crease needed to finance improvements in education, health and hos-
pitals, employees retirement and social security, mental hygiene, correc-
tion, natural resources and recreation and salary adjustments for school
teachers and State employees....
In formulating our fiscal policy... we bear in mind at all times that
adequate governmental services to the citizens of the State must be
provided by all levels of government—State, county, and municipal.
Counties and municipalities are creatures of the State—political sub-
divisions which have been granted a charter of authority from the State
to carry on certain limited governmental functions. The State, as cre-
ator, is therefore ultimately responsible for the kind of government the
counties and municipalities provide. And thus, the State has the respon-
sibility to make sure that the local governments have taxing and other
powers sufficient to make it possible for them to carry out their functions.
Committees of the Legislative Council and groups appointed by me
are studying the problem of the relationship of the State and the local
subdivisions in providing the governmental services required by our
citizens. The studies embrace such questions as public education, the
distribution of highway funds, local health funds, local revenue sources
and State-shared revenues. Emphasis has been placed by my Adminis-
tration upon a continuing study of the needs for services, both at the
State and the local level, and of the resources available to defray the
cost of providing these needs.
I cannot stress too much the importance of long-range planning in all
this. It is the keystone of my fiscal policy. We look far ahead in Mary-
land, believing it to be the only effective way to provide all the essential
governmental services at the lowest cost to the taxpayer.
REMARKS ON THE 1962-63 BUDGET
February 6, 1962
Today, I have submitted to the General Assembly my program for the
financial operation of the State government for the fiscal year which
begins next July 1.
This budget, the fourth of my term, calls for a total fund appropria-
tion of $554, 678, 069, of which amount $273, 146, 408 represents appro-
priations from general funds. In this budget, revenues and expenditures
are balanced without increasing taxes, and thus, the goal I set at the
540
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