8 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [DEC. 17

MESSAGE OF GOVERNOR WM. PRESTON LANE, JR., TO EXTRAORDINARY
SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, DECEMBER 17, 1949.

Under the authority vested in me by the Constitution, I have
called your Honorable Body into extraordinary session to consider
the re-enactment of the $50,000,000 school loan bill passed by the
1949 General Assembly.

This measure, as you know, was held to be invalid by the Court
of Appeals because of an error in the journal entry of the Senate
recording its passage by that body.

Its invalidation has created a situation in the financing of the
school-construction program in various sections of the State which
would entail serious delays in the building of essential classroom
space if the measure was not acted upon until the regular session of
the General Assembly some six weeks hence.

The need for classroom space in certain areas of the State is
so acute that even a few weeks' further delay in making funds
available for the construction program might prevent completion of
necessary additional building beyond the opening of the 1950-1951
school year, and for this reason I considered it my duty to convene a
special session of the General Assembly.

Although, had the courts held the $50,000,000 loan Act to be
valid, funds from the proceeds of the bonds would not have become
available until after the first of next year. I believe it in order that
consideration be given to a plan for making sufficient money imme-
diately available to carry forward the work now in progress and
planned for an early start.

The situation in which certain areas of the State find themselves
is of such a critical nature with respect to the need for additional
classroom construction that I believe every possible means should
be adopted to speed the work on the necessary buildings.

Therefore, I recommend and will submit for your consideration
a proposal that legislative authority be written into the $50,000,000
loan bill to permit up to $4,000,000 to be advanced from cash in the
Treasury on applications for loan funds, with provisions that this
money be returned to the Treasury upon the issuance of the author-
ized bonds.

If this proposal is adopted, it will not be necessary for the areas
in immediate need of funds from the $50,000,000 loan to wait for
them for another sixty to ninety days until the bonds are advertised,
sold and the cash payment is made for them by the purchasers.

While the extraordinary session was called for the purpose of
dealing only with this urgent problem, three other matters of an
emergency nature have been brought forward for consideration, and
on them I recommend that the General Asembly take favorable
action.