The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-08-30

tfmore as great manufacturing and
necessity of so extending the limits of
Baltimore City as to enable the City to
make the most of the present opDor-
tunity, and to realize its highest and
best development for the public welfare
of the entire State.
The extension should be sufficient to
provide for the needs and development
of the City not only for the immediate
present, but for a generation to come,
because experience shows that extern
sions of the City limits can be obtained
only after comparatively long intervals.
The area proposed to be added from
Baltimore County is DC. 5 square miles,
very small percentage. as there will
be left to the county eco square miles.
The area taken from Anne Arundel is
3 square miles, leaving to Anne Arun-
del County 425 square miles.
Both of said counties will retain the
same position relative to the other
counties. both as to area and population,
which they now hold, and the ipcre-
ment of value to the remaining land in
the counties, after the proposed ex-
tension due to proximity to the City,
will be sufficient to leave Baltimore
County with an assessable basis more
than twice as great as that of any other
county in the State and will leave Anne
Arundel County with an assessable basis
larger than that of any county on the
Eastern Shore.
The Committee feel that the extern
sion provided for in the present Bill is
reasonable ard certainly not too much
to provide for the probable needs of the
City in the near future.
FAIR TAX RATE For TERRITORY TO BE
ADDED.
The proposed Bill provides that prop.
ertV in the territory to be added should
be taxed at rate equal to 60 per cent.
of the full City rate for the wear 1919,
ana that the per centage of the full
City rate should increase 2 per cent.
each year until the two rates become
one at the end of 20 years. 1t was
thought that the present City rate
represents in part provision to meet THE
interest and sinking fund on old loans,
the proceeds of which had been ex-
pended for purposes the benefit of
which would not be fully received bv
the new territory, and that it would
take some time before the new terri
tory received the full City benefits, and.
therefore, it was thought just-both
to the taxpayers in the present City and
to the taxpayers in the new territory
not to apply the full City rate at once
in the new territory, but to begin with
the percentage thereof stated and in
crease the percentage gradually until
the two rates become one. This tax
provision has the merit of simplicity
and the further merit that it will be-
come adjusted to the full City rate
automatically, without the necessity of
further action by the Legislature.
1t is believed by the Committee that
additional benefits to the property and
residents in the territory to be added to
the City, in the shape of better police
protection, better fire protection, better
school facilities, the advantages of the
City Plan Commission and the Topo-
graphical Survey Commission and the
Harbor Board. for the development of
property, better health protection and
other City advantages, will fully com
pensate the residents in the new terri
tory for the small increase which this
Bill provides, as compared with the
present county rate which they are pay
ing.
The Committee had precedent, in a
recent Act providing for charging the
limits OF Hagerstown, for the principle
OF sliding scale, applying the full City
rate gradually, as adopted in this Bill.
The Committee have not felt that it
was within their province to deal with
the present tax rate on rural property
in the present annex. but are of the
opinion that the Legislature should, by
a separate Act, increase the rate on
rural.property in the present annex so
that 1t should not be at any time less
than the rate fixed in this Bill for the
new territory to be added by this Bill.
60-cent rate on real estate within the
present annex Al cents less than the
present rate in Baltimore county-is an
anomaly and injustice to the other tax
payers of Baltimore City which the
Committee feel should be corrected by
the next Legislature. This anomaly
resulted naturally from the mistake
that was made in the Act of 1888, in
supposing that the Constitution requir-
ed an Act for the extension of the limits
of Baltimore City to be submitted to
the voters in the territory to be added.
NO REASON FOR A REFERENDUM
There was no reason for giving to the
people in the territory Immediately sur
rounding the City veto power upon
the progress and development of the
City, and when, after the passage of
the Act of 1888, the Court of Appeals
decided that the Constitution did not so
require, the way was cleared tor pro-
ceedings upon logical principles. These
principles demand that matter which
so vitality involves the welfare of the
entire State as the growth and develop
ment of its chief city and harbor should
be finally decided by the representatives
of the people of the entire State, viz:
the Legislature; and that the will of
the State so expressed should not be
subject to be vetoed or thwarted by
bare Minority of the comparatively few
people of the State living in the ter
ritory proposed to be added to the
City.
Your Committee, therefore, have per-
pared the Bill, to become effective upon
being passed by the Legislature, so that
the City limits will be extended by the
Act of the Legislature, without any
referendum. just as the limits of
Hagerstown, Frederick. Cumberland
and other cities of the State have been
extended, and as the limits of Baltimore