The legislation that was drafted and eventually enacted carried, at my
request, a proviso that authorized the State Board of Public Works to
return to the people those surplus funds in excess of eight million
dollars. This proviso was not unique, and, as a matter of fact, was in-
serted into the legislation to assure the taxpayers of Maryland that the
State had no intention of imposing upon them any unnecessary financial
burdens to defray the cost of vital state services. Precedent for this
proviso existed as a result of legislation enacted in 1943, authorizing the
Board of Public Works, of which I was a member, to apply any excess
receipts above a specified surplus for fiscal 1943 and 1944 to the State
debt and/or to reducing the State income and real and personal property
taxes. And again, in October, 1945, the State Board of Public Works of
which I was also a member, acting in accordance with legislation en-
acted at the 1945 session of the General Assembly, authorized that a tax
credit be granted to individual income tax payers. As a matter of fact,
during this period, the Board of Public Works, on at least four separate
occasions, lowered income taxes in accordance with legislation enacted
by the General Assembly.

Unfortunately, the proviso in the law enacted this year permitting
the return of surplus funds was held unconstitutional by a lower court

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