Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot on Monday defended his need for two deputy comptrollers who earn significantly more than top assistants in other state departments as lawmakers consider $700,000 in budget cuts to his office.

A House of Delegates committee reviewed seven recommended cuts on Monday, including $400,000 for a private tax-collection agency, but do not appear poised to eliminate Franchot’s deputies, as the comptroller predicted last week. Franchot on Thursday accused Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller of planning “draconian cuts” to his office in retaliation for his opposition to slot machines.

Franchot will face a Senate committee today.

“My comments stand,” Franchot said after Monday’s hearing. “I always expect the budget to be reviewed in a professional manner and I think that’s what we saw today. I anticipate the same in the Senate tomorrow.”

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Franchot met resistance when, after being elected in 2006, he added a second deputy and increased both salaries to $150,000. Franchot’s predecessor, William Donald Schaefer, had one deputy who earned $128,000.

Most state agencies employee one deputy chief, with an average salary of $123,000, state analysts said.

Analysts told lawmakers Thursday that the changes in Franchot’s executive office come at the expense of other comptroller divisions.

Del. Charles Barkley, a Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the subcommittee reviewing Franchot’s budget in the House, said Franchot’s deputies earns as much as Gov. Martin O’Malley and more than several of the governor’s Cabinet secretaries.

“We’ve got to look at how your staff stacks up to other agencies,” Barkley said.

Franchot said that the salaries are competitive with the federal and private sectors, and that he credits his office’s success to the deputies.

Franchot and Miller, the legislature’s most vocal supporter of slots, have publicly feuded on other issues including an expansion of the state sales tax to include computer services, which Franchot opposes.

Franchot called a news conference Thursday and accused Miller of “ruthless political meddling.” In response, Miller called Franchot “an embarrassment to the state of Maryland.”

Aside from the contracted tax-collection service, Franchot said he agreed with analysts’ other recommended cuts.

jmalarkey@baltimoreexaminer.com