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ture decides in its wisdom that the Depart-
ment of Corrections and Parole and all of
its various facets shall be put into the ju-
dicial system, if it should make such deci-
sion and decide that it shall have a budget,
then by law it is going to determine what it
shall be.
If later it changes its mind, having found
it made a grievous error, it could eliminate
those particular items, as I gather it.
Frankly, I hope the day will never come
when the judicial department, meaning the
judges, will ever be asked to handle that
kind of a development in what maybe some
people think is good, but I can only see it
as a bad administrative picture.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Grant.
DELEGATE GRANT: I follow you com-
pletely on the ancillary activities, which
would include the Department of Correc-
tions. What I was concerned about was
whether the General Assembly could con-
trol the judiciary by expanding or contract-
ing by law the functions of the courts,
speaking of the courts proper.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: No, because
this constitution has set up what are the
functions of the court. Then once the sala-
ries are set, they cannot be decreased. They
can only be increased.
There would be no way short of a revolu-
tion to change the judicial system in that
respect.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Grant.
DELEGATE GRANT: I realize that the
salaries of the judges would be beyond
possibly anyone once they are established,
but under the decrease of compensation
what I am worrying about is provision of
additional clerks and bailiffs and other
functionaries of the court, and the facilities
of the court, which would be necessary for
the administration of the judicial system.
That still would be within the purview of
the General Assembly first acting by law.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: Yes. The Gen-
eral Assembly could provide for law clerks
and for bailiffs, and I assume if the Gen-
eral Assembly at a later time decided there
should be no law clerks and no bailiffs, un-
less by that time we reached the conclusion
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that this hampers the administration of
justice in such a way as to make it violate
the inherent provisions of the constitution,
they might have that power.
DELEGATE GRANT: Thank you.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
The Chair recognizes Delegate Sollins.
DELEGATE SOLLINS: Delegate Sher-
bow, I understand in response to a question
of Delegate Hanson before, you said the
philosophy of the executive budget was that
the legislature was not really to be a part
of this, really not to be co-author of the
budget.
If this is so, I ask you, why should the
legislature be given the right to decrease
the budget and potentially alter the gover-
nor's budget?
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: First, those are
not my statements. I should say they should
have no part of it. I do not like the words
"not to be co-author of it/' but that is the
fact. They are not co-author of it, except if
you go back you find they are really the
fathers of it, because it is the legislature
that conceived every item by the form of
one law or another which went into the
budget.
The actual production of the budget itself
is by the governor. This is a responsibility
which the constitution and people of Mary-
land place on the executive head of the
government, and the philosophy of it is that
this being his responsibility, he must keep
it in balance. The legislature has the right
to decrease it. If it intends to come along
with anything new in the form of a supple-
mentary appropriation, it may do so, but it
does so in the form of an additional tax
which it must specifically provide.
They are two co-equal branches of gov-
ernment. The governor does not have the
power to make a new law. The legislature
knows that, the governor knows it. Each
still stands on his pedestal where we place
them, and each is a separate but coordinate
branch of government, in its own sphere.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Sollins.
DELEGATE SOLLINS: Delegate Sher-
bow, if you agree the legislature is a co-
equal branch of government and it is the
chief policy making body of the State, why
should they not have the right to increase
the budget, providing there is a line item
veto provided for the governor ?
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