Marvin Mandel, Governor                  1919

This bill provides that the State Roads Commission shall each
year, by October 1 and in election years by November 13, report to and
brief the Montgomery County State Delegates, Senators, County
Executive and County Council on the highway construction and recon-
struction program for that County. This bill further requires that the
State Delegates, Senators, County Executive and County Council con-
duct a public hearing on the program with at least one Commission
representative in attendance.

The Chairman of the State Roads Commission has written to me,
requesting that I veto the bill. His objections to the bill, as set forth in
his letter, are as follows:

"We believe it unlikely that this proposed Bill would remain
limited to only one county. At a minimum, all of the metropolitan
counties would probably desire equal consideration. Since the
legislation implies a desire for rather detailed data on each and
every subject, including maps and diagrams, with costs and com-
ments on traffic and social and environmental impacts, added per-
sonnel and additional expenditures will be required."

"The scheduling of the annual review of the Highway Con-
struction Program with the County Delegation and the format of
the presentation are items which we feel can be worked out by
agreement with the Secretary of Transportation just as effec-
tively as through legislation. The holding of public hearings on
the program would appear to be entirely a matter of determina-
tion by the County Delegation and one which they, the Council
and the County Executive would prefer not to have determined
and fixed as to the time by legislative action."

"Heretofore, the estimate of highway user revenues available
to the State Roads Commission for development of its budget were
generally not available until about October of each year. With
other agencies, such as the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles and
the State Police, totally or partially financed from highway user
revenues, their budget needs had to be determined before a de-
termination could be made as to the balances which would be avail-
able for use by the State Roads Commission. Only then could an
allocation be made to each of the Counties and a program of State
highway improvements matching the allocations be prepared.
With 23 Counties involved it became impractical to have programs
developed by October 1 of each year."

"Considering that all transportation agencies are being com-
bined under the State Department of Transportation with re-
sponsibility for developing a balanced transportation plan and
establishing priority of needs for the various modes of trans-
portation and recognizing that new budgeting procedures for each
of the transportation agencies will be involved, it would appear
unrealistic and premature to attempt to legislate a time schedule
and procedure for annual review and discussion of the construc-
tion program with each of the Counties."

In view of the foregoing, I have decided to comply with the re-
quest of the Chairman and veto House Bill 863.

Sincerely,
/s/ Marvin Mandel,

Governor.