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which, as I read them, say that the budget
shall be in such form and detail as the
governor shall determine.
It seems to me that there is a contradic-
tion between the two which, if we cannot
resolve it as I thought it was resolved in
the questioning period, may require some
amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sherbow,
did you understand the question?
DELEGATE SHERBOW: Yes, sir. I
think the governor has to present the
budget, and in the form and detail as he
determines.
The legislature, in their wisdom, may
prescribe by law how that should be done.
If it does not, then it is in the form and
detail that the governor presents ; and fur-
ther, as the governor may determine, or as
may be prescribed by law.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bamberger
points out that if that is the case, there
may be an inconsistency in that section
6.04, and particularly in the last phrase on
lines 11 and 12 of page 2, which seems to
indicate that only the governor shall pre-
scribe the form of the budget.
Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: I will say
what I said in the questioning1 period. The
intent, we thought, was clear. If there was
any misunderstanding about it, we thought
that the Committee on Style could very
easily correct it to make the two carry the
same meaning.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does the Chair un-
derstand, then, that it is the intent of the
Committee that section 6.04, and particu-
larly lines 10 and 11, should indicate that
the governor and/or the General Assembly,
by law, may prescribe the form of the
budget?
DELEGATE SHERBOW: Yes.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: Mr. Chairman, I
am sorry to report to you that I think I
have contributed to this confusion. Let me
say that these words are exactly the same
words. They are the end result of the Com-
mittee on State Finance and Taxation and
the Commission which you chaired, and
when we wrote those words, what Delegate
Sherbow said was not the intent. If the
intent has changed it was changed without
my knowledge.
Let me tell you what the words meant
when they were originally written.
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What the two sections mean is that the
General Assembly can, of course, prescribe
what goes into the budget, the budget being
the thick book, not the bill, not the legisla-
tive piece of paper. But that the governor,
it is his budget, who determines what
the form of the book shall be, that is to
say, whether the budget message shall be
in the front of the book or the middle of
the book or the back of the book, or a
separate piece of paper that is submitted
along with the book. These are administra-
tive details that certainly my Committee
did not think the General Assembly would
want to get involved in.
So the form of the budget — not the
content, but the form in which it is pre-
sented — is determined by the governor.
Now, the budget bill, on the other hand,
is the beginning of the legislative process,
and the General Assembly may want very
well from time to time to change the
form of that.
So the intention here was that the budget
bill's form as well as content would be de-
termined, or could be determined, by law.
Do you follow what I am trying to say?
THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, indeed.
Delegate Sherbow, if the Chair may make
a comment, it seems to me that the or-
ganization of the section is such as to indi-
cate the intent as indicated in section 6.04
deals with the budget. That is, its caption
indicates it is that. Section 6.04 only inci-
dentally appears to concern the budget. If
I understand Delegate Case's suggestion,
it is that the budget prepared by the gov-
ernor pursuant to section 6.04 should con-
tain such information as may be prescribed
by law, that is, by the General Assembly
by law, but that it should be in such form
as determined by the governor; and that in
section 6.06 the intent would be as though
it had read : The governor shall deliver to
the presiding officer of each house the
budget in the form referred to in section
6.04, and a bill for all the proposed appro-
priations of the budget classified in such
form and detail as he shall determine, or
as may be prescribed by law, which would
mean that the legislature would have con-
trol under this section only as to the form
of the budget bill.
To state it more simply another way,
under this interpretation, the legislature
would determine what information goes in
both the budget and the budget bill. The
Governor would determine the form of the
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