Maryland is one of the nation’s most generous purveyors of taxpayer-funded freebies, so it should come as no surprise that the state also has the highest rate of growth of any of the 50 states in a controversial federal program that provides “free” cellphone service to low-income residents. Of course, the cellphones aren’t really free. Everybody with a cellphone pays a $1 to $2 universal service surcharge each month.

More than 10 million cellphones have been handed out as part of the fraud-riddled $2.2 billion Lifeline program, which initially began in the 1980s as a $819 million subsidy to help low-income families maintain landline phone service in case of an emergency. But, as happens with all such well-intentioned programs, this one grew like crazy — with perverse incentives for cell phone companies that directly profited from the subsidy, and no real way to screen out ineligible recipients, who signed up for multiple phones and sold them on eBay.