WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor                        S.B. 584

(2)     THE NEED TO MODIFY OR ELIMINATE ANY EXISTING OPERATIONS
OR SERVICES THAT A UNIT PROVIDES;

(3)     THE NEED FOR ANY FORMAL EXECUTIVE, JUDICIAL, OR
LEGISLATIVE ACTION;

(4)     ISSUES IN NEED OF FURTHER STUDY BY THE COMMISSION; AND

(5)     ANY OTHER MATTER THAT RELATES TO THE PURPOSES OF THE
COMMISSION UNDER THIS SUBTITLE.

SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall take effect
July 1, 1995.

May 26, 1994

The Honorable Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr.

President of the Senate

State House

Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Dear Mr. President:

In accordance with Article II, Section 17 of the Maryland Constitution, I have today
vetoed Senate Bill 584.

Senate Bill 584 would provide that for a three-year period between July 1, 1996 and June
30, 1999, 20 percent of the State Board of Nursing fee revenues currently distributed to
the General Fund be deposited into a fund to be called the "Hilda Mae Snoops R.N.
Fund." The Fund would be administered by the State Board of Nursing and used to
award grants to approved nursing programs in the State to develop curricula and teaching
strategies to prepare nurses for the changes in nursing practice resulting from health care
reform. Beginning in Fiscal Year 2000, the special fund that Senate Bill 584 would create
would be eliminated and all fee revenue collected by the State Board of Nursing would be
distributed to the Board of Nursing Fund.

Prior to 1991, all revenues collected by the State Board of Nursing, which is an
instrumentality of the State, were deposited into the General Fund, and the Board, in
turn, received a General Fund appropriation through the State budget for its operations.
It was well known that the fees collected by this Board exceeded the actual cost of
operations, not because of exorbitant fees, but rather because of the large number of
nurses who are licensed in the State. The additional revenue was used to help fund other
State programs. When the members of the Board of Nursing proposed to become a
specially funded agency, they agreed to continue this arrangement by providing 20
percent of the fees the Board collected to the General Fund. Based on this agreement,
this Administration agreed to support the Board in that funding proposal. This bill would
require the transfer of over $313,000 in needed General Fund revenue that is being used
for other State programs to the State Board of Nursing. While the economy and the fiscal
picture of the State of Maryland are improving, the State has not fully recovered and is

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