Henderson daily dispatch., 1936-09-11

proposal among the House and Senate
members, due to the fact that the
consolidation of these committees
would eliminate one of the two most
important committees in each house
and hence deprive members OF a
chance to be appointed on 1t. 1t would
also rob the speaker Of the House and
the lieutenant governor of one of the
most priced committee chairmanships
which he now has to beStoW
Selfish Interests Predominant.
So, while the proposal to consolid-
ate these two committees is heartily
approved by all those interested in
speeding up the work of the General
Assembly and in preserving balance
between appropriations and revenues,
good many fear that those with
selfish interests-either financial or
political-may block any chance of
getting this reform approved by the
1887 General Assembly when it meets
in January. For those interested in
getting big appropriations, regardless
OF whether the General Assembly can
find the money to meet them or not,
are sure to oppose the move. Mem
bers of the General Assembly who
fear that if one of these committees
is eliminated they may not get as
choice committee appointment as
they might otherwise, are also re-
garded as certain to oppose any move
towards consolidation.
There is no doubt that the con-
solidation of the appropriations and
finance committees would greatly ia
cilitate the handling of legislative
business and materially shorten SEES
sions of the legislature, all those who
have observed legislative procedure
closely agree. Many are convinced
that such consolidation would cut
the length of legislative sessions in
half.
Manner of Procedure.
According to the system which has
been followed for years, all requests
for appropriations are presented to
the joint House and Senate approp-
riations committees, whose duty it is
to make up a bill carrying all the
appropriations without any regard for
the amount of revenue available. At
the same time, the finance commit
tees are hearing the objections to the
various taxes proposed unit! finally
finance bill is prepared together
with an estimate of the maximum re-
venue which can be expected from the
bill. These bills are then reported
separately to the house, where they
are cut to pieces and eventually put
back together again pretty much as
reported by the committees.
The strategy of the forces seeking
large appropriations is to get the ap-
preparations bills completed and re-
ported into the house ahead of the
finance bills and if possible, get it
passed and sent to the senate before
the finance bill is reported in, on the
theory that if they can get the ap-
preparations bill enacted into law
ahead of the finance bill, the legisla-
ture will have to increase taxes or
find enough new ones to make it bal
ance with the mount contained in the
appropriations bill. This was the pro-
cedure used so successfully by A. D.
Mclean who managed to get "The
Mclean Law" enacted which pledged
the general assembly to state support
of the six and then the eight months
school term. He then forced the legis-
lature to stay in session until it found
enough revenue to support the schools
with the result that the 1888 general
assembly enacted the sales tax as the
only way to get the money needed.
The procedure of the last few ses-
sions, however has been to hold back
the appropriations bill until the fin
ance committees finished the revenue
bill, in order to be sure that the two
bills balanced. But if one large COM
mittee should first hear all the re-
quests for appropriations, then work
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