Looking Ahead Since 1945

The General Assembly provided for an additional employee
to give special attention to the study of revenues...attached to the State
Comptroller s Office...it is expected that (someone) with the neces-
sary qualifications for this work will be obtained soon,

Estimating revenues for future state budgets had become an
arduous task for Comptroller J. Milliard lawes by the time he in-
cluded that announcement in the state s annual financial report 50
years ago.

After the legislature inaugurated a new Board of Revenue
Estimates in 1945 (consisting of the State Comptroller, the State
Treasurer and the Director of Budget and Fiscal Affairs), the comp-
troller created a Bureau of Revenue Estimates as a separate division
of the Comptroller s Office to focus solely on dependable revenue
forecasting to help shape future state budgets.

1 he function grew even more important as the state s revenue
structure changed dramatically in the postwar years. The bulk of state
tax dollars had traditionally been generated by licenses, fees and
property taxes. The state income tax, adopted in 1957 and destined to
become the top general fund revenue source, was still in its infancy.
The sales tax would he added in 1947 and a state lottery in 19/4.

These major revenue sources were destined to grow hy leaps
and hounds, dominating Maryland s revenue picture - while testing

the skills of
revenue estima-
tors - to this very
day. let, the
predictions of the
forecasters
remain highly
accurate,