Evening star., 1949-03-22
Dr.. Byrd Gives
Legislators Full
Budget Details
Drops His Objection
To Bill Requiring
Disclosure of Dutu
By J. l. MichoeI
Stor Stoff Correspondent

- svuSu8St
stor stoff Correspondent
ANNAPOLIS, Mar. 22.-Dr. n
c. Byrd, president of the Uni
versity of Maryland. gave mem
bers OF the Senate Finance ant
House Ways and Means Commit.
tees three-hour lesson in bulge
making last night that left tn,
legislators somewhat dizzy.
He delivered his own views ane
parried verbal thrusts, ther
walked out of the House cham.
Der as fresh and smiling as wher
he came in-with bales of printee
data, corps of assistants and 6
huge chart listing a labyrinth oil
figures.
He appeared at the hearing
with James G.. Rennie, State
budget director. after the two hao
asked Gov. Lane to arrange a
hearing to end demands that the
university budget be submitted in
detail rather than in lump sum
form as has been the case for the
last IL years.
Bill May Be Held Up.
A pending bill to force this pro-
cedure may be pigeon-holed as a
result OF the session last night
An almost Identical measure was
defeated in the House several days
ago by a one-vote margin.
DR.. Byrd said last night he no
longer opposed the bill. He ex-
planned that after a change of
wording the university does not
now have sufficient objections to
warrant making a fight against it.
He added that he hoped that if
passed. you will be careful to see
that it will not be interpreted to
go further than it is intended
to CO."
After agreeing to furnish all
State legislators with detailed
budget information, DR.. Byrd
asked that they hold the data
confidential.
If it became public" he said
"it might serve to disturb morale
among personnel and also would
give other schools information
they could use to wean our best
people away through higher SAL
ary offers"
Wording Changed.
His former objection to the bill
he asserted was based on the use
of the word working budget
which has been amended to read
budget requests" If the word had
been retained, DR.. Byrd declared,
it would have compelled the Uni
versity to organize its working
budget on the basis of State
classification.
This would have been virtu-
ally impossible from the Univer-
Sity's point if view because it
would have created working
budget that would have been
useless in any real sense of the
word"
Defending his buget procedure
DIR. Byrd said the University now
receives its appropriations in
lump sum items which give it an
opportunity to operate more easily
and satisfactorily than if it were
compelled to operate under a State
classification plan.
If proper expenditure controls
are present and if proper in
formation is available. lump sums
are a much better form of appro-
priations for educational insti-
tutions than any detail form be-
cause in educational institutions
details are constantly changing"
Great Detail Cited.
DR.. Byrd said the university s
budget is prepared in great detail
1T is,' he said. "set up in stand
ard classification and gives ar
effective picture of the operation,
of the institution with the
exception of the university, State.
controlled institutions in Mary.
land do not have any operating
budget at ALL
Referring to statements that
wide differences exist between the
information the university says
it gives to the budget director ano
what the latter says he receives
DR.. Byrd said that in reality there
is no difference but there does
seem to be some confusion"
Mr.. Rennie confirmed DR.
Byrd's remarks and suggested
that the confusion probably had
arisen over the Interpretation OF
the word working budget.
State contributions to the uni
versity. DR.. Byrd pointed out, are
only 21.6 per cent of each dollar
In this respect Maryland
stands 45th in the list of States.