000 direct payment. Couples that collectively make less than $100,000 will also be eligible to receive a check.

“The key thing with state aid is that we can get it to people. Federal aid is a bureaucratic maze,” Franchot told Fox Baltimore.

We have thousands of our fellow Marylanders out of work, struggling to pay their rent, and to put food on the table. We have thousands of small businesses — the backbone of our state’s economy — that have already closed down for good, and thousands more barely hanging on. (2/3)

— Comptroller Peter Franchot (@peterfranchot) December 28, 2020