Director said, it is a certainty that many of them must be turned down.
Otherwise, the government will go broke.

Governor Abraham Ribicoff, of Connecticut, put it this way: "We
must have the guts to say 'no'. There is no big bag of money; it always
comes from the people. "

But in my opinion it takes more than just the courage to say 'no'. It
takes the wisdom to say 'no' when 'no' is the right answer and to say
'yes' when 'yes' is the right answer.

The topic assigned to me here, I believe, was "Maryland as it is
Today, " and it was at the suggestion of one of our group that I decided
to talk about taxes and money matters and the financial condition of
your State.

The State of Maryland is in reasonably good financial condition at the
present time, I am pleased to report to you. It has a sound and stable tax
structure, which, with the rising economy, is producing revenues in
sufficient amounts to take care of our requirements. We have escaped
budgetary crises such as have plagued many other states, and the pros-
pects are good that we will continue to escape them. We will avoid
crises, however, only if we pursue a proper course, with prudent spend-
ing and sound financing in general. In times of great prosperity, we must
spurn the temptation to overspend.

During periods of plenty, there is always a great danger of what is
termed in the area of government financing as surplus financing—of
treating surpluses that accumulate in the treasury as though they were
current revenues and increasing the level of government spending to the
point that eventually new taxes will have to be imposed to support new
programs initiated with surplus funds. The urge to splurge when times
are good is resisted by the prudent state the same as it is by the prudent
individual. These broad principles of sound financing we shall keep in
mind as we prepare the fiscal program for next year.

As I have said, Maryland is in a healthy condition financially at the
present time. With economic recovery, we ended the 1959 fiscal year
with a surplus, and all reports indicate that the surplus probably will be
substantially increased by the end of this fiscal year. This is gratifying,
of course, but we still must proceed with great caution. We must not
allow ourselves to become too exuberant in this year of relative pros-
perity.... In the preparation of this budget—and in the preparation of
all future budgets, for that matter—we must muster the courage to say
'no' when circumstances demand such an answer.

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