1828                             Joint Resolutions

Resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the Legisla-
tive Council appoint a committee to study the feasibility of instituting
off-track betting in Maryland and that the committee report its find-
ings to the 1972 House of Delegates.

Approved May 6, 1971.

No. 24
(House Joint Resolution 8)

House Joint Resolution requesting the Congress of the United States
to provide for federal revenue sharing among the several states.

One of the most imperative problems before the people of the
United States is the need for an intergovernmental sharing of fed-
eral revenues with the several states of the Union.

Nothing could be more vital to a strengthening of state govern-
ment than releasing the states from the binding and restrictive
efforts of insufficient revenues for the solution of their many and
diverse problems.

The federal government, by an extensive reliance on the gradu-
ated income tax as its main source of revenue, has virtually pre-
empted the use of these revenues from state and local governments.
The result has been a disabling fiscal imbalance between the federal
government on the one hand and state and local governments on the
other hand.

Increasing demands upon state and local governments for essen-
tial public services have compelled the states to rely heavily on
regressive and inelastic consumer taxes and property taxes. Those
states that are taxing incomes do so in the main with taxes that are
relatively regressive and with low rates.

Federal revenues, on the other hand, being based predominantly
on progressive income taxes generally increase significantly faster
than economic growth, while the state and local revenues being
based heavily upon sales and property taxes do not keep pace with
economic growth.

The fiscal crisis at state and local levels has become an overriding
problem of intergovernmental relations and of a continuing healthy
federal system.

The evident solution to this problem is a meaningful sharing of
federal tax resources and particularly of federal income tax revenues.

The case for revenue sharing has been well stated in a memoran-
dum prepared by the Council of State Governments, as follows:

"I. THE URGENT FISCAL NEED FOR REVENUE SHARING

State and local tax efforts—

One of the major contentions of revenue sharing opponents is that
states and localities are not adequately tapping available fiscal re-
sources. The facts refute this argument. States have increased