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Call it the $956,000 question.

That is how much Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. has in his campaign war chest in his latest filing with the state Board of Elections.

The question: What does he plan to do with it?

While the widely held belief is that Smith will challenge incumbent Peter V.R. Franchot in the Democratic primary for comptroller, inquiring minds want to hear it from the man himself.

Members of the Committee for Montgomery — a coalition of business, civic, labor, education and community-based organization leaders Smith visited Monday morning in Rockville — asked twice, in different ways, about the county executive's future aspirations after he terms out next year.

"I'm looking at getting involved at the state level. Exactly what I'm going to do, it's a little early to announce anything," Smith told the gathering.

Smith said he is attending meetings of chambers of commerce and civic groups as he had in his first run for office in 1978, when he was elected to the Baltimore County Council. Only this time, the meetings are across Maryland and Smith is raising money along the way, fueling speculation that he could make a run for statewide office.

"He's term-limiting out, Jim Smith is, in Baltimore County [and he] has almost a million dollars, so that the notion is he will run for something, and most people believe it will be comptroller," Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) said during an interview last week on WTOP radio in Washington.

"I'm really doing a lot of groundwork to get myself familiar with the state," Smith told Committee for Montgomery members. "I am interested in staying involved in public life."

"It sounds like he is on his listening tour," said Ellen Bogage, a public affairs consultant who serves on the committee.

For a listening tour, Smith did most of the talking Monday morning in Rockville.

It wasn't so much a stump speech as that of a lawyer making his case — an appropriate tack for Smith, whose career includes four years as a deputy public defender in Baltimore County and 15 years as a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge sandwiched around seven years on the Baltimore County Council.

Since being elected county executive in 2002, Smith has won praise for his fiscal stewardship.

For example, the fiscal 2007 operating budget Smith recommended included a 10 percent increase in spending. But more than 5 percent of the $146.1 million increase over fiscal 2006 came in the form of ongoing expenses, mostly for county employee salaries. Another $193 million in one-time increases included $23 million for cash contributions to the capital budget.

"The county's been really smart about growth issues," said Barbara A. Hoffman, a former Senate Budget and Taxation Committee chairwoman turned lobbyist, whose district once included part of Baltimore County.

Under Smith, the county has funneled growth to areas like White Marsh and Owings Mills, while preserving rural areas, she said.

"They have a growing tax base. I mean, they got lucky," Hoffman said.

But, she added, "After eight years, [Smith] can take credit. Part of it is the luck of geography and having the land to expand. Part of it is they've developed employment centers because they are a suburban community."

The ability to grow helped the county transform the Hunt Valley Mall into the Hunt Valley Towne Centre. That redevelopment attracted the first Wegmans supermarket in the state.

"In a way, it's like they say: location, location, location," Hoffman said.

Sen. James Brochin of Towson praised Smith's fiscal sense.

"He's done a good job in tough budgetary times," Brochin (D-Dist. 42) said. "I certainly wish at the same time that he'd been more open to building new schools."

Brochin said it was a "fight" to get a new West Towson Elementary School built — an effort that ultimately proved successful after parents protested Smith's plan to address overcrowding by building additions to existing schools.

Despite Baltimore County having the state's second-oldest school stock, Smith has been reluctant to build new schools, often preferring additions or tearing down and rebuilding on existing sites. In one high-profile episode, Smith abandoned plans to expand Loch Raven High School after the issue made its way before the state Board of Public Works.

Brochin and Smith also have squared off over the years on various issues, from local legislation to transfer liquor licenses to building Towson University student housing near Towson's town center.

Still, Brochin is one of the many who give Smith high marks for his budget acumen, which allowed him to propose, at a time when many governments are considering layoffs, a 2 percent cost-of-living pay increase to county and school employees.

The budget is "definitely his strength," said Brochin, a possible county executive candidate. "He's got good people in place. They've been conservative and held the tax rate."

But holding the tax rate has been done through fancy accounting at the expense of county taxpayers, said Ann Miller, a budget hawk and Baltimore County Republican Central Committee member from Phoenix.

"I think that he tends to cater to special interests," Miller said. "I think he puts a lot of pressure on our County Council to come up with new revenue sources to meet his budget needs. And a lot of times that is unfairly borne on the backs of our property owners through property taxes."

Baltimore County Councilman Kevin B. Kamenetz defended Smith, whom he said "has carried on the strong fiscal management tradition that we have in Baltimore County."

"To his credit, he took it a step further in reforming county employee health care and the pension program, a task done before any other county in the state," said Kamenetz (D-Dist. 2) of Owings Mills, a 15-year council veteran who is considering a run for county executive.

"I think he's well-regarded," said Frederick County Commission President Jan H. Gardner, who preceded Smith as president of the Maryland Association of Counties, a post he held in 2008. "He can build consensus and really solve problems."

Smith's consensus-building was on display before the Committee for Montgomery.

Smith compared his county to Montgomery, which is slightly ahead of Baltimore County on state lists ranking population (Baltimore County is third behind Prince George's County) and top wage earners.

Despite the similarities, the suburban counties — home of the state's population centers — are often seen as engaged in a political tug of war for state dollars and power in Annapolis.

It doesn't have to be that way, Smith said.

"We can collaborate on a lot of different things at the state level, because we're similar in a lot of ways," Smith said.

Committee for Montgomery Chairwoman Rebecca Strandberg, who represents the Bar Association of Montgomery County, said she thought Smith would make a good candidate for statewide office.

Strandberg said Smith was "pragmatic, realistic and, yet, not negative."

"He also realized, which is very important, that we're all in this together."

Smith says his focus is still on Baltimore County for the 20 months he has left in office.

"There has to be an optimal time when you can turn your attention to the next thing," Hoffman said.

That will not likely happen until candidates to succeed Smith begin declaring and Baltimore County voters are ready to move on, she said.

Until then, "he's doing what he has to do right now," Hoffman said. "He's raising money and he's talking to people. But he doesn't have to announce."