116 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

Q. Governor, last week we were talking about the Lee amendments
written into the tax bill which passed the House. You indicated that
you saw this simply as a modification of the Hughes-Agnew plan. Do
you still support the bill with the amendments?

A. I have never tried to run away from something I have been so
obviously for before I was elected and subsequent to my election. I'm
not ashamed of this tax bill, I'm proud of it. I think that Senator
Hughes feels the same way and I imagine that maybe Senator Lee as
he becomes used to being a father of the amendments will feel the
same way too.

Q. What would be your reaction to the fact that the delegate who
actually introduced the Lee compromise in the House Ways and
Means Committee was one of the seven Montgomery Democrats who
voted against the bill?

A. No comment.

STATEMENT ON THE SIGNING OF HOUSE BILL 28
(PROVIDING FOR CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION)

March 24, 1967

Governor Tawes, President James, Speaker Mandel, Mr. Eney and
members of the Constitutional Convention Commission, Ladies and
Gentlemen:

We are participating today in a significant moment in Maryland's
history. The bill I am preparing to sign, House Bill 28, embodies a
sharp departure from the past and the opening of a new window to
the future. It establishes the procedures under which our basic vehicle
of government, the State Constitution, will be reshaped for a modern
era. After 100 years of patchwork amendment, the governmental ma-
chinery has clearly become outmoded.

The full significance of this legislation can only be imagined now,
and measured later. Its success will depend entirely upon the quality
of the people we choose to follow through with the actual drafting of
a new constitution at the convention which will begin here in Annap-
olis September 12th.

It is vital therefore that we continue the spirit of bipartisanship in
which this legislation was conceived and enacted. Maryland will need
the best brains and talent that can be brought to bear on this im-