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JOINT RESOLUTIONS

No. 83

No. 83*

(Senate Joint Resolution No. 62)

A Senate Joint Resolution concerning

Review of Budget Process and Legislative Oversight

FOR the purpose of requesting the Policy Committee to
direct a review of the budget process and
legislative oversight and to report its findings to
the General Assembly by no later than December 1,
1976.

WHEREAS, The General Assembly of Maryland is

constantly reviewing and improving      its procedures in

order to [[reestablish]] re—establish    its position as a
co-equal branch of government; and

WHEREAS, Despite these efforts, the public is
dissatisfied with the size and unresponsiveness of
government at all levels, as has been demonstrated by a
recent finding by pollster Louis Harris that "72[[%]]
percent of the public no longer feel they get good value
from their tax dollars"; and

WHEREAS, The oversight efforts of the Joint Budget
and Audit Committee and the Joint Committee on
Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review should
be complemented by similar oversight efforts by the
nonfiscal [[committee]] committees of the General
Assembly; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Fiscal Services has
prepared, under the supervision of the Joint Budget and
Audit Committee, a paper — "Analysis and Evaluation of
the Statewide Budget Procedures" — setting forth in
detail alternative budget procedures for consideration by
the General Assembly; and

WHEREAS, The General Assembly's ongoing
self—examination should be directed to a study of the
legislative role in the process by which the State budget
and programs are developed, approved, and executed and of
the manner in which the [[legislature]] Legislature
oversees the laws that it enacts. The study should
result in a recommendation of a process by which the
General Assembly's fiscal and nonfiscal committees
coordinate periodic reviews designed to guarantee that
the State's programs are achieving intended results and
delivering intended services to intended beneficiaries in
an effective and efficient manner and that the State's
agencies and departments are accountable to the General
Assembly and the public; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MARYLAND, That
the Policy Committee direct [[a review of the budget