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Show Sl'Q 1 By J. J. CAHOON Salt Lake City (Special to the Springville Herald The problem of granting relief to the needy and aged of the state of Utah during the next biennium is likely to place Governor Herbert B. Maw in one of the worst legal entanglements ' of his political career and possibly may require a special session of the legislature to straighten out the muddled financial affairs of the state. In drawing up the biennial appropriations ap-propriations bill, the joint legislative legisla-tive committee provided that state welfare institutions the State Mental Hospital, State Training School, Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Miners' Hospital and Juvenile C0urt were to be financed from funds from the Emergency Relief fund. Before adopting this plan, the Committee sought the opinion of Attorney General Grover A. Giles. In his official opinion, Giles told the committee that such a plan was feasible, but that present laws would have to be amended. The committee then amended a bill SB-196 which subsequently was passed by both houses but which was vetoed by Maw to allow al-low diversion of part of the sales tax revenues for the operation of these institutions for the biennium. When this measure had successfully, success-fully, negotiated both houses, the appropriations committee proceeded proceed-ed to draw up the money bill, basing bas-ing their entire framework on the theory that funds to run these departments de-partments would be forthcoming from the Emergency Relief fund and all moneys in the general fund could be used to finance the other departments of state and to grant salary increases, amounting to over $3,000,000, to school employes and teachers for the next two years. If the attorney general's opinion on the use of these funds is correct and the fiscal officers of the state refuse to release sales tax funds for the support of the institutions, it means that they will have no money on which to operate during the biennium. However, Maw maintains he has sufficient authority to authorize the transfer of sales tax funds regardless re-gardless of his veto of SB-196. Despite De-spite the fact that the law says all funds in the emergency relief fund are to be used for "the direct relief re-lief of and to cooperate with the national government in a social and work relief program for the aid of the needy and destitute, the aged, the orphans and dependent children of this state." Usually, Maw follows the advice of his Attorney General when that advice conforms to the Chief Executive's Exec-utive's views, but when the Governor's Gov-ernor's views differ with those of the Attorney General, then the Governor follows his own beliefs. Maw vetoed SB-220, the master welfare bill, because, as he put it, "the bill eliminates all controls over ov-er the expenditure of money for public relief by the welfare department. depart-ment. Such a measure", he said, "is dangerous and could easily result re-sult in a tremendous waste of public pub-lic money." Maw also objected to the measure meas-ure because he said it took away from the old people of the state all guarantees of the $30 minimum grant provided for in the present law and because it accomplished nothing that could be done under the present laws. |