cost, etc., of more than one hundred institutions and agencies receiving state aid.

The estimates were classified in the budget by organization units, and, according to the provisions of the budget amendment, were grouped under two heads: I, "Governmental appropriations," and II, " General appropriations." Included under Part I were the legislative, executive, and judiciary departments, the various state departments, boards and commissions, the public schools, and the public debt. Under Part II were grouped the remaining estimates, namely: those of state institutions, state-aided institutions, and for miscellaneous purposes.

Form and Provisions of Budget Bill

The appropriations carried in the budget bill were arranged by organization units, following the arrangement in the budget. The appropriations to the various organization units were made in lump sums for salaries and wages and for expenses with itemized schedules following each sum so appropriated whenever more than one item was included. These schedules " represent the initial plan of distribution and apportionment of the appropriations." Each lump-sum appropriation must be paid out in accordance with the schedule which relates to it, unless and until such schedule is amended. In order to give flexibility to the expenditure of the appropriations and to provide, at the same time, for executive control over spending agencies, the governor is empowered to authorize transfers between items within any schedule, thus amending the schedule. Whenever a schedule is amended. by the governor it must be transmitted with his approval to the comptroller, who thereafter is required to pay out the appropriation, or whatever balance may remain, in accordance with the amended schedule. All transfers and changes in the schedules of the original

budget bill made by the governor must be reported by him to the next session of the legislature.

Standing Committee Consideration of Budget Unsatisfactory

While the budget amendment places certain definite limitations upon the action of the legislature when considering the budget, it prescribes no definite procedure. The budget and budget bill, as has been stated, were submitted simultaneously in each house of the legislature on January 29th, and were immediately referred to the finance committee of the Senate and to the ways and means committee of the House. The governor did not make any oral statement to the legislature at the time of presenting the budget. It is stated that neither committee, especially the House committee, gave sufficient time to the consideration of the budget to act upon it properly and intelligently. The work that had taken the governor three months for preparation, after an intimate acquaintance of four years with the state's business, the ways and means committee passed upon in practically two or three sittings, each of very short duration. The Senate committee, however, considered the budget somewhat more seriously. No public hearings were held by either committee on the budget bill, since it was not necessary, as formerly, for the spending agencies to appear before the committee urging their requests for appropriations. The only matter that now concerned the state agencies was to see that the allowances made to them by the governor were not reduced or eliminated by the action of the committees or the legislature. The Senate finance committee, however, found occasion to call before it a few of the department heads, for the purpose of explaining some of the budget allowances, and in one or two instances the committee desired to find out if subordinates gave full

time to state work. The governor also explained to the finance committee certain of the appropriations.

Legislative Action on the Budget Bill

On March 20th, the governor submitted to the Senate his first supplemental budget, which, under the provisions of the budget amendment, became part of the budget bill as amendments or supplements to the appropriations and items contained in it. On March 22d the finance committee reported the budget bill and supplement favorably to the Senate. A motion to defer action on the bill was voted down, and the committee's favorable report was adopted. Immediately the president of the Senate submitted a second supplement to the budget by the governor, who asked that it might also be made a part of the budget bill. Upon a motion the additional supplement was accepted. The budget bill was then read the second time and ordered to be printed after a third reading. It passed the Senate without amendment on March 26th, and was sent to the House, where it had its first reading on March 27th. It was reported out of the House committee on March 28th and read a second time. Among the several amendments proposed in the House, two were adopted, one eliminating the salary of the assistant chairman of the roads commission, amounting to $2,000 (the governor having reduced it from $3,000 by his first supplemental budget), and the other striking out an appropriation for the director of farm products amounting to $12,000. The elimination of the latter item would have followed as a matter of course, since the bill creating the office had been defeated in the legislature, so that only $2,000 was really eliminated from the governor's budget for each of the two years. When this amount is compared with the total budget of each year, aggregating about $12,000,000, the House, although the majority was politically opposed to the governor, may nevertheless be regarded as approv

ing the governor's budget practically as he submitted it. The rules of the House were suspended and the budget bill was passed the same day it was amended. The Senate, being of the same political faith as the governor, refused to accede to the amendments of the House, and a conference committee was appointed. The first conference committee disagreed and another was appointed; this committee made its report on March 30th, when the Senate concurred in the amendments of the House and finally passed the budget bill as thus amended. Since the governor had the assurance that the budget bill would be passed within three legislative days before the end of the session (April 1st), he did not issue a proclamation extending the session, as provided for in the budget amend

ment.

No Supplementary Appropriation Bills Enacted

During the 1916 session of the legislature between thirty-five and forty bills, appropriating money out of the state treasury, were enacted into law. The legislature of 1918, acting under the provisions of the budget amendment, passed only seven bills making appropriations out of the state treasury, two of which were duplicates of two others and were for that reason vetoed by the governor. Another was also vetoed, and still another was reduced by half. The four bills approved by the governor carried appropriations totaling $19,000. The seven appropriation bills which were passed by the legislature appropriated unexpended funds then in the state treasury and, upon a ruling of the attorney general, were not in conflict with the budget amendment which requires such bills to make provisions for their own revenue, since the budget bill which was passed in compliance with the budget amendment did not go into effect until October 1, 1918. There was not, therefore, a single supplementary

appropriation bill passed for the fiscal years 1919 and 1920.

The Serious Weaknesses of the Maryland System

The serious weaknesses of the Maryland budget system seem to be the unfortunate position of the governor with respect to the administrative departments and the lack of adequate procedure for legislative consideration of the budget. There was little review and criticism of the governor's financial program. Most of the review work was done by the two committees, which worked separately and did not coöperate at any time because of political hostility. The intent of the budget amendment seems to be that more consideration should be given to the budget upon the floors of the legislature than it actually received in 1918. While it is true that every member of the legislature was supplied with a copy of the governor's budget, and knew at once from the printed journal of each house just what supplements the governor had made, still it is not probable that many of the members scrutinized the budget very closely. Practically no attention was given by the legislature to the subject of

revenues.

The fact cannot be too much emphasized that the governor of Maryland is not free and unhampered in making his budget recommendations to the legislature, since authority and responsibility for a large part of the executive and administrative acts are not centered in him. As has already been pointed out, there are several administrative agencies of the state which are independent of the governor by reason of the methods by which they obtain office, some being elective and others being appointive by the legislature. Furthermore, there are entirely too many separate administrative agencies for the governor to keep a close watch upon all expenditures without the interposition of coördinating heads responsible to the governor