NEWS CONFERENCE 577

I've already voiced an objection to single member districts on the
basis that it's an incentive to parochialism and leads to abuses be-
cause of the small number of registered voters who absolutely control
the political destiny of an individual in office. We exchanged our
viewpoints and I suggested that the compromise that's already been
proposed was a good one, the premise of having districts composed of
one senator and three delegates. This, I think, meets their very legiti-
mate objection to very large districts composed of as many as eight
delegates, and yet does away with the disadvantages of a single mem-
ber district.

Q. How would this affect Montgomery County which has sixteen
delegates now?

A. It would mean that in each voting district there would be no
more than three delegates.

Q. Governor, the General Fund requests prior to the revenue esti-
mates are about 33 percent over last year's appropriations. At this
point, what would this increase have to be trimmed in order to bal-
ance the budget?

A. It's my recollection, without having verified these figures, I've
heard it said that based on our latest estimates 15% would be the
maximum increase that could be handled. I'm not sure that is en-
tirely accurate because these things fit into Federally financed pro-
grams and in other ways that might make this figure an over-simpli-
fication. But I think it's substantially less, of course, than what's been
proposed. Again I would like to emphasize that even though we may
have to cut back a lot further than we would like to in the realm of
some very vital programs, if future revenue estimates indicate that
the Comptroller has been too pessimistic in his prognostications, then
I think we may be able by supplemental budget to restore some of the
more critically cut funds.

Q. How do you see the Special Funds revenue picture?

A. We are expecting to make some decisions based on the Redding
Committee Report of the highway situation and of course the busi-
ness tax structure reforms are already in hand. These to some extent
involve Special Funds and to some extent General Funds. As far as
the highway picture is concerned, I think we are in bad shape because
of the jockeying around with the Federal picture. We still don't
know where we stand entirely with regard to the cuts and abridgments
of Federal highway money that the President through the Secretary of