Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise., 1938-09-09
O'CONOR OPENLY
FOUGHT PASSAGE
OF SALES TAX

No merchant or business man in
Maryland can forget the gross re-
ceipts tax of 1935-1936. In many in
stances this amounted to fifty pei
cent of our net profit. l wish to call
to your attention that Herbert r
O'Conor openly fought the passage OF
the sales tax and assisted us in de-
feating the reenactment of the gross
receipts tax.
To him we already owe great debt
of gratitude. Inasmuch as it is a true
fact that we cannot live in the past
alone, but must consider the future as
well, Iwish to call your attention to
the fact that the only Candidate for
Governor who has publicly declared
his oposition to a sales tax or gross
receipts tax and who has stated in his
platform the plan he will pursue to
raise the funds to finance the State,
is Herbert r. O'Conor. Why gamble
with the future?
Do you want to trust your future
to a Governor who will not or cannot
as a candidate tell you how he will
finance the State but says in his plat
form that he will appoint a commits
sion to devise plant for raising state
finances? Of course, we have every
reason to believe this commission will
be composed of big business men and
office-holders who will naturally pro-
tect their own interests by recommend
ing a retail gross receipts or a sales
tax, and thereby place the burden of
taxation on the small merchant and
the working classes.
Remember, we were unsuccessful
in having Howard w. Jackson declare
publicly his opposition to a gross re-
ceipts or sales tax when we had that
hard struggle to prevent the reenact-
ment of the gross receipts tax, and,
at the same time, raise funds for re-
lief.
But, to the contrary, Mr.. Willis r.
Jones, now a candidate for Attorney
General, who acted as Lobbyist for
Mayor Jackson, and was paid the sum
OF $4,000 of city funds, was favoring
the passage of a gross receipts tax,
This l am positive of because Mr..
Jones submitted to me proposition
that the grocers accept a gross re-
ceipts tax with exemptions. Of course
this we emphatically refused to do.
And apparently, the taxpayers OF Bal
timore paid $500 for this effort to
again burden the consumer and the
retail business interests of Maryland
with gross receipts tax.
Surely, you must recall that during
these sessions of the Legislature when
that body was cropping in the dark,
attempting to find means and ways to
finance a relief situation, it was alb
solutely impossible to secure from
Mayor Jackson a public statement as
to how these funds should be raised,
even Baltimore City. However, his
paid lobbyist was at work in Annap-
oils in behalf of this gross receipts
tax.
Is it not significant that to date
Mayor Jackson has publicly promised
many things in his campaign, but has
not publicly declared that he will op-
pose sales tax or a gross receipts
tax?
Mayor Jackson will not now tell us
whether he is in favor of a sales tax
or a gross receipts tax, or against
them. From his present silence and
his past utterances we can only con,
clude he is still for these taxes. In
1885 he was in favor of Fedora
sales tax. He said, as quoted in the
Sun of November 8, 1885:
"This Nation should live upon it!
income, and this income should bt
based on the business we do. Th'