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rating may be reduced as it was in the
State of New York and then come back
as it had been in other jurisdictions. Mary-
land has enjoyed a triple "A" rating over
a long period of time. One of the reasons
we have had this triple "A" rating is the
fact that you take into consideration the
overall picture relating to the management
of Maryland finances. Not one of the indi-
vidual parts is determinative but the whole
concept of the financial structure is what
determines what that rate shall be. It is
guarded jealously by those who hold high
political office and they do so because this
more than anything else is the real bash
of good administration. One of the im-
portant aspects is how much you have out-
standing in all of your bond issues? How
much are you paying each year? How have
you spread it out and over how many
years is it being spread out? For what pur-
pose is it being spent and all of the mat-
ters which generally go into a consideration
of whether or not you are doing good
management.
Now, one of the items that we have had
in the Constitution has been this require-
ment that Maryland shall issue, pay by a
tax which is a tax on real estate, pay the
interest and the principal each year. For
more than 40 years that I know of, a lot
of us, many of whom are sitting here in
this room, have been engaged in one aspect
of public work where we are hoping that
we will see the day when the real estate
tax will not be used as the base by the
State for any of its taxation.
After all, the counties and the political
subdivisions have seen nearly everything
they have in the way of a base for taxation
taken away from them and preempted
either by the federal government or by the
state government. They have watched their
own real estate tax get to a point where it
was having an adverse effect on the coun-
ties and the political subdivisions below
them, namely, the city.
And in report after report, going back
for more than 40 years, efforts have been
made to take the State out of the real es-
tate taxing picture. Now the very first
recommendation of our Committee and a
recommendation of the Constitutional Con-
vention Commission, the Eney Commission,
is that this be done and the way in which
it is being done is following the procedure
adopted in New York and elsewhere, that
the State of Maryland pledge its unlimited
taxing power behind each bond issue and
in so doing says to the people who buy the
bonds, we are not now from this point on
adopting a separate real estate tax for this
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purpose but everything we have, all of our
taxing power, all of our state assets that
are available stand behind this bond issue.
This, however, is not enough. You may
pledge all of this, but it is not enough.
There must be the provision for that day
which might come, we hope never, but it
could, when the legislature for some reason
did not appropriate the money with which
to pay the interest and the amortization
in that current year to pay off the bonds
which are due or the interest which is due
that particular year. You could not sell
your bonds unless you went one step fur-
ther and that is that you must provide
that out of the money which comes into
your state treasury, you will make avail-
able the money with which to pay the in-
terest and the principal due that year.
Now, you cannot, as I think we have been
told and as some of us have said again
and again, mandamus the legislature and
say: Thou shalt do thus anil so, but you
can mandamus, that is require a state
officer to perform a ministerial act. This
you can do. So first, let me tell you that
we have provided that the creation of the
obligation for the indebtedness shall in-
clude an irrevocable pledge of the full faith
and credit of the State. We have gone one
step further in this recommendation, say
that when it includes the full faith and
credit of the State, it is the duty of the
comptroller to pay or to make available
for payment to the holders of this in-
debtedness from the first revenues that
come in a sum equal to interest and
principal.
So, two things have now happened. One
of them is that we pledge irrevocably our
full faith and credit. We make no specific
tax on real estate or anything else for
this bond issue payment of principal and
interest and we provide that the money
shall l>e paid, and then when no provision
is made for it, the comptroller is required
out of the first money that comes in to
pay that which is due.
Now, I ask you, please, not to be bur-
dened at this point with the fact that we
have used the word "comptroller". We put
this in at a time when obviously we could
not know what action would be taken by
the Convention. It may be that after this
is passed and we ask you to pass it without
binding yourself in the slightest degree as
to the name "comptroller" because what we
had in mind is that fiscal officer of the
State, by the time this comes back from
the Committee on Style, we will by that
time have settled a number of other prob-
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