its citizens should be maintained, and wherever possible and practic-
able, improved. In the second place, I was determined that if it were
at all possible, the taxpayers of the State should not be asked at
this time to carry a heavier burden. The fiscal program I am present-
ing to you today accomplished these two purposes.

An incoming Governor preparing a new budget works under cer-
tain limitations. He deals with policies, programs, agencies and ser-
vices established by previous administrations. The financial program
he proposes is of necessity tempered by these conditions. For example,
I fall heir to the executive leadership of a State which is committed
to the extension of its participation in public education and to an
expansion of its activities in the fields of criminal correction, health
and public welfare. It is a State which continues to share an ever
increasing amount of its revenues with political subdivisions under
formulae which were conceived many years ago. Under laws enacted
previously, it is required to increase its payments yearly for essentially
the same services it received in the past.

I have no dispute with the system we have established. I simply
want to point out that a new executive has less than a free hand
in the creation of his first budget.

In the program I am presenting to you today, more than 75 per
cent of the appropriations are mandatory or near-mandatory items,
which to me as Governor are virtually untouchable. They include
such things as public debt, the payment of revenues to civil divisions,
automatic salary increments, additional support for retirement and
social security and many other payments which are set up by law,
such as the gasoline tax funds and the motor vehicle revenue funds
to finance our highway program. To suggest drastic changes in a
financial program under these conditions, would, in my opinion, be
inconsistent with sound administrative practice.

Let us return now to the question of taxes. I told you that I started
out with the strong conviction that our citizens this year should be
given respite from increased taxation. All of us recall the critical
situation we faced here in these halls a year ago when our require-
ment for funds finally overran our capacity to pay with established
revenue sources and rates. This crises was inevitable. It was the culmi-
nation of twelve years of State government financing which began
when we broadened our tax base in 1947 with the adoption of the
sales and use taxes. This expansion of the tax base in itself was
sufficient to carry us along for several years. With the aid of an ex-
panding economy and certain budgetary artifices that were indulged