10 REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY

University of Maryland—Princess Anne

College................................................. 319,000.00

Chronic Diseases Hospitals....................... 1,500,000.00

Total................................ $9,445,954.00

Fiscal Years and Tax Years. While the State's fiscal year begins
July 1st and ends the following June 30th, its tax year for ordinary
taxes is the calendar year. The ideal fiscal year would be the calendar
year but because of the General Assembly meeting during the first
three months of the calendar year and the necessity of preparing
budgets and detailed fiscal information for the General Assembly
when it meets, it has been necessary to set a date for the closing
of our year sufficiently prior to January first to allow ample time
for budget making and fiscal reporting.

However, it is urged that those counties of the State which have
not already adopted the calendar year as their fiscal year should give
serious consideration to making the change. The authority to do
this already exists in the County Commissioners to change their
present fiscal years to the calendar year. (Art. 81, Sec. 26, Annotated
Code of Maryland). Baltimore City and eight counties now use the
calendar year for fiscal purposes.

While on the subject of the State's fiscal year, I feel it apropos to
again suggest the desirability of considering .amending the constitu-
tional provisions relating to budget making. The experience of the
past several years has clearly demonstrated the impracticability of
satisfactorily forecasting economic conditions more than two years
in advance. Our situation could be helped considerably if budgets
were made annually instead of every two years. While estimating
revenues on a two years basis is the problem which leaves so much
to the vicissitudes of the economic situation, considerable improve-
ment and simplification would also be possible in making appropria-
tions annually rather than bi-ennially. I suggest, therefore, that you
give serious thought to amending the Constitution to provide for
annual budget making.

Legislation Affecting State Revenue. I suggest that all measures
bearing on revenues should receive very careful consideration by the
Assembly before passage, because of their effect upon the State's
finances. I refer, of course, to measures which reduce the State's
income. At the 1943 Session two laws were enacted which reduced
the amounts which it was estimated would come from two different
sources of State revenue. One of the laws is Chapter 964, which
exempts from inheritance taxes bequests to religious, charitable,
scientific, literary, educational, etc., organizations (taxable at 7 1/2%
before the Acts of 1943), which could mean the loss of considerable
revenue in the case of several large estates and does mean a general
loss over the period of a year in the administration of the average
estate. Another law passed in 1943 amended our income tax law