Comptroller Peter Franchot got called on the carpet by the Senate budget committee last week, with a focus on his three deputy comptrollers who each make $151,210. One of the positions is new, andonly one of the three directly supervises most of the 1,100 employees in the agency who collect $20 billion in taxes each year.

Lawmakers are none too happy with former Del. Franchot. He has heaped scorn on the tax hikes and slots legislation they passed in November, yet offered precious little in the way of revenue solutions to a structural deficit. But his deputies are likely to survive the scrutiny, partly because Franchot made such a pre-emptive fuss about the prospect of them being cut.