The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-16

to advise and counsel upon mat ters of detail. There should be a lapse of three CT four months between the inauguration of the governor and the heads of the departments and the assembling of the legislature. This can be done only through a change in the constitution. In the absence of that change, I would suggest an adjournment of the legisla- ture almost immediately after it's organization to meet few months later, at a time most convenient to the members.
 It is the custom of the mem bers of both houses of the leg islature to introduce bills by the hundred almost immediately \ after assembling. Many of them carry appropriations, and 1 want to speak with particular refer ence to that class of bills, for they are the cause of great part of our trouble.
 The appropriation bills are re- ferred to a number of commit tees. They are considered each one by itself. Members interested, and outside parties interested, appear before the committees and present argu- ments to prove thas the amount asked for should be appropriat- ed. Most of them are merit orious and doubtless should have favorable action if the money was in sight. But there is the difficulty. What is the result? It is that dozens of bills carry ing appropriations are passed without being considered in connection with other bills and all without regard to the sum total of all or the amount of money available to be appro- priated. The result of this hap hazard way of handling appro- priations is, that after a legis- lature has adjourned and the members have gone home it is disclosed by the auditors re- port, published months after wards, that the appropriations far exceed the income, and the further result is, that the state is going deeper and deeper into debt.
 Now, the remedy I propose for this state of affairs is what is known as the executive bud get system. In the first place, would cause to be made a com plete audit of the states books, by a chartered, non-political ac- countant, showing exactly how much the state owed at the time of the change of the administra- tion. There has for many years been uncertainty as to the con dition of the state treasury at the time one governor went into office and the other went out. Governor Conner claimed that he left $900,000 in the treasury when he retired from office. Governor O'Neal claimed that the treasury was empty when he took charge. A report of the committees of the legislature sustained Governor Conner in his contention. The treasury should be examined, however, the money counted and the report made at the moment the change is made, just as would be done in the case of a private business, bank or corporation changing hands. I would have such report made and the report will show some definite amount as the floating debt of the state at the time of the change of administration.
 The next step would be the preparation of budget of rev enues coming in, or an income budget. Careful examination would be made of the reports of the various departments of the state, all would be closely ari- alyzed and every source of in come utilized. We will say that the amount of expected rev. enue would approximate ST. O00,000. Then I would pre- pare a budget of appropriations which should in no event exceed