Evening star., 1941-02-05
Senate Rejects
Tax Cut Below
0'Conor' r'Figure
Montgomery County
Member Withdrows
Support of Plan
b the Associated Press.

ANNAPOLIS, Md, Feb. 5.-A
move to cut Maryland's income tax
below reductions recommended by
the administration was decisively
defeated in the State Senate yeSter-
day after Senator Robert Peter,
Montgomery County Democrat.
withdrew his support.
The amendments he sponsored
the day before in coalition with the
Republican minority leader, Senator
Wilmer Fell Davis, were left in
Senator Davis hands after Senator
Peter conferred with the Governor.
Senator Peter said he feared a
veto might result if the amendments
were adopted. They would have cut
the tax rate on unearned income
to 4 per cent and on earned income
to IL per cent, compared with the
administration bills proposal of 5
and per cent, respectively. On a
roll call vote the per cent rate
was beaten. % to 6, and the III per
cent lost by 26 to 2.
Confers With Governor.
Senator Peter told athe Senate he
had felt that any savings which
could be effected in the tax bill
should be passed on to the taxpayers,
and that Senator Davis had asked
'if he might join in the amend
ments which I had then prepared" )"
This morning, I discussed this
vrritI tho orI tho
deputy controller" Senator Peter
said. land both told me that in their
opinion there would be serious dan
ger that the budget would become
unbalanced if the rates were
changed from those set forth in
Senate bill 90 (the tax bilD."
$50 far as the taxpayers of Mont
gomery County are concerned he
continued, they are crying for re-
lief now and l want to see them
get as much as they can and l do
not want to do anything that will
jeopardize their chances of getting
the reduction they are getting IN
Senate bill 90 under the hopes of
getting greater reductions
Meanwhile, Gov O'Conor's asser-
ton yesterday that the Assembly has
been about s1.800000 off in esti-
mating the States surplus by the
end of 1943 was the chief topic OF
lobby and cloakroom discussions
today.
Amendment Dropped.
Senator Dudley G.. Roe, Finance
Committee chairman. told the SEN
ate during yesterdays tax bill de-
bate that the true picture" OF the
States fiscal situation showed the
surplus would be S2,0261 at the
end of the next biennium-not the
s3,800,00o which most legislators
have believed.
AS a result, the committee recon-
sidered and dropped an amendment
which would have given Baltimore
City and the counties an additional
5 per cent share of income tax
revenues.
Subsequently. Gov. O'Conor told
his press conference the correct"
figures on the anticipated surplus
had been available for some time
but that no legislators had asked for
them. The Finance Committee, he
asserted, failed to consider the cost
of tax revisions, other than income
tax reductions, proposed in the
revenue bill.
Altogether, these totaled s1,733,750,
he said. This figure, plus the So
1000 in income tax reductions,
gave the anticipated total to be taken
out of the general fund surplus.
Legislation to create new State
Division of Weights and Measures
was introduced yesterday by Senate
President Arthur Brice for the Legis-
lative Council The bill provides for
a superintendent, deputy superin-
tendent and IA inspectors to enforce
the divisions rules and regulations
Speaker Thomas Conlon and is
other delegates from Baltimore
sponsored a measure in the House
to allow charity bingo game op-
orators to give merchandise prizes
worth s25-compared to the present
statute, which makes the limit $40.
The bill applies only to Baltimore.
At meeting last night the Senate
Finance Committee voted a favor
able report on a bill sponsored by
Senator Philip H. Dorsey that would
create 90 scholarships in the Uni
versity of Maryland medical school,