Maryland’s missing $1.4B is no minor accounting error

The late Everett Dirksen, the conservative Republican who served as Senate minority leader in the 1960s, reportedly once said the following: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” Such gallows humor provided a small comfort while reviewing the latest state legislative audit, which revealed that the Maryland Department of Health can’t account for about $1.4 billion it received from the federal government during the final three years of Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration.