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BALTIMORE (WBFF) — With Juneteenth celebrations approaching in Baltimore, the fifth annual Run Up to Juneteenth brought the community together Sunday at Druid Hill Park.

The event featured a 5K run and a 1-mile walk, drawing participants and volunteers from across the region. Proceeds from the race will benefit The SEED School of Maryland’s College Transition & Success Program.

Held the weekend before the AFRAM Festival, the Run Up to Juneteenth serves as the official kickoff to AFRAM’s 50th anniversary celebration.

This year, the race returned to Druid Hill Park, following AFRAM’s original routes and honoring the community runs that were once a staple of the festival.

Organizers also embraced AFRAM’s history with a 1976-themed race, encouraging participants to wear retro outfits, tube socks, headbands and other throwback attire. A prize was awarded for the best 1976-inspired look.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Texas learned of their freedom more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Baltimore’s annual Juneteenth observance includes a weeklong series of events beginning with the Run Up to Juneteenth and culminating with AFRAM, one of the East Coast’s largest African American festivals.

Additional information is available at seedschoolmd.org and aframbaltimore.com.

By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer

When Brooke Lierman became the first woman to take the Office of the Comptroller of Maryland in 2022, she promised to modernize and streamline the state’s financial systems—reducing red tape that makes it harder for Marylanders to access services, file taxes and navigate state agencies.

Her work to return more than $121 million in unclaimed property to residents, provide free tax filing to hundreds of thousands of Marylanders, ensure eligible residents take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit and increase minority business enterprise (MBE) participation in state procurement reflects a focus on efficiency and equity in state finance. For these reasons, the AFRO endorses Lierman for re-election as Maryland Comptroller. 

Take a look below at some of Lierman’s 2026 AFRO Midterm Questionnaire responses:

TOPIC: Tax Policy and Administration

• How will you modernize tax collection and compliance to be efficient without burdening small businesses or middle class families?

• What role should the Comptroller play in civic education around taxes and state Budgeting?

Lierman: Modernization has been the throughline of my first term and the standard I apply is simple: Does this make the government work better for the people it serves?

The new business tax system we launched – Maryland Tax Connect – gives Marylanders a full tax portal: one place to see everything they’ve paid, everything they owe, and everything being processed (launched for businesses in 2024, individuals in late 2025). Our new CRM, MyCOMConnect, lets individual taxpayers submit requests and get help entirely online, without needing to navigate a phone tree or wait on hold. These aren’t cosmetic upgrades. They are fundamental changes to how this agency relates to the people it serves – treating Marylanders like the customers they are, not obstacles to be managed. We’ve even launched a brand new unclaimed property system to help reunite Marylanders with their money – and we sent out $120 million to Marylanders last year.

Lierman: The Comptroller should be Maryland’s chief financial educator. Full stop.

We’ve built the infrastructure to back that up. We created an Advisory Council on Financial Education to bring together experts, community leaders, and advocates to help shape how this office teaches Marylanders about their finances and their government. Our public engagement team holds community presentations across the state explaining how tax credits work, how the state budget is built, and how every Marylander can participate in the process. Our State of the Economy and State Spending reports are written for Marylanders — not just economists.

Access matters too. Our newly redesigned website is available in English, Spanish, and Chinese, with Korean and additional languages on the way, and it meets full 508 accessibility standards – because civic education only works if everyone can actually reach it. I will continue to champion and expand this work during a second term. I know that civic trust doesn’t happen by accident; it’s built through understanding. We always have more work to do!

TOPIC: Fiscal Responsibility and Transparency

• What actions would you take if projected revenues fall short and create bigger budget deficits?

Lierman: Maryland’s revenue environment is being buffeted by forces larger than any state can fully control: federal workforce reductions, broader economic shifts, and an avalanche of policy changes coming out of Washington. My job is to make sure Maryland policymakers, businesses, and all residents see those challenges clearly. As Chair of the Board of Revenue Estimates, I’ve worked with our economists at the Bureau of Revenue Estimates to modernize our forecasting methodology, build in new risk scenarios, and issue interim updates when conditions shift significantly, rather than waiting for the calendar to catch up with reality. 

When Congress moved the One Big Beautiful Bill, we produced a 60-day analysis showing how that federal action would reshape Maryland’s fiscal outlook and taxes. That kind of responsive, plain-language analysis is what voters deserve from this office and I’m proud we are able to deliver it. Going forward, I will keep doing that work and keep finding new ways to make sure both Marylanders and their elected leaders understand what the numbers actually mean for their lives.

TOPIC: Ethics, Campaign Finance, and Influence 

• Do you support public financing reforms for state offices to limit big money influence? 

Lierman: Yes – without hesitation. Big-money politics distorts who runs for office, who wins, and who gets listened to once someone is elected. Public financing fixes that. It lets candidates spend their time talking to voters instead of courting large donors, and it opens the door to candidates who actually reflect the full diversity of Maryland communities. I supported public financing as a Delegate, and I’ll continue pushing for its expansion to statewide and local offices. I also support ranked choice voting as a tool to strengthen democratic participation and reduce the outsized influence of extreme or well-funded factions. A healthier representative democracy isn’t just good for voters – it produces better governance. 

AFRO Intern Morgan Carpenter contributed this report.

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