|
956
LAWS OF MARYLAND Ch. 11
submitted to the Governor" seemed inapplicable. This
reading is supported by § 7-212(d) of this subtitle,
which provides for an annual report "for information
only".
Since, under § 7-212 of this subtitle, a Board may
transfer money without a budget amendment, but only a
percentage of the appropriation, and a Board is not
precluded from submitting a proposed amended schedule,
subsections (c) through (g) do not contain an
exception. See, however, § 7-212(e) of this subtitle.
In subsection (b)(1) of this section, the specific
references to an "officer" are added. Although former
Art. 15A, § 27 referred only to a proposed amended
schedule "prepared by any department, board,
commission, division, institution or agency of the
State", the absence of a reference to an "officer" did
not seem to be intentional.
Also in subsection (b)(1) of this section, the
limitation "of the Executive Branch of the State
government" is substituted for the former broad
reference "of the State". This substitution reflects
that § 7-208 of this subtitle provides specific means
for amendment of the schedule for an appropriation to
the Legislative Branch. Although the law is silent on
amendment of a schedule for the Judicial Branch, the
exclusion of that Branch -- through the substituted
language -- is consistent with Opinions of the
Attorney General that have construed provisions
involving responsibilities of a secretary to extend
only to the Executive Branch, notwithstanding broad
language such as the former reference to "any
department ... of the State". See, e.g., 61 Op. Att'y
Gen. 241 (1976). This exclusion also is consistent
with current budgetary practice. But, compare pages
182 and 183 of the Journal of Proceedings for the
Senate of 1947.
Subsection (b)(2) of this section is revised to
require the Secretary to send the proposed amended
schedule and recommendation to the Governor, to
reflect practice. In light of this revision, the
first sentence of former Art. 15A, § 8(e), which
enabled an officer or unit to submit "in writing to
the Governor an amended schedule ... of the
appropriations made to it by him" is deleted. This
deletion also avoids the confusion of the former
reference to "appropriations made ... by him", which
seemed to be a limitation on the scope of the former
sentence. However, this seeming limitation probably
was an error in Ch. 64, Acts of 1939, which, in
codifying provisions that had been included in
numerous budgets, substituted the words "by him" for
|
 |