Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-02-06
Maryland Bill
Cuts Power Of
Censors
Robinson to Offer
Plan to Permit Bon
On Obscenity Only
By Gene Goodwin
Stor SfoH Correspondent

ANNAPOLIS, Feb. GA move
to take the teeth out of Mary
lands movie censorship law will
be made in the State Legislature
on Monday.
Delegate Jerome Robinson.
Democrat, of Baltimore City.
said he will introduce a bill to
bring the Maryland law into line
with recent decisions of the
United States Supreme Court.
The bill. as he describes it,
would leave the Board of Gen.
sors with only the power to ban
films for reasons of obscenity.
He would take away it's au-
thority to block the showing Of
movies it considers to be "sacri-
legious or immoral" e..
The Supreme Court. some time
ago, ruled in the case of a movie
entitled 1.-THE Miracle" that films
could not be banned on the
grounds that they were sacri-
legious. In two more recent cases,
involving movies entitled IN"
and la Ronde" the high court
indicated that immortality and
Indictment to crime are not Con-
stitutional reasons for banning
films.
Prefers No CensOrs.
A long time foe of censorship,
the influential Baltimore legis-
lator said, II want it clearly
understood that I would try to
legislate the censors right out
of existence, if I thought such a
bill had any chance of getting
through this legislature"
II believe government ought
not set up any individual or
group of individuals to tell others
what they ought see or what they
ought say" he said.
In other developments here at
this 30-day session of the Gen.
eral Assembly, which got UNDER
way Wednesday, the House
pumped life into two more bills
vetoed by Gov. McKeldin after
the 1858 session. So
On Thursday, the Senate and
the House OVERRIDE vetoes of 10
of the AZ measures the Governor
had rejected. Yesterday, the
House decided to reconsider the
vote by which two vetoeS had
been upheld the day before. Then
both chambers made the AZ
vetoed bills a special order Of
business for Monday night.
1t takes a three fifths vote Of
both chambers to override.
Fishing Bill Revived.
One of the bills revived is a
conservation measure, which
would ban haul-seine fishing
on Saturdays and Sundays
in Chesapeake Bay and its
tributaries south of the bay
bridge. That would leave
those waters completely open for
weekend sports fishing. The bill
received 50 votes. short of the
necessary IA to override the veto,
when it first came up on Thurs
day. Yesterday, however, the
House voted, rs to "a, to recon-
slider that vote and take another
ballot on it on Monday, after
one of its sponsors, Delegate RO-
land B. Duke. Democrat, of st.
Marys County, said "the Gov
ernor just doesn't know anything
about fishing"
The other bill pulled from the
grave would require the Gov
ernor's Board of Revenue Esti-
mates to confer with the Legisla-
tive Council-the body of the
Legislature that studies legisla-
ton in between sessions-before
it gives the Governor its revenue
estimates on which he bases his
annual budget.
Among the new bills introduced
yesterday were two by Senator
Andres R. Lofstrand, Republican.
of Montgomery County. designed
to bring in more State school
aid funds to his and other
weather. counties. The State
now distributes such aid through
what are known as the incentive
and equalization funds and based
on the total of property assess
mentS in each county. The poor
counties get more aid propor-
tlonately than the richer ones.
State Determines.
Mr.. Lofstrand said the present
system is inequitable because the
State determines which county
is the poorest or the wealthiest.
A recent survey of assessments
by the State Tax Commission
showed that the ratio of current
assessments to actual sale prices
ranged from 80 per cent in Balti-
more City to IS per cent in CAL
vert County.
Mr.. Lofstrand's proposals would
require the commission, each
year. to establish a median ratio
of assessments to actual sales
prices for the entire State. When
equalization and incentive fund
payments are computed, the
counties such as Montgomery.
whose assessments fall above this
median ratio, would be rewarded
with an extra chunk of money.
The lower assessed counties
would be decreased.
Senator Louis L. Goldstein,
Democrat, of Calvert County,
revised his oft-defeated bill to
repeal the State property tax.
The State now pays off it's
capital improvement bonds with
a property tax collected by the
counties in addition to their own
property levy. The current State
real estate tax rate is SGT cents
on each 500 of assessment. The
Governor has proposed, in his
budget now before the Assembly,
that the rate go up to 11.89 cents
next fiscal wear