to substitute for the governor the board of public works (consisting of the governor, the comptroller, and the state treasurer, the last being elected by the legislature.) It was ratified by the voters November 7th. 1916, and became section fifty-two of article three of the constitution.

The following is a summary of the provisions of the amendment:

1. Estimates are required to be made by all spending agencies and submitted to the governor at such time and in such form as he may prescribe. The estimates of the legislature are certified by the presiding officer of each house and those of judiciary by the comptroller.

2. The governor may review by public hearings all estimates and may revise all estimates, except those of the legislative and judiciary departments and those relating to public schools.

3. The governor is required to prepare two budgets, one for each of the ensuing fiscal years.

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4. Each budget must be divided into two parts: I. Governmental appropriations" for (1) General Assembly, (2) executive department, (3) judiciary department, (4) to pay and discharge principal and interest of state debt, (5) salaries payable by state under constitution and laws, (6) public schools, (7) other purposes set forth in constitution. II. "General appropriations," including all other estimates.

5. Each budget is required to contain a complete plan of proposed expenditures and estimated revenues, and to set forth the estimated surplus or deficit of revenues. An accompanying statement must show: (1) Revenues and expenditures for each of two fiscal years next preceding, (2) balance sheet, (3) debts and funds, (4) estimate of state's financial condition at the ends of the fiscal years covered by budgets, (5) explanations by the governor.

6. The governor is required to deliver the budgets and a bill of proposed appropriations, clearly itemized and classified, to the presiding officer of each house within twenty days (if newly elected, thirty days) after the convening of the legislature.

7. The budget bill, or appropriation bill, must be introduced into each house immediately upon its receipt by the presiding officer. The governor may amend or supplement the bill while in the legislature.

8. The governor and administrative officers designated by him have the right, and when requested by the legislature are required, to appear before the legislature to defend the budget bill.

9. The legislature may not amend the budget bill to change the public school funds, or salaries and obligations required by the constitution; it may increase or decrease items relating to the general assembly, or increase those relating to the judiciary, but can only reduce or strike out others.

10. The legislature may not consider other appropriations until the budget bill has been finally acted upon.

II. If the budget bill is not enacted three days before the expiration of the regular session, the governor may by proclamation extend the session.

12. The budget bill becomes law upon passage by the legislature without signature of governor.

13. Every supplementary appropriation (1) must be embodied in a separate bill, limited to a single purpose, (2) must provide the revenues necessary to pay the appropriation by a tax, direct or indirect, to be laid and collected as directed in the bill, (3) must receive the majority vote of the elected members of each house, (4) must be presented to the governor and be subject to his

veto.

Form, Preparation and Filing of Estimates

The actual work of preparing the first Maryland state budget was begun in November, 1917. The estimate forms were prepared by the department of legislative reference and approved by the governor. The budget classification, as adopted, followed objects of expenditures; namely, (1) salaries and wages, (2) expensesmaintenance other than personal service, (3) purchase of land, (4) buildings, (5) equipment, and (6) new construction. The amounts appropriated and expended for the fiscal year just ended, also the amounts appropriated for the current fiscal year, were required to be given in detail upon the estimates. The appropriations for each of the fiscal years of the next biennium were required to be clearly itemized. A few of the spending agencies at first hesitated to make itemization, since they had been so long accustomed to request lump-sum appropriations from the legislature. Each estimate sheet provided space for the governor's allowance and necessary explanatory remarks.

The estimates were required to be filed with the governor by December 10th, but many of the spending agencies were late in filing their requests, owing to the novelty of the system and to insufficient and inadequate data at hand for preparing their estimates. Many of the estimates were incorrect when submitted and had to be returned and made up the second time. Had the forms been prepared and sent out earlier, the estimates might easily have been submitted to the governor a month before they were, since the fiscal year of Maryland ends on September 30th. This would have allowed the spending agencies a month's time after the close of the fiscal year for the preparation of their estimates, and at the same time would have given the governor more time, which proved to be much needed, for review of the estimates and preparation of the budget.

Public Hearings and Revision of Estimates

Early in December Governor Harrington secured the services of a budget specialist from the New York Bureau of Municipal Research, who, with the assistance of the executive office force, compiled the estimates and other data for the budget and drafted the budget bill. About the middle of December the governor began to hold public hearings upon the estimates and continued almost daily until the end of the month, in which time he had heard more than eighty of the state's spending agencies. He required a number of agencies to appear before him; to others he granted hearings upon request.

After the hearings were concluded, the governor set to work to review all the estimates and make his allowance for the budget. The total of the requests for appropriations far exceeded the total estimated revenues as calculated by the state comptroller. In order to make the expenditures of the first state budget commensurate with the anticipated revenues, the governor asked the administrative heads of the large departments and institutions to collaborate with him in the revision of the estimates. Acting upon the governor's advice, they reduced their estimates at those points where they judged reductions would least hamper the normal growth of their work. The governor, under the provision of the budget amendment, included the legislative, judicial, and educational estimates in the budget without revision; but he had, nevertheless, been consulted as to their probable totals while they were in preparation and reserved to himself the right to make suggestions with regard to the amounts requested.

Budget Submitted to Legislature

Governor Harrington was unable to deliver his budget to the legislature within the time limit fixed in the budget amendment (twenty days after the convening of the leg

islature, which met on January 2d), owing to delay in printing the budget and to other contingent circumstances. The legislature, however, agreed to extend the time one week, and on January 29th the governor transmitted his budget and budget bill in printed form to the presiding officer of each house. At the same time each member of the legislature was supplied with a copy of the budget. The budget was immediately introduced by both the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House in their respective houses.

Form and Content of Budget

The general form of the budget is prescribed in the amendment. As actually made up, it contained in consecutive order the following statements and data:

I. The actual and estimated revenues and expenditures for the fiscal years of 1917 and 1918, showing the balance at the end of each fiscal period.

2. A balance sheet of the current assets and liabilities of the state.

3. A statement of the condition of state debt and sinking funds.

4. A statement of the estimated revenues for the period to be financed, i.e., the fiscal years of 1919 and 1920.

5. A general summary to the financial requirements and estimates of the state's financial condition at the end of each of the years to be financed.

6. A statement from the governor relative to a possible decrease of the state tax rates.

7. A general summary of all the estimates for appropriations.

8. A complete and itemized tabulation of all estimates with the governor's allowances.

An appendix to the budget contained certain important statistics relating to the expenditures, receipts, per capita