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one that is working and working well at
the present time.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have one-hall'
minute, Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: I say this to
you in these 30 seconds, and this is the
strongest way I can say anything: Do not
pass this amendment. It is completely
wrong. It changes our whole system, and it
throws out the window all of the safe-
guards that have made Maryland a State
of strong fiscal stability. I urge you to vote
against the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment?
Delegate Sollins.
DELEGATE SOLLINS: Mr. Chairman
and members of the Committee, first, to
clear up one point that Delegate Sherbow
has raised, Delegate Miller and I submitted
a proposal which was referred to his Com-
mittee to carry out the intent of this
amendment. It was only at the request of
Delegate Miller and I that we were finally
given a hearing before the Committee on
State Finance and Taxation.
I see no reason why we here in Mary-
land must be the only state to have the de-
tail of the budget process set out in our
constitution. I think it could very well be
statutory, as it is in all the other states.
Secondly, I heard no reason convincing
to me that we must constitutionally restrict
the legislature in this regard, contrary to
what the other 49 states and those that
have executive budgets now do. I believe
that we can have more competence, not
less, in our state legislature, than in other
states. I suggest that financial responsi-
bility which the majority infers will result
if the legislature is given the right to in-
crease the budget extends not only to
spending too much, but perhaps to spend-
ing too little, and resulting in much greater
cost to taxpayers and to the citizens of
this State.
I suggest that by permitting the legisla-
ture to increase the capital budget which
is provided for, but not the operating budget, is completely without rationale.
Log-rolling, which is perhaps what con-
cerns the majority will and has occurred
in the area of the capital budget much
more so than in the operating budget.
The supplementary appropriation method
which Delegate Sherbow and his Committee
argued will be a substitute for permitting
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the legislature to increase the budget
merely serves to delay needed governmental
programs, confuses the public, and really
damages the executive program which he
argues so much for.
I suggest by keeping the legislature in
the inferior role as it is now in this budget
process, the status that we expect of the
legislature will never be achieved. This
constitutional restriction, this constitutional
straightjacket must be removed.
I urge you to vote for the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in opposition to the
amendment?
Delegate Adkins.
DELEGATE ADKINS: Mr. Chairman,
I was initially attracted by some of the
provisions of this proposal, but I think
there is an inherent, grave problem with it
in line 16, in which it provides that "The
General Assembly shall not exceed the es-
timates of revenues estimated by the
governor."
If I understand this, it means despite
the fact that the governor budgets a sur-
plus, the legislature could use that surplus
for its own particular political purposes,
thus putting the governor in the potentially
embarrassing situation of vetoing politi-
cally potent suggestions which were not in-
cluded in his original budget, but which
were provided for out of the surplus in the
budget.
Nov/, I think it is quite clear that esti-
mates of revenues are at best estimates.
Any budget which does not provide some
modicum of surplus is not a conservative
budget. If the governor proposes a budget
which provides for a surplus, if the Gen-
eral Assembly is then left open to play
with the surplus in any fashion that they
see fit, passing back to the governor the
political burden of vetoing such favorite
projects, I think we have a very potentially
dangerous situation.
With that language in the amendment,
I think it is a dangerous amendment, and
I would urge that it be defeated.
THE Cli AIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment?
Delegate Boyce.
DELEGATE BOYCE: Mr. Chairman,
I am afraid that possibly I might be to
blame that Judge Sherbow did not know
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