When President Donald Trump began his second term, Maryland officials decided to use taxpayer money to prepare for his administration — and now questions are being raised about what those taxpayers received in return.“More than a year after Maryland paid roughly $240,000 in taxpayer funds to Accenture to help prepare for a second Trump presidency, there is still no public record of what the firm produced or what taxpayers received in return,” reported WBFF’s “Spotlight on Maryland” on Thursday. The report elaborated that the state contract ostensibly existed to help Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, prepare for and respond to Trump’s policy changes. Yet there is a catch.“… [W]hen Spotlight on Maryland asked the governor’s office to provide any reports, findings or outcomes tied to the work and to explain how the contract benefited taxpayers, the office did not respond,” WBFF reported. “The lack of transparency is drawing scrutiny from policy experts, who say the public has a right to understand how taxpayer money is used.”“My understanding of the project is that they’re looking at what are the likely administrative actions, executive orders, congressional legislation and how will this directly impact the state of Maryland,” said Washington College political science associate professor Flavio Hickel, adding that “the Trump administration is moving extremely quickly and rapidly to very different topics and very different battles.” But Sage Policy Group economist Anirban Basu offered a contrary perspective. “I have no problem at all with a public official hiring consultants. That happens all the time,” Basu said. Yet the lack of transparency means the public cannot guarantee that its interests are being served.“It may exist internally,” Basu said of hard data about the program’s efficacy. “But it wasn’t for the people of Maryland, because we haven’t seen it.” He also said that it could become a problem for Moore’s administration if the money was spent inappropriately, particularly on political consulting.“To the extent that Accenture is helping that part of the equation,” Basu said, “that does not benefit the taxpayer of Maryland.”WBFF thus concluded their report by posing a question:“For now, experts say, that leaves a fundamental question unanswered,” WBFF asked. “What did Maryland taxpayers get for $240,000?”Trump has previously showed animosity toward Gov. Moore, with MS NOW commentator Jason Johnson speculating in February that Trump refused to invite Moore to the annual National Governors’ Association (NGA) event because Moore is Black and the other snubbed governor, Jared Polis of Colorado, is gay.”Trump has a history of racist and homophobic rhetoric and behavior,” Johnson wrote, “but his exclusion of these two governors from an event that’s been open to all governors is a new and dangerous low even for him…. The absurdity of Trump’s explanations only add to suspicions that his bigotries played a big role in these snubs. After all, we’ve seen those bigotries play a role in just about everything else Trump does. It was just this month that he shared a video depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as apes.”He added, “And even though Trump didn’t exclude the lesbian governors of Oregon and Massachusetts from Saturday’s scheduled White House event, there’s also no denying his anti-LGBTQ animus. His 2024 campaign attack ad that claimed ‘Kamala is for They/Them and Donald Trump is for You,’ wasn’t a dog whistle — it was an air raid siren that anyone could hear.”
Israel presses ahead with Lebanon strikes as talks loom
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