"Ill

I have known John Lauber only briefly, but during that
time I have coma to-be a great admirer of his ability and
his depth of ideas. I thought it would be desirable to
have someone representing the counties, since we have heard
from Baltimore City, in these proceedings and I truly believe
that John Lauber can do this job about as admirably as any-
body I know.

So, John, if you will lead off, we will be very
interested to hear what you have to say.

MR. LAUBER: Thank you. You are very kind.
I might say parenthetically that we have a mutual admiration
society.

Before talking about the constitutional provisions
I think you have a right to know a little bit about me and
my possible biases. My background includes fifteen years
in government service. I've worked for the legislature,
mostly at the State level, legislative, executive. I've
been an officer of public authority and I've served in both
Civil Service and appointed positions. Even though I feel
I have considerable background in the field of budgeting,
as such, I am not specifically familiar with the problems