848 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

Q. Governor, you called the program....

A. Well it's my lax bill and nobody has ever let me forget it and
I am proud of it. I have said that before. I'm not proud of the esti-
mates that were made, but after all we have to rely upon our pro-
fessional help to come up with that type of information. The Comp-
troller loses sight of the fact that under the Constitution he is charged
not just with collecting the money, as he likes to say, but with revenue
planning and investigating the sources and making such recommen-
dations. I intend to let him know, by way of a letter shortly, that he
has broader responsibilities than simply ringing the cash register over
there. And I'd like to know what his plans are, as a matter of fact,
for getting us out of this fiscal dilemma that we are in, because it is
his constitutional responsibility to propose such plans. I think I may
have the wording, right here — I'm not sure. Article VI, Section 2.
As a matter of fact, there is a statement by the Comptroller to the
1967 Constitutional Convention in which he admits himself that un-
der Article VI, Section 2 of the present Constitution — that's the old
Constitution — the Comptroller of the Treasury, elected for a four
year term by the voters of Maryland, is charged with providing vital
fiscal management. The Constitution itself, under Article VI, Section
2, says the Comptroller is specifically given general superintendence of
the fiscal affairs of the State, and he is required to digest and prepare
plans for the improvement and management of the State's revenues.
Now he's never sent me any of those plans. I hope to get them from
him shortly.

Q. Do you consider that fiscal mismanagement on the Comptroller's
part?

A. I can't say that at this point because I haven't even been able to
determine from the reports that I have had what's wrong with the
estimates and we're still trying to find that out. Obviously there's
been an error somewhere, and a 10% error is a pretty good error.
It's a pretty bad error, an error of good amount.

Q. Governor, do you think then that the blame for the mistaken
estimate at some point lies in the Comptroller's office? In other words,
the fault for the misinformation lies with the Comptroller or his
staff?

A. Well, I think that you've got to look at the facts, and if you look
at the facts you'll find that on February 18 the Comptroller's office
estimated through the Board of Revenue Estimates that the income
tax was going to yield, as I recall, $296 million. And just a few