1452 VETOES.

advise as to the legal question involved. I mention the above
facts in order to show that the members of the committee were
all friendly to the proposition.

This committee unanimously recommended that I veto the
bill; first, because the State Budget, which had been passed
more than a week before the bill was passed, did not provide
for the cost of administration, which the committee found
would be at least $100, 000 during the first year, and, secondly,
because the committee considered the bill as finally passed
"obscurely and ambiguously worded. "

Following is a copy of the committee's report to me:

April 8, 1929.
His Excellency,

ALBERT C. Ritchie,

Governor of Maryland,
Annapolis, Maryland.

DEAR GOVERNOR RITCHIE:

The undersigned committee appointed by you to consider
House Bill No. 378 and to advise you upon the question of its
workability respectfully report:

Your committee has carefully read and considered the bill
at two sessions, consuming practically the whole of today, and
has had before it the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles and his
Chief Deputy, and while the committee is entirely in sympathy
with some plan to facilitate the issuance of motor vehicle li-
censes and titles to residents of the Counties of Maryland in
their respective counties, we find that no provision has been
made in the Budget passed by the Legislature for the neces-
sary funds to put the law into operation.

The estimated cost of this for the first year will be at least
$100, 000, which sum, under the bill, would have to "be paid
by the Automobile Commissioner's office. Under the Budget
Amendment to the Constitution no money in the State Treas-
ury can be spent by any Department in this State unless it is
appropriated in the Budget, and under the law all money
collected by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles must be paid
into the State Treasury. At the last session of the Legislature
the Budget was passed on March 21st, while the Bill under
consideration was not passed until April 1st, and hence it was
impossible to make any provision in the Budget for the ex-